Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78024 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“Fuck!” Axel smacks his head into the wall. “No! It wasn’t that simple. At first, yeah. Boss moved me down the coast, put me to work. I didn’t have much time to think about anything. After about a year I was starting to get a little more freedom. I tried coming back.”
“And?”
“And I found out they were watching Sheila and Quinn. He had a whole fucking folder full of pictures of them. Quinn had just started with the modeling shit.”
“He threatened to kill her?”
“Never with those words, but you know the deal.” He changes his voice, imitating someone. “ ‘Your sister’s doing real good, Axel. I’ve been keeping an eye on her. She’s becoming quite the beauty.’ He made sure I knew that he could take her out whenever he fucking wanted to. And to keep her safe, I’ve been his fucking lapdog. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t.”
“So why now? After all these years? Did they finally let you go?”
He shakes his head. “You think I’m that lucky? Not a fucking chance. Nah, I got sent to the east coast for a job, but when I got there it felt like bullshit. Sometimes he’d do that, though, just to test me. I didn’t think too much about it until I saw the news.”
“News?”
“I keep a watch on Quinn’s name. I saw the shit about her getting attacked, and then the one that came after.”
“So you came back to protect her?”
He looks at me with eyes so close to Quinn’s. “I came back because I know Greg Cook. He works for my boss. Well, worked.”
“Past tense?”
Axel’s smile is sharp as a razor. “I don’t like leaving loose ends.”
I wouldn’t have minded doing the job myself, but can’t say I’m upset. “Okay? So who’s your boss?”
“My boss, Romero. Who happens to be fucking Quinn’s mom.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. Pretty much. The only thing keeping me under his thumb was Quinn. He left me no choice. I went rogue, and as soon as he finds out, he’s going to make a move on Quinn.”
Goddamn it. I hold my hand out to help him up. “Get the fuck up.”
“Yeah? So you can hit me again?”
“Want a hand or not?”
He takes it, letting me yank him to his feet. As soon as he’s up, I throw my arms around him and pull him in close. “By the way, I’m fucking your sister.”
30
Chapter 30 - Quinn
The door panel buzzes. Hopefully not more flowers.
The small video screen fills with Clarke. “Morning, Ms. Callahan. Your mother is waiting in the lobby. There’s a note here that you requested all visitors be checked before letting them upstairs, so I’m just double checking. Should I send her up?”
I look over at Sinner and Colt. Sinner shakes his head.
“Can I talk to her for a second?”
“Of course,” Clarke says with a smile before Mom’s face replaces his.
“Honey? Why can’t I just go upstairs?”
“With everything that happened, it just seemed safer. I haven’t given them an approved guest list yet.”
“Like she’d be on it,” Colt mutters under his breath.
Mom frowns. “Well, I wanted to talk to you. Things ended badly yesterday. If you’re feeling difficult enough that you won’t let your own mother in, then at least meet me down here so we can talk.”
“Can’t it wait?” I’m still reeling from finding out about Axel. I’m not sure I can talk to her without losing it.
She’s not used to me pushing back and it shows. “What am I supposed to do, drive home again because you can’t be bothered to take the elevator and have a conversation like an adult? And you wonder why you need me to make your decisions.”
“Fine. I’ll come down and meet you there. We can talk in the atrium.” I end the call before she can respond.
“Don’t go down there,” Sinner says. “It’s not going to do anything good.”
“I know, but I just want Mom out of here so we can go talk to Axel. The last thing I need is for her to freak out and start causing a scene. I’ll give her five minutes.”
Colt crosses his arms in front of his chest. “One of us is going with you.”
“I won’t even leave the building.”
“Sorry, I’m on his side,” Sinner says with a shrug. “We don’t know what made your brother cut his own afterlife short, but we’re not taking chances.”
Colt ends up being the one to go downstairs with me. I don’t want to see her, but I do want to hear what she has to say. Or maybe it’s more that I want to hear what she thinks is so important to tell me after the disaster that was our last meeting. I don’t understand why she thought that was a good moment to spring her boyfriend on me.
“She’s waiting in the atrium,” Clarke tells me when we walk into the lobby. “Seemed pretty upset. I hope everything’s okay.”