Cold Shadow (Cold Country #2)(89)

"Perfectly ideal." The deputy sounded angry. "And we never even thought twice about it. It's been closed so long. Okay, tell me about the other two. Who are they?"

Quinn had to shrug. He was starting to shake. "The chick … the woman … " He couldn't say the words that were echoing in his head. He couldn't believe them. "I think she's Nathan's wife." The deputy looked at him with shock clear in his eyes. "I know, right? That's what I said."

The deputy stopped talking to him and started whispering to someone nearby. When he was finished, he turned back to Quinn. "I have enough, Mr. Anders. I want you to go with the paramedic. I need to make sure you're not hurt. And I want you to stay there until I come back to get you."

Quinn didn't like being told what to do. But right now, he couldn't do anything but nod. He turned to look for Nate; he found nothing but a wall of suits and uniforms and too many people getting in the way. The medic gripped his elbow and firmly guided him out of the parking lot and across the road to the field. Natalie sat in the back of one of the ambulances; she seemed on the verge of hysterics. Quinn broke away from the medic and went to sit with her. He took her too-fragile hands in his big, bloody hands. "He's okay. We got to him in time," he told her because he knew no one had told her a damned thing. "They drugged him. That's all. He's going to be okay."

She looked up at him, her eyes so much like Nate's-the gray that turned silver or thunderous depending on their moods. Unlike her brother's, Nat's brimmed with tears and fear. She twined their hands together. The blood didn't seem to bother her. "But Drew isn't?"

Quinn knew better than to lie to her. The cops thought they were doing him a favor by not telling him the truth. He shook his head. He didn't stop the tears that came this time. She squeezed his hands and cried with him.





Chapter Twenty-Six




"Where's Quinn?" Nathan leaned over the table in one of the interrogation rooms. His bicep had been bandaged, but it still stung and blood seeped through. It wasn't bad. He'd had worse. That no one seemed to care that he'd been shoved in the back of a cruiser and driven in like a criminal pissed him off.

"Mr. Anders has been questioned and released," Agent Morgan answered. He sat across the table pressing his fingertips into his temple. "We're about done here, Nathan."

"Hope so, I'm bleeding. I need stitches. And coffee. How's Lonnie? Where's my sister? Has someone called my parents? Natalie needs someone with her right now, she's pregnant for Christ's sake."

"Mr. Ortiz's mother is with her, they seem to be fine. Mr. Ortiz is still in the hospital. They're going to keep him a couple of days. I notice you didn't ask about Agent Walker." The guy really was a prick.

"I'm not ready to ask about Drew." He hated shoving his emotions in a compartment in his head. He hated not being able to let himself have a moment to worry about a man he loved.

"And the woman?" Agent Asshole tapped an old mugshot of Victoria Hughes. "How do you know this woman?"

"We've already been over this. Several times. What is one more time going to accomplish?" Nathan glared at the man even though he knew exactly what they were doing. He'd done it so many times from that side of the table. Deputy Marcus Wendt came in with a cup of coffee from one of the diners down the street and set it in front of Nathan. He pulled out a chair and took a seat.



       
         
       
        

"I'm the highest-ranking officer in the department and his union   rep. He's being questioned without counsel. So mirandize him and let him call a lawyer, or I'm filing a complaint with your bosses." He stared down the agent and took a long sip of the bottle of water he'd brought for himself. Nathan found it comforting that Marcus hadn't offered the agent anything. "Or am I wrong in what I'm thinking is going on here?"

"The wife. Let's get back to the wife so we can go … " The agent leaned back in the chair and covered his eyes as if Marcus had never said a word. They'd been here for hours. Long into the night, and now into the morning. "I still have to process that scene. Not sure I want to go back out there."

"Don't blame you," Nathan replied. He hadn't been allowed into the butcher shop after he'd shot Tori. "It was dark when I found Drew and Quinn inside. I couldn't see, but I could smell. Not sure I'm getting that scent out of my nostrils anytime soon."

"The visual is worse," Marcus said, getting comfortable. "Are we not following procedure anymore? Is this the way the FBI questions people nowadays?"