Page 95 of Between Love and Honor

The secretary sighed in exasperation. “Perhaps we should take this inside.”

Hell no!

He was done talking. It was time to get a good drunk on. Preferably one that lasted six months.

“Sorry Madame Secretary, I have a strict ‘no girls allowed’ policy at the Think Tank.”

This time he was able to dodge around her. He quickly leaned into the retinal scanner, grateful when the locks clicked open.

“You might want to rethink that policy,” she murmured.

“Not gonna happen. And if you don’t like it, fire my ass. Better yet, I quit.”

He stormed into the lighthouse, satisfaction beginning to build inside him at the idea of slamming the door in his boss’s—make that ex-boss’s—face. But something inside caught his eye.

More like a someone.

His heart stopped in his chest. The backpack slid from his fingers.

“Quinn,” he somehow managed to say.

“Finally,” she said, her tone a bit north of snippy.

“Where have you been?”

Where had he been? What the hell?

“I’ll just let the two of you sort this out,” he heard the secretary say. “I’ll expect to see both of you in my office—”

He slammed the door in her face.

“You probably shouldn’t have done that,” Quinn said with a laugh.

The anger he’d been holding in check for past six hours surged to the surface. He stalked across the living room stopping inches from where she stood.

“Never mind that,” he bit out. “What do you mean where have I been? Where the hell have you been?”

She had the good grace to look sheepish. “Here. Waiting for you.”

He wanted to touch her. To make sure this wasn’t some grief-induced hallucination. But he didn’t dare.

Because if it really was her standing before him, he might just strangle her.

“I tried to call you.” She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket. One adorned with photos of Liam and Brianna on its case. “Multiple times. You wouldn’t answer.”

“That was you.” His brain was having trouble keeping up.

“We didn’t have a rendezvous plan. There wasn’t time. I knew you’d come here eventually, but I wasn’t sure how to get inside. So I went to Watertown and found Rebecca. When you didn’t answer my calls, I contacted Secretary Lyle. She has an override for your retina, by the way.”

It felt like the world was spinning him in concentric circles. So many thoughts were ricocheting through his mind. He homed in on the most important one.

“I thought you were dead.”

“That was the point,” she replied, matter-of-factly.

“When I’ve had to do that before, letting someone know I was alive wasn’t exactly a priority.”

“You’ve done that before!” Ben was pretty sure his head was going to explode.

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