A Right to Remain Page 19

  He was a mixture of adorable and sexy when he opened the door shirtless and rubbing his sleepy eyes. A heightened sense of alarm spread over his face when his eyes came into focus and he realized it was me. “Are you...are you okay?”

  I nodded and took a step inside. “A tattoo. A bird tattoo on his inner left forearm. It’s not that big and kind of hard to make out at first, but it was definitely some type of bird.” I handed him the boxes, and he looked down at them in bewilderment. “This is everything of Aaron’s from his office. I haven’t looked through any of it, but I never threw anything away.” I placed my hand on the smaller box. “And these are the bank statements from his business for the past two years. I never opened them because I always let Adam handle that. So, there you have it. Everything you need to know about my husband, and you will see he had nothing to hide.”

  “Lacey, come on. You know that’s not what I’m trying to do here.”

  “I know, but they have you thinking it. I don’t want any doubt in anyone’s mind that Aaron was anything but the kind and genuine person I loved.”

  “Well, thanks for this, but you know you could have waited another”—he stretched his neck to look at the clock—“six hours or so to have given it to me.”

  “I know, but I couldn’t sleep. I have a lot of things on my mind…and you’re one of them. I’m sorry for flipping out on you the other night.”

  “It’s okay, Lacey. I know this is opening up a lot of old wounds for you, and I wish there were some other ways to figure this out without getting you involved, but right now you’re the one who can help the most. Just remembering that tattoo is huge.”

  “I wish I could do more, but there’s no one I trust working on this more than you. Just promise me you won’t keep me in the dark about anything, no matter how badly you think it will hurt me. I need to know the truth, Quinn.”

  “I promise.” He looked down at the ground and whispered.

  I took a step closer until we were only inches apart, unable to resist lifting my hand and caressing the side of his face. He took me by surprise when he backed away and shook his head.

  “Lacey, don’t.”

  I stared at him blankly.

  “You need to go, because right now, being this close to you is hard for me. Go get some sleep, and we’ll finish talking about this later.”

  “What if I don’t want to?”

  He averted his gaze.

  “Look at me, Quinn.” I reached for his hand, waiting for his eyes to lock with mine. “I know what I want, and it’s you. I’m done feeling guilty. I’m done feeling like it’s wrong. I want to be happy, and you’re the one person I’m happiest with. I’ll always have a special place for Aaron in my heart, and I’ll always have a spot for you too. He had my past, and I want you to have my present and hopefully my future.”

  The cute boyish grin that stretched across his face made my heart and body go into overdrive. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to throw my arms around him and hug him forever or rip his clothes off and make love to every inch of his body. My lips moved down his neck, and he closed his eyes.

  “There’s just one thing,” he whispered.

  “What’s that?”

  “I don’t like mixing business with pleasure.” He looked down at me and smirked. I was silent, never taking my eyes from him as I slithered my hand under the waistband of his boxers. He groaned when my fingertips caressed his erection. “Ah, fuck it! You’re worth breaking the rules for,” he said through clenched teeth, pushing me against the wall and lifting my pajama top over my head. My hands raked through his thick, wavy hair when he began circling his tongue around my nipple. Every part of me was yearning for him.

  He moved back up, and I whispered in his ear, “I need you inside of me right now.”

  “Are you sure about that?” he teased.

  “Oh, I’m positive.”

  “Well, if you insist.”

  I giggled when he gathered me into his arms and carried me into his bedroom. Laying me down on the bed, he pulled off my pajama bottoms and panties with ease.

  He lay down beside me and traced his finger up and down my body. “I know it’s only been a week, but I missed you…a lot.”

  “Well, why don’t you show me how much you missed me?”

  He smiled and stood up, stepping out of his shorts and boxers. I stared up at him and my stomach tingled, just seeing how ready he was for me. He hovered over me, and I let out a cry of pleasure when I felt the fullness of him inside of me. Our tongues collided while our bodies moved in unison. Every move he made brought a heightened sense of pleasure to my body.

  “You make me feel so fuckin’ good, Lacey,” he whispered in my ear as his thrusts became deeper and more intense.

  I stilled my body and looked up at him. “I want us to do it together, Quinn.”

  He nodded while trying to catch his breath. A few more movements on both our parts and we were there, reaching our high together. He rolled over on his back and pulled me on top of him. It felt so good to have his strong, muscular arms wrapped around me. I knew there was nowhere else on earth I’d rather be than with him. “Was that worth getting up in the middle of the night for?” I joked.

  “Hell yeah.” He kissed me on the top of my head, still holding me tightly. “You make me feel great, Lacey, and I don’t mean just in that way. When Andrew died, I became numb. I didn’t feel anything, regardless if it was pleasure or pain. I just went through the motions and drank to make it all go away. Then, when I found out Sara was cheating, I drank some more. Then you came along.” He pushed my hair behind my ear and kissed my forehead. “This short amount of time we’ve been apart felt like forever for me. I hope you finally realize how I feel about you. You mean everything to me.”

  I closed my eyes and rested my head against his warm chest, listening to his heartbeat. “I do, and I’m so happy to have found you. I love you, Quinn.”

  “I love you too, Lacey.”

  “Quinn?”

  “Hmm?”

  “How did you find out she was cheating on you?”

  “After we lost the baby, things weren’t good at all. I knew it and chose to ignore it. I drank too much. She buried herself in her job. We weren’t having sex and the few times we did I was so drunk, I didn’t even remember it.” I could hear the pain escalating in his voice with each word. “I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t perfect. Far from it, and maybe she had her reasons for doing what she did. I was in a really dark place. She was going on a business trip to San Francisco. She was running late and rushing out the door to get to the airport. She forgot her phone and he must’ve already been there waiting for her and decided to share everything he was planning on doing with her in a text message. Instead of her reading all about it, I did.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “Yeah.” He let out a sarcastic laugh.

  “Did you confront her?”

  “Didn’t have to. She knew when she got home that she was flat out busted. I hated her for what she did. She begged me to go to counseling with her and swore it was over with him. I should have left then.”

  I placed a gentle kiss on his shoulder, hoping to alleviate some of the hurt he was feeling by telling me this story.

  “But instead, I did the counseling thing with her, and we tried to go back to being that couple we once were. That didn’t last for very long. Every time I had sex with her, I kept imagining her with him. Just being with her became a chore. I didn’t feel anything anymore, and I thought that was normal because I was still hurting over Andrew and because I was trying to get over the fact that she cheated on me. Then finally one day I decided I needed to move out and be on my own to figure out what it was I wanted, only to find out she was still seeing him the whole time we were supposed to be working on our marriage.”

  “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Quinn.”

  “I’m not.”

  I creased my eyebrows.

  “Because then I wouldn’t be lying here with thi
s beautiful girl who made me feel again. I would have never met you, Lacey. Do you remember a while ago when you told me you believe all of this terrible stuff happened in our lives for a reason?”

  I nodded and stared at him, waiting desperately for his reply.

  “Well, I still don’t see the reason why this happened to my son, but I know now why this happened between Sara and me. It was because I needed to find you.”

  I bit my bottom lip, fighting back the tears. I had endured a lot, that was for sure, but I had also been so blessed. I was given not one, but two wonderful men in my life. I always thought men like Aaron were a rarity. A once in a lifetime. I had heard other people’s horror stories about the dating scene or their boyfriends and husbands. At my last job back home, I would sit in the teacher’s lounge, eating my lunch to the same rhetoric every day, listening to the girls I worked with each vying for the biggest asshole husband award. I would shake my head and realize how lucky I was to have someone I truly loved. He didn’t go out to bars and come home at two a.m. He wasn’t a mama’s boy. He didn’t leave dirty dishes all over the place. I didn’t view sex with him as a chore. All these things those women would complain about didn’t exist for me. I was in love with my husband, and part of me wondered if that was normal after hearing everyone else talk. When he died, I thought there would never be another man like him out there, and if there was, I certainly wouldn’t be lucky enough to cross paths with him. I was given my one true love. The perfect man and husband, and he was gone. But then I met Quinn. He was so much like Aaron, it scared me. He was sweet, caring, loving, and genuine and was able to overlook my emotional scars, never viewing me as the damaged girl I once viewed myself as. He wasn’t afraid to put his feelings for me out there, and there were even times I would catch a glimpse of Aaron in his smile. There was no doubt in my mind that Aaron had led me to this man so much like himself, so I could finish living the life I was meant to have with him.

  “Just promise me we’ll be one hundred percent honest with each other with everything. Whether it’s how you’re feeling about your divorce—”

  “Lacey, I told you—”

  I pressed my finger on his lips to stop him from talking. “Okay, and I believe you, but I need you to know you can tell me anything, and I can deal with it. That means anything with this case too.”

  “Promise,” he replied, sounding like he was about to give in to his sleepiness.

  I turned on my side and cuddled next to him. I didn’t want to fall asleep. I wanted to relish in the pure contentment I was feeling at the moment in hopes it would last forever, but it wasn’t long before my tired eyes gave in, and I fell asleep in his arms.

  Chapter 31

  Quinn

  “Hey, sleepy girl.” I bent down and gave Lacey a kiss on her cheek, just as she started to stir. She abruptly sat up and stared at the clock. “Relax, Lacey, it’s Saturday.”

  Letting out a sigh of relief, she smiled when her eyes met mine once again.

  “You’re up and dressed already? Why didn’t you wake me?” I loved the raspy tone to her voice when she would first wake up.

  “What for? It’s the weekend and you were tired. I let Gus out for you.”

  “Oh shoot!” She started to get up, and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

  “I fed him for you too.”

  “You are just too good to be true.” She took my face in her hands and squeezed my cheeks.

  “Oh, and I see you’re leaving your new gloves lying around like the others.” I placed her gloves on the bed next to her.

  She backed away like I was holding a bomb. “Where did you find those?”

  “On the hood of your Jeep.”

  She stared at them cautiously once again, and I knew something wasn’t right.

  “Lacey, what’s wrong?”

  “Oh, umm…nothing. I just don’t remember leaving them there.” She shook her head and forced a smile, still looking a million miles away.

  “Lacey, are you okay?”

  “Yup! I’m fine.” She pulled me into a hug before I could see the expression on her face. She could put on an act all she wanted, but I knew she wasn’t fine. Something about those gloves set her off.

  “So, what are your plans for today?”

  “Well, I have a kickboxing class, then I’m meeting up with a friend of mine for lunch.”

  “So, can I take you out to dinner?”

  “I’d like that.” She smiled.

  “Lacey, remember our promise to be honest with each other?” I reminded her as she got out of bed.

  “I remember.” She stared at me questionably, reaching down for her clothes and getting dressed. “What is it you think I’m not being honest about?”

  “I don’t know. You seemed pretty freaked out over those gloves.”

  She shook her head and raised her eyebrow. “No, I just forget doing things sometimes, and I totally forgot putting them there yesterday. Everything’s fine. I promise.” She stood on her tippy-toes and swiped my cheek with a kiss.

  ***

  I headed into work for a few hours, and even though I hated doing it, I had one of the guys on patrol keep an eye on Lacey, following her from place to place to make sure nothing was out of the norm. As much as she wanted me to believe everything was okay, I knew it wasn’t. Someone had put those gloves there, and I wanted to make sure that someone wasn’t following her. So far so good. I had gotten a text from the officer I had tailing her, and she had checked into her kickboxing class.

  After I finished up with my work, I texted the officer who was following Lacey. He let me know she had stopped off at the local diner. I decided to relieve him of his duty. Parking out of the way in the diner parking lot, I looked around to see if anything was out of the norm or if anyone was hanging around her Jeep. I didn’t care how long it took or if I had to sit outside of my place night after night, I was determined to find out who was doing this to Lacey. Boredom was getting the best of me, and I was relieved when I finally saw Lacey walking out. I squinted to get a closer look at the woman walking out behind her. “What the fuck?” I whispered. Why the hell was Lacey having lunch with my mother, and why didn’t she tell me instead of saying she was having lunch with a friend? The only thing that came to mind was that my mother was going back on her word about being happy for me, and was meeting with Lacey to give her a guilt trip about our relationship. I could feel my anger escalating. She was unbelievable. She never stopped, and I was going to let her know about it. Not now, though, I didn’t want Lacey to know I was following her. When I saw the two of them hug before they each got into their cars, I was more confused than ever. I knew Lacey and my mother hit it off at Christmas, but Lacey never gave me any indication the two of them were hanging out.

  I shook my head, totally baffled as I tried to make sense of it all long after Lacey pulled out of the parking lot. Lacey had given me that whole spiel last night about being honest and here she was keeping something as stupid as this from me. I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t be with someone I couldn’t trust. Maybe Lacey had her reasons for it, but I was still pissed off over it. I pulled out of the parking lot, not ready to face her yet, so I decided to stop off at the bar for a drink.

  “Hey, stranger! Where ya been?” Liza beamed as I walked through the door. She wasted no time, placing my usual drink of choice in front of me—a shot of Jack. “So, how have things been?” she asked, leaning over the bar and giving me the perfect view of her low-cut top and the cleavage underneath.

  “Pretty good,” I replied, slamming down another shot.

  “So, is the divorce final yet?”

  I stared at her blankly and didn’t answer.

  “Sorry, guess it’s not my business.”

  “Nope. It’s not.”

  She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips at me. “Well, I can see you’re still scorned over the whole thing!”

  I smirked and held up my shot glass, summoning her to bring me another.

&
nbsp; After a few more drinks and a few of my buddies from work showing up, I was finally feeling better and had put the events of earlier in the day in the back of my mind. In fact, I had temporarily put all thoughts of Lacey in the back of my mind as the drinks continued to go down and Liza continued to flirt.

  “Quinn?” I heard a female voice over the laughter and conversation in the bar. I looked at the girl, trying to remember where I knew her from, and when I saw the guy she was with, I put the pieces together right away. Lacey’s coworker and her boyfriend.

  “What’s up?” I half-heartedly responded to her as her boyfriend looked me over.

  “Not much! Is Lacey here?” she asked, looking around.

  “No.”

  “Oh.” She seemed a little disappointed. “Well, it was good seeing you,” she said in an overenthusiastic tone.

  I stared at the two of them as they walked off to the other side of the bar, now with Lacey in the forefront of my mind as I instantly went back into detective mode. Someone had left those gloves on Lacey’s Jeep last night, even if she didn’t admit it. The look on her face said it all. He was in the area today, which meant there was a good chance he would have been around last night when they were put there. I went over a few more scenarios before putting my coat on and getting up to leave.

  “Quinn, where you going, man?” one of the guys from work shouted.

  “I just remembered I have to be somewhere.”

  “Aww, man, you’re no fun anymore!” they all chimed in.

  “Yeah, well, you guys can drink my share.”

  “Oh, we will!” one of them exclaimed as I headed out the door.

  I took a deep breath when I walked outside into the freezing cold as the sun was beginning to set. I did a double take upon seeing him outside smoking a cigarette.

  “He was my best fuckin’ friend, so you better tell your buddies with the Brookline PD to back off. I had nothing to do with his murder,” he shouted as I walked by.