Page 48 of Never Again

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“Is this okay?”Bailey asked, even as she couldn’t help but wonder when her hands were going to stop trembling.

It happened so fast.

One minute, she was trying to get out of the way, and the next, she was watching helplessly as the knife moved towards her, and then Quinn was there, stopping it before it could touch her. That didn’t stop her attacker. He kept coming after her, kept trying to reach her, but Quinn kept stopping him, blocking him, and knocking him back until he was finally able to get the knife and then-

“I’m fine,” Bailey found herself saying, releasing a shaky breath as she grabbed a bottle of body wash from the small shelf so that she could wash the blood off Quinn to make sure that he was really okay only to have the bottle taken from her.

She watched Quinn squeeze body wash in his hands, his gaze locking with hers as he reached over and washed her face, taking his time to gently wash away the blood. When she moved to grab the bottle to do the same for him, he shook his head and kept going, carefully washing every inch of her body as he made sure that she wasn’t hurt, slowly running his hands over her with gentle caresses that had her biting back a groan as he slowly worked the tension out of her muscles.

When he had her turn around so that he could wash her back, Bailey closed her eyes and stood there, thinking about everything that happened tonight. The way that he moved, the way that he protected her, doing whatever it took to keep her safe, only to lose it when things took an unexpected turn and the waitress pulled that gun out.

If Tommy hadn’t been there…

She’d never seen so much blood before or heard that many curse words before, but Tommy made sure that he said every single one at least a hundred times while they waited for the ambulance. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on the parking lot, but once customers and employees started fleeing the bar screaming, he came in to help. One second, he was grabbing the guy that Quinn was beating the hell out of before he ended up killing him, and the next, he was pinning down the woman who shot him, the sounds of the gunshot still tearing through her head as she struggled to make sense out of what happened.

He'd been shot because of her and-

“Shhhhh, it’s okay,” Quinn said, turning her around so that he could pull her into his arms. “He’s fine.”

“They shot him,” Bailey mumbled weakly as she wrapped her arms around him.

“He’s fine,” Quinn promised her as he held her close.

She released a sniffle as she mumbled, “He deserves a raise.”

“I’m sure that he’s telling Tristan that right now,” Quinn said, making her lips twitch despite the fact that she couldn’t stop thinking about what would have happened if Tommy hadn’t been there and-

“I don’t want to be alone tonight.”

CHAPTER27

“This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said that I didn’t want to be alone tonight,” came the grumbled complaint that had Quinn dropping his head in his hands as he sat there, trying to figure out how he’d fucked this up so quickly.

“Go to sleep, Bailey,” Quinn said as he dropped his hands away and leaned back against the chair he’d placed outside her door so that he could keep an eye on her as he tried to figure out his next move.

One thing was certain, he couldn’t protect her. Not like this. This was a really bad fucking idea. If she’d been any other client, this never would have happened. He never would have sat at that table, never would have let his guard down, and he never would have let her leave that fucking table. He sure as hell wouldn’t have lost his fucking mind when he saw her covered in blood.

God, it had been so fucking close there for a moment. He’d barely had a chance to move when that fucking knife sailed through the air and-

Quinn was forced to think about something else or risk losing his fucking mind. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t keep her safe, not like this. He needed to get her out of here if he was going to have any chance of doing his fucking job.

“Bailey, we need to talk,” Quinn said, which was a fucking understatement.

“I’m listening,” came the absently murmured reply from the woman that had no fucking idea what she was doing to him.

“I can’t keep you safe here,” he said, already knowing that the cabin wasn’t an option. He didn’t think that anyone would be able to trace him to it, but he wasn’t taking any fucking chances after what happened tonight.

“I can’t leave,” Bailey said, making him slowly exhale as he struggled to keep it together.

“Bailey, you can’t stay here. It’s not safe,” Quinn bit out slowly, emphasizing every fucking syllable, praying that she understood how close he was to losing his fucking mind.

“I can’t leave, Quinn. There’s too much riding on this,” Bailey said as he dropped his head back against the wall.

“Bailey-”

“Look, I know that I’m in danger. I get that now. I do, but I can’t leave, not when we’re this close to losing everything. We needed that program. Without it, we’re going to struggle just to make the deadline,” she murmured absently while he sat there, slowly exhaling as he shook his head, wondering why he wasn’t letting Tristian know that he’d been compromised so that he could pull him off this job and assign someone else.

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