“Safe? I had men searching through my apartment building for me. Nate got shot at. Julien’s dead, for God’s sake. I even had to come here using a fake passport. Where’s the ‘safe’ in any of that?”
“Listen to me,” Quinn said. “No one can get to you here. No one knows about this place except the three of us and Orlando.”
“You mean Claire,” Liz said, defiant.
“She prefers ‘Orlando.’ ”
“ ‘Claire’ is actually kind of nice,” Nate said.
“Shut up, Nate,” Quinn said.
“Don’t tell him to shut up,” Liz said.
Quinn took a deep breath and tried to say calm. “Liz, please. We can talk about all this later.”
“So you can tell me another lie? No thanks, Jake. You can live in whatever kind of world you’ve created. I don’t care. I don’t care if we never talk again. I don’t need you. I’m getting out of here.”
She started to turn toward the door, but he grabbed her by the arms. She tried to pull away, but he held on.
“I’m trying to protect you.”
“Like you’ve protected me all these years since you left home?” she yelled, tears welling in her eyes. “I just want you to disappear. I don’t need you.”
Quinn closed his eyes for a second, then looked at her again. “Until I make sure the threat is over, you need to stay here. After that, I promise, you never have to deal with me again.”
She stared at him, her shoulders moving up and down with each breath. “Fine,” she said. She tried to pull away again, but he didn’t let go. “Do you mind?”
“You’ll stay in this apartment until I tell you you can go?” he asked.
“I already said I would.”
“Even if we have to leave you here alone sometimes?”
Her eyes darted away from his. “Sure.”
“Liz, I’m serious. I might need Nate, and that means you’ll be here by yourself. But if you think you can use it as an opportunity to sneak out, then our deal is off, and you’ll never be rid of me. You understand?”
They stared at each other for several seconds. “I understand,” she finally said. “I assume it’s okay if I use the bathroom, or is that off-limits, too?”
He let go of her arms. “Down the hallway,” he said, pointing behind him.
She brushed past him and disappeared into the hallway. Once he heard the bathroom door shut, he turned to Nate.
“Don’t you ever do that again,” he said.
“What?” Nate asked.
“Get between me and my sister.”
“I was just trying to lighten the mood. I thought you were going to rip each other apart.”
“I don’t care what you were trying to do. Your job is to make sure Liz is safe, and that’s all!”
Nate’s eyes narrowed, his face hardening. “That’s exactly what I’ve been doing!” Tension filled the space between them for another moment, then, in a calmer voice, Nate asked, “Do you want to know what happened this morning?”
“Yes. Of course,” Quinn said. “What happened?”
Nate told him about the failed meeting with Julien and the subsequent encounter with the men Julien had been pretending to work with.
“How much does Liz know?” Quinn asked, shooting a glance toward the hallway, expecting his sister to reappear at any second.
“Only that Julien is dead, and that there were some gunshots. She doesn’t know I killed them. Not for sure, anyway.”
“About me, I mean.”
“She knows you don’t work in banking. And that I work for you. She asked a lot of questions, but I told her she would have to get details from you.”
“Okay. Good,” Quinn said. It was the best he could hope for. “Any other problems after your encounter this morning?”
Nate shook his head.
“I need to get back to Orlando,” Quinn said. “You stay here for now.”
“Have you found out who sent the men to Paris?”
“Not yet. But we’ve got a pretty good idea who he is.” He looked around the room like he’d set something down and couldn’t remember where it was. “There’s no food in the kitchen. You’ll have to go out and get some. But only you. Liz isn’t to leave.”
“Got it.”
