Page 39 of Never Again

“I was being helpful!” came the outraged response as Quinn watched Bailey try to take her brother down with a headlock.

God, this was just fucking sad, Quinn thought as he reached over and plucked the small woman that couldn’t seem to get the basics of a headlock down off her brother and threw her over his shoulder. Ignoring her squirms and demands to be released so that she could finish kicking her brother’s ass, Quinn looked at Nathan for answers.

“You were saying?” Quinn asked, wondering why she was making his life difficult.

“In my defense, it was two o’clock in the morning and there was a thunderstorm going on,” Kelly said, only to follow that up with a wince as she added, “I don’t think that helped.”

“Probably not,” Quinn murmured in agreement as he glanced back at Nathan expectantly.

“She saw my picture in a magazine and came to apologize,” Bailey said, sighing heavily only to add, “I’m ready to get down now.”

“Are you going to try to kick your brother’s ass again?”

“Maybe,” came the answer that had his lips twitching.

“I’m gonna need you to just go ahead and throw her back in the storage room,” Nathan said, nodding.

“So that you can keep running your big mouth?” Bailey snapped.

“Yes!” her brother snapped back.

“Snitches get stitches,” Bailey bit out, making Quinn sigh heavily because this honestly couldn’t get any sadder.

CHAPTER21

“You brought this on yourself,” Bailey said with a firm nod and a glare that the large man who kept manhandling her had absolutely no chance of seeing with her being thrown over his shoulder and all.

“Start talking,” Quinn said, not really sounding all that concerned that she was using her good glare as he carried her into the elevator. He kept his hold around her legs as he closed the gate and typed in the code for the third floor, which reminded her…

“I’m going to be needing that code,” she said, clearing her throat as she shifted over his shoulder and went back to glaring at his back.

“And I’m going to need you to tell me why you didn’t tell me about Kelly,” Quinn drawled as she found herself wincing.

“Because it wasn’t relevant?” Bailey said, really hoping that he would drop this so that they could move on.

She heard the gate slide open seconds before he was carrying her into her apartment. “You didn’t think that it was relevant that the woman that used to make your life a living hell was working for you?”

Sighing heavily against his back, Bailey said, “It’s not her.”

“And you know this how?” Quinn asked as he dropped her down on the couch.

“Because I’m psychic?” Bailey said as Quinn sat down on the coffee table so that he could glare at her.

Seeming to think that over, he nodded slowly as he watched her closely. “And the reason that her last name was changed in the employee file?”

“Because she changed her name after she ran away from foster care,” Bailey said as she slowly exhaled, nodded, and managed to pull off the glare that no doubt had him regretting all that manhandling.

There was a heavy sigh, and then Quinn said, “You really can’t pull that off.”

“And yet, you’re sitting there struggling to stop trembling in fear,” Bailey said with a firm nod as she folded her arms over her chest, careful not to do anything that would cause her glare to weaken.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m doing,” Quinn said dryly, only to sigh heavily as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face while she doubled down on that glare.

Once he dropped his hands away, Bailey decided that this was a good time to revisit their earlier discussion. With that in mind, she said, “I don’t need an assistant,” deciding that was the best place to start.

“You’re probably right,” Quinn murmured in agreement as she slowly nodded only to go still when he added, “And Pam?”

“Can go back into security?” Bailey asked with a hopeful smile as she tried to figure out what she was going to do about Pam.