AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Part of her recognized that Shelby would never stop. Every time she was reminded that Asa had anything she didn’t think he deserved, she’d find ways of reminding him.
So threats it had to be.
“I like your ideas,” she said to Quinn.
Shelby’s eyes widened a fraction. She hadn’t been expecting that. “But it was Asa’s idea!” she repeated.
“No, it wasn’t.” Zara tilted her neck from side to side, stretching out the tired and tight muscles.
“Yes, it was. I can prove it,” Shelby started to pat her thighs and she lasered in on Dan. “Where’s my phone?”
Dan took a phone out of his pocket and handed it over with a small, unamused smirk on his face.
Shelby snatched up the device and started tapping frantically on the screen. “He called me three days ago. It’s in my call log. Wait. Where is it?” She shot angry daggers at Dan. “You tampered with my phone,” she accused.
“Nope.” Dan shook his head, unworried.
She was a quick thinker, Zara decided. Too bad she didn’t use those skills for something more beneficial.
“He did. He called me.” Shelby put both hands on the table and opened her eyes wide, pleading with Zara. “You’ve gotta believe me.”
Zara pressed her mouth together to keep from smiling, because she recognized that look. It was the same thing Logan would do to her. His, “please believe me, I’m lying my ass off” look. If she hadn’t had the kind of history she did, she might have been inclined to believe the woman across from her.
“I don’t believe you,” Zara replied. Further, she wasn’t going to waste her time explaining why.
She rotated slightly in her chair to face Quinn, a man she barely knew but still trusted more than Shelby. “This is what I want.” She held up a hand and ticked off her points on her fingers. “I don’t care about the photos or video. What’s done is done. Destroy them, sell them, print them and hang them on your wall. I really don’t care. I don’t want her to have contact with me or Asa ever again. Or Nikki. Actually, anyone in my life. All of them are off limits. I want her to get whatever she’s earned on her own, good or bad. I don’t want to know what that ends up being. And I don’t want her to hurt anyone ever again.” She facedShelby as she said the last part. “No more schemes, scams, or manipulations. I want her life to be boring and unbothered.”
Quinn nodded. Alex looked slightly disappointed.
Shelby inhaled, her eyes getting small and hard. “And what’s to keep me from telling this to the press?”
“Try it,” Quinn said, unconcerned.
Shelby swallowed and sat back in her chair.
“Time to go,” Dan said, gesturing for Shelby to get up.
Shelby’s eyes swung around the room, looking for someone she could latch onto. “That’s it?” she asked.
“For now,” Quinn replied, waving a hand in dismissal.
Dan took Shelby’s arm and helped her out the door.
After their voices faded away down the hall, Quinn smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from his suit. “On to the matter of my services and how much they cost.”
“You’re hired,” Zara said. She didn’t care about the details.
Quinn chuckled. “You may want to have a lawyer go over the contract with you. My fees are not…inexpensive.”
“That’s fine. I like it when my money goes to a good cause.” She glanced at Cas. “And I get to keep my security.”
“Of course,” Quinn nodded in agreement.
He went on to explain what he did and what Alex did. Most of it, she didn’t understand. Quinn owned, like, everything. Including the East Randolph Residence where she’d stayed last night. Healso owned Cipher Security which was the company Cas had been working with.
Alex was a hacker. Okay, they didn’t say that in so many words, but Zara wasn’t an idiot.
“I’ve taken the liberty of familiarizing myself with your situation,” Quinn said, getting to the point. “If I’m assuming correctly, you want a permanent place in Chicago. I have a few options that might interest you. I’ve looked at the place you’re renting in Lincoln Park. They’d sell.”
