Quinn (The Waite Family)

The Waite Family

Book 2

By

Kathi S. Barton

World Castle Publishing

World Castle Publishing

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright ©
Kathi S. Barton

ISBN:
9781938243745

First Edition World Castle Publishing
June 10, 2012

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Licensing Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews.

Cover:
Karen Fuller

Photos: Shutterstock

Editor:
Brieanna Robertson

Drew listened to her. Well, sort of. He was hearing her speak, but he wasn’t technically listening to her. Quinn Waite was the bossiest woman he’d ever met.
Next to his boss, that is, who just happened to be her sister-in-law, Alyssa Waite.
He’d leave her standing here, but he was serving food in the dinner line and couldn’t escape just yet. But when he could, he was out of there.

“You have to make sure that she is safe, Mr. Miller.
Here you go, Sally, have some extra potatoes.
That woman said she’d get her back and we haven’t…there’s cream at the other end, Mr. Bane.
Are you listening to me?”

“Yes. You want me to protect Alyssa who is probably more capable of protecting herself than I am, Sally has extra potatoes even though she didn’t want them, and Mr. Bane now has a pocket full of creamers.
Did I miss anything in your tirade?”

She glared and he laughed. It was either that or strangle her.
Quinn was a woman who got things done, he’d give her that. But she wanted it done yesterday and damn the person who didn’t pull their weight.
Drew did pull his weight, but he did things in his own way on his own schedule.
Not that he was lazy or a procrastinator, but he didn’t feel that driving someone nuts to the point of wanting them to murder you was the way to go.

“I don’t like you, Mr. Miller. Not one bit.”

He grinned at her. “Well that’s good, Miss Waite. I’d hate for all this hostility to be for nothing.
Or even one-sided.
Look, Alyssa is safe. She has a driver everywhere she goes and when she is at home your brother barely lets her out of his sight.
At the office, you’d have to blow the entire building to get to her and—”

“Oh, Christ! You don’t think someone will try that, do you? You have to put on extra people tonight. Better yet, I’ll do it. And I’ll hire some dogs. They can mill about the lobby sniffing everything that comes in.” When she pulled out her little note book he snapped.

Taking it from her, he tore it in several pieces before he laid it on the counter and picked up the spoon for the mashed potatoes.
Without breaking eye contact with her, he dumped the potatoes on the pieces of paper and threw the spoon in the sink. “I’m going home.
You, Miss Waite, are certifiable.
Mr. Bane, put the creamers back and go eat your dinner.”

Drew sat in his truck and took several deep breaths before he started the engine.
He didn’t talk on his cell phone when he drove and he wouldn’t drive angry.
Laughing a little, he realized if he had to work the soup line with Quinn much more,
he’d have to hire his own driver.
Because the way he saw it, he’d never drive again.
Looking out the front window, he surveyed what he’d been able to be a part of in the past six months.

The Nathan Howard Diner was just one of many things that had been added to this very run down end of town. The diner would and did feed over two hundred meals a day, breakfast and dinner. There was enough food for anyone who wanted or needed it.
So far, there had never been anyone turned down.
Above the diner were rooms
;
big, fully finished rooms that ten men or women could sleep in and keep warm.
There was also a small clinic, as well as a place for anyone to come and watch television and to read.

Just down the street, two buildings as a matter of fact, there was a library.
Not the type run by the city or state, but one ran by people trying to establish a job history. Every few weeks or so, someone new would come in and be trained at one of the ten or so jobs offered. Then if they
performed
to some ability, Alyssa or one of her helpers, more homeless people, would work with them in some job in the company. From delivering mail to offices, running copies, or even just watering plants, anything and everything that required or didn’t require a skill.
It wasn’t about the job
;
it was the dignity that came with having said, “I did this.”
So far they had been able to get seven people into some legitimate line of work.

The Rodney Kincaid Clinic was across the street from the Howard Building.
It too was run mostly by some of the people trying to establish themselves back into the real world.
There were doctors, of course. Alyssa’s husband Cain was one of many that volunteered there several times a month.
But there were also an amazing amount of people working there who either knew someone who still lived on the streets or sadly had disappeared on the streets, either by death or just missing.
Hope was a very fragile thing and every one of them lived with the hope of helping someone who might be able to help their loved one.

Drew leaned his head back against the head rest and closed his eyes.
He was working in the kitchen today because Alyssa and he had set up a schedule to have every employee who worked for Howard Enterprise work the kitchen.
If anyone griped or ever tried to get out of working their turn they were fined, made to work a month straight at any capacity she needed them at.
It had only happened once and that person was no longer with the company.
Not that she fired him, no. Alyssa was too good of a person for that, but the person felt his views on what she was doing with her money were up for public debate.
Alyssa was not doing this for some recognition; this was purely for her own peace of mind.
Alyssa had spent ten years on the street recently to hide from her mother after her father died.
It was a long and mostly terrifying battle, but she was back where she belonged at the helm of the richest company in the world.

When Drew had met her she had been looking for a hungry lawyer. His grandda had recommended him.
Thomas Miller had worked for the Howard family for nearly five decades, serving first Alyssa’s father, Nathan Howard, and now her.
His grandda loved the younger Howard as much as he had the older, or so he’d told Drew just recently.

“She’ll be making more money than her father ever dreamed of and she won’t give a good hoot about it. You take care of my little girl for me, Drew.
I can’t be watching over her forever and I need to make sure that she is cared for.”

“You sound as if you’re planning on dying, old man.
I won’t have it, you know.
You’re all I have in the world and I can’t…let’s not talk about this again.
I love you and the thought of losing you is just too much.” Drew had his parents, and he loved them dearly, but his grandda…he was everything to him.

Drew was about steady enough to start home when a sudden rapping at his window startled him. Looking over without raising his head, he groaned. Damn it all to hell in a hand basket, wouldn’t she ever give it up?

“I’d like a word with you please, Mr. Miller.”

He nearly told Quinn to go away or better yet, just start his car and leave her, but it was impolite and he also didn’t want to know what Cain would do to him if he found out that he’d left his sister in a parking lot alone.
Not that he thought a mugger would stand a chance. She’d more than likely talk him to death.

He rolled down his window. It was still rude, but he wasn’t in the mood to be that nice to her.

“I want to go home, Miss Waite.
Can’t this wait until in the morning?
I’m tired and I just want to go to bed.”

“I’ll be quick.” He nearly laughed, but could see she was serious.
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry.
I know that I can be a little overbearing—”

“A little?
Try a lot.
I know what I’m doing, Miss Waite.
I’ve been a lawyer for a long time and I’ve not lost a client yet.”

She growled at him. Actually growled.
“I wasn’t finished, thank you very much. As I was saying, I know that I can be a little overbearing at times, but Alyssa saved my life.
I love her very much and worry about her.
That being said, I think you could take my suggestions a little more serious in the future and let me have my way on some things.”