Page 98 of Playing with Fire

Stunned, I lowered my hands. “What? Why would you do that?”

“I record where I go and interesting people I meet. You disliked me from the start. It’s odd for women to dislike me. I cheated and checked the facial recognition database to find out who you were and saw you were a promising CDC student. That made you interesting. Honestly, though, you made good coffee, and that was more important.”

“I should have known you bothered me because I made you coffee.”

“You made the bed, sweetheart. You know what they say about that.” After flashing his sexiest smirk at me, Quinn filled in the dates and times of his encounters with me that led up to Audrey’s first infidelity. “That should be all of them.”

Chief Hollands pointed at a two-month gap prior to Audrey cheating on him. “Were you together during this period of time?”

“Not often.”

“Why not?”

“I had a lot of work. Audrey knew my job was time consuming when we got married. She liked my wealth and looks, but she didn’t bring a whole lot to the marriage for me. She did help me dodge the bachelorettes, which is what I needed from her at the time. I did not anticipate my general lack of interest in her as a woman.”

“You are incredibly young to be a police chief.” Chief Hollands snatched up a folder and flipped it open. “Thirty. That must be a record.”

Quinn flinched. “Manhattan has ten police chiefs spread across the island, and all of us have the same magic rating. I enrolled at the police academy at eighteen, three years before the legal enrollment age because of an exception due to my rating. My predecessor was murdered. I was the only one in the force with the required rating, so I got the job. I had six months of field experience. Since the reporters liked me, I got recruited to do the majority of the talking and ended up with blanket jurisdiction over the entirety of Manhattan Island.

“With no experience.”

“I said the same thing, trust me. I even tried quitting once. The commissioner laughed at me.”

While I had wondered why Quinn had looked so young for a police chief, I had assumed he had been promoted due to some stunning act of heroism or something equally impressive. I tried to imagine him as a cadet, and instead I got the memory of the dipshit I’d gone into 120 Wall Street with. Yuck. “If you don’t come home at acceptable intervals, I will come to the station, steal your car, and start breaking laws so you’re forced to chase me down and put me in cuffs.”

Oh, shit. Stupid mouth. I groaned and leaned forward, bowing my head and running my hands through my hair.

“Bailey probably doesn’t mean it. She just forgets to think before she speaks when she’s embarrassed over something.” Quinn chuckled. “She’s also the jealous type.”

“Quinn,” I groaned.

Chief Hollands clapped his hands. “All right, back on subject. Sam, is there any chance Audrey McGee might have associated your heightened interest with Bailey?”

Quinn froze and his eyes widened. “Excuse me for a moment.”

In four long strides, he left the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. Through the room’s window, I watched him straighten. He spewed curses so loudly I could hear him through the wall. The cops in the main room jumped.

I grimaced. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”

It took Quinn’s grandfather almost twenty minutes to calm my husband down. A whispered suggestion brought Quinn’s tirade to a halt, and he let out a breath in a gusty sigh. “Fine. I’ll go.”

A few minutes later, he left with an off-duty cop to go to a gym down the street. It amazed me the former gorgon king had managed to soothe the raging police chief and convince him to leave the station without me.

“That was amazing. How did you do that? I need to know so I can use it against him. What did you tell him?”

“I merely suggested he might lash out at you by accident. He’s been wound tight since you were taken. An hour in the gym should take the edge off and soothe his frayed nerves. His father is the same way.”

I saw so many problems with the idea of him going out unsupervised I wasn’t sure where to begin. When Quinn decided to do something, he did it. The man took stubborn pride and determination to the extreme. I thought of everything he had done to lure me to him without me suspecting a thing.

I shook off the feeling Quinn had just hoodwinked us all and turned to Chief Hollands. “Can you shine some light on his little freakout there?”

“It’s a typical reaction when a husband or father figures out he may be to blame for something that happened to someone he loves. Don’t worry about it, Mrs. Quinn. He likely realized there was something he had said or done that may have suggested to Audrey McGee you were somehow responsible for his behavioral changes. He may also be trying to come to terms with being the one questioned instead of the one doing the questioning.”

I turned to Quinn’s grandfather and waited.

“That sounds about right to me. Don’t look so alarmed, Bailey. The only one in any danger is Audrey. If their paths cross, I wouldn’t be surprised if he decided to deal with her himself. He’s well within his rights to kill her for her crimes without a trial or jury. Gorgon laws trump human laws in cases like this. The kidnapping and attempted coercion of a prince’s bride is punishable by death. He’ll feel better about the situation if he deals with Audrey himself.”

A man capable of becoming a predominant police chief with only six months of field experience could do just about anything. One off-duty cop didn’t stand a chance against Quinn. Worse, I expected the off-duty cop would be happy to do anything to please him.