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But before I have a chance to finish my dare, his strong hands wrap around my waist and haul me off the ground, and I see the skyline of South Carolina through Quinn’s legs.
“Put me down!” I yelp, kicking out crazily as he climbs up the stairs, totally ignoring the fact he has flipped me over his shoulder like a five-year-old.
His hands are strapped over my legs, just under my butt, and as I twist around, trying to crawl up his body, he slaps me on the ass—hard.
“Ouch! You motherfu—”
I don’t get a chance to finish my cuss because he kicks open the door to our room, probably breaking the hinges from the force. He then tosses me onto the bed. Planting my fists into the mattress to stop myself from falling face-first onto the carpet, I glare at him something wicked.
Quinn stalks to the bed while I quickly rise and face off with him on the other side. The only thing that separates us is the mattress, which may as well be nonexistent, as Quinn is about to charge.
“You are the most impossible woman I have ever met, and that’s saying a lot, seeing as I have meta lotof impossible women!”
“I’m sure you have!” I scream back at him. “I’m sure you’ve probably fucked most of them! Oh, hang on, I take that back. You only go for the easy ones.”
I’m shaking in rage, eyeing him, wishing I had something pointy to throw at him.
“Easy ones? Ha! You really want to go there?” Quinn chuckles angrily, interlacing his hands on the top of his head. “If that were true, then what the hell am I doing with you?”
I take a step back because hearing him say something aloud, which I have thought over and over for the past two days, feels like a stab wound slicing through my heart.
My anger, rage, and frustration explode, and I’m afraid I won’t ever stop. “No one is keeping you here! Leave!” I scream, pointing at the door. “Do us both a favor and leave! Do you think I want you here? Do you think I want you caught up in all my fucking mess? Do you?”
My body shakes from fury but also in fear that hewillleave me because I have done nothing but make his life hell.
Quinn’s hardened features soften when he sees I’m on the verge of hysteria. “Red, I didn’t mean…”
But I stop him.
Storming over to where he stands, I shove him as hard as I can with both hands. “Leave!” I bellow. “Go on! Leave!” And again, I push him, but he doesn’t move, his tenacious stance not budging.
Tears break free, streaming down my cheeks and burning my eyes. I can no longer see Quinn, as my vision drowns in endless tears I don’t deserve to be crying. What right do I have to cry when Hank lies in a morgue somewhere, dead? What right do I have to cry when Tristan lies in a hospital bed, healing from a wound I may as well have inflicted myself?
None.
I don’t realize I’m slumped onto the floor, sobbing hysterically, until Quinn’s soft lips pass over my face, hair, mouth, or whatever piece of me he can reach to calm me down.
But I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve comfort. I push at him wildly, but his strong arms never let me go as they enfold me into his chest.
“No,” I croak weakly, trying to shove him away, but he won’t shift.
“I don’t deserve this,” I sob, my tears tasting salty as they slip into my parted lips. “I don’t deserveyou.I deserve to be in the hospital, not Tristan. I deserve to be dead, not Hank. And onlyIdeserve to be on the run, not you.”
My fears, myguiltpours out of me, and now, I can’t stop.
“Quinn, I killed Hank.” I weep uncontrollably. “I did nothing to help him! I just stood there while they shot him. I may as well have pulled the trigger!”
“Red, that’s not true,” Quinn says quietly, but I can hear the catch in his voice as he tries to remain calm.
“Yes, it is! All of this ismyfault. I’m riddled with grief so deep, I don’t know how to go on. How can I live with myself after all this, Quinn? How?” I pull back, my bottom lip trembling, tears clouding my view of him.
“You’ll go on…” He pauses to correct, “We’ll goon because those motherfuckers will pay for what they did to Hank, to Tristan, and to you. And I am here every step of the way, Red. Every step. I won’t leave you. I promise. No matter how hard you push me away, I will push back twice as hard because I know you feel it.”
He reaches for my trembling hand and places it over his heart, locking his hand over mine. “I know you feel the pain, the regret. I know every piece of anger I feel, and together, we will fight it. We will get through this because once it’s over, we’ll be…free.”
Just the word itself sounds like my redemption, and even though I don’t know Quinn’s secrets, I do know he has his own cross to bear. And together, we’ll get past our demons and just…live.
Plan A and B were just weak excuses to push Quinn away, hoping he would be like everyone I have ever met and disappoint me. But he hasn’t. Quinn Berkeley is unlike anyone I have ever met before.
