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She looks up at Xavier. “I just can’t lose any of you. Not after … now everything is out, I can’t stand the thought of not having all of us together.”

Xavier cups her cheek. “That isn’t going to happen. We’re all in this. We’ve got a long life and a lot of sex ahead of us.”

Silence laughs then pushes him. “Don’t joke right now.”

“Kiss me, Q,” he says, and she goes to him, pushing herself up on her tiptoes to press her lips to his. A tear falls down her cheek, and he brushes it away. “This will all be over in a few hours. Then we go home.”

She nods, then turns to me and kisses me. “Don’t you fucking dare die on me, okay? I’ll be so angry with you.”

I smile against her lips. “Not gonna happen, love.”

Chapter 32

Silence

The apartment felt too full, and now, it’s a shell. The last thing we heard was that Xavier was heading in to try and get visual confirmation of Zayden. I’ve spent the last hour cleaning up, rearranging chairs to where they should be, folding blankets and over-fluffing pillows. I washed every dish, even though there’s a perfectly good dishwasher, and I’ve reorganized the fridge into alphabetical order.

“Have you considered counting the salt granules?” Mercy asks, and I laugh quietly as I decide the milk probably looks better on the top shelf. “I don’t blame you. When my girl left, I cut holes in all my socks just so I could fix them again.”

“Okay, that’s a lot stranger than what I’m doing,” I say, as I place an egg on every shelf.

“Is it?”

I close the fridge. “Corey seems nice.”

“Oh, Corey is lovely. Enormous penis, too.”

I whirl on her. “What?”

She chuckles. “Silence, we were in the bedroom for an hour. It took ten minutes to show him my nerve gas.”

“You little minx,” I whisper, leaning against the kitchen island. “How did that even happen?”

“Simple. I asked if he wanted to have sex. He said yes, because why wouldn’t he?”

I lower my voice. “So when you say enormous, we’re talking⁠—”

“Oh, Silence. Don’t be crude,” she chides, and I wilt. “But let’s just say I’ll be feeling him for a while.”

I chuckle. “I hope you used protection.”

“Always. Although I almost got it mixed up with my pepper-spray condoms. That would’ve really killed the mood.”

Three sharp knocks have us falling silent. Charlie stands from the couch, signaling for us to stay put as he goes to the door, checking through the peep hole. He frowns to himself, and his fingers hover over the doorknob for a few seconds before he finally decides to open it.

“Detective Marshall,” he says jovially. “Fancy seeing you on this coast.”

A few seconds of silence pass until a woman speaks. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Charlie shrugs. “I could ask you the same thing. NYPD not cutting it for you anymore? You’ve come to harass people who enjoy the beach, instead?”

I exchange a glance with Mercy, but she’s focused on the door, her hand resting on the gun at her hip. I hadn’t even noticed she was armed. She has a way of charming you into focusing on her face, and I suppose that how she’s as successful as she is. She’s the living embodiment of a false sense of security.

“I’m looking into the disappearance of Gio Morelli,” the detective says. “Someone said that he was spotted in California, so I’m helping the bureau. We got an anonymous tip about this address.” Of course she did. Does that mean Ryker knows? If anyone is going to give an anonymous tip, it’ll be him, surely? “Funny that you’d be here.”

Charlie says, “Maybe the universe wants us to be together, Quinn.”

“Maybe you should step the fuck aside so I can come in.”