There was still the odd moment where things tasted wrong, the slide of cheese disturbing before it settled into something customary or the bite of onion bitter, but all told she enjoyed every last crumb. Even her fancy arugula was consumed, the peppery bite of the pungent greens welcomed alongside the smoky taste of charred beef.
Too full and still somehow hungry after she’d cleared her plate, Quinn looked around the table in surprise. More so at the fork laden with linguine hovering before her face than at the empty plates from Tobias’ portion of it all. Without question, she opened her mouth, accepting the wine sauced pasta and small shrimp. Chewing with consideration, Quinn nodded as she swallowed.
“You should have your fancy chef guy make that.”
“He has, several times. You never enjoy it.” Concern etched its way across Tobias’ gaze as he brought his napkin up to swipe a stray spot from the corner of Quinn’s lips. “Perhaps I need a new chef.”
A perturbed grunt was all she was willing to impart to that statement. Lips askew, she slid her spoon back and forth across the smooth linen. There was no explaining why the food tasted normal here but not at home. She wasn’t nauseous, but that could be the new medication more than anything. Perhaps whatever it was that had happened between them when she’d challenged Tobias changed something and whatever forces that made this all an issue were now resolved.
“Dessert,” Tobias asked, trying to and failing at hiding the hopeful rise in his tone.
“I’ll explode,” Quinn said, hiding her grin behind her hand though her shoulders trembled with a breathless laugh. She hadn’t eaten so well in so long, and without the threat of being ill, she was ready for nothing so much as a nap.
“Don’t forget you need to thank me still,” Tobias whispered against her temple as he pulled Quinn into his side. If he didn’t have to force her to snuggle up to his solid heat, neither were ready to acknowledge that just yet.
The check tended to at Tobias’ amiable insistence, he held out a hand to her as he stood from the booth. Pulling her in, he caught Quinn’s hip and held her close. Leading her through the scattered tables and their few patrons in such an obvious display of possession, she felt their eyes on her. They knew who Tobias was, and by default what she was. Perhaps not that she was his mate, but an Omega under his thrall at the least. It made her uncomfortable, but there was nothing she could do about it as the door opened onto the blustering wind and the mist that had become a downpour as they ate.
Their guards slipped outside, uncaring of the weather as Tobias paused under the awning to tug his heavy coat open for Quinn to huddle in while Curtis held an umbrella to keep her dry on the short walk to the car.
“They couldn’t have pulled it around?” Grumbling against Tobias’ chest, Quinn looped her arm around his waist to edge just a little closer as they started out into the torrential rain.
“Wouldn’t want to spoil you too much, little bird.”
Hearing the laughter in his tone as much as the grinding chuckle through his chest, Quinn tipped her head back to shoot off some snarky comment.
Except the world exploded.
Glittering shards of agony flew through the air, flinging bright red into the gray as they soared. Thunder cracked and boomed. A blow forced her double before sending her plummeting to the puddle strewn ground. More thunder shattered the eerie quiet and now she saw the flash of lightning surrounding the figures standing over her.
It wasn’t the storm.
Outstretched arm ending in a heavy gun that propelled another bullet into the gloom as the squeal of tires broke through the ringing in her ears, Tobias crouched with his feet straddling her legs. A human shield, the shot would have to be beyond lucky to veer around him to punch into her.
One of the guards was on the ground near her, propped on an elbow as blood pumped from his leg to swirl with the oil slick puddle beneath him. Still he fired shot after shot at the cars no doubt speeding by. If any were successful, Quinn wouldn’t know it from the grayed tone of his grim face or the way his arm drooped.
“Quinn!” Tobias was hunched over her, hands patting her down in rough strokes only to jerk her sweater up to reveal skin to the frigid cold. Soaked through, he swiped an angry palm over his face and smeared a vivid wash of red over his chin as he continued his inspection. “Just lay still, sweetness.”
“I’m okay.” The quaver of her voice wasn’t reassuring to anyone, least of all the man whose hands shook as he took careful stock of the stinging ache lining her cheek.
“Fuck,” he growled, pulling her up and tight to his chest, his back to the street beyond in what couldn’t have been a smart move considering what just happened. Calling out to the others, he began rushing her towards the car. “Curtis, with me. Micah, get Nick to the doctor and call someone in to deal with this mess.”
Cursing up a storm, Tobias dragged Quinn the last few feet to the sedan. Shock settling over her, she began to shiver, steps fumbling as he tried to hurry her.
Perhaps that’s why she looked back at the restaurant as the waiter who had plagued her memory appeared. He had all the time in the world to raise his arm, taking careful aim as Quinn struggled to open her mouth on a shout of warning.
“Down!”
Impacting her with enough force to send her skidding across the pavement, peeling away layers of precious flesh, she was knocked down yet again. It took eons before the ground met her back, falling in pinwheeling slow motion until her head rebounded from the mud smeared asphalt. The scream broke loose as needling shards and thick sludge spattered across her face and chest, blinding her in scarlet hues.
Curtis’ face came into focus.
On a slow blink, his full lips parted and spilled a torrent of ruby red blood across her neck. Eyebrows plummeting to cast his dark gaze into deeper shadows, he didn’t seem to understand her shrieks or what had happened.
Least of all the gaping hole that leaked horrible things down his cheek to spatter against Quinn’s skin.
Somehow the paling lavender of his lips slid upwards, a show of humor when there should be nothing of the sort. Disbelief warred with satisfaction in the depths of his clouding gaze.
It took seconds for the light to disappear from the umber eyes that had forever judged and ridiculed her, but each thundering heartbeat in her chest counted it off as a passing of decades until the oppressive weight of him was rolled from her body.
