Quinn cursed out loud. “Okay. Put the binoculars away, Brody. Get some sleep. We don’t want them to spot you, especially if they’re on high alert. Thanks for calling me, buddy.”
“Yeah, anytime. Talk to you later, dude.”
Quinn let out a litany of additional curses. Yeah, something was definitely up, and he hoped Jimmy wasn’t keeping actual people in that warehouse. Maybe it was the type of drugs MacGregors didn’t normally handle or even weapons or explosives. Who knew? Quinn just really, really hoped it wasn’t humans, because that would end even worse than any of the other options.
He couldn’t fall asleep again, and dozed until the sunlight started to filter through the blinds of his crappy bedroom. He left Shadow sleeping, and went to take a shower to wake himself up.
There was still no word from Day, and he was getting worried. He knew calling Day wouldn’t work nine times out of ten, but that his handler checked his messages every chance he got. The fact that it had now been way, way too many hours without no word was…unsettling.
Quinn pulled on some clean jeans and was frowning at his ratty T-shirts when his main phone rang again. He picked it up and frowned at Arthur’s name.
“Arthur?”
“Quinn, I need you to go to your aunt right now,” Arthur said, his tone firm, yet edged with something Quinn had never heard from him before.
“What’s going on?” Quinn quickly opened the bedroom window so the cat could leave, and grabbed the closest T-shirt.
“Ian was on his way to Panaca for some business, he stopped to get gas, and someone shot him as he was using the pumps.”
Quinn leaned to the closest wall and concentrated on breathing for a few seconds. He could hear car doors in the background wherever Arthur was.
“Shit, shit, shit…Okay, does Karen know?”
“Yes, and she’ll need a ride to wherever they’re taking him. They took him to the medical center first to get him stabilized, but I think they’re going to Medevac him somewhere.”
Quinn pulled on his T-shirt and grabbed all his stuff, including his burner phone, because screw being cautious.
“Probably Vegas, then.” He dumped the rest of the cat food into Shadow’s bowl, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and went out. “Has anyone contacted Jimmy?”
Arthur sighed in a telling way. “Not yet, no. And I’ll send Eric to find him and tell him in person. I’m going to…fuck!” The curse told Quinn enough of what Arthur was feeling right then.
“You need to stay in town. I get it. Be safe, Arthur. If you hear anything, let me know.”
“Of course. Karen will keep me informed. Take care, son.”
“You too.”
Quinn got in his car and started the engine. He needed to go to his aunt and he hoped that by the time he got there, she’d know whether they were driving to Vegas or somewhere else. It would be a three-hour drive there, and Quinn so wasn’t looking forward to that.
He swiped at his phone and held it to his ear with one hand as he drove.
“Aaron, listen to me really carefully: Ian has been shot. Shit is about to hit the fan. If I text you at any point and tell you to leave town, you get Charlie and Lennox and start driving immediately. No questions, just go.”
Aaron was quiet for a moment, then he said, “Okay. Be careful.”
“I love you.” Quinn disconnected the call before Aaron could answer.
Chapter 14
“I love you.”
Aaron couldn’t shake the words Quinn had spoken to him, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. It was that earth-shattering revelation—not the fact that Ian MacGregor has been shot—that kept swirling around in his skull. The two were intrinsically linked, of course, because suddenly the danger Quinn had warned him of was very, very real, and Quinn—who loved Aaron—was stepping straight into it.
“I love you.”
It wasn’t even the first time Quinn had said it, but it was sure as hell the first time it hadn’t been part of some moment, or whatever. It felt different. It didn’t feel like Quinn was saying it because he was looking into the future. It felt like the opposite of that. It felt like the sort of declaration a guy made when his whole life was flashing before his eyes.
The bastard hadn’t even given him a chance to say it back. He’d always liked to surprise Aaron by dropping bombshells here and there. Although maybe it wasn’t just that this time. Maybe he hadn’t given Aaron a chance to say it back because he’d been afraid he wouldn’t. Aaron shoved his clothes in his bag and thought of the strange moments of vulnerability Quinn had shown him over the past week or so. Quinn wasn’t as much of an asshole as he pretended. He never really had been.
