Quinn's Deirdre by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy Read Free Book Online Page B

single-minded focus
had been coming straight to Quinn, like a pigeon released to its homing.   She probably should contact the paper and let
them know she wasn’t coming back.   And
she’d have to call her WITSEC handler, or she’d think the worst.   She glanced up to see Quinn’s worried eyes
trained on her.   I think he’s glad I’m back, but he’s not sure I’m here to stay.   I can see it, the way he looks at me like
I’ll vanish again.
    “I was in Arkansas,” she said.   “It was a little town, Siloam Springs. And I
suppose there are a few calls I need to make.”
    His forehead wrinkled and his stare
darkened. “Arkansas? What in hell’s name were ye doing there? Ye didn’t have a
fella, did ye?”
    Deirdre tightened her grip on his hand. “No,
I didn’t. There was no one who ever mattered to me but you.   You’re all I thought about for three years,
damn it, and when I couldn’t stand being apart from you any more, I came.”
    Quinn exhaled through his nose with
force.   “Arkansas.”   He said it with some distaste and as if it
were a million miles distant.   Deirdre
supposed in some ways it had been.   And,
anything he knew about Arkansas came from movies.   They’d watched the most recent version of True Grit more than once and Lonesome Dove , a movie featuring a Fort
Smith sheriff.   Sling Blade had both horrified and fascinated them both, she
recalled.   As if he’d caught the thought,
Quinn said, “Was the place like the town in Sling
Blade?”
    She thought about the film, the dollar
store, the Tastee Freeze, and the townspeople depicted.   Deidre nodded. “It was something like it,
yes.”
    “Jesus and Mary, how’d ye stand it?”
Quinn said and shook his head. “And why did ye ever go there?”
    Deidre opened her mouth to answer, but
he held up a hand. “Save it for when we’ve the time,” he said. “I can’t think
about it now or I’ll go crazy.   Ye can go
up to the flat if ye want.”
    Earlier, he’d been in a fine mood, but
it had faded.   Talking about what
happened might prove to be more difficult than she’d thought.   “Are you angry with me?” she asked.   He had plenty of reason, but she didn’t want
him to be mad.
    “Woman, I’m not.   Or maybe I am, a wee bit, but I love ye more.    I wish I
could take off now to talk with ye , but I can’t.”
Quinn paused and rubbed his forehead with his fingers. “My head still hurts,
though ‘tis not as bad.”
    So his shift in mood wasn’t entirely her
fault.   Good. “Did you take something for
it?”
    “I haven’t.   Nothing helps much but a drink.”
    “Then why haven’t you had one?”
    His frown lightened and he flashed a
sheepish little grin. “I didn’t want ye to think I’m
always a drunken sot and scare ye away.”
    Somewhere inside, her sunshine returned.
“I don’t scare as easy now,” Deirdre said and stood up. “I learned my lesson
the hard way.”
    “Where are ye goin’, then?”
    “To get you a drink,
of course.”
    Quinn smiled and she basked in the
warmth of it all the way to the bar.
     

Chapter Five
     
    Upstairs, alone, Deirdre kicked off her
shoes and tucked her feet beneath her on the sofa.   She dug into her purse and pulled out the
cell phone, Mallory’s phone, not hers.    Deirdre turned it on, then off and sat with it cradled in the palm of
her hand for a few moments.   Today is Tuesday , she thought, and she
had missed work yesterday.   Her boss, Bob
Emory and his wife, Eva, probably had called.   As Mallory, she’d never bothered with a landline phone.   I need
a story to tell them, something plausible before they get too many wild
ideas.   I want them to forget Mallory
ASAP.   Fifteen minutes later, she
turned on the phone.   Bob had left two
messages, Eva one.   Jeff, her sometimes
so-called boyfriend, a man she’d dated maybe half a dozen times had called,
too.   Deirdre listened to the messages
before she phoned the