Black Sheep Bounty Hunter

by Jackie Ashenden

  “Yes, please.” Lily slid into the seat opposite where Quinn was lying and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to find her cool.

  Zane moved over to the end of the booth, but didn’t sit. He folded his arms, ice-blue gaze meeting hers. “I think you’d better tell us what the fuck is happening.”

  “I got a call from the blackmailer.” She kept her attention fixed on Quinn’s unconscious body. “Quinn called Rose to get her to track it and we found the number was registered to a Jack Montoya in LA. And as soon as Quinn heard the name, he just…” She stopped and took a breath. “He just snapped. Jack is his son’s name and the address the call was coming from is where his son lives.” She glanced at Zane’s set features, because this was going to come out now whether Quinn liked it or not. “You didn’t know about his son, did you?”

  Something sharp and hot glowed in Zane’s blue eyes, but he didn’t speak, not until Rush finally came over to the booth carrying tumblers of what looked like scotch. As Rush set them down on the table, he said coolly, “No, we didn’t know Quinn had a son.”

  Rush betrayed no surprise, which meant Zane had obviously mentioned to him what he’d heard from Lily over the phone. Except the liquid in the glass sloshed a little over the side as he shoved it in Lily’s direction, a hard glint in his turquoise blue eyes, his feelings on the subject loud and clear.

  Defensiveness on Quinn’s behalf unfurled inside her, making her want to put herself between Quinn and his brothers, protect him from them because it was obvious that they were more than a little pissed about the fact that they had a nephew they didn’t know about. And fair enough, but still.

  “He had his reasons for not telling you,” she said, just as cool, staring at the pair of Redmonds who were clearly very unhappy. “And no, before you ask, I’m not filling you in because it’s not my story to tell. It’s not important right now anyway.” Rush opened his mouth, but Lily held up a hand, cutting him off before he could get a word out. “The most important thing right now is to figure out why that call was coming from Quinn’s son’s phone.”

  “Good point.” Zane’s icy gaze went from Lily to the man lying on the seat opposite her. “Got anything to say about that, Quinn?”

  Quinn’s jaw ached like fuck and his brief lapse into unconsciousness as a result of Rush’s fists had not helped his temper any. It was still bubbling away inside him like lava, threatening to spill out the sides. Not that it was only fury. There was a healthy dose of fear in there as well, and not for himself, but for the boy he hadn’t seen since the kid was two years old.

  The boy he’d told no one about except for Lily.

  His brothers were staring at him now, with Lily sitting opposite, and he remembered with a sudden lurch how she’d burst into the Lone Star foyer while he’d been hell bent on shoving Zane and Rush out the way, conscious of nothing but the desire to get to Jack any way he could.

  “Lily,” he said in a harsh, scraping voice, pushing himself up on the seat and looking at her, everything in him cold. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No.” She looked at him liked he’d just asked the most ridiculous question she’d ever heard. “Of course, you didn’t.”

  “You hurt me though, motherfucker,” Rush muttered, putting a hand to his eye where a bruise was starting to show around his eye-socket. “And no, you can’t kiss it better.”

  “What the hell are you doing, Quinn?” Zane demanded with unaccustomed impatience. “We get a call from Duchess about you going to LA and how we have to stop you, then you turn up here, barreling up the stairs muttering something about a gun and refusing to stop and answer our questions. Rush had to knock you fucking unconscious because you wouldn’t listen.”

  Shit. They were going to want explanations weren’t they?

  Hauling himself into a sitting position and rubbing at his jaw, he kept his gaze on Lily’s face. It was pale, but her blue eyes held their usual cool self-possession. “I didn’t tell them anything but what happened with the call,” she said without him even having to ask her. “What you want to tell them about Jack is your choice.”

  Jack….

  Desperation twisted inside him, leaping high the way it had back at the apartment, and there was a part of him that was appalled at his loss of control. At how he’d acted, responding to the instinctive need to protect that had him in his grip. And he couldn’t think why he’d lost it so badly. True, there hadn’t been any direct threats involving his son before, not like this, but still. The only other time he’d lost it the way he had tonight, had involved Charlie. And she’d died.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  “Quinn,” Lily’s voice was like ice water against his burning skin, cooling him down, giving him relief. “We need to figure out what’s happening before we do anything, okay? I know you want to go to him right now, but getting some more intel about the situation before we head into it seems like a logical idea.”

  Calm. Cool. Level-headed. That was Duchess being in charge and that was good, because it was Duchess he needed right now. Especially when his hard-won self control seemed to have deserted him.

  You know why. It’s Lily getting under your skin.

  Quinn shoved that thought away.

  “I need a fucking drink,” he muttered.

  Rush didn’t even blink at this uncharacteristic request, obligingly pushing the glass in front of Zane in Quinn’s direction. Zane gave Rush an irritated glance but didn’t protest as Quinn grabbed the glass and lifted, taking a hefty swig.

  The scotch burned on its way down then sat warmly in his gut. Too warmly. Yet another reminder, as if that stupid fucking fight in the foyer hadn’t been reminder enough, of all the ways in which he was too much like his father.

  Normally that would have been enough to make him push the glass away, but he didn’t. He took another sip instead, then said, “Someone call Rose. We need to find out as much as we can about Jack and his mother Deborah Montoya.”

  Lily was already getting out her phone, rising to her feet and slipping out of the booth, leaving Quinn with his brothers, both of whom were staring at him with varying degrees of accusation.

  “So,” Zane said acidly into the heavy silence. “You have a son. Were you going to tell us about that any time soon? Or were you never going to tell us?”

  The old feelings of guilt twisted, making him grip his glass and take another swallow of scotch. “I hadn’t decided,” he said with absolute truth. “And quite frankly I didn’t think it would come up the way it’s doing right now.”

  “That makes three of us.” Rush folded his arms. “Bro, what the fuck is going on?”

  “If I knew that I wouldn’t be here,” Quinn snarled, the toxic mix of emotion in his gut making him want to smash something. “I’d be in fucking LA dealing with the problem.”

  “You got a call from whoever is blackmailing Duchess, though,” Rush prompted. “What the fuck was going on there?”

  “She asked for more time and so they called her. Voice was disguised. I got on to Rose and she traced the call. Whoever it was gave Lily one more day.” Quinn rubbed at his sore jaw yet again, trying to get his brain working. “Then Rose told me the number the call was registered to and…” He stopped. “Deborah was a high school girlfriend and Jack wasn’t exactly planned. I haven’t seen Jack since he was two. His mother took him away after what happened with Charlie.”

  “Shit,” Rush said slowly. “So you just…what? Let her?”

  The rage inside Quinn rose along with the guilt. He drained the glass and then, needing to do something violent, he threw it hard towards the bar, where it hit the shelves behind the bar top and shattered, smashing other bottles and raining liquid down everywhere.

  “It was for his own good,” Quinn snarled. “There were threats against us after the Jones situation and it was better that he stayed far away from any fucking Redmonds, including me.”

  There was another heavy silence.

  Rush and Zane glanced at each other which did
not help.

  Restlessness coiled inside of him, because he didn’t want to sit here talking about a past he couldn’t change and all the failures that had landed at his door since.

  He had to fix them. Like Lily was fixing hers.

  He pushed himself out of the booth — or at least tried to, only to find both his brothers blocking his path when he stood up. “Get the fuck out of the way,” he growled, more than ready for round two, despite the more sensible part of him telling him that he was being an impatient motherfucker and that if any of his men had acted like this when he was in the Navy, he would have put them on latrine duty for a whole fucking month.

  “No,” Zane said flatly. “You have no idea what you’re heading into.”

  “I know that,” Quinn ground out. “So move so we can fucking find out.”

  “Only if you promise not to go hightailing it up the freeway on your own,” Zane insisted implacably.

  “Yeah,” added Rush, standing shoulder to shoulder with Zane so the pair of them were blocking his exit. “You’re not doing that, bro. We get the intel, like Duchess said.”

  Quinn shoved his restlessness and impatience to the side ruthlessly, then bared his teeth at his brothers. Because they weren’t wrong. “Then I’m going to need another fucking drink.”

  Again the two of them shared a glance, then Rush turned and went back to the bar, picking up the whiskey bottle and another glass, bringing them over.

  Quinn forced himself to sit down and reached for the bottle as Rush put it down, pouring himself a liberal amount into the fresh glass. He was very conscious of Lily standing down the end of the bar, the phone glued to her ear. And when she abruptly put it down and turned, coming back over to the booth, all his awareness narrowed as she slid into the booth beside him.

  The calm she radiated was like balm to his aching soul, the sweet scent of her body easing something else inside him. He didn’t stop himself from reaching out and taking her hand, wanting her skin against his, and she didn’t pull away, merely glancing at him, her cool blue gaze falling over him like rain over a parched desert.

  You wouldn’t have lost it if it hadn’t been for her. She’s the weakness you can’t afford.

  “Are you going to throw any more glasses?” she asked levelly.

  Quinn ignored the voice in his head, tightening his fingers around hers. “Can’t guarantee it.”

  “Well, you’d better. Rose is coming over.” She glanced at Zane and Rush who were sitting opposite. “Were you able to find out anything more tonight, Rush?”

  “Nah.” Rush sat back against the seat. “But it sounds like we’ve been looking in the wrong places anyway. Maybe this asshole has got more to do with Quinn than it’s got to do with you.”

  Quinn gritted his teeth, forcing his worry and ferocious fury that seemed to be directed mainly at himself to the side. Because he had to. Because he’d once been a fucking SEAL commander and he’d done this shit before, and he knew how to put his emotions on lockdown.

  Yeah, you used to. Before her.

  He was very conscious of her small, delicate hand in his. Of her skin against his palm. Of the need inside him that demanded he stay near her.

  Yeah, he’d been managing just fine before she came along. So much better. And fucking her hadn’t helped. It had only served to work her deeper under his skin. And deeper than that.

  Into your heart.

  Quinn released her hand abruptly and put his on the table, gripping his scotch instead. He didn’t look at her, conscious of her sudden, surprised glance.

  No, she wasn’t anywhere near his fucking heart. That wasn’t happening.

  “To do with me?” he asked, ignoring the coiling emotions twisting inside him. “Why would they be targeting Duchess in that case?”

  Rush lifted a shoulder. “I don’t fucking know. Maybe they hoped to get to you through her.”

  It wasn’t a piss-poor idea. And it made him want to grind his teeth. Because if they were getting to him through her and somehow using his son to do it…

  “If they are though, they’ve somehow tracked down Jack which is weird given that I told no one about his existence. And why go through Duchess? Why not just threaten me directly?”

  “Maybe they want to cause you as much harm as possible,” Zane said coldly. “Maybe they heard you and Duchess were an item and decided to take advantage of that.”

  “Maybe taking me down was all part of the plan,” Lily murmured, ignoring Rush. “Maybe they discovered the footage of me and Mason, and were opportunistic about it. If they were going to take down Lone Star then why not take down Duchess Bail Bonds, too? We’re a couple of the most successful bail bond businesses in Austin and that might be an issue for someone.”

  Quinn lifted the scotch and took a sip, trying to get his thoughts in order. "Why now, though?” he asked. “The stuff with Mason happened years ago. And Jack’s been in LA for years. If they want to take down some bail bond companies, then they’ve had plenty of opportunity before.”

  “But you two have only just gotten together, right?” Rush said. “Maybe it wasn’t a thing until whoever it was figured out you two were a couple.”

  Except they hadn’t really been a couple. Until they were.

  “But how could they have known that?” Lily asked, voicing his own thought. “We didn’t tell anyone till a few days ago.”

  “Maybe they assumed.” Rush raised an eyebrow. “Heat you two were generating could have melted the polar ice caps.”

  There was no way he could respond to that, not without giving away the fact that their so-called relationship had been a lie initially, so Quinn didn’t bother, merely glowering at his brother as he lifted his glass for yet another sip. “That’s irrelevant anyway,” he growled. “What I want to know is whether my goddamned son is in danger right now and who from.”

  “Then you’d better tell us all you can about him, hadn’t you?” Zane’s voice was edged.

  Quinn bit back yet another growl, because his brother wasn’t wrong. They needed to get as much info as they could about Jack’s situation and his home life and the people close to him as they could in order to figure out just what was happening and the person responsible.

  “Wait till Rose and West get here,” Lily said calmly. “Rose is bringing her laptop and can get access to various databases.”

  “In the meantime Quinn has some explaining to do,” Zane said, the words acid. “Don’t you Quinn?”

  Quinn sat back and eyed his youngest brother. Zane was definitely pissed, but too bad. They could do all the recriminations later, once the situation was handled. “I’m not explaining anything that doesn’t need to be dealt with right now. So save your accusations for when we have time to deal with them.”

  Zane didn’t even blink. “How old is your son, Quinn?”

  “He’s a teenager. He won’t have anything to do with this.”

  “What about his mother?” Zane asked. “Deborah Montoya, right? She got any reason to want to take you down?”

  Quinn gripped his glass a little harder. “You got a problem, little brother? Any accusations you want to make? Like father, like son, right?”

  Zane’s expression tightened. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Are you sure?” Quinn demanded, his anger rising. “Because that’s fucking what it sounds like.”

  Lily put her hand on his arm. “Quinn’s right.” Her voice was cold and sharp, cutting through the gathering tension like a knife. “We need to put the family stuff aside for now.” She gave both Zane and Rush a quelling look that made a sudden burst of possessiveness fill him, because she was fucking hot when she took charge. “Time to start thinking about who might potentially want to take Quinn down.”

  Rush gave a laugh at that. “Fuck, seriously? Take your pick. No offense, bro, but you haven’t exactly made a lot of friends since you took over Lone Star.”

  He shrugged, because what Rush said was absolutely true. “I’m not here to make
friends. Just to try and pull the fucking business out of the mess Dad got it into.”

  “Okay,” Lily said. “So you have enemies.” She gave him a smile. “Join the club.”

  Something shifted in his chest and he wanted to do more than pull her close. He wanted to kiss her, stretch her out over the seat and taste her, push himself inside her.

  That’s only going to make it worse.

  Yes, it would.

  But he didn’t have time to think more about that because Rose and West suddenly arrived, people shifting around to make room for them. Rush went for more glasses while Rose sat at the booth seat with her laptop open. West gave Quinn a narrow stare, which Quinn ignored; the guy was going to find out what was going on soon enough. But Lily must have said something to them before, because neither Rose nor West made any surprised comment about Quinn having a son.

  “Okay,” Rose was saying as they all clustered around. “I can’t find anything out of the ordinary about Deborah Montoya. Lives in LA, works in a local clothing store. Rents a house. Has a pretty normal life and no criminal record. Her son attends the local high school, etcetera, so if she’s got a chip on her shoulder about Quinn then she’s keeping it on the down-low.”

  “Jealousy?” West asked, looking at him. “Maybe she heard about you and Lily hooking up and wanted to punish you?”

  Quinn shook his head. “No. All this started before Lily and I. And besides, I might have had a relationship with Deb, but it was she who broke up with me.”

  “What about this other guy she’s with?” Lily said. “Do we know anything about him?”

  Doubt twisted like a snake inside him. “I told you, I had a background check done on him and he’s on the level. I even asked Deb about him and she told me he was good guy. That Jack got on well with him.” Quinn had tried not to let that get to him, tried not to think of all the ‘might have been’ moments if Deb had stayed in Austin. But it had been difficult.

  That’s your own fault, fucker.

  Yeah, it was. But he’d had good reasons for keeping his distance and they hadn’t changed. Jack didn’t need him in his life, no matter what Lily said.