Page 57 of How to Hack a Hellhound
“Hello?”
“Oh my gosh, Q, is that you? Man, how are you?” A familiar voice said. Before I could place it, Steph started up the espresso machine.
“Hold on,” I said into the phone, and then I gestured my phone at Steph. She nodded, and I headed into the back, but Aiden had the giant mixer running, so it wasn’t any quieter back there. I rolled my eyes and walked out the back door.
“Hey,” I said into the phone. “Who is this?”
I didn’t get an answer before a canvas bag was pulled over my head. I took a deep breath in to scream, but a sickly sweet smell overwhelmed me, making me feel nauseous and dizzy.
“Liam,” I muttered, trying to call out, and then blackness pulled me under.
Chapter 20
Liam
“So how exactly did you mark and mate him?” I asked Dexter.
“Ummm, well…” He trailed off and sort of shrugged.
I resisted the urge to bang my head against my desk. I’d spent most of the morning following money trails, and when Dexter had come in, it seemed the perfect time to do some research on permanently tying Quinton to me.
Of course, I’d discuss it with him first. That was the polite thing to do. I knew consent was important. But he’d opened up to me this morning, and he’d told me he loved me. Twice. I didn’t think Quinton said that to very many people, if anyone.
“You don’t know, do you,” I sighed.
“Well… I mean… I didn’t even know we could do that? So when Cass told me it was done, I didn’t really know when or how or anything.” Dexter shrugged.
“And you never asked?” For fuck’s sake. Dexter was like dealing with a computer that had way too many applications running at once—slow, unreliable, and glitchy.
“Umm… no?” he answered. “Maybe Toby knows, though. He likes to know that sort of stuff. He might have asked Cassius. But he’s writing right now, and he’s right in the middle of having anevil soul tortured by a hellhound, so I don’t want to interrupt him.
“Dexter,” I growled out.
“What? Art imitates life,” he said.
I put my forehead down then, gently banging it against my desk. I loved Dexter, and I loved Toby, but really, the two of them were like absent-minded meets airheaded. I wasn’t even sure which was which at this point—it was like they switched up the roles and took turns.
My head was resting on my desk when I swear I heard Quinton’s voice utter my name, and then I felt a sharp tug in my chest.
I gasped, lifting my head up and holding the skin above my heart. Something was wrong.
Dexter straightened up immediately, getting his business face on. “What is it?” he said, sniffing the air.
“I don’t know. Something is wrong with Quinton.” I pulled up my tracking app. Quinton’s phone was still at the coffee shop, but it looked like it was out back. Why would Quinton be out back, and why wasn’t he moving? I pulled up the tracker on his keys, but they were in the shop. His wallet was out back with his phone. “Get Cassius on the phone, now,” I demanded.
Dexter was pulling out his cell phone when mine rang. I snatched it up and hit the answer button.
“I didn’t realize it would be so soon or I would have warned you. I thought it was days in the future, nottoday,” Cassius babbled. “If I’d known it wastoday, I would have, I don’t know, I would have warned you somehow. But I couldn’t warn you too much because if I warned you too much or if you were here or if Q knew then it wouldn’t happen, and if it didn’t happen then you would never catch the other guy because he’s super smart, and if he thought he was made he was gonna disappear into the sunset, and Q is his last loose end so he’s gotta take care of that.”
It was one long stream of information, and I had a hard time figuring out what the fuck Cassius was talking about.
“Stop,” I said. “Breathe. Slow down, and tell me where Quinton is.”
Cassius took a deep breath. “He’s ok. He’s going to be ok. I know that much. I wouldneverhave let it happen if I didn’t know that. He’ll know that, too. He’ll know that you’ll save him. He’ll be ok, Liam.”
I felt myself growling, and Dexter placed a hand on my shoulder, taking the phone from me and putting it on speaker.
“Cass, Liam is having a moment, because it sounds like something bad happened to Q. Please tell me nothing bad happened to Q,” Dexter said.
