Page 127 of With A Little Luck
Ridge
Hartley and Quincy are not pleased to be out of the house, but Trigg seems unbothered.
Hell, maybe I am in the wrong.
I don’t know.
I just can’t stand the thought of Costa Maloney costing me memories that I’ll never be able to get back.
Then again, I could always knock Quincy up again as soon as the baby gets here. But even then, that wouldn’t bring back what we missed out on with this baby.
She needs a name, and I need to get her mama to let me bond her before she makes her entrance into the world.
Quincy talks to her friend from work, Sutton, while Hartley drives us to our appointment. Trigg watches her in the rearview mirror as if he’s waiting for Sutton to say the wrong thing and him to have to wrestle the phone away from Quincy.
Now, that might annoy her.
She does seem to have a permanent soft spot for him, though.
The call wraps up when we’re almost in town, and I’m grateful that she had something to keep her busy.
I’m in the back passenger seat of Hartley’s SUV, which puts my good arm closest to Quincy.
I stretch over, patting her thigh. “Feel better now?”
Her soft skin runs over mine as she links our fingers. “Yeah, Sutton is fine. She said Knox is good company, but she’s not sure about the other two guys who took over for the other team yesterday.” She sighs. “I think she was most upset about her job. She said Harrison wasn’t happy when she told him she needed time off, especially since Hartley and I disappeared with almost no notice too.”
“I’ll talk to Harrison about it once everything is settled,” Hart says, flipping on his blinker. “But I spent half the night worrying whether I got my family messed up in all of this. Should I be hiring private security for Harrison and his pack?”
“I believe Easton has a team surveilling the restaurant in case any of Maloney’s men show up,” Trigg answers before I can. “But I would be surprised if they went after your family.”
“Yeah, I’m just not sure I want to take any chances,” Hartley says.
“I know you still need to pick up your belongings,” I chime in. “After this, we’re heading to Shadow Security. While Quincy and I handle some paperwork, you and Trigg can go over and take care of that. When we’re in the office, we won’t need the team support, so they can escort the two of you.”
“It would be better to get that out of the way sooner rather than later,” Trigg says.
Hartley’s jaw looks tight from what I can see, but he gives a clipped nod. “That works.”
Quincy’s entire demeanor changes as we walk into the ultrasound place, and even Hartley gives me a nod of what Ihope is understanding. We only get one chance to do these kinds of things.
Quincy fills out the paperwork while I handle payment. Once that’s done, we chill in the waiting room.
My hands are shaky, and I can’t tell if it’s excitement about seeing the baby or anxiety about being out in public. I wouldn’t have pushed for this appointment if I didn’t think we’d be safe, but Quincy will never forgive me if something happens.
Trigg filled me in on what went down last night while Hartley and Quincy were busy showering.
If nothing else, taking out seven of Costa’s guys in one day should have sent a pretty clear message. As far as he knows, that number is eight, but that poor fool they took alive is probably wishing he were dead.
If Costa has any intelligence, he’s hunkered down, licking his wounds and really thinking through if it’s worth it to continue this vendetta. After I took out Cash, Costa inherited full control of their empire.
If he called off this bullshit and headed back to California or Vegas—his business hubs—I would let him live for a few more months. At least long enough for Quincy to have the baby and get settled in. That way, she wouldn’t miss me and Trigg if we had to take a weeklong work trip.
The only reason I’m willing to make that concession is because Costa doesn’t have the same affinity for strangling barely legal girls that his twin had. The scary part is Cash Maloney never would have been on my radar if he hadn’t dated and subsequently killed Evan Franklin’s niece.
The Vegas cops really should have had enough to put Cash away for that particular crime, but they didn’t want to go up against the Maloney brothers, which is how I got tangled up in this mess in the first place.
It’s hard to have regrets when I know taking Cash out was the right call.
