Loving Quinn Novel by North Rose

(Quinn)

The inside of the house is vastly different than the outside. I glance around the living room briefly, scanning it for threats. White walls, grey carpet, and black curtains over the windows. The furniture is all black leather and glass surfaces. It looks like she decorated with me in mind.

That makes me want to puke.

Dionne’s smile makes me want to punch her. However, that won’t get Grace out of this situation. I glance over at her. There are no signs of injury, but I know how deceiving that can be.

“Everything will be alright, Grace. Just stay calm,” I tell her softly.

Dionne laughs, which draws my attention back to her. I hear Aaron shuffle around behind me in

the doorway. Her eyes are focused on him. They shine with an emotion I have never seen in her

eyes before.

Rage.

“Tell your shadow to step outside. This is between you and me.”

“If that were true you wouldn’t have taken my daughter.”

Her face changes from that sickly sweet smile to full on anger as I mention Grace. From the first time I met her, I have never seen her angry once. Even on the day I ended our relationship she was calm. She cried, with what I now believe were fake tears, but she never once yelled back at

me.

I give Aaron a nod to tell him to do what she asks. After he is outside, she narrows her eyes as she looks at me. I don’t like the look she gives me.

“You put her in the middle of this. This is on you. She looks at Grace then at Michaels. “Take that little ** upstairs and stay with her. Quinn and 1 need to have a conversation. I want him fully focused on me while we do.”

No, I can’t let him take Grace out of my sight.

Wait. That might be better. With her and Michaels upstairs, Kimiko will have a chance to take him out if he has a good shot. Then Mac will have a chance to get Grace out of the house while I have Dionne focused on me..

“I think it would be better if I stayed here,” Michaels says while he glares at me.

“You are not here to think, Holden. You are here to guard that little b**ch and f***k me when I

want you to. Please do as I say, and I will reward you later.”

Gross.

If she calls Grace a **h one more time, I will strangle her.

Michaels grumbles under his breath but does what he is told like a good little lap dog. I say nothing as I watch him pull Grace up out of the chair that she is sitting in. Dionne follows their movement with her eyes until they disappear down a hallway.

While her focus is on Grace and Holden, I turn the volume down on my comms. I don’t want

Dionne knowing the others are outside. They have an element of secrecy right now for them to

rescue Grace and Lucas.

Once they are out of the room her focus is now on me. I don’t want it to be but this is the only way to give my men time. I will be the distraction.

“Alone at last, lover.”

“Why did you take Grace?”

“I thought that would be obvious. It got you here with me didn’t it?”

“I thought I made it clear that I didn’t want anything to do with you.”

“Oh, I know you, Quinn. I have been in your head. I know that you missed what we had.”

“Sex. Sometimes, during the first six months after I left, I missed the sex.”

Dionne walks toward me slowly, sashaying her hips seductively. Her skirt has slits up the side to reveal her toned legs. A look of lust passes through her eyes as she assesses my clothing. She smiles at me in a way that used to make my d**k hard. I cringe inwardly as she closes the distance between us.

“Do you ever think about the life we planned? How would it have been all these years if you had stayed with me?”

“You mean after you aborted my child? Was that baby even mine?”

That stops her in her tracks. The lust in her eyes dies instantly. I want to laugh at the look on her face but keep silent.

She spins around then marches over to the leather sofa. After she sits down, she eres her legs. slowly as if trying to seduce me again, then just looks at me for a moment. After seng that her display is not working the way she wants she grabs her purse off the floor by the sofa.

She pulls out a silver cigarette case and a matching lighter. After taking a slim cigarette out of the box, she lights it and takes a drag. She blows smoke in my direction knowing I hate it.

“Do you want the honest truth?” She asks.

“Will I get it now?”

Dionne flicks the ashes onto the floor, takes another drag off her cigarette, then puts it out. A look that I can’t decipher crosses her face before she quickly smiles at me. If I didn’t know her better, I would say what I saw was regret.

“Did you know that my father bought this house for my mother right after they got married? That was before he started drinking. When things were still pleasant between them.”

What the f**k does this have to do with why we are here? I want her to get to the point, but I

have to admit that I am curious. This is the first time since I met her that she is willingly talking

about her past.

Kimiko tells me over comms that he couldn’t get a shot on Michaels, but Grace is now in an upstairs bedroom. I keep quiet and trust that he will take the shot when he has it. The longer she

talks the more time he will have.

“My father was a mean drunk but a loving husband when he was sober. Which, as I grew older became less and less. Oh, how my mother loved him.”

She looks at me with an odd expression on her face, I would almost call it a vulnerable look if I didn’t know her better. Maybe being here in her childhood home and talking about her father opened that tightly closed door in her soul.

“I have Lucas. He is conscious and we are gearing him up,” Mac says over comms.

Unnecessary but if it makes him feel helpful then why not? I say nothing but just continue to stare at Dionne. She looks deep in thought.

“I think it was around my thirteenth birthday when I caught him with our neighbor’s wife. They were f***ng vigorously against the back of the shed. He beat me later that night and threatened to kick me out if I ever told my mother. I learned to lie that summer.”

Well **n.

“Bed to you about many things during our relationship. Was the baby yours? Possibly. It doesn’t really matter Tren

“Why did you try so hard to pass Logan off as mine when you knew after he was born that he was Ethan’s

“Because I wanted to make you pay for leaving me. I wasn’t done with you back then and I had never had someone break up with me before I had gotten everything that I wanted from them.”

I

Wow.

I laugh at her.

“Are you kidding me? You turned your husband against me, made him believe all kinds of lies. about me, all just to get back at me for leaving you. That is so f**king crazy.”

“You took away what I was building towards. A life like my mother always told me was possible. A love that I knew one day I would return fully. The way you deserve. The way I deserve. Yet you ruined it by leaving.”

What the f** is she talking about?

“Wait, let me get this straight. You were dreaming of a life that you wanted, and I ruined it by leaving after you aborted a child that I thought was mine. Correct?”

Dionne looks at me with so much hate in her eyes that I am momentarily shocked.

“Did you ever love me or was I always a temporary stand-in for Annora?”

I laugh again.

“If you give me full honesty then I will do the same. Did you ever love me or was I just one of many lovers that you strung along while searching whatever it was that you were looking for?”

answer

This time she looks away from me. I can see her clenching her jaw as she things on how to me. I am quickly getting tired of this entire situation, but I know that stalling is the only way to give Kimiko a chance.

Come on Michaels, move into his f**ing view already.

No. I never really loved you. I cared very deeply about you. So much more than any of the others. I wanted to love you the way you needed someone to but I just wasn’t there yet. Now answer my question.”

“Michaels is down. He will be sleeping for awhile, Kimiko says over comms.

I look at Dionne trying to decide how blunt my answer should be. Would it even hurt her? Do 1 want to hurt het?

Yes Yes Tax (17

Knowing she never loved me and let me believe that the baby was mine really hurts. However, knowing that I used her like she just suggested make me realize I am not as hurt by her lack of love as I thought. The pain she caused me was always rooted in what she did to our baby.

“Yes, you were always a stand-in for Annota. Any woman that would have come into my life would have been. Did I love you? No, but I cared about you, and I wanted to have that future I thought was possible. Turns out it was all a lie.”

“Is your life with her a lie?”

“Not at all. With Annie, I can be myself. We don’t have to try to find that love we share. It is just there. She knows me.”

“Why couldn’t we try to have that?”

“Because you are not her. I had to try to love you. In the end, all we had we great sex.”

With that, I pull out my pistol and shoot her. She slumps over the arm of the sofa after looking at me with a mixture of hurt and shock. After holstering my gun, I rush to the stairs to get Grace. I feel Aaron behind me.

“Call the police now. Mac, take Lucas to the hospital. Alaric, David, and Kimiko, thank you for your help. Get out of here before the cops get here.”

“Copy that,” they all said.

“Aaron, do you have zip ties?”

“Always,” he says with a slight chuckle.

Naughty boy.

“Go back down there and tie that crazy b**h up then come up here and do the same with

Michaels.”

“Can I stuff a rag in her mouth too?”

517

I nod my head then walk to the bedroom that I hear movement in. When

en walk into the

room the first thing that I see is Grace shuffling around on the bed. It looks like she is trying to

get her wrists free.

“Hey, hold still. I got you, Grace.”

I quickly walk to the bed as she sits up straight. There are tears in her eyes and her cheeks are red and tear streaked. When she sees me her eyes light up with relief.

“Hold on, my brave girl. Daddy has you,” I say as I pull the gag out of her mouth.

1 reach into my pocket for my utility knife and then cut the duct tape from her wrist. Once her hands are free, she throws her arms around my neck and s**s. It breaks my heart to hear my daughter crying so I sit on the bed and lift her into my lap.

We sit like that for a few minutes while she cries. Aaron com

after, I hear the sounds of police sirens in the distance.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.

“You should go, Aaron.”

in to tie Michaels up. Not long

“No way man. I am with you in this. We will face whatever comes next together.”

I give him a nod then look down at Grace.

“They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

She shakes her head in response.

“We will get you home to your mom very soon.”

She looks up at me after I say that. Her eyes are filled with tears but there is something on her face that makes me give her a questioning look. What did they do to her that she doesn’t want to

tell me?

“Daddy, you came for me like those soldiers do in movies.”

Well, now that was not what I expected her to say. Between the look in her eyes and the words she just said my heart melts even further for her, I would burn the world down for her.

“Gracie, I will always be there for you when you need me. No matter what it is. You are my heart.”

She wraps her arms around my neck again then I lift her up and carry her out of the room. I make my way downstairs and then out onto the front porch. We will wait for the police right here. Aaron runs down the block to his car then comes back with a bottle of water, a granola bar, and a

1

blanket.

I wrap the blanket around Grace then hand her the bottle of water. She drinks half of it then hands it back. I give her the granola bar when she is done with the water.

“Eat that for now and we will get you something more filling when we get home. Your grandparents are at the penthouse, and I am sure your grandma will want to feed you.”

“Did you really used to date that crazy lady?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Why did she take me like that when she could have just called you to talk?”

Oh, how kids ask the hard questions. The ones that are too complicated to answer. How do I even answer that question?

Lucky for me I don’t have to right now. Three police cars pull up simultaneously. Morris and Anson get out of one car, and I am not surprised to see Annora get out of another car. She comes running up to us as fast as she can.

Grace jumps off my lap when her mother is a feet away and runs into her arms. My heart jerks in

chest as I watch their reunion. I want to run to both my girls and hold them as we share in the relief that everything will be OK.

my

Will it really be?

I have a feeling deep in my gut that it won’t be.

If I were Annie, I would take our daughter and run far from me,