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Shane sipped the last of his coffee as he watched Quinn and his dad working together to clean up the food and load the dishwasher. He felt a little guilty that he wasn’t up helping them, but they’d made it perfectly clear that his help wasn’t welcome. And in truth, he liked having this moment to watch Quinn and to analyze how much he enjoyed watching the man move around his kitchen.
When Quinn wasn’t looking, his dad had even given him a very pointed look as if to say, “You better fucking lock this one in before he gets away.”
His dad was so damn right. Despite their argument just a few days ago, Quinn had stuck by his side. He was there every step of the way at the hospital. Had been ready to take on the damn shooter. Even now, he was still there, with little touches and looks, as if his entire focus was on making sure that Shane was comfortable and happy.
He wanted to tell Quinn to stay so that all his mornings started with rolling over to look into Quinn’s big blue eyes and perfectly rumpled dark hair. He wanted to lie around on his rooftop patio, wrapped in Quinn while watching the game. He wanted to argue over the laundry and blowjobs on the couch. But that wasn’t their agreement, and people never wanted to stay. If he asked Quinn for more, if he asked Quinn to stay and then he didn’t one day, how was he supposed to go on?
A knock on his door pulled him out of the dark spiral he’d drifted into. He couldn’t think about Quinn and his growing need for more. Not when this fucking case had gotten out of control, putting both his life and Quinn’s in danger.
He started to push to his feet when his mouth fell open at the sight of Quinn grabbing a large knife out of the butcher block as he approached the door. He paused only long enough to gently lay a hand on Abe’s shoulder, telling him to go stand over by Shane. This wasn’t the Quinn he knew. Or at least…not the one he thought he knew. Quinn had never struck him as the violent, aggressive type.
But this was also the same guy who protected his mother at any cost to himself. Had Quinn put him and his father in the same category?
“That should be Ethan. He texted and said that he was coming over to talk about the case,” he called, not wanting to think about the warmth Quinn’s protectiveness created in his chest.
Quinn nodded but said nothing as he carefully checked the peephole in his door before opening it. Even then, he didn’t relax again until Ethan was in the house and the front door was locked.
“Hey, Shane, did you know you’ve got two menacing looking guys hanging out in front of the entrance to your building?” Ethan announced when he walked into the condo.
“Oh shit,” Quinn murmured. He hurried over to the kitchen counter and returned the knife to the butcher block before running into the bedroom.
“Do they look like Rowe’s boys?”
“I don’t know Ward Security employees quite as well as you do,” Ethan lightly teased, his gaze drifting off toward the bedroom. Shane just shook his head. He knew that Ethan was dying to poke at him and pull out all the details of what was happening. Quinn was wearing his clothes and…well…their offices were right next to each other. He knew that Ethan heard things through those paper-thin walls.
Quinn slowly walked back out, furiously typing into his phone. “Rowe is freaking pissed.” He looked up at Shane, worry pulling his brows together over his nose. “Did he contact you?”
Shane pulled his phone out of his pocket and waved it at Quinn. “Oh yeah. At length. I think he took the time to threaten every part of my body.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“New phone, who dis?”
Quinn made a choking sound like he was fighting hard not to laugh. “You’re an ass.”
“I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before he marches over here.”
Quinn shook his head. “Not yet. For now, he’s sent over Royce to keep an eye on me and I have a feeling Dominic tagged along for the fun of it.”
“Wonderful,” Shane muttered. He wanted to keep Rowe out of this, but he understood the man’s need to protect Quinn. It was the whole reason he wasn’t firing texts back to Rowe right at that moment fighting this nonsense.
“You finally going to tell me what’s going on with this case?” Ethan demanded. His friend and business partner had a right to be angry and worried. They never hid cases from each other, but this one just spiraled out of control far too fast.
Shane nodded and then lifted his gaze to Abe. “Dad…”
