Page 50 of Diamonds in the Mud

I should have faked being busy. Instead, I waited until he walked in and shut the door.

“Rayne,” he said, sitting down across from me.

“Quincy.” I mimicked his tone.

At one point, I had fallen for the man’s charms. We hadn’t gone out for a long, two short months. The sex had been good, not as knock-your-socks-off good as it was with Jameson. Still. I respected the man. What I didn’t respect was him hiding things from me. Not little things either. Days would go by and he’d lie to me about being somewhere when I knew for damned sure he wasn’t.

The stupidest being on the planet was someone who lied to a damned good detective and thought they’d get away with it. When I found out he’d been spotted at the bar with another girl’s tongue down his throat, well, I simply don’t tolerate having a relationship with a cheater.

He leaned forward, his eyes running over my face. “I think we need to talk.”

“About?” I asked, arching my brows.

He cleared his throat and shifted as if he was uncomfortable.

“You aren’t pregnant, are you?” I tried to joke.

Instead of laughing, he sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

“There are things, people, you should be careful about associating with,” he said slowly.

My temper grew. “Such as?” I asked just as slowly.

“You don’t like games, so I’ll just say it. There’s a rumor going around town that you and Jameson Lorenzo are… tangled.”

I chuckled. “Since when do you care about rumors?” I asked dryly.

Quincy’s eyes narrowed. “The Reapers are no joke.”

“I’m not laughing.” I waited, wondering just what his game was. Was he concerned for my well-being or was he just trying to win me back? He’d tried for the first few weeks after I’d broken things off with him. Tried and failed miserably.

“There are holes too deep even for you to crawl out of,” Quincy said as he stood up and walked out of my office.

Shit. Now I was in a piss-poor mood. I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Aria. “What are you doing tonight?”

Her response was almost immediate.

“Whatever you want. You can come in for a trim and girl time? My last appointment leaves in about half an hour.”

“Perfect,” I added.

“I’ll have the wine ready,” she sent back to me.

“See if Charlotte can hang and make it margaritas. I need some hard liquor.”

“Woohoo! Fun times. I’ll have her run next door and get what we need. See you when you get here.”

I smiled as I tucked my phone away.

I was very lucky to have friends who were available when I needed them. Friends that I would drop everything for in return.

Since I had time, I opened the email I’d quickly closed earlier that morning and tried to figure out who had sent it.

The email address was a long line of numbers and, after a quick search, I found out that the account was closed.

I scanned the attached image and tried to mentally figure out where the photographer would have been to get the shot. My answer was somewhere in the woods that surrounded the cabin. Which meant they could have been there, watching us, all night.

Thankfully, the bedroom windows had thick curtains covering them.