Page 20 of Never Again

“Let’s see…” Bailey mumbled absently to herself as she scrolled through her brother’s text messages, only to pause to take another sip before continuing her search until she found what she was looking for.

While she read through her brother’s dire warnings about keeping her away from anything with caffeine, Bailey sipped her Coke, made a mental note to get back at the traitor, and frowned when she found the text message with the link to a file named, “Don’t Show Bailey,” and sighed. God, he was such an amateur sometimes, she thought, taking another sip as she tapped the link and-

“Uh-oh,” Bailey mumbled weakly when her brother’s glaring face suddenly filled the screen.

“You just couldn’t resist, could you?”Nathan asked, shaking his head with a disappointed sigh as she sat there trying to wrap her mind around what just happened.

“Did…did you really use one of my programs against me?” Bailey found herself asking, more than a little impressed that her brother managed to pull it off considering the fact that he locked himself out of his computer at least once a week.

“I asked Jess for help,”Nathan said, shrugging it off.

“And the reason why you felt the need to betray me was…”

“Because I know you,”Nathan murmured absently as he sat back in his office chair and focused his attention on the cellphone in his hands.

“That doesn’t really explain why you’re keeping something from me,” Bailey said, taking a sip of Coke while she watched him type something into his phone.

“Doesn’t it, though?” Nathan asked, not bothering to look up as he continued doing whatever it was that he was doing.

“Start talking,” she said, wondering why he was being so damn stubborn about this.

Unless…

“What else don’t I know?” Bailey asked, moving to take another sip when a large, tan hand plucked the Coke out of her hand and she found herself swallowing hard as she looked up and-

“Oh, God, I’m gonna die…” Bailey whispered as she watched the large man that looked really pissed finish off her Coke before glancing at her brother to find him watching her with a gleam of unholy satisfaction in his eye.

“You left me with no choice,”Nathan said with a satisfied sigh that didn’t bode well for her.

“But-”

Shooting her a wink, Nathan hung up, leaving her sitting there, struggling to come up with a reason why she was sitting in the tub with Quinn’s iPad and sipping a Coke when she was supposed to be in bed resting. Deciding that she should probably just pretend that this never happened, Bailey cleared her throat, shifted, cleared her throat again and murmured, “Excuse me,” as she grabbed onto the side of the tub and pulled herself up. That was followed by wincing when sharp pain tore through her head, forcing her to grab hold of her head as her legs gave out and found herself in Quinn’s arms.

“You really are a pain in the ass,” Quinn said, sighing heavily as he carried her back into the main part of the cabin and-

Walked past the bed and kept going.

“Umm, where are we going?” Bailey asked, really hoping that he didn’t say to dig a grave as she was forced to squeeze her eyes shut when the pain became too much.

“To do something that I should have done a long time ago.”

CHAPTER11

Haven Technologies Building

Florida

“God, I’m going to spank her ass one day,” Nathan said, sighing heavily as he pushed his chair back and headed for the kitchen, needing caffeine to get through this bullshit.

He couldn’t fucking believe this was happening.

He’d had the security upgraded on the first floor, replaced the cameras and started crashing at Bailey’s place so that he could keep an eye on her, but it didn’t fucking help. He thought that he could protect her, but…

He’d fucked up.

“How’s Bailey?” Jess asked, waiting for him with a warm smile and a cup of coffee.

“She’s still a pain in the ass,” Nathan assured her, watching her lips twitch as she took a sip of her coffee.

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