Stefan positioned himself next to my bed and Adam stood next to him. Jamie had made his way to stand on the other side of the bed. Dean and Asher stood silently by the couch. Detectives Cameron and Brooks strolled through my room to stand at the foot of my bed. Them being here felt like a major invasion of my personal space.
Cameron and Brooks eyed the men around the room. “Is the crowd really necessary?” Cameron asked. “We’re only here to ask her a few more questions.”
“Harass her, you mean,” Jamie quipped.
Adam sighed. “Detective, I think you should get on with the questions you came here for.”
This sucks, I thought and shifted my tangled braid off my shoulder, which reminded me that I was in desperate need of a shower. My hair was visibly dirty. It was why I had braided it this morning with the intent of taking a shower later.
“Do you know a Christina Barker?” Cameron questioned.
Well, shit. I knew where this was going. “Tina’s a friend from college. Why?”
He ignored my question “When was the last time you spoke to Tina?”
I pretended to really think about it. “A month and a half ago. We had lunch to catch up.”
Cameron made a note in his little notebook. “Did you know she and Tom were having an affair?”
I reeled back, feigning shock. “What are you talking about?”
“Answer the question, Miss Quinn,” Cameron ordered firmly.
“No. I did not.”
“Tina was reported missing around the same time Tom went missing. That’s a pretty big coincidence, don’t you think?” he asked, but I knew it was rhetorical.
“What exactly are you implying, Detective?” I asked, knowing he was tiptoeing around why he was really here.
His eyes filled with disdain. “I don’t think Tom Morris and Christina Barker are missing. I’m pretty sure they’re dead.”
This time I didn’t put forth the effort in pretending to be shocked. What was the point? I tilted my head slightly, my eyes narrowing. “Let me guess, you think I killed them?” I’d underestimated Detective Cameron. A mistake I’d never make again.
Cameron closed his notebook and stuffed it in his pocket. “I think you’re a very smart woman despite what you’ve portrayed so far.”
I was sensing a but coming.
“But I think you’re as good of a liar as your father and everything you’ve told us up until now is bullshit. You knew Tom and Tina were having an affair and either you killed them or you had Daddy whack them for you, then burned down your townhouse to cover it up.” His eyes flicked to Jamie, then Stefan, both of whom held blank masks.
Adam stepped closer. He was a short man with a balding head who didn’t look at all intimidating, but according to Jamie, Adam was a badass lawyer. “That’s clearly speculation, Detective. You wouldn’t be using the words ‘I think’ if you had any actual evidence to back those accusations.”
Cameron’s expression hardened and he and Adam began arguing, throwing threats and legal jargon that I didn’t understand at each other.
I glanced at Detective Brooks, who had been quiet the entire time, letting Cameron take the lead. His eyes were roaming around my room as if he were absorbing every little detail. Strange. Sensing me staring, his gaze shot to me. I saw the small flicker of surprise in his eyes before he drew them away to give his full attention to his partner and Adam. I could tell he was straining not to look back at me and it wasn’t long before he suggested that they leave. Cameron agreed and Adam and Stefan escorted them out the door.
Taking a seat next to me, Jamie cupped the back of my neck and softly pressed his lips to my forehead. “You okay?”
Dean and Asher took that as their cue to leave and they darted for the door.
I shrugged. “He’s a good cop. It’s annoying.”
The corner of Jamie’s mouth lifted. “He’s a pain in the ass, but he won’t find anything to pin on you.”
I knew that. Even though I didn’t know where or how he and Louie had gotten rid of Tom and Tina’s bodies, I trusted them.
Oh, Louie.
He was avoiding me. He’d barely spoken to me while I'd been in the hospital. At first, he'd seemed to be fine with Jamie and I being back together, but his carefree smile had lost its brightness the longer he'd hung around in the hospital with us. Each time Jamie kissed me or touched me, Louie’s jaw would visibly clench, or he’d look away. When he couldn’t seem to stand it any longer, he'd stood abruptly from his chair and left without saying a word. I'd wanted to call out to him, stop him from leaving. Jamie had squeezed my hand, drawing my attention, and shaken his head. I hadn’t seen Louie since.
Pulling me out of my thoughts, Jamie’s fingers twiddled with my messy braid before giving it a gentle tug. I leaned closer and his soft lips covered mine. My nose filled with his delicious woodsy scent and I reveled in the sensation of his lips moving with mine. What I wouldn’t give to get him naked right now… I was dying to take our kiss further, but the doctor had said I wasn’t allowed to have sex until she cleared me.
“You smell so good,” I said, sounding like a woman starved.
He chuckled. “I wish I could say the same.”
I mocked shock and playfully smacked his arm. “Excuse me, sir, but I’ve been a good girl and have embraced the bedrest. Isn’t that what you wanted? If you don’t like my lazy look, don’t let the door hit you on your tight ass.”
A mischievous smile pulled at the corners of his mouth before he leaned in closer, making me lie back on my pillows. He shifted on the bed until he was hovering over me, caging me beneath him with his knees on the outside of my thighs and his hands resting on the bed by my upper arms. “I find sweats and Cheeto stains hot as fuck.”
“Oh, really?”
“Really,” he said before he kissed my jaw and ran his nose along my ear, coaxing a full body shiver from me. “You’re so fucking sexy, I’d slide into you right now if I could,” he whispered in my ear, then kissed me heatedly. My toes curled into the mattress. He was getting me pretty worked up, until he had to ruin it by pulling away. “But you know what the doc said.”
I sighed frustratedly as he climbed off of me and the bed. “Fucking tease.”
CHAPTER 4
It’d been four weeks since the accident and I’d reached my breaking point. The pain of boredom was worse than being shot. I was determined to escape the confines of my bedroom to attend today’s family meeting. I’d heard Rourke was attending. He too had been ordered to rest up since the accident and had missed the last few meetings. Call it fear of missing out or boredom, I didn’t care, but if he was going, so was I.
In order to achieve my mission, I had to find a way to occupy Dean and Asher long enough to get ready and sneak downstairs without them trying to stop me. I had yet to speak with Finnegan and Gavin, the remaining few of Samuel’s inner circle I'd let live and who now answered to me. I asked Dean and Asher to go retrieve them for me. Asher was on board with the idea of getting out of the house. Dean, however, was being particularly stubborn about it. He could tell something was up, but the moment I started stripping to get in the shower, he grunted out of frustration and they both left.