Page 43 of Wicked S.O.B.

“No. I don’t think so or we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now.”

“Calm down, son,” she says again.

“Stop telling me to fucking calm down.”

He whirls away, meets my eyes, and freezes in place. I swallow my fear and misery and step up to him. When he doesn’t flinch away from me, I place my hand on his chest. His heart is beating wild and fast. Out of control. “Please, Quinn.”

A deep shudder runs through him. “Why, Elyse? How could you not see…how could you not know that this would kill me?”

I blink back the tears that fill my eyes. “I could see, Quinn. Don’t you see? It was why I wanted to spare you this in the first place.”

He shuts his eyes and gives a vicious shake of his head. I step closer and wrap both arms around him. He doesn’t pull me in or rest his face in the crook of my neck like he usually does. He holds himself rigidly still, that deathly stillness multiplied by a thousand. He’s barely holding on.

I take his hand in mine. “Sit down.”

He stiffens for a moment but then walks over to sink into the sectional sofa. He pulls his hands from mine and clasps them between his knees. Although I sit next to him, I feel a gulf between us, and it tears me apart.

“Everything. I want to know every last fucking thing, so start talking right now,” he orders.

Fionnella perches on the far side of the sofa and nods encouragingly at me.

“I was on my way to class three weeks ago when I…felt I was being watched.”

His jaw clenches, and a wild curse rips from his throat. I lay a hand on his arm. The tendons bunch brutally but he doesn’t move away.

“I thought I was imagining it. It’s been a year since Clay—”

“Trust me, I know exactly how long it’s been!”

I nod at the clipped reminder. “Anyway, I didn’t sense anything for another few days, but then it happened again.”

“When?”

“On my way to the library.”

“Let me guess, another time when you should’ve let Lionel drive you but chose to walk instead.”

“It’s only four blocks away.”

“A hell of a fucking lot can happen in one block!”

“Stop yelling at me, Quinn.”

Ferocious silver-blue eyes blaze a sizzling warning. I know I’m going to pay a hell of a lot more later, but for now, his hunger for information overrides his need to deliver the retribution that’s coming my way. “Speak.”

But I don’t get a chance to. A knock on the door startles both of us, but Fionnella smiles and rises. “Ah, sorry, I forgot to mention. I invited another player to help speed things along. Stay where you are. I’ll get it.”

When she returns thirty seconds later with Ellen Schultz in tow, Quinn jerks to his feet. “Jesus fucking Christ. What the hell is she doing here?”

“You want answers, son. You’re getting them.”

“I wish we were meeting under better circumstances, Mr. Blackwood,” Detective Schultz offers.

“I wish we weren’t meeting at all,” he snaps with zero mercy.

“I understand.”

He props his hands on his lean hips. “Yeah, everyone seems to fuckingunderstand. Maybe you’d like to throw me a fucking bone and fill me in?”

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