Chapter 9

CHAPTER9

“It’s just that,” Bailey began, only to pause so that she could release a heartfelt sigh as she lay there, staring up at the ceiling, “I wasn’t ready for what they did to Glenn.”

“It’s three in the morning,” came the firm reply from the man who didn’t understand her needs.

“Which is the perfect time to process my pain from The Walking Dead,” Bailey said, even as she couldn’t help but think about all the things that she could be doing right now if she had a computer.

God, the code that she would write…

“For the love of god, go to sleep,” Quinn bit out from the couch, where he was most likely still glaring at her.

Shrugging against the mattress, Bailey shook her head as she said, “I wish it was that easy.”

That was followed by Bailey rolling over onto her stomach, only to immediately regret that decision when the soft pillow brushed against her forehead, sending a fresh wave of pain through her head. Thankful that it was too dark for Quinn to see her biting her lip to hold back a well-earned “Owie,” she rolled back over onto her back and-

“Oh, no…”

-found herself wondering how Quinn managed to make it across the room without her hearing him. Swallowing hard, Bailey stared up at the man who was taking his job a little too seriously. Not knowing what else to do, Bailey went for a hopeful smile that he probably couldn’t see, she realized when he continued standing next to the bed.

Clearing her throat, Bailey said, “Please don’t kill me.”

“God, you really are a pain in the ass,” Quinn said, sighing heavily as she watched his silhouette reach over and grab the bottle of painkillers off the nightstand.

“Wait! We can talk about this!” Bailey said as panic quickly took over, only to wince when fresh pain shot through her head.

Pressing her hands against her head, Bailey squeezed her eyes shut and tried to breathe through the pain. A moment later, she felt a pill pressed against her lips. For a moment, she considered pushing the pill away, only to part her lips and take the pill in her mouth when sharp pain made it difficult to remember how to breathe. When he pressed a bottle of water in her hand a few seconds later, she took a sip, swallowed the pill, and handed it back to him so that she could go back to wincing.

“That should kick in soon,” Quinn murmured quietly.

“May the odds be in your favor,” Bailey said, deciding that this would be a good time to burrow beneath the pillows when the soft moonlight spilling in through the windows started to make her eyes hurt.

“Get some sleep, Bailey,” Quinn said softly as she felt the comforter pulled over her shoulders.

“I can’t sleep,” she mumbled sadly as she closed her eyes and slowly exhaled while she waited for the pain to go away.

“Try,” Quinn said, clearly not understanding the problem here.

She normally worked until she dropped, but since she’d been stuck here…

She was bored out of her mind.

She needed to get her hands on a computer, an iPad, a phone, something. At this point, she’d settle for a calculator, but the large man watching her every move refused to see to her needs. Nathan would have folded by now, Bailey thought with a wistful sigh that made her head ache, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been a few minutes ago.

Knowing that she really didn’t have a choice, Bailey pulled the pillow off her head, shifted to get more comfortable as she hugged the pillow against her chest. Slowly exhaling, she counted back from a hundred and when that didn’t work, she counted sheep, thought about everything that she needed to do for work, counted sheep again, and when nothing else worked, she opened her eyes so that she could squint in the direction of the couch.

There was a heavy sigh, and then…

“Why are you still awake?”

“Because I like to be difficult,” Bailey mumbled absently as she went back to staring up at the ceiling.

“The pill should kick in soon,” Quinn said, sounding really hopeful as she heard him shift on the couch to get more comfortable.

“You should probably mentally prepare yourself for what’s about to come,” Bailey said, wondering why he wasn’t making a run for it while he still had a chance.

“Believe me, I am,” he drawled as she lay there, bored out of her mind.

For a moment, she considered checking out the books that he had stacked on the nightstand, but the thought of trying to squint down at the tiny print made her head hurt, which left…

“Start talking,” Bailey said, and when he didn’t say anything, she raised her hand and gestured for him to get on with it.

“About?” came the hesitant reply.

“Everything.”

* * *

“It’s late,”Quinn said as he lay there, hoping that she took pity on him this time and passed out before the painkillers kicked in.

“And I’m wide awake,” Bailey murmured, sounding bored and-

“What do you want to know?” he asked as he rubbed his hands down his face, beyond fucking exhausted.

“What happened after I left you on that platform, utterly destroyed and struggling to hold back the tears?” came the question that had him dropping his hands away so that he could glare at the little brat.

“I had my first homicidal fantasy,” Quinn bit out, only to feel his lips twitch when she said, “That happened way before that.”

“I was late reporting to basic training,” he said, thinking about the moment that he showed up late at the base.

“That sounds ominous,” Bailey said as he watched her shift to get more comfortable on the bed.

“It certainly put things into perspective,” Quinn said, thinking about that first night when he got his first dose of reality.

“Meaning?”

“That I had no idea what I was really getting myself into,” he said as he watched Bailey move to sit up, only to mutter to herself, grumble, and then, finally, fell onto her side with another grumble.

“Do you regret going?” she asked as she reached over and grabbed a pillow and hugged it against her chest.

“Not even a little bit,” Quinn said as he folded an arm behind his head and shifted his focus back to the ceiling. “It was the best thing for me.”

“Why did you leave?”

“It was time to move on,” Quinn murmured absently.

He’d thought it was time for a change, but since he’d left the corps…

He’d been bored out of his fucking mind.

It was one job after another, protecting politicians, actors, tech giants, and CEOs that thought that his job was to keep a lookout for their wives while they bent their secretaries over their desks. He had no idea what he wanted, and until he did, he was going to keep taking jobs that bored him out of his fucking mind and-

“I love this pillow,” came the announcement seconds before Bailey rolled off the bed with a pained grunt and a sadly mumbled, “Why doesn’t the bed love me?”

-resigning himself to protecting the little pain in the ass from herself.