Page 44 of Sins or Secrets
It’s business.
Strictly business. And it was me thinking with that same mind that made me sleep in my truck to watch the motel.
It was like a stakeout, and I was able to tell Ethan that I hadn’t seen Billy go back there.
It was business too when I checked in with the foreman I hired to assess the lake house and made sure Quinn was safe.
It was business and I’m not going to irritate myself further and admit the memories I shared with Quinn didn’t hit me like lightning with thunder roaring in my ears with every second I spent with her.
Now that she’s not at the motel I don’t have to be concerned about her.I looked like a big enough pussy as it was confessing that I’d stayed out in my truck all night playing bodyguard.But, I couldn’t shake my mind free of the way we spoke on the journey to the house.
What hit me most and stuck in my mind was the declaration that her life wasn’t what the papers made it seem to be.It felt like a continuation of what she'd said yesterday at my office.
As the day wore on I found that I couldn’t stop thinking about her and what she was trying to tell me.
Would I really be the idiot if I took her words to mean she and Riley weren’t the dream couple the press made them out to be?
One of America’s wealthiest men and eligible bachelors getting hitched to the prima ballerina makes the news.The celeb magazines made them look like the fucking royal couple of love.Like every duet in history that people classed as the power couple.
Or, maybe it was just me who paid too much attention.At one point, something about them seemed to be in my damn face every minute.Especially after they first got married.Every time I saw a picture of them it was like a punch in the gut, a slap in the face and a wake up call resounding that reality check.
I was the loser.
There was a reason talk of their divorce was actual news.It was because people were genuinely as shocked to hear they were splitting as they were by what daddy dearest had done.
Riley didn’t seem like the kind of guy to jump ship because his wife’s father had gotten himself in some incriminating shit.But I figured he must have been.
And, while Quinn didn’t say much, she didn’t make it seem like they’d been the power couple I assumed.
I’m not gonna lie I was fucking jealous and bitter for a long time.More than anything I felt like the stupid jarhead who thought he could get the girl.Emphasis on the word thought.I was the guy who wanted to give Quinn everything she needed and I was going to work hard to do it, but that motherfucker didn’t even have to bust a sweat to give it to her.
He was theready made husband with the resources to make all her dreams come true pouring out of his deep pockets.
I won’t lie either and say that my jealousy, which I didn’t know I still had, eased up when she said things weren't what they seemed to be.
I realized after I left her that not thinking about her was going to prove harder than I thought.Whether that was because of the image of her perfect body with her perfect rack and perfect ass, or what she said.
As the next day rolled by, I busied myself by focusing on Billy and managed to track him down later in the evening in a bar hanging out with his friends.
Since it was no longer appropriate to confront him, I kept an eye on him and had one of my street guys take over from me after Billy left the bar.Either I'll get a call in the night or a report in the morning.
By the time I got home, I messed up the good day I’d had of not thinking of Quinn by succumbing to my curiosity when I found myself running a search through police records on her father and Riley.What was there on Peter was pretty much what I’d seen on the news, but my suspicions were confirmed when I looked a little deeper and saw that the feds seized all his assets.Every last thing was taken and that would explain why Quinn Cambray is broke.
Riley’s records were clean. Too clean in my opinion, so I did the thing I normally do when I suspect a person is covering up shit they don’t want others to see.
And bingo, I found dirt. I didn’t hack per se.It was more like digging around the internet for things that had been removed and taking a peak using my skills which yes most would call unorthodox.It’s why I’m so good at what I do, and why I’m not a cop.I can find shit moist P.I’s can’t because I live by my own rules.
It seems very much like Riley Langford did thesame.What I saw was everything from escorts to high end prostitutes he’d hooked up with in variouscountries.Drug charges that had been dropped and DUI charges that had been pushed to the back of the shelf because of who hewas.There were reports of assault and battery to his staff, public disorder, racketeering, and all manner of shit that would land common folk behind bars foryears.
All those dates I looked at were recent, as in while he was married toQuinn.The earliest date that I found something was the week of theirmarriage.It was an article from two hookers he’d spent the night with who told their tale of the threesome they had with him while he was on his supposedhoneymoon.
I stopped looking after awhile.It was too much, and more than anything it enraged me even though the search gave me the answer to myquestion.
Quinn wasn’t lying.
Her life was nothing like what the media made it looklike.
Quinn
