Saige’s mom spends the next half hour trying to convince her to undo the tattoo that is already done. Mr. Beaumont tries to placate her, but it’s no use.
I’m surprised Saige doesn’t mention my tattoos in her own defense. But I’d rather not have her father know about that particular bit of me. It’s much easier to play the Quinn part that way.
Finally fed up with the lecturing, Saige lets the bomb drop that we’re officially dating. Her mother makes a sound I’ve never heard from a human before. It’s halfway between a scream and the kind of sound a bat makes. Her face goes red and I think she’s going to leap over the table and strangle me, but Saige puts her hand on my arm.
“My choices have nothing to do with you, Mom. I’m living my own life. You can’t control me anymore, or try to make me into something I’m not. We all know how well that worked out when I was a kid.” She rolls her eyes and looks at her father for a lifeline.
“Why don’t we all just calm down,” Beaumont says, but clearly Bridgette does not want to be calmed, so he takes her out of the room for a breather. This is my chance, so I tell Saige I’m going to use the bathroom. I hear Beaumont and Bridgette arguing in the den and it sounds like it’s not ending anytime soon.
As quickly as I can, I slip into his office. I’m going to have to work fast. I set up the recording devices for video and sound in each corner, under his desk and in a few other places. Every inch is covered. His laptop is out on the desk and turned on. It’s not even locked and I almost start laughing. This man must really trust everyone. In only a few moments I’ve installed the invisible tracking software and downloaded everything on the hard drive. I slip the thumb drive in my pocket and make sure everything is in its place and that I haven’t left anything behind.
Confident, I wipe my prints off anything I may have touched, including the doorknob and open the door cautiously. I close it, wipe the handle and then go into the bathroom. I run the water, send Cash an all systems go text and then come out again.
I nearly run into Beaumont on my way back to the dinner table. I keep my face calm as he snags my arm and pulls me aside.
“Is something wrong?” I say in a neutral tone.
“No, I just wanted to talk to you. It seems as if you and Saige have made things official.”
“Yes. I care for your daughter very much.” A truth. His eyes narrow, as if he’s trying to see if I’m pulling a fast one.
“This has nothing to do with you or with our financial relationship. I would have fallen for Saige regardless of who her parents were. She’s an amazing and wonderful girl and if you can’t see why I would love her, then you don’t see her clearly.” I definitely didn’t mean to say all that, but I feel like he’s attacking me and I need to defend myself.
He looks at me for several long seconds and then nods his head.
“She is special, and I’m glad you see that. You obviously have real feelings for her.”
“I do.” It’s so easy to tell him how much I care about her because none of it is a lie.
“Then I hope you understand that I will do anything in my power to protect her and keep her safe.”
“I do understand and I agree.” For now. For two more weeks.
“Good. I’m glad we got that straight and that we understand one another.” He gives me a smile and another handshake.
“Now that’s settled, we should probably get back to the girls. I think my wife has finally calmed down.” I doubt that, but we go back to the dinner anyway. I’m thrilled my plan worked so well and that we’re well on our way to getting this guy and ripping all the opulence out from under his feet. It’s a shame that he’s such a horrible person because he created a wonderful daughter.
I catch her watching me out of the corner of my eye and when we’re on the way back to her place I ask her about it.
“I just like looking at you. Is that a crime?”
“No. Not at all. You can look at me as much as you want.”
“What I’d really like to do is look at you without your clothes on. Do you think that can be arranged?”
I laugh.
“I definitely think that can be arranged.”
She gets a message on her phone as I help her out of the car and it makes her frown.
“What is it?” I ask as we walk up the steps to her building. She types something and then looks up at me with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
“Nothing. Just my mom being crazy again. I wish I had taken a picture of her face when she saw my tattoo. Her face was pretty priceless.” She laughs and we head up to her place.
“Can you do something for me?” I ask.
“Sure, what?” I go to my bag and pull out the little piercing she used to have that she’d given me for safekeeping.
“Will you put this in and let me fuck you while you’re wearing it?” That makes her throw back her head.
“You are an interesting man, Quinn Brand.” It takes her a little bit of fiddling, but she gets the horseshoe-shaped bit of metal through her septum and screws the balls on either end so it won’t come out.
“Fuck me, that’s hot,” I say as she models it for me. It gives her look a whole different dimension and with the visible tattoo on her back she looks like a redheaded goddess.
How in the hell did I get so lucky to be with her?
“If I knew you were going to like it so much, I would have put it in sooner,” she says, pulling the straps of the dress over her shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. She quickly shimmies out of her bra and panties and she’s gloriously naked. I don’t know if I’ve ever been this turned on in my life. I want her so much it’s painful.
“I do like it. Very much,” I say as she comes forward and starts to strip me. I was able to pop the flash drive in my car so I don’t have to worry about her discovering it. Cash will pick it up while we’re doing this. It’s a good system we’ve got going on.
Once I’m naked she kisses me so hard that I can feel the metal of the piercing and it’s like throwing a match to a drum of gasoline.
I fuck her harder than I ever have before. It’s savage and desperate and I’m afraid it’s going to kill both of us. But she’s right there with me, biting, pulling, begging. We ravage each other and when it’s over we’re both covered in bites and scratches and I know if I had longer hair, I’d be missing a few chunks. Somehow we’ve ended up on the floor and she starts to laugh.
“What was that?” I shake my head, and even that simple movement is too much effort after all the energy I just let out.
“I have no idea,” I say. Every time we’re together feels significant. I chalk it up to the fact that our sexual encounters are limited, but I don’t know if that’s entirely it.
“Me neither,” she says, and I turn my head to meet her eyes. This time she’s the one who looks worried.
“What’s wrong?” I ask. She swallows and closes her eyes, as if she can’t bear to look at me. She looks up at the ceiling and forces a smile.
“Nothing. I’m just tired.”
I want to ask her more about it, but I’m also exhausted. We fall asleep on her floor, wrapped in her sheets and each other’s arms.
Twenty-Seven
“We’ve hit the mother lode,” Cash says with glee the next night. The guys have all congregated to go through the information on the flash drive and sort through the first few hours of surveillance. It’s helpful that there are so many of us because it makes searching through hours of boring video from several different angles go a lot faster.
“Here’s everything. Financial records, contact info. It’s like he wanted us to find it,” Cash says with a laugh. “These guys with money think they’re so untouchable that they don’t even bother to protect themselves.”
“Is it enough for blackmail?” I ask and Cash nods eagerly. He seems to have completely recovered from his alcohol-induced breakdown and bounced back to his cheerful self. I’m glad because I don’t really know how to handle a morose Cash.