Page 25 of Modern Romance Collection December 2024 Books 1-4

Lucy White.Had she really just been an innocent, naive young woman who’d unwittingly worked for a notorious criminal gang boss? Maybe she’d been part of it and had taken a deal to get out if she confessed what she knew?

Quin’s head throbbed. He made a call to Claude, an old friend who worked in security. He was someone he trusted, because he had helped him stay off the grid when he’d wanted to escape the furore around his family five years ago, after it had been revealed that his ‘father’ wasn’t his biological father. When he’d walked away from everything he’d known and taken control of his own destiny.

He greeted his friend with the minimum of niceties and gave him the details. ‘Can you look into this?’ he asked. ‘And also Lucy White? Let me know what her involvement was, if any.’

‘Sure... This is an...unusual request...is everything okay?’

Quin clamped his mouth shut, to stop himself from revealing that the mother of his child might possibly be linked to a major crime syndicate. He just said, ‘Everything is fine, thanks, Claude. I owe you.’

‘No problem. I’ll get back to you ASAP.’

Quin terminated the conversation. He felt edgy, restless. Didn’t know what to think. All he could see were Sadie’s huge eyes and how innocent she’d looked. Had she even really lost her memory? But then his conscience pricked. He recalled the headaches she’d get—so painful that they’d leave her pale and sweating. And the nightmares, when she would wake, sitting bolt-upright in the bed, screaming, her body slick with perspiration, eyes huge and terrified. He remembered cradling her in his arms as she said, over and over again,‘So much blood... I’ve never seen so much blood.’

She couldn’t have faked that.

Or maybe she could, and he was just a supremely gullible idiot taken in by a huge pair of eyes and a lithe body.

She’d been a virgin.

He could still remember the spasm of pain that had flashed across her face as he’d breached her tight body. The way she’d resisted him before her body had softened and moulded around his, giving him the most erotic experience of his life. Blood was pumping to his groin just at the memory.

Quin surged to his feet.No.He would not do this—sit here and torture himself. Tomorrow he would quiz Sadie about everything and look for chinks and holes in her story, and when Claude came back with the inevitable proof that she was indeed not what she seemed Quin could wash his hands of her for good.

The following day Sadie was cleaning Sol’s bathroom, going through the motions automatically, avoiding thinking about last night. She needed to keep busy. She hadn’t seen Quin yet—he’d taken Sol to school that morning. She felt curiously empty. Flat. Anti-climactic. She might have expected to feel somehow more...relieved, or even happy after finally telling Quin what had happened. But clearly he had viewed her explanation with outright suspicion.

Would it change anything?

But at least she’d done it. Told him the full truth. He would have to believe her eventually.

But would he ever forgive her? Maybe in his mind even the threat of death wasn’t a good enough excuse for her leaving.

All she’d known at the time was sheer terror at the prospect that she might be the cause of any harm coming to Quin or Sol. She would do the same today if she needed to.

She heard a sound nearby and turned her head to see Quin appear in the doorway, as if manifested straight out of her thoughts. He took her breath away before she could try and control her response. He was dressed in dark trousers and a shirt. Open at the neck. The casual clothes did little to hide the powerful musculature of his torso and wide shoulders.

She only realised belatedly that she was still on her knees and she stood up, very aware of her hot face and perspiration from working.

He said, ‘We’re going out for lunch.’

Sadie struggled to understand why he was announcing this. ‘Okay... You and Lena? Or Roberto?’

After all, they were the only other people she’d met so far.

Quin frowned as if she was being dense. ‘No, you and me.’

‘Oh...’

Sadie’s insides fluttered, but then she told herself she was being silly. Obviously he just wanted to talk to her about everything she’d landed on him the previous evening. This wasn’t a date.

She said, ‘We don’t have to go out if you’re busy.’

Maybe it would be better to talk in a private space rather than out in public.

‘You haven’t left this house and gardens since we arrived,’ he pointed out.

Sadie hadn’t even realised that. But it was true. She remembered how, when she’d been with Quin before, she’d never wanted anything much more than to be with him. In their modest beachside house. She could appreciate now that part of that must have had to do with the danger she’d known was out there, but cloaked by her faulty memory.

Quin was looking at her. ‘Okay, then, that’d be nice,’ she said.

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