Edge

by Brooks, Anna

She just stares, and Quinn, with her beautiful voice, begins singing one of her most popular songs with little girls. It was in an animated movie about a girl who wanted to play basketball, but her middle school didn’t have a girls’ team. So she tried out for the boy’s one and didn’t make it even though she was better than every boy on the roster. Eventually, she got to play, but this song comes at the part where she stopped being sad about it and started getting determined.

  About a minute into it, Lucy crawls over and pulls herself up. I lean down to grab her, but Quinn kind of slides off the couch and pulls her into her lap as she sits on the wood floor.

  I can’t take my eyes off her. She rocks back and forth, swaying with Lucy as Marie jumps up and down, but her feet barely leave the floor in the cutest dance a four-year-old can do.

  “Boys, boys, boys.” She sings and nods her head for Marie to join in.

  “Who needs all that noise?” Marie shouts.

  Quinn’s shoulders shake, but she keeps going, and Marie continues to sing the verse with her.

  “Boys, boys, boys. They never share their toys. Boys are cute, but they are mean. I don’t need them; I’ll make a team.”

  It’s really neat when she sings this one at the concert because all the little girls who come to the shows suddenly get an attitude and put a hand on their hip and point a finger. It’s a really good lesson, actually, about fighting for what you want no matter what.

  Wynn walks in and leans against the archway as all this is going on. I’m still pissed at her for how she jumped down my throat about Eva, but I smile at her anyway. I’ll chalk her attitude up to pregnancy hormones and hope it never happens again.

  She takes in the scene and smiles, apologizing without words. Once the girls are done with their song, everyone claps and cheers. Marie bows and pulls Quinn up to do the same. With the baby still in her arms, she does just that and turns to me with the most genuine, beautiful smile on her face.

  And at this moment, I fall totally, completely, and unconditionally in love with her. I have to kiss her, so despite all my family in the room and a baby on her hip, I stand, then hold the back of her head and place a soft kiss on her lips.

  She widens her eyes at me, and her cheeks get pink. I just wink at her before walking to the kitchen to get another beer. Wynn follows me, and I hand her a bottle of water and grab another long neck for myself.

  “How are you?” I ask.

  “Good.”

  “Look, I feel really bad about—”

  I cut her off. “It’s over. I don’t want to ruin what’s actually been a successful night with bringing bad shit up, okay?”

  “Okay, fine.”

  “You’ll see why it’s her, Wynn. I guarantee that.”

  I place my hand on her round belly and give it a gentle pat before going back into the den. As the night goes on, she definitely sees it. When Quinn makes me laugh, when I can’t leave the room without kissing her, when Nana spills a glass of water and Quinn jumps in and cleans it up while talking about something completely different so she didn’t get embarrassed. I could write a song for Quinn to sing about all the ways she’s it, but I’m afraid it would never end.

  Wynn follows me into the kitchen. “I’m sorry,” she says to me as I’m putting dessert dishes in the dishwasher.

  “I already said it’s okay.”

  “I know, but you never actually let me apologize. She’s great.”

  “I know.”

  She hands me the empty cake pan. “I see it. How you are with her. You were never like that with Eva.”

  “I know.”

  “You love her.”

  “Yeah.”

  She wraps her arms around my waist, her pregnant belly getting in the way. “I’m glad. She’s lucky to have that from you.”

  “Thanks, but I’m the lucky one. Never met anyone as beautiful as her, Wynn. And not just what you see; what’s beneath it all is what’s the most beautiful to me.”

  Chapter 16

  Quinn

  “It’s so pretty here, too.”

  “It is. I loved growing up here. Even though I had sisters, we still played soldiers in the woods all the time.” He comes to stand behind me on the back deck and wraps his arms around me. “Everyone loves you.”

  I tilt my head up, and he does the opposite. “They’re so nice.”

  “Told you.”

  As the sun settles, nothing else exists around us. Chatter and noises come from the kitchen, but they get drowned out by our conversation. The view is so mesmerizing it’s as if nothing else exists. If it wasn’t so beautiful, I’d close my eyes and enjoy this moment with him. This peace I’ve never known.

  “You’re good with kids.”

  She shrugs. “I like them.”

  “They like you.”

  “I could live out here. The quiet and the peace is amazing. And because I don’t have the stress of my aunt, things in my head are clearer. I feel like I can finally breathe… like it’s okay for me to relax, and I haven’t had that in a very, very long time.” Even though a crazy man is still after me, Wes makes me feel safe enough that I don’t think about it all the time like I used to.

  His arms get tighter around me when he presses himself even closer.

  He kisses my neck. “I want this with you, Quinn,” he murmurs. “You continue to amaze me more every day. I love watching you on stage. I love seeing you make my grandma smile. I love hearing you sing for my niece. I love you playing on the floor with the kids. But I can’t give you that.”

  “Wes—”

  “We can adopt, and I can look into specialists and shit. I never did before because I didn’t care. But seeing you…” he trails off and huffs out a breath as though it’s difficult to go on. “I never wanted it. But with you, I do. I want to make a family with you. And it kills me, baby. It kills me that I can’t. I should let you go, I know that. I should let you be with someone who can, but I’m too selfish. I’ll give you anything else you want, anything you need. I’ll make it up to you by making you come so hard you can’t breathe, I’ll keep you safe; I’ll go wherever the fuck you want to go. I’ll do whatever else I can to make up for—”

  No longer able to listen to his bullshit, I twirl around. My throat is thick, but I put my hands on his chest and power through. “If I have you, I have everything I need. Honestly, truly, Wesley, hear me… I don’t need anything else.”

  “But you’ll want it later.”

  “No.” I shake my head. “I want you. I’ll always want just you.” I wanted to give him a speech about other stuff, but he tips his head down and closes his lips over mine, shutting me up.

  “Ohh… Uncle Wes is kissing Quinn Valentine! Gross!” Marie’s little voice echoes around us, and I drop my head to his chest, laughing almost uncontrollably.

  “Gross?” He moves me aside and lunges for her. She squeals, and her face turns red when he flips her upside down. Her shirt slides up, and he blows raspberries on her belly. “Mom! Uncle Wes, stooooop it!”

  I lean against the railing and laugh almost as uncontrollable as Marie.

  “Dad! Help me!”

  I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s much less serious when it’s just the two of us, but right now, he’s almost carefree. I’ve never seen him like this, and I really like it.

  He eventually puts her down, and we hang out with his family for a little while longer before his sisters leave. Wynn hugs me and tries to apologize for what she said on the phone, but I cut her off, telling her it’s done. I didn’t talk much to her, but I figure it’s kind of awkward, so as time goes on, I’m sure it’ll get better.

  And after they all leave, he leads me downstairs to his old bedroom, closes the door, and makes love to me.

  Wesley

  “Wes, you might want to look at this.” My mom comes into the living room after returning from running to the store. Her hands are shaky, and I stand to take the magazine out of them.

  On the cover of the largest gossip magazi
nes around is a photo of me yanking Quinn away from those two models with the headline When the bodyguard becomes the stalker: witness recounts troubling behavior between the pair. “What the fuck?”

  I flip the page open to find the article where another picture is there of me pulling her away from Jaysyn when she was forced to kiss him. I’ve never actually seen myself pissed off, but holy hell, you can tell I’m fuming.

  “He pulls her around, like yanks her. And he’s a big guy, obviously, and Quinn is so small,” one witness tells us the details of the above photo. “She’s known Jaysyn for years, and this bodyguard is kind of possessive of her. He won’t let anyone touch her.”

  I don’t even bother reading the rest as I throw it across the room and storm up to my dad’s office, thankful she’s not out of the shower yet. I grab a burner from his drawer and dial her father. He answers on the second ring, and I don’t even let him get in a greeting. “You by a computer?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Go to the website for Celebrity Buzz.”

  I hear a keyboard through the receiver, then a few explicits.

  “You said you took care of Gail. Why the fuck is she leaking this fake ass shit still?”

  “I don’t fucking know. I did take care of her,” he grinds out.

  “Well, obviously not good enough.”

  “Nobody has ever had the balls to do something so stupid. I guess I’ll have to make my deal with her a little bit more permanent.”

  At this point, I don’t give a shit what he does. If Gail’s selling crap lies like this to the rags after she swore she would back off Quinn, I know she’s not far from the photo Quinn is terrified of. And I’ll stop at nothing to prevent her from being publicly humiliated like that. I toss the magazine on the table. “You’d better.”

  “I know you’re looking out for my daughter”—his voice drops an octave, which is already really low—“but don’t fuckin’ threaten me.”

  “Take care of Gail or I will.” Just as soon as I end the call, my dad walks into his study.

  He sets a box on his desk. “I found this on the front porch when I went to get the groceries from your mother’s car. We have a problem.”

  “Motherfucker.”

  “Wes… this. Son, you aren’t gonna want to see this.”

  My gut bottoms out, and I reach inside the box and lift the paper.

  This or her. You pick.

  “Shit, fuck.” I lift the rectangle, already knowing what’s going to be on the other side of the photo. I can’t look at her face, but I see her body. Naked, with blood between her thighs and on the white sheets. “Fuck!” I explode. I grab the first thing I can get my hands on, which happens to be a brass paperweight off the desk, and hurl it across the room.

  This isn’t Gail.

  The magazine article was. This threat is Terry. Gail may have threatened Quinn with this, but if she ever were to do something with it, it’d be public, not like this. This shit is all that sick motherfucker.

  He’s gone from desperate to reckless now. And I need all fucking hands on deck with him right now because there’s absolutely no telling what he’ll do with this picture.

  “Son, we can—”

  I grab the phone again, dialing her father one more time, who answers on the first ring. “I said I’d deal with her, I’m dealing.”

  “Son.” My dad calls me louder, but I ignore him and relay to Barrett just how dire this situation is.

  “That fucking cunt can wait. Listen to me. Unless you want pictures of your baby girl with her virgin blood dripping down her thighs spread all over the fucking internet, you need to call in every marker you can to help me find Terry.”

  “Oh, my God.” Quinn’s terrified voice makes me whip my head up to see her standing just inside the door, wet hair piled on her head, an old sweatshirt of mine and a pair of cut-off jean shorts. Goddamn, she’s beautiful.

  “What the fuck did you just say?” Barrett growls as something crashes on the other end of the phone, and I forget I’m even talking to him as I try to placate Quinn. “I’m taking care of it, baby. We’ve got it. It’s not gonna happen.”

  She shakes her head, silent tears streaming down her face. “You saw it.”

  “Quinn—”

  “You saw it!” she shrieks, fists tight at her sides, and takes off down the hall. Her cries tear me up inside, knowing how bad this could go. If that picture gets out there, she will be destroyed. Public humiliation hasn’t been Terry’s thing so far, but that could change at any moment.

  A motorcycle engine in my ear reminds me I still have Barrett on the other end. “Talk to me.”

  “Gail had the fucker who popped Quinn’s cherry sign an NDA when he threatened to spread a picture of her the first time. He’s been quiet after they paid him to. But I just got a personal delivery from Terry telling me it was either her going to him or him sharing that photo of Quinn… Barrett, it’s bad. And she will be ruined unless he’s stopped.”

  I hang up and dial Q as I walk out of the room to go after her. “Yeah.”

  “I need a network on Terry.”

  He doesn’t ask why. “Got it.”

  Network within our company means every single available man hits the ground running. This isn’t something called often. This is life and death or, in this case, public humiliation, which could end up being life or death. It’s what we call when we know things are about to go bad, and we exhaust every single available resource to try to prevent that from happening.

  I’d say we get a network call every few months. The last one was when the heiress Brenden was assigned to snuck out of her room and got kidnapped at the club she was at. He realized she was missing when he did his rounds. Pulled up the tracker on her phone and hauled ass just in time to see her being thrown in a trunk. We found her an hour later, but still… That shit fucked him up.

  And I don’t blame him. Anything happens to one of your clients, and it’s a guilt like you would not believe. Even if it wasn’t avoidable.

  I make it to the kitchen, where my mom is watching her run down through the woods.

  “Fuck.” I run through the back door, calling for her. Dammit. I told her not to leave the house without me.

  Chapter 17

  Quinn

  I tear off down the path that leads to the cliff with tears streaming down my face. Wes walked me through here last night, and I know it takes me to the edge, where you can’t see anything but peace. “Quinn, baby wait.” If I could speak right now, I’d tell him to leave me alone. I just need time. But I can’t talk. I can’t even look at him. I know what’s on that picture, I’ve seen it. It wakes me up at night, and it’s an absolute nightmare come true if that picture gets out. I don’t know what I would do.

  I could never look at another person in the eye without wondering if they saw it.

  And the one man I want to look at me like I’m all he sees will now only ever see that.

  The only time I ever saw Gail behave like an aunt and not a money hungry manager was when I got threatened with that photo. She was actually angry on my behalf. I had never seen her so upset about anything that had to do with me after that. And the way she tore the guy up when we were in the lawyer’s office where we paid him and he signed the NDA was actually pretty kickass.

  I think as a woman, knowing how humiliating it would be if it was her in that photo, was what made her so angry. That’s exactly how I felt about Wes saying he’d release the video of Eva. Nobody deserves that kind of thing to be for public viewing because it would completely ruin somebody.

  Wes seeing it is horrible. I didn’t want him to ever look at me that way. But he did, and I can’t even handle it.

  “Fuck, Quinn stop.”

  I don’t. I just keep pushing, pumping my legs. Running from my freaking life. The horizon is within view, and just as I start to slow, so I don’t fall, something hooks me around the waist. “I was wondering how long it would take you to find me.”

  Oh, my God.<
br />
  Chills pebble my neck and down my spine from his breath.

  Wesley’s footsteps are getting louder, and I open my mouth to scream, but Terry’s hand covers it. “Shh… you can talk to him in a second. I’ll let you say goodbye.”

  Oh, God.

  Wes comes into view, and the terror on his face makes my knees weak. If he’s afraid, then I know I’m screwed. He reaches for his gun, but Terry screams, “If you touch your gun, I’ll slit her throat.”

  My whimper is impossible to hide.

  Wes puts his hands in the air and doesn’t even look at me. “Let her go, Terry. You don’t want to hurt her.”

  He releases my mouth, and I gasp for air, but he slides that hand down my neck and applies pressure. “Tell him you want to go with me.” I shake my head and struggle to suck in a breath when the familiar feeling of metal presses against my throat, right above where he’s choking me. Just like last time. I stare at the dirt, unable to look at Wesley. I’m so ashamed of myself for again not listening to him.

  “Let her the fuck go.”

  He takes a small step closer, but Terry notices and squeezes harder.

  “Let her go!”

  My pulse thunders in my neck, and I feel the blade moving along with it.

  Up, down, up, down.

  “Tell him you want to go with me.”

  Up… down. Up… down.

  Up.

  The blood pumping through the vein in my neck fades, tingles, then it’s numb. Vanished. The roar of Wesley’s voice seems so far away. I lift my eyes to find him, and for some reason, he’s blurry. Terry shakes me, and a sharp pain in my neck makes me wince, but I realize when I try to take a breath in, I can’t.

  He’s still choking me. And I thought if I was ever in this situation again, I’d do anything to keep my voice, but that was before Wes. If I lose him, that’ll kill me. And I just know if Terry takes me, it’ll be all over. So I don’t say shit. I don’t tell him what he wants to hear, and I don’t give him the satisfaction of crying.

  I’d rather die than have Wes hear my last words be that I want to go with someone else. Because the only one I want, have ever wanted, and will ever want is the man whose figure is fading away before my eyes.