Page 10 of The One for Forever

I crash into him, tackling him to the ground and wrenching whatever’s in his hand away. The object slides across the granite ballroom floor. There are screams and commotion all around me. The guy tries to wiggle free, but I pin him down with my weight. “Stop moving,” I order. He tries to spit at me, but that’s hard to do facedown.

“Free Amber!” he screams. “Free Amber!”

When I glance up, dozens of police officers have their weapons drawn, all pointing at the guy. And, given my position, at me. But that doesn’t raise my pulse. The thought of Quinn, though. Where is she? Is she okay?

“What the hell is this?” Sean Holt, chief of police, pushes through the phalanx of officers to reach me. Max comes up on my other side. “Are you two bringing trouble to my wife’s event?” Sean asks quietly.

“Can’t help ourselves,” Max murmurs. They’re keeping their voices down because, undoubtedly, cameras are pointed at us right now.

“The guy had a weapon. We need to find it.” I scan the ground for the gun, but there are too many people crowding around, shouting and demanding to know what happened. An officer comes forward to cuff the intruder’s arms behind his back, and all the while he’s still screaming aboutfreeing Amber.

“I’ve got it!” a feminine voice shouts. And the crowd parts.

There’s Quinn, a stretch of her long leg peeking from the slit in her dress. She’s got the pointed toe of her stiletto resting on something.

A perfume bottle.

Shit.That’swhat the guy was pulling from his jacket? He’s lucky he isn’t dead for pulling a stunt like that in a room with this many armed officers.

“Thanks, Rex.” Sean pats my shoulder. “My people will take it from here.”

“No problem.” I stand and step back to give them room, but I can’t tear my gaze from Quinn. That endless stretch of leg. The confident way she lifts her shoe to allow another officer to bag the perfume bottle as evidence. For several slow beats, the crowd swirls around us, but all I can see is her. And her pale blue eyes are locked on me.

I close the distance between us, barely aware of my feet moving. “Are you alright?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Then time speeds up again as Cliff barrels toward us. “Quinn!Dad! What the heck happened?”

“We’ve got an audience,” Lana says, nodding her head at the crowd.

Things start to settle, and our group moves off to the side. Max and Lana, Cliff and Quinn. Me. Cliff’s girlfriend, Lia,appears and says hello. We form a tight circle. “What’s the deal with the perfume bottle?” Lia asks.

“It’s calledAdore Me,” Quinn says. “I recognized the shape of the bottle. Amber Printz was the spokesmodel for it a few years ago.”

Of freaking course. That damn trial.

Max claps me on the arm. “Nice save, Rex. Lucky thing you got to the guy before somebody shot him. Would’ve caused a far bigger mess.”

Quinn gives me a small smile, but too quickly, her eyes dart away.

Max kisses Lana on the forehead, wrapping his arm protectively around her middle. “I’m sorry, babe. That guy never should’ve gotten so close.”

“No harm this time,” Lana says. “Just a stupid publicity stunt. I’m sure the video is already being loaded to TikTok.”

“But it could’ve been far worse.” Max scowls in the direction of the intruder, who’s being led out of the ballroom by uniformed officers. “I’m going to talk to Sean about their security for this event. I want to know how that guy got in, because I doubt he’s a bar association member.”

The event organizers are trying to calm everyone down, passing out more champagne flutes as fast as the servers can carry them. I keep trying to catch Quinn’s eye again, but she seems to be looking anywhere but at me. Lia is whispering something to her.

I’m unsettled, but it’s not the idiot who disrupted our night that’s on my mind.

Seeing her tonight in that gown, hair styled in that sophisticated way, makeup accenting her features… It threw me off. And I don’t like to be thrown off.

Quinn’s grown up.Reallygrown up. She’s twenty-eight, a prosecutor. A woman with a career and her own apartment. Her own life. Probably a boyfriend. Or several.

How the heck did all of that happen without me noticing?

Maybe the real issue is, it reminds me of how old I am. That big birthday coming up next year. I cringe, thinking of the number.Fifty. Damned if that doesn’t sound old. In my head, I’m still in my prime. But I guess all the gray in my hair and beard in the mirror should’ve been a clue. I’ve never been vain, but I’ve noticed sun damage from those years spent under the desert sun.

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