Chapter 55

CHAPTER55

“Start talking,” Quinn said as he kept his gaze locked on the small woman who’d taken them by surprise when she’d walked up to the front door and rang the fucking bell.

“Just as soon you tell me what’s going on,” Nathan said as his gaze remained locked on Kelly as he pushed the small woman that had a lot of explaining to do behind his back when she moved to yank her hand free.

“Thanks for waiting for me,” Jess said with a heartfelt sigh as she walked into the house only to follow that up with, “What the hell’s going on?” when she spotted Kelly kneeling on the hardwood floor with her arms handcuffed behind her back.

“That’s what we’re about to find out,” Tristan said as his gaze remained locked on Pam as Nathan was once again forced to push her back. “Is this who I think it is?”

“Yes,” Quinn said, pushing away from the wall as he pulled another set of handcuffs from his pocket.

“Where’s Bailey?” Pam demanded as she glanced from Tristan to him.

“Somewhere safe,” Quinn said, pushing one of the metal cuffs open with his thumb as he made his way across the foyer towards her only to frown when he heard it.

“What the hell is that?” Tristan demanded when what sounded suspiciously like “Mmmbop” suddenly filled the house.

“My calling card,” Pam said with a satisfied sigh as Quinn shared a look with Tristan just as the music suddenly stopped playing.

After a slight nod, Quinn tossed the handcuffs to Tristan and made his way upstairs with Nathan close behind. Within seconds, he was cursing when he spotted the empty bedroom and moved his ass towards the backstairs, through the kitchen, down the back hall only to regret not locking the little pain in the ass that he loved more than anything in a closet when he spotted her slumped over Tristan’s desk before taking in the empty Coke cans next to her.

“Glad to see that you’re taking care of my sister,” Nathan drawled as he moved to go to Bailey only to end up glaring when Quinn beat him to it.

She really was a pain in his ass, Quinn thought, kissing her forehead before he tossed her over his shoulder and-

Fucking sighed when she started humming the theme song to “The X-Files” against his back. She really was too fucking adorable for words, Quinn thought as he started making his way back down the long hallway towards the foyer.

“I have no fucking idea what’s going on,” Quinn admitted, carefully shifting Bailey over his shoulder as he glanced towards the foyer, noting that it was empty before he made his way into the kitchen.

“You honestly expect me to believe that?” Nathan demanded as they walked into the kitchen to find Kelly sitting at the table, looking lost while Pam glared at him as she pointedly raised her cuffed hands.

Ignoring her, Quinn said, “I really don’t fucking care what you believe,” as he kept moving, noting the curious gaze that Jess was throwing Kelly and Pam or whatever the hell she was calling herself before reluctantly shifting her focus back to her laptop with a heartfelt sigh.

“And why’s that?” Nathan asked as they headed for the backstairs.

“Because you think that I had something to do with this,” Quinn pointed out as he made his way up the back stairs, praying every step of the way that Bailey took pity on him and stayed passed out until after this was all over.

“Tell me that I’m wrong,” Nathan said as they reached the second floor.

“I had nothing to do with this,” Quinn said as he headed towards their room.

“And the fact that we were able to trace the attack on Haven Technologies to this location as well as to the cabin you own in Georgia and your grandmother’s old house in Massachusetts was what? A coincidence?” Nathan drawled, making Quinn frown as they reached their room and-

“His cabin doesn’t have internet,” Bailey mumbled weakly against his back seconds before she began humming the theme song to “Jaws.”

“I use my data plan when I’m at the cabin,” Quinn said as he carried Bailey to the bed and carefully laid her down.

“And your grandmother’s house?” Nathan asked as he made his way to the other side of the bed.

“She sold her house just before she died so that she could send Jaxon to college,” Quinn said, wishing like hell that she’d come to him for the money instead. “She was determined to make sure that my cousin didn’t follow in my footsteps and sign his life away.”

“Is that what you did?” Nathan asked as he reached for the covers.

“No, it’s what I needed at the time,” Quinn said as he grabbed hold of the covers on his side and pulled them over Bailey.

“And now?” Nathan asked, sending him a curious look.

“I have everything that I need,” Quinn murmured softly as his gaze shifted to Bailey and-

“He loves me,” Bailey mumbled with a heartfelt sigh against her pillow.

“Yes, I do,” Quinn said, unable to help but smile as he leaned down and kissed the back of her head only to sigh when she began humming the theme song to “SpongeBob SquarePants.”

“In that case,” Nathan drawled as he pulled the covers tightly over Bailey to make sure that she wasn’t going anywhere for a while before heading for the door, “we should probably have that talk.”

“What happened?” Quinn asked as soon as they reached the kitchen.

“They got desperate,” Nathan said as Quinn met Tristan’s gaze while his best friend pushed away from the wall with a barely noticeable nod and left the room.

“Meaning?” Quinn asked as he took up Tristan’s abandoned position by the wall and ran his gaze from the patio doors on his right to the door on his left, only pausing long enough to take in the backstairs in front of him before shifting his gaze back to Nathan.

“She released a full-blown attack on our system,” Nathan bit out with a glare aimed at Kelly.

“I-I had nothing to do with this,” Kelly mumbled weakly, noticeably paling as she sent Nathan a pleading look. “Please, you know that I didn’t do this.”

“It all points to you,” Nathan said, only to sigh heavily when Pam said, “And to him,” with a pointed look in Quinn’s direction.

Sighing heavily, Nathan rubbed his hands roughly down his face as he muttered, “What a fucking mess.”

“I’m going to need Bailey’s password to fix this,” Jess mumbled absently as she frowned down at her computer.

“It’s going to have to wait,” Nathan said, looking fucking exhausted as Quinn ran his gaze around the room, taking in all the exits again before he took in the two women handcuffed, noting the way that Kelly trembled while Pam glared.

“I can’t do anything else without that password,” Jess said with a heavy sigh as she closed her laptop and stood up. “I’m gonna go sit with Bailey and wait for her to wake up so that she can take over this mess.”

“It might be a while,” Nathan pointed out as he kept his glare locked on Kelly.

“Hopefully, the block will hold until then,” Jess said with a helpless shrug as she grabbed her laptop and headed for the backstairs, only to pause by the refrigerator to help herself to a Coke and-

“In the meantime, why don’t we talk about what happened between you and my sister,” Nathan drawled as he leveled a glare on Quinn.

That was followed by Jess clearing her throat as she turned around with a hopeful look and a murmured, “Perhaps, I should wait down here and Casey can go upstairs and wait with Bailey?”

“Keep an eye on Bailey and make sure that she stays out of trouble,” Nathan said while Quinn stood there, trying to figure out what the fuck was going on.

“Damn it,” Jess mumbled sadly as she turned around and reluctantly made her way upstairs with a disappointed sigh.

“I adore the little pain in the ass,” Quinn said as he went over everything that he knew in his head and-

He still had no fucking clue what was happening.

“Walk me through everything that happened,” Quinn said, pushing away from the wall and began pacing the large kitchen.

“There was an attack on our system this morning,” Nathan began, only to stop when Quinn shook his head.

“Go back to the beginning when this all started,” Quinn said, his gaze shifting to the patio doors before glancing back at the kitchen door when Tristan walked back into the room and took up his position by the wall again with another slight shake of his head, letting him know that the phones and internet were still down.

“They started a year ago,” Kelly said, swallowing hard as she shifted in her chair.

“Was that before or after Bailey came up with this new game?” Quinn asked, thinking that over.

“She’s been working on this game since high school,” Nathan said with a heavy sigh, looking fucking exhausted. “We started officially working on it three years ago.”

“When was it announced?” Tristan asked as his gaze flickered between Kelly and Pam.

“Two years ago,” Kelly said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“And how long ago were you hired?” Quinn asked as he watched her, looking for any signs that she was lying to him.

“Five years ago,” Kelly said as Quinn’s gaze shifted to Pam. “And you?”

When she only glared, Nathan sighed heavily as he answered for her. “A little under a year,” earning a grumble from the small woman.

Nodding, Quinn sat down at the end of the table and watched her for a moment, only to feel his lips twitch when she met his gaze head-on. There was just something about the small woman that made it really fucking difficult to hate her.

“Who are you?” Quinn asked as he considered her.

“The person who’s not going to answer your questions until you remove the handcuffs,” Pam said as she held up her cuffed hands.

“Tell me your role in all of this,” Quinn said as he leaned back in his chair, his curious gaze never leaving her.

“She didn’t have anything to do with this,” Nathan said, gesturing for them to remove her cuffs.

“We’re going to need more than just your word,” Tristan said as they watched Nathan glance at her, only to have the small woman pointedly ignore him as she continued glaring straight ahead and-

“You really are a pain in the ass,” Nathan said as he reached over and grabbed her arm.

“No, wait!” their mystery woman said, noticeably panicking as she tried to pull her arm away only to have Nathan ignore her as he focused on removing her watch.

Muttering, “This is for your own good, Casey,” Nathan finished pulling off the watch and held her arm up as Quinn’s gaze locked on the scars that he would recognize anywhere. “She’s her sister.”

“Oh, god…” Kelly whispered hoarsely.

For a moment, Quinn could only sit there, staring at the familiar scars that marred Casey’s wrist. “Start talking,” he said as he took in everything from the stubborn set of her jaw to the incredible blue eyes that matched the small woman passed out upstairs and found himself wondering how he could have missed it before.

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Casey said, moving to fold her arms over her chest only to grumble when her cuffed hands stopped her and settled on glaring at him.

“You really are a pain in the ass,” Nathan repeated, shaking his head in disgust as he answered for her. “They were separated after the car accident that killed their mother. They both grew up in foster care, both got into computer programming, and they’re both pains in my ass,” he explained with a heavy sigh, earning a glare from the small woman.

“That last part was unnecessary,” Casey said, only to sigh before she took over. “It took some time, but I was finally able to track Bailey down to Florida thanks to the adoption records. I just wanted to meet her, but then, I realized that something was wrong and decided to stay and keep an eye on her.”

“It was her program that stopped the attack this morning and traced it to this address,” Nathan pointed out before shifting his gaze to Kelly. “Now, tell me what she’s doing here.”

“He sent me a message telling me to come here,” Kelly said, gesturing helplessly with her cuffed hands in Quinn’s direction.

“I didn’t send you anything,” Quinn said, watching as Kelly frowned in confusion.

“Yes, you did. You sent it to me last night, telling me that you needed my help. You said that Bailey was locked out of the server and she couldn’t remember the answers to the security questions that she’d set up and was hoping that I could help refresh her memory,” Kelly rushed to explain as Quinn watched Nathan and Casey go still.

“What kind of questions did he ask you?” Nathan asked as Quinn watched Tristan pull the phone that he’d confiscated off Kelly out of his pocket and tossed it to him. Without a word, Quinn caught it and slid it across the table to Nathan, who quickly handed it off to Casey.

“He wanted to know who Bailey’s favorite teacher was, what her first pet’s name was growing up, and where she was born,” Kelly said with a helpless shrug as Casey gained access to her phone really fucking fast and began searching through it and-

“They’re all in voice texts, even the ones sent out,” Casey said, frowning as she hit the first message, which was an artificial man’s voice asking Kelly to come here this morning.

“That isn’t my voice,” Quinn pointed out.

Licking her lips nervously, Kelly said, “I have dyslexia and dyscalculia. I c-can’t read letters or numbers. That’s why I used to make Bailey’s life a living hell. She found out and-”

“You thought that she was going to tell someone,” Quinn finished for her as a thought occurred to him. “And your criminal record?”

“Steve and Jennifer stole my social worker’s identity and used it to open credit cards and forged her checks. They used my bank account to deposit the checks. I didn’t know what they were doing until the police showed up at school, and by then, it was too late. The judge didn’t believe me because I’d deposited one of the checks into my account after Jennifer told me that it was my monthly stipend from the state. I couldn’t read the name on the check,” Kelly explained with a helpless shrug.

“Did anyone else at Haven Technologies know about this?” Quinn asked as he shared a look with Tristan.

“No,” Kelly said hoarsely, “Bailey made sure that no one found out.”

“Everything from her email to her calculator is tied to an A.I. voice program,” Casey said, looking even more confused than she was a minute ago. “She doesn’t have cell service and nothing is coming up for a Wi-Fi search.”

“Everything is down,” Tristan explained, watching Casey’s frown deepen as she slowly looked up from the phone.

“They’re blocking the cellphone signals and Wi-Fi to make sure that we can’t stop them,” Casey said, confirming their suspicions.

“They’re cutting us off,” Nathan said, making him wonder what they were up to.

“She shouldn’t be able to access the server without internet,” Casey said, looking lost in thought as she glanced from the cellphone on the table to the backstairs and-

“She knew my name.”