Last time it had been Zoe snooping around; this time it was Ari. At least Damon hadn’t discovered her here. Quinn didn’t care how close to finished this case was, she had no right to be in this office when he wasn’t around and no reason to be sticking her pretty nose into his business.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Quinn asked.

Ari turned around fast. Obviously stunned, her eyes opened wide, her cheeks flushed, and her hand flew to her chest. “You startled me.”

“Answer my question. What the hell are you doing in here, with private papers in your hands, no less?” He stepped closer, meaning to scare her.

“I’d like an answer to that as well.”

This time Quinn was startled as Damon walked into the room, his early return taking Quinn off guard.

Ari opened and then closed her mouth, probably unsure which angry man to deal with first. In her eyes, he saw how petrified she was by Damon’s return.

She had every right to be scared, Quinn thought, turning to his boss. “What are you doing back so early? Lover’s quarrel?” he asked.

Damon wasn’t amused and his lips pulled into a thin, narrow line. “I cut my trip short because a smart man trusts no one.”

Though Quinn had heard that line many times before, never had it sounded so ominous. “Trouble in paradise?” Quinn asked, still attempting to keep things light as he figured out the other man’s agenda.

Damon shrugged. “Cynthia wanted to see where I worked.”

“I thought you went with Roxanne?”

“She had a family emergency and had to fly home. Cynthia wanted to see my family jewels.” Damon gestured around the casino but the double entendre was obvious.

“I see,” Quinn said. “And once you got here, you gave her some cash to play with and told her you’d see her later?” he said, using Damon’s standard M.O. He obviously hadn’t given the woman a tour or someone would have informed Quinn he was back. Over the weekend, the influx of new guests had included undercover federal agents.

“Exactly. And then I came here to check on you, and what do I find? That one twin is no better than the other.” He shook his head. “You disappoint me, Professor Costas. I thought you were smarter.”

Ari sucked in a loud breath at the realization that Damon probably hadn’t forgotten he’d found her in his private domain.

“You’re wrong, boss. This one’s just a bored professor.” He jerked a thumb toward Ari. “Just look at her pathetic attempt to fit the part of the sexy siren.” He snorted in disgust. “She’s nothing like her twin.”

Quinn struggled not to glance Ari’s way, forcing himself to act like he didn’t care about her feelings or how he was deliberately playing on her insecurities and weaknesses to save her from Damon’s fury. “Hell, she might be a bookworm, but she doesn’t have the street smarts to be a fed.” He shook his head and forced a laugh. “She couldn’t find her way out of a paper bag, let alone get in your way.”

“Oh, really?” Damon asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. “Then why did she have private files in her hand?”

“Natural curiosity,” Ari said quickly.

“Stupidity,” Quinn muttered at the same time.

She shot him a scathing glare, proving she wasn’t too frightened to be offended. Once again he admired her grit. She was more like the sister she claimed not to know than she gave herself credit for.

Quinn decided to go for broke and play Damon for all he could. There was no other way to save Ari. “It’s my fault she found the papers. I heard whispers of feds sniffing around and I pulled your file on her sister so I could destroy it,” he lied. “I got called to the casino before I could take care of things and left it on the desk in plain view.”

“She knows too much,” Damon insisted.

It didn’t escape Quinn’s notice that the man showed no shock at the mention of the FBI.

Quinn shook his head. “Actually she doesn’t know a damn thing-unless you tell her now,” he said pointedly. They both knew those files did not indicate what Damon thought had happened to Zoe. Nobody reading it, including Ari, could ever use it as proof that Damon had plotted Zoe’s demise.

Damon narrowed his gaze, clearly contemplating his options. “How long was she in here alone? Better yet, why was she in here alone?”

“Stupidity,” Quinn said again.

“Lipstick,” Ari said in a hoarse voice. “I dropped my purse earlier when I came to see Quinn. You see, I missed him and wanted… a quickie.”

Quinn winced at her attempt to explain her actions.

“He told me it had to wait,” Ari rambled on. “But not before I tried to distract him.” Her voice grew more sultry, more confident as she tried to convince Damon she’d attempted to seduce Quinn earlier. “But he said not while he was working.” She forced a pretty pout.

Quinn couldn’t help but watch and listen in amusement.

“I’d given it my best shot though, and so I still needed to fix my lipstick before I went back out to the customers. I dropped my bag and the lipstick must have rolled out. See?” She held up the tube of gloss for Damon to see.

“Convenient,” he murmured, rubbing a hand over his clean-shaven face. “But I’m not taking any chances. Not with her and not with you,” he said, turning to Quinn.

Catching Quinn by surprise, he reached into his jacket and pulled a gun and trained it on Ari.

A startled cry escaped her throat, but Quinn didn’t take his gaze from Damon.

Under his breath, Quinn muttered a curse. His gun was in his holster at his side, but reaching for it now would give Damon a chance to fire fast. “Two sisters can’t disappear from here without drawing suspicion. You’d be the likely culprit,” Quinn said, trying to slow Damon down and make him think.

Warning bells went off in Quinn’s head, instead. Reality clicked into place. Damon’s surprise return, his lack of shock at federal interest, his sudden distrust of Quinn, and the careless order to take care of Ari told Quinn one thing-someone had tipped off Damon to trouble and now he was running scared, reacting without thinking things through.

Still, Damon obviously didn’t know who in his organization was working against him or he’d have put a bullet through Quinn’s head by now. The thought provided some comfort. The other man was testing him instead, giving him needed time.

With the gun still pointed at Ari, Damon propped a foot on the desk and withdrew a handgun from a hidden holster. “The entire time I was with Cynthia, something was bothering me and I finally figured out what it was.” He leveled the other gun at Quinn. “I violated my cardinal rule.”

“What’s that?”

“I put you in charge of keeping this beautiful lady busy and you were too happy to oblige. But the more I thought about you and Zoe’s twin, the more I thought about Zoe. And I realized I never saw her body. That was my mistake. I trusted you, Donovan, and a smart man trusts no one.”

Quinn remained silent.

“It’s time for some action. Prove yourself.” Without warning, Damon tossed the first gun to Quinn. “Get rid of her.”

A small squeak sounded from Ari’s corner of the room.

“Get rid of her,” Damon said again. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

Until now Quinn’s best bet had been to stall and talk Damon through this, all the while hoping Ari remained calm while Quinn waited for the opportunity to overpower the other man. There was always the slim hope that someone on the floor would get wind of Damon’s return and head on back here to check things out. But Quinn wasn’t counting on it.

He needed another plan and he needed one fast, especially since he was now Damon’s target.

Ari glanced from Damon to Quinn, unable to believe this was happening. She let her gaze settle on Quinn, who hadn’t broken a sweat, but who also now had a gun pointed directly at her heart.

“I don’t think you want a blood trail in your office,” Quinn said coolly to Damon.

“What’s the difference to me?” Damon asked. “You’ll be the one pulling the trigger. You can call it a lover’s quarrel, or the three of us can take a ride somewhere and you can do the job there. It’s all the same to me, but either way, I’m going to see this one’s dead body.” Damon’s voice dropped an octave and turned as cold as his words. “Or you’ll be the one on ice.”

And Ari had no doubt he meant what he said.

Quinn wasn’t going to like what she did next, but to her way of thinking they were out of options. She glanced from Quinn’s gun pointed at her, to Damon’s gun pointed at Quinn, and she knew she had to take Damon by surprise.

“All I wanted to do was find my sister,” Ari said, and both men turned her way. “Or at least I wanted to find out what happened to my sister. But I’m a schoolteacher, not an investigator, and now I’ve gotten myself into a heap of trouble, haven’t I?” she asked, deliberately rambling.

Damon groaned. “Shut her up, Quinn.”

“You know, I thought you cared about me,” she said to Quinn. “But you’ve never stopped being loyal to him.” She jerked her finger at Damon. “Which means I’m really going to die. Even if I don’t know anything,” she said, her voice rising in pitch.

“Ari,” Quinn said in warning.

She ignored him. “But aren’t I entitled to a last wish? At the very least a last meal?”

“She’s stalling and you’re letting her,” Damon said. “Do it now.”

“I don’t want to die,” Ari wailed and dropped to her knees. “But if I have to, can I at least have a blindfold? Please?” She moved awkwardly closer to Damon, who stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Okay, no blindfold. Then how about a drink to numb the pain?”

“Well… wait a minute, this is ridiculous,” Damon muttered.

“Please let me live,” Ari wailed.

“For the love of-”

In the biggest gamble of her life, Ari cut him off, and with a final howl, she wrapped her arms around Damon’s knees. Laying her head against his thighs, she pushed against him with all her body weight.