Page 153 of Sins or Secrets
“What are you doing here?” I ask foolishly.
It must be panic scrambling my brain.I can clearly see what he’s doing here.It’s right there on my computer screen.My leverage.
“Finding what you got on me,” Riley replies.“Boyfriend Logan left his woman all alone and thought things were fine because I’d stepped out of the picture.Captain America was so very wrong.”
His laughter makes me sick. “You asshole.”
“Yes, I sure am. But I’m the genius asshole who smoked you out of the house so I could get the chance to dig around and find this little gem of evidence that could indeed destroy me.”
I hate being right. I really do.“You started the fire.”
“I did. You almost had me there Quinn.”
“How did you know about the evidence?”
“It’s taken me a while to figure it out.I realized you found out about my dirty dealings after the feds asked you to sort through your father’s things.See, I thought it was something you saw in my office.My friends in high places managed to get your father’s computer, and we saw that something had been copied, then wiped on the day you would have been sorting through his things.It was a long shot, but I took it and boy am I glad I did.Your old man was one clever bastard.And his daughter seems to have followed in her old man’s footsteps.” He takes the stick out of the computer and I watch my freedom fade away.
He walks up to me and bile churns in my stomach when he touches my face then trails a path down my neck.His smile turns up a notch when he settles his finger in the crook of my cleavage, and I can see from his leery gaze what plans await me.
“Get your hands off me,” I balk, trying to breakfree.My attempts are howeverfruitless.
Riley holds up the memory stick and gives me a crude smile of victorioustriumph.
“This is mine now.” He nods and snaps the stick in half, destroying myevidence.Before I can get over what he just did, he pulls a gun from his back pocket and points it atme.“And so are you,Quinn.”
Logan
Istill feel like I’ve been hit by a damn four by four.
That’s probably what happens to you when you’re so drunk you fall asleep next to a grave and get woken up by the sound of barking dogs owned by the cemetery’s caretaker.
I’ve only been back at the house for less than half an hour.The caretaker gave me a ride back.If he didn't, I would have had to walk, and that would be my day messed up.
Of course, I hadn’t meant to fall asleep next to Lilly’s grave.I meant to come back here and sleep off the alcohol then face the music today regardless of which song was playing.
I was going to go see Quinn and talk to her.
I manage to shower, but before I can finish getting my clothes on, a knock sounds at my door.
A glance out the window reveals my early morning visitor is Ethan and my nerves spike.I’ve been MIA for two days, so it’s natural to assume he’s here because of that.Except it’s barely six-thirty.
I rush down the stairs and pull the door open.
“Where the hell have you been?” he blurts.The fury in his expression is evident.
“Has something happened?”
“Logan, there was a fucking fire at Quinn’s.”
My lungs cave and everything feels like it’s closing in around me.“Is she hurt!”
“No, but the studio’s gone. The studio was on fire, Logan.”
I narrow my gaze. “The studio?How the fuck would--” It takes me a second to guess how, or rather to suspect how something like that could have happened.
“Yeah, I’m right there with you.I’ve been in that dance studio.It has one wall socket. Yes, there’s a chance it could have been an electrical fire, but somehow I don’t think so.”
I’m already grabbing my jacket before he can finish talking.“I have to go to her, my car’s back at work.Can you give me a ride?”
