“Really? How much?” Now there’s a tiny ray of sunshine. Some good will come out of this mess.
“I’ll let him tell you.” She pulls into the parking lot and shuts off the engine as she rolls into the space by the front door.
“I hate surprises,” I say, getting out of the car. The pain in my chest from the taser is almost nothing now, but I cringe anyway. All my efforts at gaining pity are wasted, though, since Teagan’s not looking at me.
Teagan leads the way through her office and up the stairs to Rebel’s apartment. I look down the hall uneasily at Colin’s door, but it doesn’t open.
As I walk into Rebel’s place, the first thing I see is Alissa sitting on the couch with an e-reader in her hand. She glances up and says, “Hi,” before going back to her book or whatever it is she’s looking at.
“Hi. How are you feeling?” I ask.
“Good.” She doesn’t even look up this time.
Alrighty, then. I look around and suddenly notice she’s not the only one in the room. Colin is in the far corner and he’s staring at me.
I’m instantly nervous, breaking out in a cold sweat. I can feel my hair wanting to frizz. Dammit.
“Hi, Quin. Thanks for coming over,” he says.
My eyes narrow and some anger slips back into my heart. Mick is lying in a hospital room right now, lighter in the organ department because of him.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asks. His voice is cautious. Calm. Way cooler than mine.
“No.” I grip my purse strap hard with both hands. Teagan warned me about making a scene with asking Alissa questions; I’m pretty sure making a scene includes causing one in her general vicinity too.
“Quin, go talk to him. Please?” Teagan is not playing. She sounds tired and sad.
I blow a gust of hot breath up onto my forehead. “Fine. Talk.” I stare at a spot over his head. I can’t look him in the eyes right now. I feel guilty for some stupid reason.
“I’d rather do it at my place,” he says.
“Bad idea,” I say. “Do it here.”
“If you guys don’t mind, maybe it would be better if you did it over there,” says Alissa, suddenly coming out of her book stupor. Her face is all pinched and snooty-looking.
My mouth drops open. What the …? How dare she? What … she’s here for a day or two and suddenly this is her place and she’s calling the shots?
Teagan sees my expression and comes rushing over. “Yes, what a good idea. Go on over to Colin’s place so we can just relax over here. Without all the noise and stuff. Right? That would be good, right?” Teagan frowns at me and then gives me a huge fake smile that stretches from one ear to the other across her face. Her earlier lecture about not upsetting Alissa comes back to haunt me.
“Fine. I’ll go out to the hallway.” I leave the room without looking at anyone, refusing to acknowledge Teagan’s attempts at making it up to me with smiles and a thumbs-up sign. I’m totally going to slap her ass later for this one. And Alissa … boy when she’s done being pregnant, she’s going to hear it from me.
I’m not out there alone for long. Colin joins me, but he moves past me and goes to his door.
“I told you, out here. I’m not going in there.” I grab my purse strap with both hands again and squeeeeeeze.
“That’s fine. I just want to get something. Be right back.”
I stand there tapping my foot and breathing angrily. Huffs of air come out and my eyes roll to the ceiling and then all around. I’ve worked myself up into full-on panty twistage by the time he comes back out.
Thing is, I can’t actually see him. There are too many damn yellow roses covering his face.
My heart drops into my abdominal cavity and the anger that was previously burning up my brain disappears to be replaced by a thin trickle of dread. My hands leave my purse strap and flop to my sides. “Oh, shit, Colin…” Words fail me from that point.
“Don’t be mad,” he says, stopping in front of me. He lowers the bouquet so I can see him again. “I just got these as an apology and a thank you. They’re yellow. The lady at the shop said they’re for friendship.”
My hand moves up on its own power to touch one of the flowers. Its petals are cool to my fingertips and satiny soft. “This was a really stupid thing to do.” I don’t sound very convincing, even to my own ears. Taking the vase from him, I bury my face into the blooms and inhale the luscious scent of the roses. “No one has ever bought me flowers before except my mom, and that was just today.”