Page 92 of The Truths We Seek

“Hard to forget a mom breaking her neck trying to save her kid,” Meyer utters.

I glance in the back, making sure she’s still asleep. I haven’t said anything because I didn’t want to let her know until we can confirm it, but my stomach has been in knots for days keeping it from her. “Yeah, well, I think... I think Quinn might have been that kid.”

“What?” They shout down the phone, and I explain further.

“Let’s just try and look into it, and keep it to ourselves until we know.”

“Fuck,” Meyer grunts.

“I know…” I pause because she groans in the backseat, and I hope to God she’s actually asleep still. Wanting to change the subject just in case, I ask, “What happened with Edward?”

“He won’t agree to whatever terms Tommy had in place. They want this city, and they want it bad.” Meyer grunts, his dissatisfaction at how their meeting went is palpable. “His terms are basically shit or get off the pot.”

“So why don’t we?” I ask, smiling to myself. “I thought that a few months back, when he first showed up.”

“What do you mean?” Meyer asks and I roll my eyes.

“I mean, why are we still doing this? We have money, we have more of it than we could ever need. We have houses and investments and well, we have a lot. But most importantly, we have Quinn now. Why don’t we cut our ties, hand it over, and get the fuck out. Why would we keep risking ourselves, our family, risking her, if we have an option?”

Silence meets me when I finish speaking, but I know he’s processing. His family built this life for us over the course of generations. It’s all any of us have ever really known.

“We could keep HellScape, have something legit, but hand over the rest. Do you really want to keep living this life? Have your kids live this life?”

“I hadn’t really ever thought of it. There wasn’t any other option.” Meyer’s tone is thoughtful, like he might actually be considering my idea.

Who would’ve thought it? Maybe I am an ideas guy after all.

“Well, maybe there is now,” Rory says, but I can’t tell if he thinks it’s a good idea or not.

Quinn stirs in the back seat and I glance back at her before looking back to the road. “I think Quinn is waking up, so I’m going to go. We’ll be back tonight, so talk it out more then?”

“Sure thing,” Meyer says and I end the call just as I see her stretching out in the back seat.

“Morning sunshine,” I coo with a grin and she yawns before sitting up and leaning forward between the front seats.

“Wow, I’ve been asleep a while.”

“Yeah, but what can I say? I exhausted you.” The grin on my face is wide as I think back to being inside of her just a few hours ago.

“So full of yourself,” she mutters.

“I think it was you that was full of me,” I tease, and my heart does that pitter patter thing when she laughs.

It’s the second laugh I’ve heard since the day with her parents, the first was mid-teasing, so it didn’t count. I was starting to worry. But this laugh, this is my Quinn. My angel. My phoenix.

“How long till we’re home?” she asks as she climbs through to the front seat like a feral little gremlin. I tut as she gets comfy before pulling her seatbelt on.

“A few hours, and don’t do that again,” I demand, and she sticks her tongue out.

“Yes sir,” she says with a salute. “You sound like Meyer.”

“Well maybe you sass him less,” I tease and she grins, shaking her head.

“Not a chance.”

Her stomach growls and my smile drops to a frown. “I need to feed you.”

“I’m fine,” she argues, but I shake my head.

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