I’d asked myself the same thing a thousand times. “I was desperate, I think.”
“No one’s that desperate, are they?” Ash looked at me with accusation. “I mean, okay, you changed your mind, but what would you even need the money for?”
“Money?” I asked him. “I wasn’t gettingpaid.”
Ash’s face paled as he closed his eyes, and I heard him curse under his breath.
I suddenly felt sick. “Ash, tell me. Tell me right now,” I demanded as I stood on shaky legs.
“Quinn, I thought you knew,” he whispered, his eyes full of anguish.
“Knew what?”
“The people who take the babies, they don’t adopt them, they sell them.”
Chapter 18: Gray
I was in the backyard when my brother found me, my stance wide, my arms across my chest, shaking my head as I watched two guys beat the shit out of each other. Or try to. A result of Mayhem — one of them kissed the other one’s girl just as the lights came back on. Apparently, they had laughed it off, but now they were drunk, and their insecurities were showing, so they decided, with some help, that they needed to fight it out.
I was officiating.
Technically.
“You need to come with me,” Jett said as he joined me.
I didn’t pay him much attention. “Why? One of these losers is bound to actually land a decent punch soon,” I said as I watched them both trip over their feet as they swung their arms wildly.
“Gray, you need to come with me,” Jett repeated as he placed his hand on my arm.
His tone made me turn my head to look at him. “What’s happened?”
“Ash told Quinn.” Jett took a deep breath. “She isn’t handling it well.”
I stared at my brother in silence, my brain refusing to accept what he had just said. Seeing the truth and the worry in his eyes, I dipped my head. “Fuck!”
Together, we left the party. I didn’t ask what he had said to Ava. It took all of my control not to run to Quinn’s dorm.
“Why thefuckwould he tell her?” I demanded as we made our way there.
“He thought she knew, he thought we had told her,” Jett explained.
At her apartment, I bounded up the steps and opened the door.Ash was on his feet pacing and when he saw me come in, he immediately held his hands up. “Man, I swear I thought she knew.”
Looking inside her bedroom, I saw it was empty. “Where the fuck is she?” I growled at the same time as I saw the bathroom door closed. Pushing past him, I tried the handle. It was locked, and I could hear her crying.
“Open the door,” I insisted as I knocked.
“Fuck off!”
Rolling my head on my shoulders, I took a deep breath. “Quinn, open the door. Let us see you’re alright.”
“No! I hate you!”
I felt a hand on my shoulder, pulling me back, which I shook off irritably as I placed my hand on the door. “You hate me? Fine. You’re no fucking picnic either,” I snapped through the door. I heard Jett mutter that I wasn’t helping. I took a deep breath to calm down. “Open the door.”
“Goaway!”
“Queeny, open the fucking door, or I’ll kick it down.”
