Quinn's Quest (Bullard's Battle Book 7) Read online

  “About your boyfriend?” Quinn asked.

  “I suppose Bullard told you all about it, huh?” Izzie felt her cheeks growing hotter and hotter. She knew her face was getting redder by the second. A sure tell of how embarrassed she was to have her personal laundry aired out among all the men she had once included as being part of her family.

  “Not from Bullard. Not at all. He would never do such a thing,” Quinn reassured her. “However, we heard a little bit of it from an old neighbor of yours.”

  She stared at him. “And who’s that?”

  “Ozzie?”

  She gave a startled laugh. “You can’t listen to anything that comes out of his mouth. He’s a junkie. He’ll steal the two bucks under your pillow and smile at you while he does it.”

  “Well, he was there at your old boyfriend’s apartment, when we were talking to him.”

  Her eyes widened at that. She asked, “That was why you were here?”

  “It’s the only address we had to track you down,” he said smoothly.

  She winced. “Right back to how I didn’t make peace with Bullard. Wow.” She crossed her arms over her chest, hating her defensive posture, but she’d taken a blow like she had not expected, and the grief was already forming in the back of her heart. They might have been positive about Bullard still being alive, but she was not so optimistic. She didn’t have too many good things that had happened in her life. And, as far as she understood, this would just be one more of those shitty things that she had to deal with. “I hope he’s alive and well,” she said. “It would be hard to see him otherwise.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Quinn said. “In the meantime, we’ll try our best to be positive.”

  She nodded and didn’t say anything.

  “Ozzie also said that your boyfriend beat you.”

  She stiffened and turned her gaze on Quinn. She understood he was only asking questions, but she hated any prying. She hated trying to explain anything. “Again, it doesn’t matter what he said,” she repeated. “Remember? You can’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth.”

  “Right,” he said. “And you haven’t been there in that apartment for a long time, have you?”

  “No,” she said, “it’s been over a year.”

  “When was the fight with Bullard?”

  “Not quite two years ago,” she murmured. “Which is a long time. Don’t remind me,” she said. “I already feel like shit right now. Matter of fact, I don’t want to be here. I want to go home and think about this.”

  “We were actually wondering if you have any information,” Quinn said.

  “About what?”

  He thought for a moment. “You need to hear more of the story,” he said, with a look at Ryland.

  Ryland nodded.

  “After following other leads that brought us here, the trail of who sabotaged the plane has come back around to you.”

  She sank into her seat in shock. “What?”

  Quinn nodded. “Which is why we also need to talk to you.” And he gave her a few details that had led them to her.

  “I haven’t had anything to do with Bullard in over two years, as I already told you both,” she said, “and I have no reason to want him dead.”

  At that, both men watched her and waited for her to calm down.

  “Just because we had our differences,” she said, “is a long way away from making me a killer.” She was just so damn outraged at the whole thing that she didn’t even know what to say. She was running through so many emotions right now.

  “We’re not looking at you as a killer,” Quinn said firmly. “But we won’t leave any stone unturned, until we find out what the hell happened and who did this to us.”

  She believed his motivation, but his words were still a hard blow to bear. “So then it had to be me or the boyfriend?”

  “It was the address.”

  “Right,” she said. “And even now I can’t let go of that part of my life, can I?” She tried so hard to keep the bitterness out of her voice, but it was hard; damn it, it was beyond hard. She took a slow deep breath. “What is it you need to know?”

  “What does your boyfriend do?”

  “My ex-boyfriend didn’t do anything,” she said, “except use me as a punching bag for fun.” When the men didn’t say anything, she glared at them. “I know it’s easy for you to say, How the hell would I have let it happen?” she snapped. “But believe me. It happens more than you think. And, once you’re caught up in a situation like that, it’s damn hard to get out of it.”

  Both men looked at the table.

  She sighed, sat back, and said, “Sorry. Rant over. What was your other question?”

  “Do you know if Dracon had any friends or contacts who might have used him as a patsy?”

  “If he did have any friends or contacts, they would have used him as a patsy because he was the kind of person you did use. That’s one of the things that he hated about his life and what made him so vicious because he felt like he was always being used and that nobody ever cut him any slack.”

  “You have a list of names that we could follow up on?”

  She snorted. “You’re dealing with a druggie here. So he obviously had a dealer, where he got his stuff. He called him Chong, but who the hell knows what his real name was. Plus, this is old information from at least a year ago. And you obviously saw the apartment.”

  Both men nodded, silent.

  “We didn’t exactly have friends over because I was too embarrassed and hiding from mine, and he truly had none. Or, if he did, he was meeting them elsewhere.” She stopped for a moment, tilted her head. “He liked to brag how he was in deep with two guys who ‘ran the neighborhood’ or some such nonsense. I don’t know their names, but Dracon always felt like he was playing in the big leagues when he was supposedly with them.”

  “Did he do any jobs for them?”

  “I don’t know what you mean by jobs,” she said, “but possibly, yes. Yet I never saw Dracon with any money. That wasn’t what he was there for apparently. It was all about his ego, I guess. And his drugs.”

  She didn’t explain any of that.

  When the men asked a few more questions, she gave them what she could. “Honestly your best bet is to go talk to him. And that is something I don’t want anything to do with.”

  “Do you still love him?” Quinn asked.

  “I never loved him,” she said. “I was angry at Bullard for telling me that Dracon was a deadbeat and for ordering me to get the hell away from him.”

  “Ouch,” Ryland said. “Bullard’s never been known for being very subtle.”

  “Bullard is a battering ram,” she said. “And, at the time, I was still struggling and trying to find somebody to love me. I made a mistake, and it cost me dearly.”

  “I’m sorry,” Quinn said gently. “It might do you some good to see Dracon again.”

  “No,” she said immediately, without a thought before speaking. She sat taller, more on the edge of her seat, as if perched for immediate escape. “He’s one of those boogeymen I don’t want to see ever again.” The two men regarded her quietly. She shrugged and said, “I don’t give a shit what you say about this. I will not. I cannot. No way you can convince me otherwise.”

  “Even if we know best?” Ryland said, with a knowing look.

  “Just like Bullard knew best?” she snapped.

  “Was he correct?” Ryland asked.

  “Sure, he was correct. But I wasn’t ready to see that.”

  “I gather you have had some help getting over the trauma?” Quinn asked.

  “Yes,” she said quietly. “Honestly it did help, though I didn’t expect it to, and I fought it all the way. But seeing the doctor helped. It was also his opinion that I needed to clear the air and to make peace with Bullard.”

  “And I’m sure he’s right. Did the doc also not say that maybe you needed to find a way to move forward and to leave this boyfriend of yours behind?”

  “
Ex-boyfriend,” Izzie said, with an extra punch of vitriol. “Sure, but, for any woman who’s been beaten or put through what I went through,” she said, “it’s not such an easy step to face my tormentor.”

  “No, but we would be at your side this time,” Quinn said quickly.

  She looked at him in surprise. “Why?”

  “So you wouldn’t feel like you’d be alone,” Quinn said immediately. “If this asshole did anything now, we would happily beat him to a pulp. Hell, I’m ready to pound him into the ground already from what little you have told us. And, you should know, if you wanted anything, at any time, we could help you do it.” He nodded at Ryland beside him. “Any one of us at the compound will always help you.”

  “Well, I wanted Dracon dead for the longest time,” she said. “He’s a bully on drugs. At least that’s where he ended up. At first, he was pretty much a smooth talker, helped me deal with losses in my life. And I fell for it.”

  “Where’d you meet him?”

  “At university, when I was getting my masters. I buried myself in my books and tried to ignore everything else—dealing with the pain of losing, then finding, then losing my father. … That all compounded after losing my best friend. All my work to recover went up in smoke, and I was a mess all over again. I guess I was ripe to be taken advantage of.”

  *

  Quinn flinched, on the inside anyway. The conversation had died and became more uncomfortable, until Quinn finally stood, extended his hand, and said, “Come on. Let’s go.”

  And he’d half dragged her out of the café. He probably shouldn’t have used any strong-arm tactics, but she had been sitting beside him, her lips pinched, like she hated him. Now all three were in the vehicle, Quinn driving, while she protested being with them.

  “Are you always so bullish?”

  “Yes,” he said. “Sometimes the soft touch doesn’t work.”

  “That’s hardly fair to me.”

  “No,” he said, “it isn’t fair at all. And I understand that, from your history, this is probably the worst thing I could have done. But, at the same time, I think it’s important for you to come and to see what a lousy son of a bitch Dracon is—especially from your now-enlightened viewpoint.”

  “I already know what a lousy SOB he is,” she snapped.

  “Yeah, I get it,” he said.

  “But,” she murmured, “he’s just … I mean, just even the place …” And any more words failed her. They pulled up outside the apartment, and, for several long minutes, it looked like she wouldn’t even get out of the vehicle. Quinn opened her door, and she stepped out. She glared at him and said, “So I’m here.”

  “Let’s take a look,” Quinn said.

  With her chin jutted out belligerently, Quinn hoped it was more defiance and anger at his manhandling than fear, as they walked back up to the same apartment.

  When she got here, she took a slow deep breath, and he studied her carefully. She glared at him. “I won’t pass out,” she snapped.

  “Good,” Quinn said gently. “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think you could handle it and if we didn’t need your help in finding Bullard’s attacker.”

  She glared at him initially, and then her shoulders sagged. “Fine,” she said. “For Bullard, anything.” She turned her glare to the front door of her old apartment, right before her, and said, “Dracon’s probably not even home.”

  “Maybe not,” Quinn said, “but we need to find out.”

  She glanced at Ryland, who had been silent for a long time, yet gave her a short nod.

  She shrugged, reached up, and knocked. When she heard a sound inside, she took a step back and pinched her lips together. The door opened, and, sure enough, there was Dracon, staring at her. “Good God,” he said. “You back for round two?”

  At that, a punch came out of nowhere and smacked him hard in the jaw. Dracon stepped back, howling. Izzie may have been too shocked to do anything, but Quinn had no such problems. His fist hit the guy square in the jaw. Quinn stepped forward and pushed Dracon back into the apartment, as the other two stepped inside.

  Dracon looked at him and glared. “What the fuck, man? I didn’t do anything to you.”

  “You beat her up,” he said, his voice intense, as he locked his hand around the asshole’s neck and lifted him, pinning him against the wall. “You took her captive. You beat her up, and you abused her,” he said. “And then you had the audacity, instead of begging her forgiveness and dropping to your knees with apologies, to ask her if she was ready for round two?”

  Even Quinn was having a hard time with the wave of red anger that had overtaken him. But the nerve of such an asshole even still living was something else. He felt the anger still vibrating through him. To think that she had been abused by this guy was just something he couldn’t even bear thinking about. His reaction might have been a little on the strong side, but he didn’t give a shit. This punishment was long overdue.

  Behind him, a warning came from Ryland. “We still need answers from him.”

  “We need him dead afterward,” Quinn snapped, as he dropped the man to the floor. He stepped back, glaring at the piece of shit on the ground. “So now we need something from you,” Quinn said. “I would have asked nicely, until I met piece-of-shit you, so now I don’t give a crap about whether you want to hear about us or what we need or not,” he said. “For what you did to Izzie, I’ll take you apart one night in an alleyway,” he said, “and that’s a promise.”

  Dracon literally blubbered on the floor. “Izzie, what did you do to me?” he asked. “I thought you loved me.”

  “I never loved you,” she said. “You were an excuse for me not to feel alone. And how sad is that.” She shook her head. “And you deserve to go to jail for what you did to me.”

  He looked at her in horror. “You loved it.”

  “I was screaming for you to let me go,” she snapped. “You just didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. You were high on drugs most of the time.”

  He stared at her, his head shaking violently. “Maybe, some of the time, yes,” he said. “That time, yes.” He was grasping at that, almost with a pathetic gratitude.

  “You were high for all of it,” she said. “It was my fault for staying, but you didn’t have to beat the crap out of me.”

  “I haven’t seen you since then. Now, out of the blue, you bring these guys?”

  “They came to me,” she said. “They want information from you, and I suggest you give it to them.”

  His questioning gaze turned from her and then blanked out to disbelief as he noted these two men, standing and glaring at him. “I don’t know anything,” he said weakly.

  “Well, you have some friends, not necessarily good and true friends but some friends. And we got word that this address was part of a case that we’re working on,” he said.

  “You guys cops?” he asked, and he started to straighten, as if feeling better. “In that case, I’ll have your job.”

  “Private security,” Quinn said quietly. “And I wouldn’t be worrying about my job,” he said. “You don’t have a job of your own, and, in the meantime, you’ve been working for the wrong guys.”

  At that, his eyes grew wider. “What are you talking about?” he asked. Growing a little courage, he added, “You don’t know anything.”

  “No?” Quinn asked. “You’re really a shitty judge of character.”

  “I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about,” said Dracon, but he was getting nervous now, looking around for an exit.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Quinn said. “We want to know who paid you and how you’re involved in this.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” he said, and he looked over at Izzie pathetically. “Tell him. I never worked.”

  “I already told him that and also told him about your buddies.”

  At that, his face darkened. “Why would you do that?” he asked, then he glared at her. “You’re always making things worse, you snivelin
g bitch,” he said, his voice gaining volume. “I mean, it was all I could do to try and tune you up so that you were worth my time as it is.”

  At that, Quinn had Dracon off his feet again, Quinn’s hand on his throat again, choking him against the wall. When Dracon was finally compliant, Quinn let go, Dracon hitting the floor harder this time. “You open your mouth about Izzie again,” he said, “and the next time I won’t stop strangling you until your last breath was an hour earlier.”

  The guy just stared at him, swallowed hard, then placed his hands on his throat and swallowed several more times.

  “We want to hear everything you’ve got to say,” Quinn said, “about everything.”

  Dracon shook his head and remained on the floor. “I can’t. They’ll kill me.”

  “Yeah, well, I heard that about your two best buds. Just remember. I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me,” he said. “At least I’ll give you a chance to live. That is, if you tell me what I want to know.”

  Dracon stared at him and cried out, “They will kill me.”

  “And what did you do for them that they’ll kill you for now?” Ryland asked quietly beside Dracon.

  The guy looked at him, preferring to deal with him than Quinn, who still stood like an avenging angel over him.

  “I didn’t do anything. They just needed a place for a few days.”

  “They stayed here?” Ryland looked around in disgust. “I doubt it.”

  “But the place wasn’t bad back then. I did kind of let the place go.”

  “You think?” Quinn stared in disgust. “You mean, they just wanted it as a drop location.”

  He nodded eagerly. “Yeah, that’s all they were doing. Getting stuff delivered here.” He said, “Some problem with their address.”

  “The problem with their address was the fact that they couldn’t let anybody know where they were.”

  “You’re such an idiot,” she muttered. Dracon turned to glare at her. She shook her head. “God, how did I ever end up in this mess?”

  “Yeah, that’s what Bullard would be asking you right now, too,” Dracon said.

  At Bullard’s name, Quinn turned and stared at him.