Quinn (The Waite Family) (15 page)

The next thing she knew Cain was on the floor and Drew was standing over him.
He was dressed in a gown and there was a sling on his arm.
He looked a bit pale, but Quinn thought he was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
Before she could move, he turned to her…or on her.

“Stay right there.”
Then he turned to Alyssa. “Could you please keep him out of here? I’d like a few words with my…the mother of my child.”

Quinn looked over and saw Jazzie standing in the doorway. She knew then that she’d told Drew about the…
Quinn looked down at her belly.
Could she really be pregnant?
She tried to remember when her last period was and couldn’t.
She looked up at Drew when she heard the door shut.

“Were you planning on telling me? Or was it your plan to hold that over my head along with the rape charges?”

Cain paced the hall. He didn’t know if he was pissed at Drew for knocking him on his ass and getting his sister pregnant, or happy because he’d knocked him on his ass and gotten his sister pregnant.
He glared at his wife.

“You can look at me like that all you want, big boy. It doesn’t make me the least bit happier with you either.
You had no right to treat your sister that way.”
She sat down on the plastic chair.
“And you can forget any kind of ‘woo hoo, I’m alive’ sex now. I’m pissed at you too.”

He sat down next to her, picked her up, and put her onto his lap.
“I’m sorry. It was so…I didn’t expect her to be pregnant.
And Drew?
Damn, he has a quick left.”

She kissed his cheek.
“You should have seen his face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that pissed off before. What do you think he’s saying to her?”

“If he knows what’s good for him, he’s telling her they’re getting married.
Then he’s telling her he loves her.”
Cain looked at his wife.
“He does, doesn’t he, love her I mean?”

Alyssa leaned her head on his shoulder. “If you had asked me that before this, I would have said yes.
But now…I don’t know.
She never told me they’d gone that far.
And she seemed just as surprised as you and I did.”

“She loves him,” Jazzie said as she came up and sat next to them.
“The night that he came over…I thought she might be pregnant a couple of days ago and never said anything.
I told Drew what was going on. I think…I think Quinn is going to be mad at me over this.”

Cain pulled Jazzie closer to him. “Nah, she won’t. Once they figure out this thing, you’ll see, they’ll be so happy that they’re having a baby they won’t remember any of this.”

At least he hoped so.
He wished he could go in there and find out, but knew that he couldn’t.
Quinn was a grown woman.
He looked down at Alyssa.
Drew had saved her for him because he had no doubt that she was the woman that the idiot shooter had been trying to get to.
He pulled her closer into his arms.
He couldn’t live without her and wondered who the mad man was now that was trying to take her from him.

They sat there for another twenty minutes before the police came down the hall. Cain had tried to put them off, but Cait had told him that she needed answers and the sooner they got them the quicker they could get to the bottom of this.

Cait was coming around the corner when Drew came out of Quinn’s room.
He didn’t look any happier now than he had when he’d gone in.
Before he could ask, Drew went down the hall toward where his room had been.

“I would like to speak to you, Alyssa, then I’ll go down and talk to Drew.
I’m sure you know that the sooner we get out a description, the sooner we can see if we can get this guy.
What can you tell me about what happened?” Cait sat down next to them.
“I know you said you were inside the vehicle when the guy shot at you, but did you hear anything?”

Cain let Alyssa sit on another chair and he stood up. He didn’t know who he wanted to talk to more, Quinn or Drew. He owed them both an apology and he wanted to do it now.
He decided to see Drew first.
Since he wasn’t going to release Quinn he knew she was staying where she was.

Drew wasn’t in his bed when he got to his room. Cain could hear him in the bathroom and simply sat down to wait. When he came out, Cain was surprised to see him dressed.

“Going somewhere?
I was told you would be here for another couple of days at the very least.”
Cain didn’t think he was going to answer him.
“Drew, I’m sorry about what happened in Quinny’s room.
I didn’t…I was surprised, that’s all.”

“She won’t speak to me.
I tried talking…well, that’s not true. I yelled mostly.
She just sat there.”
Drew looked at him then.
“The one time I don’t want her to shut up and she does.”

Cain sat down on the end of the bed.
“What are you going to do about the baby?
I mean, I’m assuming it’s yours.”

“It’s mine.
And I don’t know yet.
I will be a part of her life and help her raise it, marry her as soon as it can be arranged,
but right now I’m trying to deal with just knowing I’m going to be a father.” He looked at Cain with a sloppy grin. “I’m going to be a dad.”

Cain laughed.
“Yeah, if she doesn’t kill you first.
What are you going to tell your grandda?”

“Holy shit, Grandda. He doesn’t know. I mean, of course he doesn’t know about the baby, but he doesn’t know I’m here. I gotta call him.
Shit, it’s late.”
Cain looked at his watch.
It was just after two in the morning.
“Think I should call him?”

Cain laughed.
“I think if you don’t, Quinny will be the very least of your worries.
I’ll leave you alone to call. Cait will be down soon to talk to you anyway. I’m going to go and grovel with my sister.
See if I can get her to forgive me.”

Alyssa wasn’t in the hall when he rounded the corner. He could see the two officers that had come with Cait in the hall outside the waiting area and the closer he got, he could see that both the women were in there. He smiled at the expression on Cait’s face. He knew that whatever was going on she wasn’t happy about it. Cain knocked on his sister’s door and slipped inside.

The room was empty. He sat in the chair and waited for her to come out of the bathroom, assuming that was where she was.
He sat there for perhaps five minutes when he realized that he hadn’t heard anything. Getting up and just knowing he wasn’t going to like it, he knocked on the door.

“Quinn, I want to talk to you. Come on out. I just had a talk with Drew and he and I have mended our differences.” Nothing.
“I’m sorry, baby. Come out and let’s talk.” The nurse coming into the room startled him and he turned to look at her.
“I think she’s still mad at me.
Could you please go in and make sure she’s all right?”

The nurse nodded and he moved when she came up to the door. She simply took the handle, turned it, and stepped inside.
She came back out with a frown. “There’s no one in here, Doctor Waite.” Cain looked over her shoulder and could see the entire room.
“Let me go and see if she was taken for tests.”

Cain knew that she hadn’t been taken to any tests; he hadn’t written any orders for her to have them.
He looked around the room and could see that her bag of clothes were gone, as was her purse.
He sat down on the bed.
Fuck. She was gone.

~~~

Quinn sat in the back of the taxi and closed her eyes. She’d seen Cain coming down the hall toward her room when she’d stepped into the elevator.
He even looked right at her.
She had never been so scared in her life.

She had the driver take her to the house where she would grab what she could and leave. Quinn knew it was cruel to run out on Alyssa right now, but she had to get away.
Especially now.
Quinn put her hand over her flat belly and marveled again that there was a child there.

The phone was ringing when she walked into the house. She didn’t bother answering it. She knew it had to be one of the three people she was trying to get away from.
Cain would be mad because she was pregnant, Alyssa because Quinn hadn’t given her notice, and Drew because…well, because.
Moving the small panel from the wall in the pantry, she reached in and took out the duffel she’d hidden there.

Quinn opened the bag and took out the envelopes she’d put in there only just last night.
While circumstances had changed, her needing to leave and the reasons for it hadn’t.
She was nearly out the door when she heard Cain’s voice over the answering machine.

“Quinn, call me back when you get this. If you’re running away because I hurt you, please don’t. I’m sorry, sorrier than I’ve ever been.
Please, honey, call me back.
I love you.”

She closed the door and left.

Getting back into the taxi she’d had wait for her, she asked him to take her to the bus stop.
It wasn’t where she wanted to go, but she knew that if asked the driver would have to tell them where he’d dropped her.
She also knew that she had to purchase a ticket too.
But for now she leaned back and cried.

Drew’s child.
She was going to have his baby and he couldn’t stand her.
She thought about the conversation they’d had after he’d had her family leave the hospital room.

“Are you all right?
Do you need anything?”
She shook her head no. “Good.
Because you are by far the stupidest woman I’ve ever met.
You’ve lost weight and you’re having my baby.
Are you trying to lose it?
No, that can’t be right because according to your sister you had no idea you were even going to have my child.
How is that possible?”

Quinn didn’t say anything because she frankly didn’t know what to say. She had already figured that Jazzie had told him that she was pregnant, but she didn’t know that she also knew about the baby. Before she could wonder why her own sister hadn’t told her Drew started in with his plans of marriage.

“As soon as it’s possible, we’re getting married. And before you open your mouth and say that there isn’t going to be one then think again. I won’t have my child born as a bastard.
And you’ll be getting prenatal care as soon as I can arrange it.
I’ll have to call in a favor or two, but tomorrow I’m going to have someone come here and examine you to make sure you’re fine.
And you won’t be working any more long days either. You’ll be working eight straight a day and then home.”

She had watched him pace.
It might have been funny, cute even, if she wasn’t so sure he wasn’t just doing this because he thought she was too stupid to do this on her own.
Quinn leaned back on the bed and did her own planning.

As he went on about her living arrangements she tried to remember if she’d done everything on her list.
When he mentioned that she was going to need to start sleeping longer hours she was working on getting the IV out of her hand.
By the time he was standing over her glaring she’d decided that enough was enough. She would not let another man bully her.