my brother lying dead on our living room floor. Or sitting all alone in a jail cell, serving time for a crime he never committed. “I can’t come with you! I won’t!”
“Quinn!”
A heavy arm wraps around my stomach, and swings me up so it almost feels like how I move on the silks at Zeus’. I step into air, my body moves, but instead of dancing around a pole, Jamie swings me around and into his arms.
I spasm, jerk, seize, and make it almost impossible for him to hold on. I bounce in his arms, scream so loud that I turn even my own hearing tinny, and swinging my elbows around, I do as much damage as I can manage.
Jamie’s face is covered in blood, his eyes fiery with rage. His hands are tight, painfully so, as they dig into my thigh and ribs. But his hold is like steel. Unrelenting, unforgiving.
“Let me go!” I shout. “Let me go, Jamie! I need to go to Will.”
“You need to stop fuckin’ screaming,” he snaps back. “Quit it, Q, or you’ll get us both arrested.”
“I didn’t ask to come with you!” I kick my legs out, scissor them, and attempt to make his hold falter. “You took me against my will!”
“I’m trying to save your fucking life,” he grunts, stumbling over a pothole in the ground. “Dammit, Quinn. Stop fighting me on this.”
“Put me down!” I sob. “Just let me go back to Will, and I’ll stop fighting you!”
“Your obsession with him is unhealthy.” Jamie stops by the side of the SUV and sets me on my feet, but he slams my back against the car, and crowds me so we touch from toe to nose. His breath races, from running, from carrying me. Probably a little from the mess I’ve made of his nose, and the fact he can’t breathe through it anymore. “It’s unhealthy, Q. He’s a grown man. He doesn’t need you to be his shield anymore.”
“He might already be dead!” I screech. “I should have turned up for a shift at the club by now. Evan will have come looking!”
“Evan won’t get anywhere near Will. Quinn!” He slams me back again when I try to shove him. “Stop fighting me!”
“He might be hurt!” I sob. “He might be in prison. He might have already adopted a new name and left, and now I’ll never find him.” I collapse between Jamie and the car, and simply sob. Weak from the pain in my head, the pain in my shoulder… the pain in my heart. I can’t stand anymore. I can’t be strong. “He might have left already, and I have no way of finding him.”
“He’s not gonna leave you! Fuck. Just sto—Stop!” He shoves me back until my head raps against the car frame, and my eyes snap to his. He’s sad, he’s angry, he’s sorry, and he’s commanding. “Just stop, Q. He’s not leaving you.”
“He might have already left,” I cry. “He might have already packed and run. It’s what we do.”
“He’s not going anywhere without you, Q. He will never truly leave you. All he’s doing is putting you somewhere safe so he can work without worrying about you.”
“But now I can’t work,” I sob. “I can’t function, because now I’m worried about him.”
“Just…” His eyes flicker between mine. “Just chill the fuck out for a second.”
He releases one hand from around my arm, and slides it down into his pocket, but his eyes remain on mine. A warning. A promise that if I hit again, he might hit back.
“He’s right here. In the fucking phone.” He unlocks his screen without looking, dials without looking, then he hits loudspeaker so the call rings loud enough for us both to hear.
“Bubbles?”
I drop my weight and collapse to the dirt with a fresh torrent of tears.
“Bubbles?”
“Hang on,” Jamie grumbles for Will. He lowers down in front of me, crouches down so one knee touches the dirt, then staring into my eyes, he holds the phone between us. “Speak, Q.”
“Bubbles! Why are you crying?”
“You left me,” I answer between hiccups, but my voice comes out in monotone. Unfeeling. Because if I let myself feel, I might fracture beyond repair. “You broke our promise.”
“No,” Will counters with a snap. “No, I’m expanding our promise. I’m taking care of you, then I’m taking care of business.”
“You left me,” I reply. Monotone. Lock my heart up tight, because the only two men on this planet who own a slice of it are working