AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He nodded, but there was a stormy look on his face. “I’d rather shoot the fuckers. You know that, right?”
Levi’s dad cracked his neck from side to side. Even though he didn’t speak, I got the feeling he was planning on shooting the fuckers whether Tommy approved or not. I met his eye. “That would be a very bad idea. Your families will be on-site, and we don’t know the size of the infiltration team. Better to let them get in and get out. The decoy Horn has a tracker in it. We can always confront them later, once they’re away from here.”
Not that I’d ever share the location with Tommy, but he didn’t need to know that.
Tommy stood and reached out his hand to shake again. “Quinn said you were going to spend the night at his place tonight, so I won’t see you at breakfast.”
That was news to me. I glanced over at him. “We can still be here first thing. It’s important to make it look like everything is still on track for the wedding.”
He nodded. “Quinn explained all that. I’m sending Carlotta back to Nashville to get her out of the way—her crystal guy agrees it’s for the best—but once Marissa and Levi are back from Vegas, they’ll be here to keep up appearances.”
Levi’s father finally spoke. “Levi knows his number one priority is keeping Rissy safe. She’ll be covered. I’ll cover Tommy. Your team will need to cover everyone else.”
We agreed and said our goodbyes before making our way upstairs and out of the house. I took the Horn from Quinn and gave it to Riggs before following Quinn to his car and helping him into the driver’s seat.
“I’ll meet you at your place later,” I said softly. “Lock the doors and call 9-1-1 if you—”
He let out a surprised laugh. “That’s funny.”
“What’s funny? I’m not leaving you there alone.”
“I’m not going to my place because we’re not staying there. We’re staying at Carter and Riggs’s house along with everyone else. The only reason I told Tommy we were staying at my place was to have an excuse to be out all night.”
I grabbed his chin and kissed him hard on the mouth. “Thank fuck. I didn’t feel good letting you go home alone.”
He pushed me away with a hand to my chest. “Then you should have said that. I know it’s hard for you to get this through your thick skull, but we’re a team now. I’m not saying I’m going to stay up all night noodling encrypted data, but I’m sure as shit going to be under the same roof and waiting for you when you finally fall into bed exhausted.”
I inhaled the clean and cold night air and let it out slowly. My eyes wanted to water, but I blinked it back. “Thank you,” I whispered. “I will meet you at Carter and Riggs’s place. I don’t want him to travel alone with the Horn.”
Quinn nodded and grinned. “If you don’t want to ride in Rebecca, just say so.” He shot me a wink before shoving me away and closing the door. I walked over and climbed into the passenger seat of Riggs’s truck.
“Let’s go. Lots of work left tonight.”
Riggs started the truck and followed Quinn’s taillights down the farm’s long driveway. “I’m really happy for you,” he said in an unusually serious tone of voice. “I like Quinn a lot—we all do—and you deserve to have someone who adores you but also doesn’t put up with your bullshit.”
I huffed out a laugh. “He definitely doesn’t make it easy on me.”
We rode together in silence for a few minutes before I spoke again. “I’m trying not to assume the worst. That he’ll leave. Just like Vince.”
“Vince is an ass,” Riggs said, full of venom. “He was always an ass, you just didn’t see it because he was a high-achiever like you. He was smart like you. You were drawn to that so much, you failed to see he was the kind of guy who yanks others off the ladder to get to the top. Quinn’s not like that. He’d climb the ladder with others on his back just to help them succeed too.”
I rested my elbow on the door and leaned on my hand. The cold surface of the window seeped through my coat to my arm. “Yeah.”
“You need to let him in, Champ. Stop keeping your damned walls up because of your past with someone else. Don’t let Vince take this from you.”
I looked over at Riggs’s familiar face lit by the dashboard lights. He and I had been through so much together. There were few people who knew me as well as he did. “You’re right, and I’m trying. Thank you.”
He nodded and didn’t say anything more because he didn’t need to. When we arrived safely at the mansion, the rest of the crew was eager to hear how it went.
