Page 100 of Savage Suit
She ignored Reid’s glare.
“Stop being an immature fucking brat, Quinn,” Reid growled. “I’ve apologized to you. What more can I do?”
“Your apologies aren’t worth the breath used to say them. Megan still has a key to your place. Excuse me. Sheliveswith you. Besides, you work with that treacherous bitch. I wouldn’t trust you, even if you changed your locks and threw her the fuck out.”
“Quinn—”
“As much as I’m enjoying this quarrel, what are you doing here, Reid?” My voice sounded the same, but inside my emotions were jumbled.
“Quinn and Ryan got into an argument and her brother is having a party at the apartment she shares with him. Megan is lying in wait at home…” He glanced at Quinn, swallowing at the bitter anger on her face. “At my place. Megan’s at my place, so Quinn and I came here to crash.”
“I beg your pardon?” It had been years since Reid and I were close. In all my adult life, he’d never crashed at my place and vice versa. No was on the tip of my tongue, but he looked so fucking miserable casting covert glances at Quinn. “Fine,” I grumbled.
Quinn’s expression remained stony.
“I will look into your allegations about Miss Buford, Quinn,” I said.
“She hurt Ryan,” Quinn said again. “And so did you.”
“My private life is my business,” I said with cold finality.
“Fuck you. Your private life is my fucking business when my sister is involved. Since she got the job in your lousy company, she’s been on cloud nine. After everything she endured today, in front of the world, she had to convince you to keep her on, hoping you’ll change your mind. We both know you won’t.”
“Not for the reasons you believe,” I said calmly.
“She thinks you’re trying to protect her.”
“Perhaps I am.” Ryan’s understanding of my motives surprised me. “I am going to give her a severance package.”
“She doesn’t want your money,” Quinn said.
“She wants to have a bank account valued at five million dollars in the next ten years. I intend to deposit twenty the day I let her go.”
Quinn stared at me. For a moment, I thought I’d shocked her into speechlessness.
“You’re trying to buy her,” she charged. “That isn’t what she wants or needs.”
“Everyone needs money,” I said with an indulgent smile. “Your sister is no different.”
“Why would you do that to her?”
“I’m not doing anything other than what’s offered in the contract.”
“You’re a liar,” she said without flinching. “Ryan wouldn’t sign anything that offered her a severance package for that much money when she didn’t do a fucking day’s work. That isn’t how she is. I am. If you’re stupid enough to fling money around because you can, then I’m larcenous enough to take it. Ryan? She has a work ethic, and she takes pride in what she does. Maybe, if you were awarded a two hundred-million-dollar contract thanks to her efforts, she’d accept twenty percent. So, what the fuck did you do? Blindfold her so she’d sign her contract without reading it and then changed the terms? Tell me.”
“You’re acting like your sister doesn’t have a brain,” I said, refusing to admit her accuracy.
“Ryan is amazingly smart. Despite what we’ve been through, she still looks at the world in a certain way.” She nodded to a crystal vase with three-day-old roses and not enough water. “She’d say roses just past their bloom sit in gorgeous Baccarat, in need of water. She’d tell me to revive them with fresh water and an aspirin. She’d swear their smell was sweetest now, Mr. Keegan. She sees beauty. She makes the world beautiful because of her kindness and her ability to see what I don’t have time to search for. To me? I see half dead flowers that should be thrown the fuck out, in an overly expensive vase in need of a good washing. So, I think you pushed your weight around or fed her a fucking line that compelled her to sign your contract before she read it. She wanted her job, but at the core is how she seesyou. How she trusts you.”
Whatever anger and outrage I had at Quinn’s words and attitude deserted me. She adored Ryan. I saw it on her face, and I heard it in her words. The anger she directed at me was because she was protecting her sister.
I also realized why Reid had come to my place with her instead of going to Nicholas. My brother wasn’t sentimental. He would’ve installed Quinn in a guest chamber, then spent the night drinking with Reid. Here, just knowing of my displeasure offered him the chance to remain in her presence. Besides, I’m sure she’d informed him she intended to read me the riot act, meaning more opportunity for him to interact with her.
“It’s been years since she’s had anyone to look after her. I’m not sure I can trust you to do it.”
“I assure you—”
“Save it,” she interrupted. “What she wants most of all is to prove her worth at KMG. You want to take that away from her.”
