said. They’d already been briefed about the call within five
seconds of walking in the door. At least they’d come together
so Quinn only had to tell the story once. “It does seem kind of
weird, but I don’t know that you can just not go. I mean, she
could likely take you to court or get an order forcing you to
appear. Is it really worth all that? You’d have to hire a lawyer.”
“Yeah, but she would have to get one too,” Billy cut in.
“You could give her the trouble of having to go through all
that. She’d probably have to spend way more money than
what’s even there just to get it. It wouldn’t be worth it for her.”
Quinn considered that. She knew she was standing still,
but she could feel herself squirming. A shiver went up her
spine, back down, and up again. Her neck tensed. Her chest
felt tight and her stomach was a mess. She could feel the
nerves there. The shock of that call earlier. She knew Dallas
would never call, but she hadn’t expected the lawyer to. She
didn’t think that she’d care that Dallas was back in Topeka, but
knowing she was there, even though the city was huge, put
Quinn on edge.
It didn’t matter how many times she told herself that she
didn’t care, wouldn’t care, couldn’t care, and that she was so
far over Dallas that it was unthinkable that she’d feel anything
but numb, she knew it wasn’t true. Knowing that Dallas was
back rattled her. It rattled her so hard she might as well have
been kicked straight in the teeth. Yup. That phone call was a
real bell ringer. Bell meaning head and ringer meaning
clusterfuck.
“Grampy obviously wanted her to have that money.” The
words scraped out before Quinn had time to process them, but
as soon as she’d said them, she knew it was true. “I’m not