Hux was able to determine the make and model of the door fairly quickly, but that was the easy part; cracking the lock was going to be nearly impossible.
We’d actually broken into a vault very similar to this on a mission while still on active duty, but in that case, we’d been allowed to drill into it because we’d be long gone before the owner discovered the breach. That wouldn’t be possible this time.
We had to find a way to get in there, remove the Horn’s data, and get out without leaving evidence of the break-in, otherwise, Tommy Drakes would have a pretty good idea of who caused the problem. He wouldn’t be able to legally prove it was us, so I wasn’t worried about the fallout for my team, but he might take revenge by blacklisting Quinn, and no matter what Quinn thought of me, keeping him safe was a promise I would not break.
Elvo put out feelers to a couple of guys we’d known back in the day who’d gotten into slightly less-legal stuff after leaving the service. Riggs and Jordan worked their contacts to get us the exact same model of vault door delivered ASAP so we could run some simulations, even as Hux got busy enhancing photos, trying to nail down whether Tommy’s unit had any redundancies we needed to factor in.
Two hours into our research, Riggs cracked.
“Boss.” He leaned over in his chair and spoke softly enough that no one else could hear. “It’s Saturday night. We’ve gotten as far as we can on this for now—”
He broke off when the front door opened and someone strode into the lobby.
“Which one of you failed to lock the fucking door?” I demanded.
“Pretty sure that was you, Champ,” Elvo remarked.
Shit. I had a strong suspicion he was right. I was losing my mind, now, on top of everything.
Great.
“It’s probably Kev,” Hux muttered, assuming the guy had decided to join us again. “I’ll deal with this.”
But when the angry, tuxedo-clad man came storming into the back room, it wasn’t Carter’s cousin.
All heads swiveled to watch Quinn Taffet as he stalked through the empty mosh pit with fire in his eyes. No one said a word. Hux’s fingers went silent on his keys.
The man was ten kinds of gorgeous, three sheets to the wind, and utterly focused on me—in other words, as irresistible as gravity—and no force on Earth could have prevented me from rising from my chair and throwing myself at his feet…
“Fuck you, Percival Champion,” Quinn spat with a hitch in his voice. “Fuck you so fucking hard.”
No force except that one, because when the weight of Quinn’s rage hit me square in the chest, it kept me rooted to my seat, staring up at him.
His cheeks were bright red, and his eyes shone just like they had that first night back in November, but his whole being radiated misery and anger.
“Quinn,” I began, but he held up a hand to cut me off.
“This is not your speaky time, Percival. You could have spoken to me earlier, but you didn’t. You left without saying a word.” He swallowed hard. “So now you can listen.”
I wanted to argue, to tell him that I’d asked Kev to pass him the message and Kev had gotten distracted, but my excuses sounded lame to my own ears.
I could have made the time to tell Quinn, but I hadn’t. Because deep down, I’d known he’d be disappointed.
Quinn removed what looked like a bar napkin from his pocket. The thing was covered in tiny blue scribbles that crisscrossed the tissue in both directions like ancient hieroglyphics. He squinted down at it.
“Fuck you, Percival Champion! Fuck you so fucking hard.” He paused. “Wait, sorry, I said that part. Ahem. You’re an asshole, and I’m so angry with you I could shit… spit. I mean spit.” Quinn glanced up. “Ava’s writing is really fucking loopy.”
I kept myself from blurting out how beautiful he was because I valued my life, and he was clearly on a roll.
He brought the napkin closer to his face, took a deep breath, and cleared his throat. “Champ, the whole time I’ve known you, I’ve tried to give you the benefit of the doubt. You lied to me, I forgave you. You used me, I went along with it. You talked to me about teamwork and trust, I believed you. You made me believe you. You fooled me into believing that our… our… non-relationship… was something important. And special. And I fell for it.”
My stomach pitched and swayed like a boat in chop.
“But when someone is your teammate—” He paused long enough to hiccup. “You don’t leave them with no explanation like you did tonight. When someone is special, you don’t break oaths to them like you did tonight. And I know we’re not anything real—not dating, sure as fuck not engaged—but I’m a person, Champ. A human being. And I deserve better.” He sniffed and swayed slightly, catching himself on the back of Jordan’s chair. “So I came here tonight to bring you your dog—”