Chapter 6

CHAPTER6

“Idon’t wanna be kidnapped,” came the heavily slurred words as the small woman who had taken ten years off his life buried her face against the couch cushion.

“She’s not going anywhere,” Nathan said, leaning down to kiss the back of Bailey’s head only to think better of it when the small woman mumbled, “Owie.”

“She can’t stay here. Not like this,” Quinn said, attaching the chains that he’d grabbed from his bag around the elevator gate.

“Then, she’ll stay with me,” Nathan said as Quinn shifted his focus to the door that he’d been forced to break down earlier and fucking sighed when he saw the telltale signs that it had been picked at some point.

“No,” Quinn simply said as he closed the door and made his way to Bailey’s room, absently noting her messy bed, the empty Coke cans on the nightstand, the stacks of tech magazines throughout the room and fucking sighed when he saw that the door didn’t have a lock.

As soon as he’d made sure that Bailey was okay, he tore through the apartment only to realize that he was too late. Whoever broke into her apartment managed to disappear without a trace within minutes, letting him know everything that he needed to know.

He wouldn’t be able to keep her safe here, not like this.

“Anything missing?” Quinn asked when he heard Nathan join him.

“I’m not sure yet,” Nathan said, sighing heavily as he took in the mess left behind. “I should have called Tristan sooner.”

“Do the other floors have access to this stairwell?” Quinn asked as he stepped into the stairwell, noting that this one was smaller than the other one and didn’t have access to the roof.

“Yes,” Nathan said as Quinn nodded absently and stepped back into the room.

“And where does it lead?” Quinn asked as he shifted his attention to the door that led to a small hallway that ran behind the room that he was staying in and led to the bathroom.

“To a side door,” Nathan said as Quinn stepped back into the bedroom.

“And where does that lead?” Quinn asked, beyond fucking pissed that he didn’t already know the answers.

He’d never started a job without knowing absolutely fucking everything.

“To the back parking lot and a walkway that will take you to the sidewalk,” Nathan said as Quinn made his way to Bailey’s closet and grabbed a bag.

“And the security footage?” Quinn asked, already having a pretty good idea what the answer was going to be as he tossed the bag to the man who was in way over his head on this one.

“The cameras were down,” came the hesitate answer.

“Unfucking believable,” Quinn bit out as he made his way back to the room where he’d put his stuff, his gaze flickering to the small woman mumbling incoherently against the couch cushions and-

He should have fucking looked harder for her.

He should have kept calling her case worker, kept calling her foster parents, called in every fucking favor until he found her and-

He never should have left her alone on that train.

“Tell me what I need to do to keep her safe,” Nathan said as he stepped into the room with her bag.

“I need to get her out of here so that my men can get to work,” Quinn said as he grabbed his bags and carried them to the door.

“I’m a good girl,” came the mumbled announcement that had him sighing as he watched Bailey blindly reach back for the blanket thrown over the back of the couch and-

Somehow ended up rolling onto the floor with a pained groan and a muttered, “Kidnapping’s painful.”

“Where are you taking her?” Nathan asked, looking resigned to letting his sister go.

“Somewhere that I can keep her safe,” Quinn said as he took in the large loft apartment and-

Fuck it.

“Grab the bags,” Quinn said, throwing his weapons bag over his shoulder and headed back to the couch.

“Where’s that?” Nathan asked, shifting Bailey’s bag over his shoulder before he grabbed the rest of the bags.

“Georgia,” Quinn said as he leaned down and scooped up the small woman who apparently didn’t handle pain meds very well either.

“Why am I being kidnapped again?” Bailey mumbled against his chest.

“Because this is how it’s done,” Quinn told her as he felt her small hand grab onto his shirt.

“Are you going to ransom me?” came the curious question as he forced himself to ignore just how fucking good it felt to hold her in his arms and headed for the stairs.

“I’m thinking about it,” Quinn murmured absently as his gaze flickered to the stairs that led to the roof before he headed downstairs, pausing at the landing to make sure that there weren’t any more surprises waiting for him before he moved his ass.

“What’s the plan?” Nathan asked as he followed him down the stairs.

“To keep her safe.”

* * *

Thorne, Georgia

The Next Day

“Why areyou doing this to me?” came the sadly mumbled words as Quinn stood there, pinching the bridge of his nose as he waited for the small woman that was driving him out of his fucking mind to realize that she wasn’t being buried alive.

“Bailey,” Quinn said, waiting for her to stop fighting the sheet and pass out so that he could figure out what the hell he was thinking. He was crossing a huge fucking line by bringing her here. They had plenty of safe houses that he could have taken her to, but for whatever reason, he wanted her here.

“Why does my bottom hurt?” Bailey mumbled sadly as she gave up trying to fight her way free from the sheet and decided to wrap herself in it and-

“Because you keep rolling off the bed,” Quinn said, sighing heavily as he waited for the small woman driving him fucking crazy to stop wiggling before he leaned over and picked her up and placed her back on the bed.

“And my head?” she asked, sounding curious.

“You decided that it was a good idea to stand back up after I told you to stay down,” Quinn said, really wishing that he’d seen that one coming, but in his defense, whenever he told a client to get down, they stayed down until he told them to move.

“I heard running,” Bailey mumbled sadly.

“And?” Quinn absently asked as he glanced around the one-room cabin that his grandfather left him before focusing back on the small woman pulling a pillow over her head.

“When I hear someone running, I don’t ask questions. I just run,” she explained, making his lips twitch as he reached down and grabbed the comforter that she kicked off the bed during her first escape attempt and pulled it over her.

“It’s a solid plan,” Quinn said softly as he finished tucking her in.

“It’s never failed me before,” Bailey said as she grabbed hold of the comforter and pulled it over her head.

Deciding not to mention all those times that she’d managed to fall flat on her face whenever she tried to outrun Kelly and her band of bitches, Quinn made his way over to the small couch that he used to call home two weeks every summer when he was a kid. Grabbing his iPad, he sighed heavily as he settled in for the long night ahead. While the small woman that he honestly never expected to see again grumbled as she tossed and turned on the bed, he went through the files that Tristan sent him before moving on to the files that her brother sent.

She’d definitely been busy over the years, Quinn thought as he read through the articles written about her, the blog posts, and interviews before he focused on learning everything that he could about Haven Technologies. He took in the angry reviews, the list of her competitors that her games destroyed over the years, and the fucking nut jobs obsessed with her that had his jaw clenching and realized that he had no fucking idea where to start.