Page 133 of Open To Negotiation

“You sound pretty confident.” Her voice was soft behind me.

I turned back to look at her. “I don’t lose, Quinn, and I’ve never run from a challenge. I’m not running from this.”

Leaving her with that, I turned and walked out of Asher’s apartment with determination rolling through me.

I was the first one in the boardroom, probably for the best considering I’d called the meeting. If I had any hope of getting Quinn back, I would need all the men involved. They’d agreed to help me get her to the office so I could come clean. I hoped that meant they would be on my side about this too.

One by one they filtered in, drinking their coffee and chatting about the development. We purchased land and were now waiting on building permits. Something that took a lot longer for the regular person but that wasn’t us. We had connections we were using to push it through. We were also consulting architectural firms to start the design.

“What is this about anyway?” Noah asked as the last one to slip into one of the chairs. I hid my laugh. I’d gotten a meeting into all of their busy calendars, labelled it important but gave no one any information. They would show up for anything. No questions asked.

“Someone showed up at my house late last night and left this morning, I assume it has something to do with that,” Asher said, shooting me a look.

I knew he would’ve known I had been there. Jaxson had procured top of the line security technology companies along the way that now operated under Knight Enterprises. All our homes had them which included motion cameras on the door and alerts to our phones for any activity.

The guys looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“Didn’t she ask you for space?” Will asked skeptically.

“Seems like the opposite, man.” Oli shook his head.

“Fuck.” Noah pushed his hand through his hair. “Are you stalking her? Do we need to have an intervention?”

“We threaten a lot of interventions with him,” Jaxson muttered.

“I can ask Q what she wants,” Noah said, pulling out his phone.

“Enough.” I sighed. “She asked me to be there, I am not stalking her. But I do need all your help.”

“About fucking time,” Asher said as all they focused on me.

I had a lot of grovelling to do and I needed their help.

40

Quinn

“Come on, Q, I’m bored,” Noah whined from beside me.

He was sprawled out on the couch, his huge feet lying in my lap. I tried pushing them off but somehow they kept making their way back. I’d been trying to read in peace when he came storming in.

It had been five days since I’d called Theo and he’d showed up.

I had spoken to my mom, told her everything that had been going on with my dad since they divorced. To say she was pissed would be an understatement. She was furious that I hadn’t told her what was going on and so disappointed in the man that she used to love. After she lectured me, she asked if I wanted her to fly home. I assured her I was fine, but she didn’t believe me and demanded to speak with Asher.

Since she had him kick me out of his home office where he was working, I didn’t know what he said to her, but he came out, passed me the phone and my mom said she wouldn’t come home unless I asked. She also encouraged me to stay in the city and visit her later. She didn’t want me running even though that was all I wanted to do.

Since I hadn’t taken my vacation, I decided to give Edward a call early. So far we’d had two meetings and I had offer paperwork sitting in my inbox. Despite my objections, he was offering me the title of Chief Operating Officer for their North American operations. The salary was in the six figures and way more than I expected from working with a charity.

Knight Enterprises was actually bank rolling the funds for all salaried positions within the foundation. I was trying to talk him down in title but he wasn’t having it.

I was really excited about it though and the impact I could make. I planned on signing the paperwork tomorrow.

Everyone had been on Quinn Watch, as the group chat was renamed, if Asher couldn’t be home then one of them was always here with me. It was unnecessary but I appreciated not being left alone.

Asher and I had spent the most time together and it felt like for the first time in my life I had a brother. He grumbled at me, complained and grunted but hung out with me and watched movies. He wasn’t as grumpy as he led people to believe.

Noah, on the other hand, was impatient and always needed to be moving, making the last forty-five minutes feel like pure torture.