He got out of the car and went to knock on Jimmy’s door.
The brunette who opened was the same one from the street the previous day. Digging through his memory, Quinn said “Caroline, right?” and smiled at her.
She gave him a cautious smile and nodded. “You’re Jimmy’s cousin Quinn. Come on in.”
“Thank you. Here, I got this for him. If I’d known you were here, I would’ve brought a bottle of wine instead.” Quinn gave her the bottle of scotch.
“That’s alright, I don’t live here—” her voice implied a heavyyet, “—but I’ll put this away for you. Jimmy is taking a call, he should be out soon. Go take a seat in the living room.”
“Thanks.” Quinn looked around as he went to find a seat he’d feel comfortable sitting in.
The house was furnished with stuff that you couldn’t find anywhere near Spruce Creek. It was high end, not super expensive, but certainly nothing Karen could’ve justified having in her house and certainly nothing like the stuff his mom had once chosen for their family home. He didn’t have time to sit before he heard steps from the back of the house.
“Honey, who—oh, it’s you,” Jimmy said, stopping at the middle of the floor. His gaze narrowed. “You carrying?”
“Does it matter?”
Jimmy thought for a moment. “I’m not sure yet.”
“Well in that case, I only have my knife on me, because I couldn’t be fucked with the ankle holster.”
Jimmy grinned just a little. “Fancy. Sit.” He gestured at the couch nearby, and took the other end of it.
Quinn sat and relaxed, because he knew how he needed to look right now. Tensing up would be bad and he couldn’t start with that.
“So, I decided to come by to talk about some stuff,” he started.
Caroline stepped into the room. “Your cousin brought you a nice bottle of scotch, Jimmy. I put it in the cabinet in the kitchen.”
“Thanks, hun. Are you going home soon?” Jimmy made the words more of a suggestion than a question.
“I thought I was staying the night since I have tomorrow off,” she said slowly and pointedly. “So I’ll go upstairs and leave you boys to it.” Her smile was sharp and full of teeth, and Quinn immediately knew that she would make the perfect wife for someone like Jimmy.
“Good night,” Quinn said, smiling at her.
“I’ll be up later,” Jimmy said and concentrated on Quinn again. “You were saying?”
Caroline huffed softly and left the room.
“I wanted to say that I don’t want it,” Quinn said simply. Whether Jimmy believed him or not, well, that was up to Jimmy, wasn’t it?
Jimmy gave him an incredulous smirk. “You just happen to be in town when my dad might keel over at whenever?”
“Jesus, Jimmy.” Quinn knew he looked disgusted. “That’s my uncle, you know. The only fucking proper father figure I’ve ever had.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Jimmy looked away. “In some ways, we got the wrong dads, didn’t we?”
That pissed Quinn off a bit, even if he’d thought the same thing himself. “You still have yours for now.”
Jimmy snorted bitterly. “He doesn’t trust me. I’m too much like Robert.”
“He trusts you. Unless you give him a reason not to.” Quinn watched Jimmy and saw a small tic. It wasn’t much, but it was something. “I heard a rumor.”
That made Jimmy laugh. He leveled Quinn with a disbelieving gaze. “Did you now? And what was that?” he asked, as he leaned to the side and pulled some sort of a kit out of the nearby end table’s drawer.
Quinn swallowed hard and ignored the way Jimmy put the battered tin on the coffee table, took out a mirror, and expertly tapped a pile of coke on top of it from a baggie.
“There’s a word out that Burned Skulls are looking for a business partner around these parts.”
