Page 114 of Open To Negotiation

“He’s a fucking moron,” he finished anyway.

“Well, moron or not, he’s gone and I need to move on.”

“What are you going to do now?”

I lifted my head to look at him. “I think I might go visit my mom for a bit. I get the cast off at the end of the week so I should be good to fly.” I’d spoken to my mom last night, she said I sounded down and that I should come to Italy, now it seemed like an excellent option. “When do you leave?” I picked at the sleeve of my sweater.

“What do you mean?” Asher asked, confused.

“When do you head back to London?”

“I’m not leaving,” he stated.

I looked up at him surprised. I assumed with Knight leaving the rest would follow suit. “Who’s going back then?”

“No one is leaving, Quinn, we don’t have to follow him. Plus, he didn’t want any of us to go back.” I frowned, these guys had grown this company from the ground up, side by side. But asking questions would look like I cared about Knight, which I was trying really hard not to do. So I looked away deciding to drop it, Asher clearly picked up on it. “You should come out with us on Friday and turn your phone back on. We miss you.” Asher was not a man who spoke softly and yet he just did. I had to stop myself from looking at him.

“I don’t think I’ll be going to Pulse for a while.” Or ever, but I didn’t tell him that. I could tell he wanted to argue with me so I stood up.

“We aren’t friends with you because of him, Quinn.”

“Ash…”

“We are your friends. You’re supposed to lean on us during a breakup.”

“Asher.” I ran a hand through my hair, the bad nights of sleep were catching up with me. “I just need some time.”

I didn’t want to lose them because on top of Knight, I couldn’t handle that too. But looking at him was a constant reminder of the man I loved who broke my heart and left me with no real explanation, some time would be good.

“Come on, Quinn.” He took a step toward me, but I moved toward the door.

“No. I appreciate that you’re here and I’ll get over it and we can be friends again. But right now, looking at you reminds me that I somehow managed to fall in love with a man who could never love me back. Who up and left in the middle of the night and is probably doing just fine.

“So I need time to adjust to my new reality because I thought I was done. Done dating, done with crappy guys who treat you like shit. I thought he was mine. I just need some time to recover.” I opened the door for him.

“Fine.” He followed me to the door. “I’ll give you some time.” I let out a breath and nodded, still not looking him in the eye. “Will you at least let me know if you go to Italy?”

“That I can do.”

“If you need anything, call me or one of the other guys.”

“You and I both know that I won’t do that.” I gave him a sad smile as he walked out of the apartment.

“At least turn on your bloody phone,” he grumbled as he walked down the hallway without looking back. I locked my door and turned to stare at my empty apartment, not sure what to do next.

33

Theo

Iran my hand over my jaw, the scruff longer than I normally wore it. I hadn’t left the office for more than an hour since I’d arrived in London four days ago. I was sleeping on the couch in my office, all of my calls were being forwarded to one of the other guys and I was solely focused on making sure Warren Kane wasn’t an issue anymore.

A knock pulled my attention away from my computer. I’m not sure who was brave enough to be knocking on my door right now. I’d made it very clear that I wasn’t to be bothered. I gave it another moment but they knocked again.

I let out a deep sigh, scrubbed a hand over my face and sat back. “What?” I barked out.

Yesterday when I’d made a rare appearance to get coffee in the break room, since I’d run out in my office, I heard two senior staff muttering about people being scared of me, more than usual. I didn’t give a shit.

The door was pushed open and Betty was standing there with her hands up. “Don’t shoot the messenger.” She was the head of HR for Knight Enterprises and had been working with us for eight years now. She was closer to Jane’s age than mine and I liked her enough, most of the time. I didn’t like anyone right now, not even myself.