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This wasn’t about me, or how Quinn felt about me. Not really. I’d be fine with living in a cardboard box with Quinn under a bridge, if that was what it took. I’d be fine with whatever he was okay with, because his needs mattered to me more than anything. And he’d trusted me so much tonight already, pushing his own limits to their edges, and he was still doing it by being here now.

I understood perfectly well that it wasn’t that he didn’t trust me. It was that he didn’t fully trust himself. He’d been through something terrible. And he hadn’t really gotten right with it yet. But I’d be with him, every step of the way, helping him do exactly that. For as long as he allowed it.

“That’s okay,” I told him. “Maybe, eventually, you’ll get there on your own. But if you don’t, that’s cool, too. You’re still my person, Quinn. Nothing can ever change that. I love you. And I always will.”

At my words, his tears spilled over.

He tried to turn away from me, to hide his face from me, but he let me stop him when I said, “It’s okay. It’s all okay. Come here.”

Breaking down completely, he nodded, and I pulled him into a hug. I held him for a long time, my arms wrapped tightly around his back, until I was sure all of his tears had dried. He held me back, the same way, his grip on me gentle, as if I were something precious.

With him, time seemed to lose all meaning. All that mattered was being close to him, that he was safe and well, that he knew how much I loved him.

“Why are you so perfect?” Quinn asked, when we finally released each other. “It’s not fair.”

“I could say the same,” I informed him solemnly. I tilted his chin up and stole a kiss, reveling in the feel of his lips against mine. “You’re the only thing in this whole world that matters to me, the only thing I could never leave behind. I’d risk everything for you.”

“So literal.”

“I work with what I’m given.”

“You definitely do.” He gave me a watery smile. “And yeah, for the record, I know. I love you, too, Derek. Always have, always will.” Then he paused. “Sadie and Thierry are right, though. You shouldn’t be here when things start happening.”

“I know,” I said. “I just—if something happened to Brent, I’d never forgive myself. He’s in this mess because of me.”

“You’re in this mess because of him. He lied about who he really was, and it cost you your whole life!”

I shrugged. “I guess that’s true. I should probably hate him or something. But I can’t. Not really. Because if things hadn’t gone down how they had, I never would have met you. If I got a do-over, I don’t know if I’d change anything.”

Quinn smiled at that and shook his head. “That was so sappy, mister. Very effective, but so very sappy.”

I grinned back at him. “All true, though.”

And then a crack of gunfire rang out, and we both froze, losing our smiles. For an instant, we both stared at each other with wide, disbelieving eyes.

Quinn reacted first. He pulled me down to the floor, where we landed together in a heap.

Then came the unmistakable pop-pop-pop! of more gunfire in the dining room on the other side of the swinging double doors.

Overhead, I heard a whizzing sound, then tile exploded on the other side of the kitchen where a stray bullet had struck it.

There was no time left to change my mind about staying.

It had already started.

CHAPTER NINE || QUINN

What was happening? It was way too soon for this—Sadie, Thierry, and especially Simone absolutely would not have allowed Brent to remain in the restaurant in the middle of a firefight. They wouldn’t have called without telling us either.

Which meant this was an ambush.

Pop-pop-pop! More gunfire.

Had Brent led them here somehow?

Had he been plotting with his family to lure Derek out?

Was there another logical explanation?