Page 103 of Never Again

“I pushed the button,” Bailey repeated as she slowly exhaled. “She pulled the trigger and I pushed the button.”

“Bailey…” Quinn said, swallowing hard as he watched her as she followed that up with a firm nod, cleared her throat and was forced to bite her bottom lip when it began trembling.

Nodding, Bailey mumbled, “Sh-She pulled the trigger and I pushed the button. I deleted the game, Quinn.”

“Oh, Christ,” he said, feeling his stomach drop as her words slammed into him.

She’d just lost everything.

“Bailey, I-”

“It’s fine,” Bailey said with a wobbly smile that broke his fucking heart. “As long as she didn’t gain access to Haven Technologies’ server, all the parts should be there. I can piece it back together.”

“And how long will that take to put back together?” Quinn asked as he cupped her face in his hand and gently caressed her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

“A really long time,” Bailey mumbled sadly with a sniffle and the saddest fucking pout that he’d ever seen.

“What do you need me to do?” Quinn asked, leaning down and kissed her forehead.

“I could use a little worshipping,” Bailey mumbled with a little sniffle that had his lips twitching against her forehead.

“I suppose I could do that,” Quinn said as he stood up and took in all of the wires and tubes attached to her while he debated his options.

“It would make this easier,” Bailey said with another sniffle as he made his way around the bed and carefully climbed in behind her, and once he was there, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer.

“Better?” he asked as he pressed his lips against the back of her neck.

“What happened to Kelly?” Bailey asked as she settled back against him, letting him know that she needed a change in subject.

“She came to Tristan’s house thinking that you needed her help, and once we realized just how badly we’d fucked up, I released her and told her to go get help. When she couldn’t get her car to start, she came back into the house to grab Nathan’s keys and made her way to the second floor. When she heard Jess threaten to shoot Nathan, she picked up one of the guns that we’d left outside the door and decided that it was time to make up for all those times that she’d made your life a living hell,” Quinn explained, trying not to think about what could have happened if she hadn’t showed up and-

Just thinking about losing her nearly fucking broke him.

“She shouldn’t have done that,” Bailey mumbled sleepily, letting him know that the medication that the nurse injected into her line before she woke up was starting to work.

“No, she shouldn’t have,” Quinn said as he entwined his fingers with hers.

“What happened to Jess?” Bailey asked after hesitation.

“She’s where she belongs,” Quinn said, trying not to think about the bitch that almost took the only thing that mattered to him away. She was two floors above them and currently handcuffed to a stretcher awaiting transfer to the local jail and it was taking everything that he had to stay where he was when all he wanted to do was make the bitch pay for what she put Bailey through.

“What happens now?” came the weakly mumbled question that had him closing his eyes as he pressed his lips against the back of her neck as he savored the feel of her in his arms.

“Now, you close your eyes and go to sleep, knowing that I will never let anyone hurt you again.”

EPILOGUE

One Year later…

Roman Palms Hotel

“You’re pouting again,”Nathan pointed out from the comfort of her office ten miles away.

“I’m not pouting,” Bailey mumbled sadly as she lay helplessly on her side across the insanely comfortable duvet that felt like a cloud as she did her best to look pathetic, hoping beyond hope that her brother would take pity on her and give her the distraction that she needed.

“Then, what would you call it?”Nathan asked, not bothering to look up from whatever he was doing.

“Making it easy for you to take pity on me so that you’ll tell me what I want to know,” Bailey said, debating between a heartfelt sigh and a sniffle only to decide to go with a combination of the two and-

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