Page 56 of Never Again

They needed this program to work.

“Oh, but he really is,” Nathan drawled with a glare aimed at Quinn as he made his way over to the couch as Jonathan showed himself out.

“The bar wasn’t his fault,” Bailey pointed out, rubbing her hands down her face before dropping them with a sigh and grabbed the small laptop that she kept for moments like this out of her bottom drawer.

“No, it wasn’t,” Nathan murmured in agreement as Bailey looked for the charging wire and-

“I contacted Tristan this morning and told him that I needed to be replaced,” Quinn said, making her frown as she looked up to find him watching her.

“Was this before or after the incident in the elevator?” Nathan drawled, making her wince.

“That’s a good question,” Jess murmured from the doorway with a nod and a gesture for them to continue as she took a bite of her donut and-

“Oh, come on!”

-proceeded to watch through the glass with a pout that Bailey forced herself to ignore at the moment.

“You’re quitting?” Bailey asked, swallowing hard as she glanced at her brother to find him watching her as well.

“It’s for the best,” Quinn said, looking at her with an expression that she couldn’t quite read.

“When are you leaving?” Bailey asked, somehow managing to get the words out as she forced herself to focus on finding that power cord.

“Within the hour,” came the softly murmured answer that had her swallowing hard as she went through the motions of searching through the wires and-

She was going to be sick.

“That soon?” Bailey asked, swallowing hard as she closed the drawer and turned her attention to her top drawer as she told herself that was fine.

More than fine.

She had a job to do, and after what happened in the elevator, and God, she really needed to stop thinking about that, this was probably for the best, Bailey told herself as she absently pushed around the cords, knowing that if he was around that she would be tempted to pick up where they left off and with everything that was going on, she really didn’t have time for-

“We need to get going if we want to avoid rush hour traffic,” Quinn said, making her frown as she glanced up to find him gesturing for her to come with him.

“What?” Bailey asked as her gaze flickered to Nathan to find her brother glaring as he stood up.

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Nathan bit out.

“She can’t stay here. It’s not safe,” Quinn said before shifting his focus back on her. “You’ve got thirty minutes to pack before I drag you out of here.”

“But the program…” Bailey mumbled weakly as she gestured absently to her laptop.

“You’ll have to find a way to work remotely because you’re not staying here,” Quinn said as Bailey worried her bottom lip between her teeth and-

“Not happening,” Nathan said firmly, which had her reluctantly nodding in agreement because this was a bad idea.

“He’s right. This is definitely a bad idea,” Bailey said, releasing a heartfelt sigh as she shoved the thumb drive in her pocket and grabbed her backpack off the floor and placed it on her desk so that she could place her laptop in it. She followed that up by placing her iPad in it along with her cellphone before moving to close it only to clear her throat as she discreetly opened the bottom drawer that she normally used to hide her caffeine stash and-

“Jesus Christ,” Nathan said, pinching the bridge of his nose as she grabbed the large box of condoms on top and shoved it in her bag only to rethink that decision and grabbed a few more, making Quinn’s lips twitch.

Once she shoved them in her bag and kicked the drawer closed, Bailey cleared her throat and asked, “Where are we going?” as Quinn grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

“She’s not going anywhere with you,” Nathan said, following him out.

“Back up to Massachusetts until this blows over, so pack warm,” Quinn said, heading for the elevator.

“Really?” Bailey asked, unable to help but smile. She hadn’t been back to Massachusetts since she ran away. She’d always planned on going back, but she’d never had time.

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