Page 208 of Savage Suit
“Ryan, damn it, stop.”
She walked faster, nearly running. Fuck, I was desperate, so I lengthened my strides, easily catching up to her. My hand on her shoulder halted her. I turned her to me.
“Who showed you the video?” Reid asked, intruding again as he caught up to us. “And what was in it?”
“Nicholas,” Ryan answered, blinking away tears and drawing herself up. She jerked away from me. “His harassment wasn’t enough, Reid. However you threatened him after he said he’d fuck my tits, and my ass was too big for him to be attracted to me, he—”
“What did you fucking say?” My words came out like a clap of thunder, but she ignored me.
“Ryan—” Reid started, looking at me with unease.
She shook her head wildly. “I don’t care anymore. It isn’t important. He pretended annoyance that Megan sent him the video, showing Noah and her—” A sob escaped her, and pain ravaged her face. “Fuck you. Both of you,” she cried, then glared at me. “I never want to see you again.” She turned and ran out the building.
I couldn’t let her get away from me, so I chased her down the steps, catching her near where Wilbur waited for me. “Ryan—”
“I don’t want to hear it. There’s nothing you can say—”
“I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. I should never have let her in my room. I was thinking about Reid’s baby.”
She gasped. “Reid’s…with Megan?”
“He left her in the cold and—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” Ryan screeched, darting away. I would’ve run after her, but Reid’s question stopped me.
“Did Megan tell you why I left her in the cold?” he demanded.
“It doesn’t matter. You fucked up your relationship with Quinn because of Megan’s pregnancy. It was just business as usual with you.”
“No, it wasn’t, Noah. I was fully prepared to do right by Megan Buford. The baby isn’t mine, asshole. It’s Nick’s.”
I stared at Reid.
“She’s already in her second trimester. It can’t be mine because we weren’t sleeping together then. I love Quinn, Noah. Megan’s a beautiful woman, but she isn’t Quinn. Over the last four months, I’ve slept with Megan half dozen times, if that. Definitely not around the time she conceived. I didn’t turn my back on that lying little bitch. I went to London to see her and brought her back with me. I set up a bank account for her, allowed her to hire a fucking household staff for the house I rented for her, and am now in the process of buying, in Ridgewood, New Jersey. She hired a driver for the Range Rover I bought her.”
I stared at him, unable to do anything else as a scenario dawned on me. One that could only be corrected and avenged with murder.
“I may be a lot of things, but I’d never turn my back on an innocent child or its mother,” Reid said in a tortured voice. “That should’ve been fucking obvious when I deliberately broke Quinn’s heart. Do you know what it did to me, seeing the tenderness in her eyes dim and have it replaced with burning hatred?”
I couldn’t speak. All I could think wasNicholas. Motherfucking, spiteful, hateful, miserableNicholas.
“Do you?”
I nodded. I hadn’t watched Ryan’s love for me drain away as both Reid and I saw Quinn’s die. But I’d found Ryan devastated and sobbing on the fucking floor.
A buzzing started in my head. The part of the encounter with Megan that I remembered ran through my brain. “She called you and left a message, telling you she was there and the three of us needed to talk.”
“I got the message, but I ignored it. I didn’t know who she meant, and I wanted nothing more to do with her. Nick isn’t leaving Tina, and Megan wants her baby to have the Keegan name. If I hadn’t found her ultrasound photos, I still wouldn’t know the truth.”
“She was in Charlotte because of Nicholas,” I concluded, my anger flaring into an inferno. Turning, I started toward my car, where Wilbur patiently waited with the back passenger door already open.
“Noah, go to your penthouse,” Reid suggested. “I know you’re angry, but Nick will stick to his story. Give me a day.”
Remembering what else Ryan said, I faced Reid. “What did Nicholas do to Ryan and how long ago did this happen?”
Sighing, Reid gave me an unhappy look and confessed what he’d walked in on in Ryan’s office weeks ago. Discovering Uncle Ed hadn’t followed my orders and destroyed my mother and father’s documents and journals didn’t matter. Only Ryan and my fuckhead brother did.
On my way home, I called Nicholas and invited him to my penthouse. As much as he had fucked up my life, I didn’t want to upset Tina and harm my unborn niece or nephew. The moment I stepped off the elevator, Quinn met me. She looked as haggard as I felt. Her hazel eyes no longer held a sparkle. Quinn was miserable. She always maintained Ryan meant everything to her. No one realized exactly how much until now. Logan had been slightly better and attempted to console Quinn. It hadn’t worked. Dakota had put in a half-assed effort and Armani said she didn’t have time to bother with Quinn’s drama.
