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His heart stopped. “Alex!”
They both rushed to her side, and he shoved Joe back. Hard. “Get the fuck away from her, Buchanan. You’ve done enough damage.” He lifted Alex into his arms and lightly placed her back on the bed.
“Quinn, I’m fine,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Like hell you’re fine. I’ll get the doctor.” He turned to leave, stilling when she grabbed his arm.
“I said I’m fine,” she repeated, grimacing. “Just give me a freaking second.”
He started to speak, but she held up a hand and glared at him. His mouth snapped shut.
After a few deep breaths, she visibly relaxed. “Do you mind telling me what the hell that was all about?”
With the worst of her pain over, his anger surged back to life. Straightening, he crossed his arms over his chest and turned to Joe. “Care to enlighten her, you fucker?”
“I should have seen that one coming, O’Conner. It was well deserved, though.” Joe rubbed his jaw, his shoulders sagging.
Quinn couldn’t recall ever seeing his friend look so defeated. But fuck it. The guy had admitted this whole clusterfuck was his fault. He should have hit the dipshit harder.
“I’m really sorry, Alex,” Joe said.
Her face clouded with sorrow. “About what, exactly? What did you do?”
Quinn’s stomach twisted. When she reached for him, he took her delicate hand. Bringing it to his lips, he pressed a kiss to her palm and settled next to her on the bed, draping an arm around her slim shoulders.
He’d keep her safe, dammit. No matter what, she’d be safe.
Joe stared at the ceiling, his face scrunched in anger. “I know this will sound cold, and I’m sorry. Like I said earlier, we’ve been investigating Woodsworth, Mayor Downing, and Summerside’s city council for years. When he put you in the hospital, we thought we had him for the assault, but so many things got fucked. Then it came out that my partner was fucking Woodsworth, and that shot our investigation to shit. We knew that with his connections, we wouldn’t be able to hold him for long for the assault. Once he was out, we needed a way to lure him in.”
Quinn felt a shudder run through Alex’s frame, and he seethed with fury. He would have done anything to spare her this conversation, especially after everything she’d just endured. But he couldn’t. He could only hold her and kiss the top of her head again.
She took in another deep breath, then squared her shoulders. A bit of the tightness in his chest uncoiled. Her strength and resilience left him in awe.
“And I was that lure, right? You told him where I was.”
“Yeah.” Joe’s expression was pure anguish. “We leaked your location and new name to Woodsworth’s lawyer.”
She shook her head, as if everything was finally becoming clear. By the way her eyes narrowed, she wasn’t pleased with any of it. “That’s what all that paperwork you wanted me to sign was, wasn’t it? That was the catch. I was supposed to be the bait.” Her jaw clenched and her hands fisted.
Quinn bit back a sigh of relief. He’d rather have Alex angry than scared any day.
“But I didn’t sign any of that paperwork. Hell, I haven’t even had the chance to really look at it. Yet youstilltold him where I was. Don’t you think some warning would have been helpful? A heads up, maybe?”
Joe scrubbed his hands over his face, tension shooting from him in waves.
Quinn knew the bastard was racked with guilt, and a tiny part of him felt bad for the guy. He knew firsthand what it was like to be stuck in an impossible situation at the hands of the FBI. His friend had been fucked in either direction. If he hadn’t followed orders, it would’ve been career suicide. But following them had screwed over someone he cared about.
“Alex, please believe me when I say I didn’t anticipate this happening. I take full responsibility. I should have seen this coming.” A haunted expression flashed across his face. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”
She eased back, leaning more fully into Quinn’s chest, as if she were a slowly deflating balloon.
“What happens now, Buchanan?” he asked.
“The ball’s already rolling.” Joe’s game face returned. “Now we keep Alex safe.”
He flinched. “Do you anticipate more attacks on her?”
“No, but...” Joe’s growl was pure frustration. “All we know for certain is Woodsworth is scheduled to be released in two weeks. It’ll get back to him fairly quickly—if it hasn’t already—that the attack on you was unsuccessful.”
