Chapter Five
Max dialed the gallery, but the answering service stayed on.Did Quinn forget to turn it off?He tried her cell phone, but it was the same.Unease slid down his spine, a gut instinct he relied on to save his own ass.Now, his gut was screaming something wasn’t right.He drove as fast as he could back to the gallery.The entire trip had been a waste of time because Savage seemed to know he was being tailed and disappeared.Not one speck of dust remained of his vanishing act.
When he pulled into the parking lot, he was relieved at first when he spotted Quinn’s car.That relief was short lived when he took another glance and saw the extensive damage.Her windows were busted.Her lights were smashed.The door and the hood seemed to have been beaten by something heavy.Only one person had a vendetta against Quinn.Bryan whatever-the-fuck-his-last-name-was, was a dead man.He tried to disassociate so he would be clearheaded if Quinn was hurt, or worse.He pulled out his gun and kept it down at his side as he moved quickly to the back door.
Only to notice it had been pried open.
He kept his back to the wall but leaned in enough to see if Bryan was still inside.He saw no one.Cautiously, leading with his gun, he headed up the stairs, checking around corners.Nothing.No one.Not even Quinn.Her desk was a mess.Papers everywhere, with the stapler lying on the floor.He was about to head to the showroom floor when he saw some blood on the closed bathroom door.The logical step would be to secure the area, but he wasn’t thinking logically.He was thinking he had to get to Quinn.Had to make sure she was alive.The thought that she might not be kicked him in the gut.
Pocketing his gun, he tried the handle, but it was locked.
“Quinn?”he called out.“Can you hear me, baby?Quinn!Open the door.”
He thought he heard something, and desperation gripped him.
“Back up, Quinn.”
Then he lifted a foot and kicked the door open.She lay on the ground like a marionette with her strings cut.He rushed over and turned her, and that’s when he saw her cut cheek and swollen face.Her eye had already swelled shut.
“Quinn, baby, wake up.”Cuddling her close, he dug his cell out of his pocket and called his medic.“Get here now with your bag.”
He disconnected the call and sat with her in his arms.Her one good eye cracked open.
“There you are,” he murmured.“I have help on the way.”
“He hit me,” she whispered, whimpering a little.
“I know, baby.I’ll deal with him later.Right now, just stay awake for me.”
It seemed to take fucking forever before his medic arrived and he called out to him from the bathroom.He backed away to allow him to examine her wound and check her eyes for a concussion.After a few minutes, he rose and stepped into the office to speak with him.
“It looks worse than it is,” his medic reported.“Her cheek isn’t fractured but she might be a little concussed.I’m going to recommend that she goes to the hospital.”
“No,” she said, sitting up with her back against the wall.
Max frowned at her.“Quinn.”
“No,” she insisted.“I don’t like hospitals.”
“Then she’s going to need someone to take care of her,” the medic said.
Max knew all the reasons he had been pushing her aside just went up in smoke.“She’ll be with me.I’ll take care of her.”
“She can sleep, but if she starts to slur her words, develops a bad headache, has dizziness, weakness, or seizures, she absolutely needs to go to the ER.”
