“She was in a nurse’s uniform, and she looked like she was heading into the clinic. The note was loose in my hand, the wind caught it, and I dropped it.” I remembered it like it was a bad dream; everything seemed in slow motion. “She read my note and asked me if I was okay. I started to cry. I never cry.” I paused as I sipped my drink. “She asked me if I needed help, I said no. Then she said she had something that could help me. And she gave me a leaflet. It was an adoption agency.”
“They work outside the clinics?” Jett mused as I took another drink.
“I don’t know.” I shifted in my chair and closed my eyes. “I phoned them a couple of weeks later, they made an appointment, and I went in. They checked me over and showed me a binder full of people waiting.”
“Waiting?”
“To adopt.” Wrapping my arms around myself, I pulled my knees to my chest. “I went through all the paperwork, but I didn’t sign. I think I was pissing them off, and I dunno, I felt wrong. So, Ileft. They phoned me twice every day for the next few weeks.” I felt the tear slip over, and I hastily brushed it away. “He knew something was wrong, he’s like a freaking bloodhound, that brother of yours.” I sat still even though I heard Jett murmur his agreement. “He came to me, and he asked me what was wrong, but I couldn’t tell him. I didn’t know how to say the words.” I felt another tear slide down my cheek, and again I angrily swiped it away. “He was so gentle. He was almost pleading, and he—” I cut myself off. I didn’t need to tell Jett that he told me he loved me, and I told him to go home. How could I have accepted his love when I was giving away his baby? And that night, I knew I couldn’t do it. No matter what happened, I couldn’t do it.
“I couldn’t do it, I knew I couldn’t do it. Dad would have to deal, and Gray would, well, I wasn’t sure what, but he would have to accept it. Ash too.” Sitting up abruptly, I startled Jett, but he didn’t speak. “I answered their call the next day, told them I changed my mind. They asked to meet. I refused. They said they had paperwork that they had started that I needed to sign to make the claim go away.”
“What claim?” Jett asked me.
“I don’t know, something about starter’s fee or something. I don’t remember. They asked me to come to them, I refused. They said they would come to the house. To school.”
“Bastards.”
“So, I went to Nashville to meet them.” I turned my head to look at Jett. “I didn’t even make it to the office door. I knew that the building was, I don’t know,wrong. I turned and left because I was coming home to tell Dad everything. I heard someone shout for me. I don’t even know why I did it, but I started to run. I was so scared.”
“I’m sorry.” Jett reached over and rubbed my back, and I sat up as he pulled me into a hug. “You fell?”
“Yes, I was running, and I didn’t want to lead them to the car.I’m so stupid,” I cursed myself. “I didn’t see the stairs, I fell. Then I woke up in the hospital. I didn’t believe the nurse when she told me I was in the hospital, and then I had to, you know, deliver, and it was all so surreal, and I don’t think I really believed anything until you walked through the door.”
“Never been so scared in my life as I was, seeing you lying in that bed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You have no reason to be.”
We sat curled up, my head on his shoulder as he gave me the comfort I needed a year ago but had never sought from him.
“Does he know all of it?” Jett asked me softly.
“No, he asked me last night to tell him it was his, and I told him. I told him that I changed my mind, I was never giving it up, and he said he would never forgive me and walked away.”
“He’s a stubborn bastard,” Jett mumbled, but I could hear his disappointment.
“He has a right to be angry.” I stared at the opposite wall. “I mean, it happened, I stayed with you at the cabin for a few days, and then I took off for a few months to get away from everything. I never told him anything.”
We sat in silence for a while longer until Jett’s phone rang. Then it rang again. A beep told us he had a message. With a curse, he stood and snatched his phone up. His face went white as he read the message.
“What is it?” I asked as I stood, my legs suddenly shaking.
“It’s Onyx.”
That didn’t make me feel better. Jett was already grabbing his stuff as he phoned his brother back.
“Jett?” I asked.
“Get your stuff, I need you,” Jett told me as he headed to the door. He looked at me over his shoulder. “Now, Quinn, it’s Gray. He’s in trouble.”
Chapter 11: Gray
The house was empty when I got there. No sign of Harry or his wife, and theFor Salesign pissed me off. He had moved? Why? Had it been the fact that we took his memory stick, or was it merely a coincidence? But I didn’t believe in coincidences.
The fucker moved, and I needed to know where. I wasn’t a hacker like Ash was, and Ash was good, but I didn’t want to tell him where I was. I called the only other hacker I knew.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Onyx asked me as he answered the phone.
