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said. They’d already been briefed about the call within five

seconds of walking in the door. At least they’d come together

so Quinn only had to tell the story once. “It does seem kind of

weird, but I don’t know that you can just not go. I mean, she

could likely take you to court or get an order forcing you to

appear. Is it really worth all that? You’d have to hire a lawyer.”

“Yeah, but she would have to get one too,” Billy cut in.

“You could give her the trouble of having to go through all

that. She’d probably have to spend way more money than

what’s even there just to get it. It wouldn’t be worth it for her.”

Quinn considered that. She knew she was standing still,

but she could feel herself squirming. A shiver went up her

spine, back down, and up again. Her neck tensed. Her chest

felt tight and her stomach was a mess. She could feel the

nerves there. The shock of that call earlier. She knew Dallas

would never call, but she hadn’t expected the lawyer to. She

didn’t think that she’d care that Dallas was back in Topeka, but

knowing she was there, even though the city was huge, put

Quinn on edge.

It didn’t matter how many times she told herself that she

didn’t care, wouldn’t care, couldn’t care, and that she was so

far over Dallas that it was unthinkable that she’d feel anything

but numb, she knew it wasn’t true. Knowing that Dallas was

back rattled her. It rattled her so hard she might as well have

been kicked straight in the teeth. Yup. That phone call was a

real bell ringer. Bell meaning head and ringer meaning

clusterfuck.

“Grampy obviously wanted her to have that money.” The

words scraped out before Quinn had time to process them, but

as soon as she’d said them, she knew it was true. “I’m not