Danger Zone (27 page)

Unable to stop herself, Ellie headed toward the sound and converged with Trace. “Should we worry?” she asked. Who was she kidding? She was
already
worried. Quinn’s time was nearly up and by the sound of the arguing, it didn’t seem as if he were making any headway.

Trace sighed and shrugged. “I doubt it. Those two don’t know any other way to talk. Let’s give ’em a minute to hash it out.”

“This is all over the company, huh?”

Nodding, Trace took off her sunglasses and cleaned the lenses with the edge of her T-shirt. Her striking blue eyes twinkled as she smiled. “Mac would be better off letting Quinn have his way on this. It’s not like he wants to run the company anymore.”

“Couldn’t you help sway him, so Quinn isn’t doing this all by himself?”

“I’ve tried,” Trace said. “But Mac can’t seem to separate himself from guardian/brother/business partner.”

Quinn’s voice carried clearly though the trailer walls. “Do I have to remind you, Mac, that I’m the one who hired Kurt Densmore, who invented the mechanics that put the company on the map the last two years? I’m the one who made Formula Racing Design the success that it is. I deserve to lead the life I want and not the one you picked out for me.”

“Grow up, Quinn,” Mac shot back. “What are you going to do with the money? Buy a keg and invite all your buddies over for a party? When are you going to realize that life is not—and won’t be—a big party?”

“Fuck you, Mac. The last two years of my life have been anything but a party. I’ve worked my ass off in London and before that at school. Don’t tell me I haven’t worked hard. I’m not living your life anymore. You’re the one that ran away twelve years ago. You left a job you loved to help Dad, and that’s great. You made the choice. But I never got a chance to do what I wanted. You’re the one that wanted the company. Fine. I never asked for it. I did it so I could get you off my fucking back. But, no! It’s been two years since I took over and things have only gotten worse,” Quinn punctuated viciously.

“Do you have any idea,” Mac countered hotly, “how frustrating it is to watch someone waste time and money with one keg party after another? One failed class after another?” His words sounded just as precise. “What was I supposed to do, Quinn? Let you sink into a life of party and drugs all the time.”

“I never did drugs! Jesus, Mac. You’re like a fucking mother from hell. You never got it through your thick head that I’m not your kid. I’m your brother! And you’ve never trusted me for one fucking minute.”

“I wouldn’t have let you run the company if I didn’t trust you. Look, I saw the pills in your apartment and—”

“And assumed they were mine. I had two other roommates, Mac. Did it ever occur to you that just because they did drugs didn’t mean I did? What kind of brother is that?”

“The kind that cares! I thought if you had responsibility, you’d see FRD a new way. You never showed interest in anything so what was I supposed—”

“You never gave me a chance to find something I
wanted
to do,” Quinn railed.

“At least I care about the family business and what Dad worked his whole life for.” The trailer shook as if someone was pacing inside. “I’d never sell off the family company the first chance I got,” Mac said. “How can you turn your back on FRD when dad worked so—”

Smack.

Ellie snapped to attention at the sound of a hit. She knew it well. A fist connecting with something solid. A jaw, maybe?

Trace bared her teeth and sucked in some air. “Hope Quinn didn’t hurt his bad hand.”

“How do you know it was Quinn doing the hitting and not Mac?”

“Because I’ve been waiting for this for about six months now.” She looked at the trailer door expectantly. “I think Mac was too. Mac’s probably relieved to have it over—”

The door banged open and Quinn flew down the steps, rubbing his left hand, swearing under his breath and stalking toward the limo parked down the road. He saw her, but looked away as if he couldn’t stand to see anybody at that moment.

Trace had already hopped into the trailer and was talking to Mac. Ellie followed Quinn, but he wouldn’t answer when she called him. Unfortunately, they were still working out the possibility of using the stunt doubles for another shot in the same sequence so Ellie couldn’t leave the set, even though she wanted to see Quinn more than anything.

Two weeks ago she wouldn’t have cared. Two weeks ago she would’ve thought Quinn incapable of real feelings. But the opposite was true. The man did feel. He hurt and he kept it locked inside where no one saw it. Whether he realized it or not, he’d let her in and made her care about him. That scared the hell out of her. Especially since she didn’t want to care and most especially because he didn’t really
know
her.

After being released from the set, Ellie headed straight for Quinn’s hotel. He hadn’t answered his cell phone and after all the scary stuff happening lately, she had a bad feeling. At his room, she pounded on the door until it swung open.

“What?” The brisk tone and sour look on his face changed the second he saw her. His voice softened. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting you. I wasn’t expecting anybody.” He backed up a step. “What’s up? C’mon in.”

She stepped past him, aware that coming into his hotel room meant another amazing romp in the sheets. But going home to her apartment held zero appeal, and she couldn’t leave him alone. Not after what she’d overheard at the trailer.

“I was worried about you. How’s your hand?”

“Sore.” He clenched his fist and grimaced. “Mac’s jaw is made of fucking granite.”

Ellie faced him, her empathy must have been in her eyes because Quinn pulled her against his chest and held on. There was nowhere else she wanted to be.

“I’m fine,” he told her. “I just had a crappy day, that’s all. I hated seeing you go into the lake and I hated the conversation I had with Mac. He’s such a prick sometimes. But slamming my fist into his face sure made me feel better.” He sighed as he combed his fingers through her hair. “This feels good. I needed this.” He pulled away and looked into her eyes. “I needed you. Need you.”

Dipping his head, he kissed her softly and Ellie got lost in the sensation of his lips, his hands skimming her body. She felt a tug on her hair as Quinn angled her head back and kissed her more deeply.

“I love doing this,” he whispered at her lips. “I love wrapping your hair around my hand. Holding you and taking you the way I want.”

Boom. She was wet. Just that fast.

“Stop it,” she said quietly. “I want to talk to you. I didn’t come here to have sex with you.” He looked hurt, so she clarified. “I’m not saying I
don’t
want to have sex with you, I just want to talk about today first, okay? Maybe I can help you with Mac somehow. I’d like to try. You’ve been there for me…steady as a rock, for almost two weeks now. I’d like to return the favor. Trace told me that Mac is—was—your guardian. I didn’t know that.”

Quinn shook his head. “Mac was never my guardian. He may have thought he was, but he wasn’t. My dad was alive until I was eighteen. I didn’t need a guardian.”

“It sounded as if your dad wasn’t around before he died. Trace made it seem as if Mac was in charge of you.”

“He sure as hell wanted to be.” Quinn shook his head and picked up a beer from the table. He must have raided the honor bar. She hadn’t seen him drink at all other than that first night in the bar with the crew. “Hell, who am I kidding? He
was
in charge. He pulled all the strings and I was his fucking puppet.” He took a drink and stared out the window. “I’m done being a puppet.” He said the words quietly, but with conviction.

Ellie wanted to understand all of it. “Trace also said that she’d been expecting this for about six months. What did that mean?”

Quinn snorted. “She said that, huh? I should give her more credit,” he mumbled.

He kept his back to her. “The accident six months ago was my fault. If I hadn’t been arguing with Mac on the phone, I would’ve noticed her car sooner. Could’ve done something about it. As it was, I didn’t see her until it was too late.”

He hadn’t mentioned that part. “You can’t blame yourself,” Ellie insisted. “You weren’t on the wrong side of the road, Quinn, she was. Give yourself a break.”

He shook his head. “I can’t. And I can’t give Mac a break either. I told him to quit harping on me. I told him to call me back when I got to the office, but he wouldn’t shut up and I wouldn’t stop and the next thing you know. Bam. Head-on collision. I didn’t see her until it was too late.” As he looked outside, Ellie knew he wasn’t seeing any part of the city. He was back behind the wheel of his car six months ago. “I don’t know why I thought she’d fall back behind the truck, but she didn’t…” He sighed and dropped his chin to his chest.

She reached out and touched his arm. Quinn’s hitting Mac went beyond business. “You blame Mac as much as you blame yourself.”

Quinn only shrugged. He rubbed his right fist, but it was the left one that was red and bruised. Guilt practically streamed off him.

“Quinn…” She wrapped her arms around him and held tight. “You were just as much a victim as she was. You can’t blame yourself.”

“Maybe.” He exhaled hard and looked down at her. “I don’t know. It was a defining moment. I knew everything had to change with Mac and me. I’ve let him get under my skin my whole life and I won’t do it anymore.”

“Life is weird,” she said. “Shit happens and we have to deal with it. Our lives would be totally different if my brother and your mother lived. Maybe we wouldn’t be here now if you hadn’t had the accident. Everything happens for a reason, right?” She crossed the room and fought against the sting in her eyes because she really didn’t believe her words. “At least, I tell myself that, but then I think about Ashley and I get angry. And I think about Phil and I get angry. There is no good reason for good people to die. No good reason for bad things to happen to good people.”

After Phil’s death, her mother had been present in her life, but she hadn’t been a mom. She became a stranger who cleaned house and made dinner automatically. Almost robotically. But nothing Ellie ever did had been good enough to bring her back from losing her only son.

Ellie pushed aside the heartache. “How did your mom die? If you don’t mind me asking.”

Quinn turned, his brows quirked together. “Aneurysm. She was in the kitchen one night and passed out. It happened that fast. I don’t even remember. Mac was there. He remembers.” Again, he looked out the window.

Ellie swallowed back the knot in her throat, moved back to Quinn and wrapped her arms around him from behind, soaking up his warmth. “Everything might’ve been different if she’d lived. Do you think about that?”

“Sometimes. I used to when I was little and saw other kids with their mothers. Then I’d tell myself I couldn’t miss something I’d never had.” He shrugged a shoulder. “But deep down it always hurt. I just learned not to go there. There was no
point
in going there. It couldn’t be changed.”

Maybe that’s why Ellie hurt so badly when it came to her parents. She remembered what life had been like before Phil died and how different everything was after. “I don’t know what’s worse,” she said. “Not having a mom or having a mom that’s not there.”

Quinn faced her, lifted her chin. “It’s worse having a mom that’s not there. You see her every day, but she’s not doing or saying the things that are important.”

She stared up at him, his eyes a clear liquid silver. “How do you know so much?”

Quinn stroked her jaw with a knuckle. “I don’t. That seemed like a foregone conclusion.” His gray eyes softened. “That’s what happened after your brother died, isn’t it? Your mom checked out?”

“Both my parents, really, but mom more so than dad. Phil was her everything. She pinned every hope and dream on him.”

Shaking his head, Quinn pulled her against him. “How could she do that to you? I don’t get how a mother can abandon one child after losing a child.”

Ellie had her suspicions. She’d heard her mother whispering to her father about how different she was. How she couldn’t compare to Phil. It hurt so much then and still had power to hurt now. “Phil was really smart. He was going to graduate early and already had an academic scholarship to UCLA. It all disappeared when he died.”

“You could’ve accomplished the same thing.”

Ellie held back a snort. By the age of seven she’d already started falling behind in school. She hadn’t been able to read like the other kids or do math as well. It wasn’t until high school that she realized—via a television program—that she was dyslexic. But she’d been a star athlete and one by one, every teacher had passed her regardless of her grades.

“I doubt it,” she finally said. “We were very different. I was never academic the same way he was never athletic.” She dared not continue with this conversation because she wasn’t ready for the consequences. “Tell me about you and Mac growing up.” She took his hand and sat at the edge of the bed.

He settled next to her. “What’s to tell? Mac ordered and expected me to follow. Any deviation from his rules was considered high treason.” He lifted a brow. “I got good at high treason. By college I was professional.”

“So the ‘keg parties’ line wasn’t an exaggeration?”

“Nope. That was all true. I never did drugs, but I doubt Mac believes that.”

“Mac thought all the parties were your wasted time?”

“He was probably referring to the fact that it took me almost seven years to graduate college.”

“Big deal. That’s still a great accomplishment. So what if it took extra time. Besides, what does it matter? The fact is that you made the company what it is and you have the right to get out if you want.”

A half smile curved his lips. “I like having you on my team,” he said softly. If the smile hadn’t done it, his words certainly had. He made her feel special. She’d never been with a man who made her feel worthy. She pushed back the heaviness in her chest.

“I like being on your team,” she told him.

He brushed his lips against hers, lingering at her mouth, his breath warm. She could’ve ended the conversation by kissing him again and taking him down to the bed, but she wanted more. Some sick sense of balance kicked in and she wanted his heart and soul. The same things he’d unknowingly taken from her.