Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
They were dressed in their sleek business suits. One lawyer had a head of white hair. The second lawyer was younger, his black hair combed back, and I wondered if he was sleeping with Quinn. Seemed like her type; he was very Drew Bonham-ish.
Then there was Quinn. She had paused behind the two lawyers. They closed ranks, as we knew they would, and the younger guy tugged at his collar.
“What are you doing here?” he asked. “There’s to be no interaction between your family and our client.”
Matt was talking.
I wasn’t paying attention to his words, but I heard his tone. It was the same voice he used when he wanted to get a reaction, when he wanted to piss someone off. He was doing it amazingly, because the white-haired lawyer went all rigid. Quinn, too. Her gaze had been latched on me, but whatever Matt said, Quinn’s head snapped to his and she began to step forward.
That’s when it happened.
The guy in the black hoodie, his head slouched down, moved behind Quinn. There was a surge in the crowd, and I knew it had been created by him, but also by the press suddenly jostling forward to get whatever Matt was saying on camera, and Tony was there.
And he was gone.
It happened that fast.
Quinn had been jostled from the crowd, too, but it happened so smoothly that she never reacted.
Shit. Holy crap.
It was done. Already.
I gulped, looking around to see if anyone else caught it.
No.
No.
No!
We were in the clear.
All cameras were on us. Well, they were on Matt, then to me, and back to Matt.
I gulped again. It couldn’t be that easy. Could it?
I kept looking, even to the people lining up on the sides of the hallway. All eyes were on us. I looked up, seeing security cameras up there, but no way. No way could they have gotten Tony on there. I looked, checking the group of people surrounding us, and we were encased. Quinn, too.
Crappity crap crap. Looks like the plan worked.
“—ley!”
“What?” I yelled, out of reflex, jerking at Matt’s sudden shout in my ear.
But he wasn’t in my ear. He was standing a normal distance away and he had been trying to get my attention.
I flushed. I was always flushing. “What? Sorry.”
He was fighting a grin, but one of his eyebrows was arched up. He nodded to Quinn. “Now’s your time. Say your piece to her, to the woman who tried to have you killed.”
At his words, a new buzz went through the hallway. The press got excited. That sound bite was going to be played on repeat over the next few weeks.
I stifled my groan but looked at Quinn. I made eye contact with her, and the hatred that I expected to feel …
It wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there!
Why wasn’t it there?
A burning was in my chest instead, and it was spreading. Growing. It was filling up my throat, tunneling down into my stomach.
No. I didn’t feel hate for her anymore.
I smiled at her instead, and a few people in the crowd gasped, as if a smile was worse.
Quinn frowned, but she was waiting.
Everyone was waiting.
“I know the government cares what you tried to do to me, but right now, I don’t care about me. I care about Seraphina and Curtis. They’re the real victims here.”
Quinn blanched. A sheen came over her eyes, making them glisten. I wanted to believe those were unshed tears, but knowing her, dust might’ve been thrown in her eyes.
“Stop hurting them. Do what’s right, for them.”
Then, turning, grabbing Matt’s arm, I pushed him out of the building. He resisted, but I dug in. We were done. Show was over. And after a slight pushing match, he yielded. He led the rest of the way. Fitz was ahead of us, Drake right behind us, and the car pulled up.
Once we stepped outside, a guy was coming at us fast. Really fast.
It was Tony.
He bypassed us, and I knew that was the instant he handed the phone off to Matt. But it was so fast, so smooth, so good that I never saw it. I wouldn’t see it until we were back at the house and Matt came to my room. He knocked, came inside, and brandished the phone.
There was a wicked grin on his face, and he tossed the phone on the bed. “Do your thing.”
Right.
Now it was my turn.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Bailey
Quinn’s phone was a joke. It was like she didn’t realize who she had been married to, who she tried to have kidnapped, and whose son came out of her birth canal. Seriously. Not a clue. I hacked into her phone within thirty seconds. She used the most generic password ever. 0000. She needed to update to the one that uses her thumbprint instead. That would’ve been more of a challenge, but okay then.