Sworn to Protect by Katie Reus Read Free Book Online Page A

eyes were dark and hollow. And I know he’d been drinking. Or at least I smelled it on him. Oh, and he had a tattoo peeking out from his sweater sleeve. It was the head of a snake with red eyes.”
    Quinn frowned at the mention of the tattoo. Glenn hadn’t had a tattoo back when he’d been in law enforcement, but things could have changed in prison. Quinn pulled out his cell phone and pulled up an old article about Glenn. It was a picture of him in his uniform—because the media had loved the idea of a bad cop, fucking vultures—next to the article about his trial. After zooming in on the face, Quinn handed his phone to her. “This him?”
    Leaning closer as she took it, her eyes widened a fraction as she looked at the screen. “Oh my gosh, yeah, this is him. He’s a little younger here, but yes, this is definitely him. Wait a minute, he’s wearing… Is he a cop?” She whispered the last part, clearly horrified by the idea.
    “Used to be. Not anymore. He just got out of prison a couple months ago.”
    Athena leaned back in her chair, her expression understanding. “You helped put him there, didn’t you?”
    Quinn nodded. He’d explain everything to her once they got out of here, but now wasn’t the time for that story. He wanted her somewhere safer, where he could watch out for any potential threat. “Yeah. Listen, I’d feel a lot better if I could drive you home. I’ll contact Grant and have him come get your car and—”
    “Okay.”
    His eyes widened. “No arguments?”
    She let out a shaky laugh. “Are you freaking kidding me? That guy scared the hell out of me. If you want to drive me home, I’m on board. What I don’t get is, why would he have followed me here—and I’m assuming he must have. This obviously wasn’t random.”
    Definitely not random. Which meant that fucker had been watching Quinn and had guessed that Athena meant something to him. Something he should have considered. But coming after Quinn was stupid. Beyond it in fact. It wasn’t like he was the only one who’d had a hand in Glenn’s arrest and prosecution. “He must have seen us at lunch today.”
    She shrugged. “So?”
    “Honestly I don’t know what his reasoning is. You’re a beautiful woman and since he saw us together he might have thought you’re important to me.” Which she was.
    “But…you said he got out of prison a couple months ago. Has he bothered any other women you’ve gone out with?”
    Quinn snorted. “I haven’t been out with anyone since you.” Let her make of that what she wanted. Her lips parted in an adorably sexy way he’d seen her do a couple times when surprised but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. Not now. “I need to talk to Stephanos about his security before we go and—”
    “It’s not working.” She bit her bottom lip at his frown, but continued. “It’s been on the fritz for about a week so they’ve got someone coming out Thursday to look at it. They’ve never had a problem here in the past since all the employees are either family or go to Steven and Stephanos’ church so they didn’t put a rush on it.”
    Quinn let out a growl of frustration.
    “He’s feels terrible,” she whispered, leaning closer to him, moving so that their knees were touching. “And you’re not going to make him feel worse.”
    A ghost of a grin tugged at his lips at her demanding tone. “Yes, ma’am,” he murmured.
    Her cheeks flushed pink. “Sorry, not trying to order you around.”
    “It’s hot.”
    Now her cheeks went full-on crimson. But then she shook her head, as if dismissing his words. “Don’t try to distract me.”
    He wasn’t, but he didn’t correct her, just stood. “Come on. I want to talk to the owner before we get out of here. Did you want to get your groceries?” She’d come here for a reason and he didn’t want her leaving empty-handed.
    “Steven already bagged them up for me. Said everything was on them, which is silly, but I think they just feel bad