The UN Series Complete Box Set

by Shantel Tessier

  He brings my attention back to him. “You think two arrests in a matter of two weeks look good for you? You think him saying that you took a baseball bat to your own truck will make you look sane?” He laughs. “Let alone a knife to your own tire? You think you could have won?”

  “You think I give a shit if he gets that stupid truck?”

  “Then why didn’t you just give it to him?” He throws his hands out to his side as if he’s at a loss.

  “Because he didn’t deserve it.” I fist my hands down by my side. “I don’t expect you to understand,” I say and his jaw twitches. “But what I have is because I worked for it. Why should I just give him something that he doesn’t deserve?”

  “Look.” He takes a calming breath and places his hands on my shoulders “I’m sorry. I was just trying to help you out.”

  “I don’t need you to get me off,” I say, and he smiles. It takes me a few seconds to comprehend what I just said.

  “I think you made that very clear yesterday,” he says with a chuckle.

  “What did you say to him to make him change his mind?” I demand.

  “I threatened to kill him,” he says simply.

  “And he bought that?” I ask not believing he said that to him. He’s a cop. How would that make him look?

  “Of course. Once I told him that I would cut him up and feed him to stray dogs, he quit arguing.” I hang my head and place it in my hands. “Hey. It’s okay,” he says wrapping his arms around me.

  “I don’t understand why you’re trying to help me out in the first place.”

  He places his hand under my chin and lifts my head. “I’m not as big of a douche as everyone thinks I am.”

  “Prove it.”

  He looks at me with those deep brown eyes. The ones that I feel I could get lost in. “You expect me to fail.” It wasn’t a question, but I answer anyway.

  “Yes. Everyone fails,” I say truthfully.

  “You mean everyone fails you.”

  His words hurt. It stings to be alone, but I prefer it that way. I like the pain that comes along with being alone. I learned at an early age that you could only rely on yourself.

  “Is there a difference?” I ask with a sigh. I give up. He’s not gonna go anywhere. Especially since I just told him to prove it. I challenged him. And Parker doesn’t seem like the type to back down from a challenge.

  “Absolutely. Let me show you?”

  He lowers his lips to mine, pausing only inches away. I don’t know what it is he wants to show me, but I’m gonna give it a try. What do I have to lose? Myself? I’ve lost myself before and somehow I found my way back. This time I’ll know where to look.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  PARKER

  Do you even know what you’re asking of her? Of yourself? Not really. But it just feels right. She feels right. “Let’s get out of the women’s bathroom,” I say pulling on her arm. We exit and I look around. Of course, everyone is watching us. They watched me shove her into the restroom; they were probably timing us to see just how much we could accomplished.

  “Son?” I come to a stop at the sound of his voice. The voice that I have come to hate so much. The voice that makes my skin want to crawl. My father.

  I spin around and see him standing there staring at Katherine. Like a fucking sick old man watching his next victim. It sickens and angers me.

  “What do you want, Dick?”

  Katherine’s eyes widen, but she makes no remark on my choice of words.

  My father laughs it off, but I know how he feels about my choice of name for him. He hates it. Almost as much as I hate him.

  “Who’s your friend, son?” He looks down at her.

  “Mr. Mayor.” She smiles politely. “Katherine,” she says reaching out her hand to him. I reach out and grab it before he can shake it.

  He drops his as well, placing them in the pockets of his dress pants. “You’re mother has been calling you.” He looks at me. “Been trying for weeks.”

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “I can see that.” He looks back at Katherine and I feel her body stiffen. Even she can sense the way he’s looking at her. As if she’s prey. “Well, I will let her know that you’ll be attending my party for my re-election soon.”

  “I can’t…”

  “Katherine. I’m sure my wife would love to meet you as well.”

  She goes to respond, but I tighten my hand around hers and she closes her mouth.

  “Don’t be late. Seven o’clock on Saturday. I’ll send a car.” And with that, he turns around and walks away. I yank on her hand and pull her out the front door.

  “Are you going to explain that to me?” she asks. “Your father is the mayor,” she says surprised as if she just realized that I was his son. It makes sense; everyone knows who my dad is, and not everyone knows the cop son.

  “I hate my dad. What’s there to explain?”

  “And your mother?”

  “My mother is a different story.” I love her, but I don’t understand what she sees in that horrible man. I don’t see how she can love someone so much who loves her so little.

  “What is that story?” she asks pulling me to a stop.

  “What can I say about her? She fell for a bastard, and she chooses to stay with him. If she wants to make stupid life decisions, then that’s none of my business.”

  “Yet, you took it upon yourself to make my life your business?”

  “Well, yeah. Your stupid life decisions bother me,” I say through gritted teeth. After I had left the hospital last night, I went to the police station and pulled up Rollin’s information. I called up an old buddy and gave him Rollin’s address. I paid him off. I had the guy give Rollin some money. I don’t know what pissed me off more, the fact that I had to pay the guy off to get him off her back or the fact that it only took five thousand dollars to leave her alone. Is that all she’s worth to him? Five thousand dollars? I’ve only known her a few weeks and I wouldn’t walk away from her if someone offered me ten thousand. She’s the type who keeps things interesting. Keeps you on your toes. I like that.

  “Why?”

  “Because I can.” I give her the simple answer.

  “So, you’re going to his party?” she asks, as she tries to keep up with me as I storm down the courthouse steps.

  “We are.” I fucking don’t want to, but if I have to go, she’s going with me.

  “Parker…”

  “You’re going with me.” I stop walking and place my hands in her hair and lift her face to mine. “Please. I’m begging you to go with me. You don’t have to be nice. I just need you to be there with me.” I realize how desperate I sound, but that’s where I’m at this time of my life. I need her; I need her ‘I don’t give a shit’ attitude at this point in my life. Which is crazy. Why do I want this woman there with me? I’m not sure. “Tell me you’ll go with me,” I demand.

  She softly nods her head. “I’ll go with you.”

  I lean down and press my lips to hers. She softly kisses me back as I stroke her tongue with mine. God, I’m so fucking horny right now. I need her again.

  I pull away and look up. There, standing on the top step of the courthouse, my father is watching us. I reach up, pull my sunglasses over my eyes, and throw my arm over her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

  I walk her over to her car. “I’m going to follow you to your house,” I say before I reach down and open her door for her. I expect her to argue but thankfully, she doesn’t. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  I walk over to my truck and see my dad’s black limo still sitting in front of the courthouse. I jump in my truck and take off to follow behind Katherine.

  *****

  I pull in behind her and she stays quiet as we enter her house. She goes to the kitchen and lets her dog outside to potty. Then she comes back into the living room. “Should I be informed about something?”

  “What do you mean?” I try to act dumb.

  She doesn’t buy it. “W
hy are you so afraid of your father?”

  I place my hand on her shoulders. “I’m not afraid of him,” I say defensively. "But he is a very dirty man.”

  “He’s the mayor,” she says as if that means something. It should, but it doesn’t to him.

  “And how do you think he got there?” By being dirty.

  The damn dog barks wanting in so she leaves me to go open up the back sliding glass door. The big ass dog makes his way into the living room and plops down on the couch as if he owns the place. Not gonna lie, he terrifies me. “That’s the biggest pit bull I’ve ever seen,” I say as it stares at me like it wants to gnaw on my arm like a chew toy. He’s all black except for a white patch on his muscly chest. He tilts his head to the side as if he understood what I said. I take a step back.

  “He’s an American Staffordshire,” she corrects me.

  “What’s the difference?” I don’t know shit when it comes to dogs. I’m a pussy kind of guy.

  “Purebred.”

  I take a few steps back and sit down on her loveseat. I roll my shoulders trying not to think about my father or the dog that is eyeing me.

  “Why are you so tense?”

  Can she tell how tense I am? Do I let my dad get me that riled up? Why was he watching us? Was he watching her? If so, why? “I just have a lot on my mind,” I say.

  She places her hand in front of me and smiles. “Care to let me help you out with that?”

  I laugh. “That’s not why I came over.” Was it? I sure could use a sexual release at the moment.

  “Then why did you?” she asks.

  I sit there and stare at her as she stands in front of me. She looks all business in her black pencil skirt that comes down to her knees and white button up blouse. She has her hair pulled up into a loose bun and a few hairs have fallen out. They frame her beautiful face. Her make-up is done light, so it still shows her true beauty. And beautiful she is.

  She takes my silence to mean confusion. She takes a few steps toward me in her high heels. They’re not as tall as the ones she wore when I first arrested her, but they still give her some height, which she doesn’t need. She’s already tall and I like that. I’m tired of seeing girls who only come to my shoulder even when they have sky-high heels on.

  “It’s just sex, Parker. You of all people should know what that means.”

  I push myself up off the couch and close the space between us. “What does that mean to you?” I ask, reaching up and pulling on her bun. It releases the hold on it and her dark brown hair falls over her shoulders.

  She places her hands on my chest and runs them up and over my shoulders as she leans her face toward mine. “Sexe.” Fuck, I love when she speaks in French. “It means sex. That’s all.”

  “Why do you speak French?” I ask, and her face falls. She had told me her mother was French, but she doesn’t speak it that often. It makes me wonder if her father is French. Maybe that’s all he speaks.

  “There are things we don’t need to share, Parker,” she says softly. And I understand how she felt when she asked me about my father and I refused to talk about him. I want to know things about her. I want to know her story and how she became the person that she is. At first, I thought it was an ex who fucked her over, but now I’m beginning to think there’s more to it than that.

  “Your dad’s sick,” I say and her body tenses. “Is he getting better?”

  “I thought you wanted to have sex?” she asks with clenched teeth. “If this is your way of foreplay, it’s not gonna work.”

  I reach up and grab her arm. I pull her down onto my lap as I sit back down. I wrap my arms around her so she can’t get away. “My father and I were close when I was younger.” I give her what she wants; maybe she will give a little in return. “But as I got older, we grew apart. He wanted me to go off to college to be a defense attorney. And for a while, I considered it.” I shrug. “That what Slade’s father is. He owns his own firm. I figured I could get a job with his firm after school. But I woke up one day and decided that just wasn’t what I wanted to do with my life.” I remember that fight with my father like it was yesterday. “I told him that I wanted to be a police officer. And after a few silent minutes, he nodded his head and told me that was an even better idea.” I knew at that moment that my father was a dirty man. A man who wanted to use others to get what he wanted. I made a promise to myself to never be that guy.

  She sits quietly on my lap as I run my hand up and down her arm. She may be sitting on my lap, but I feel like she wasn’t truly listening to what I had to tell her. She looks straight ahead to the wall across from us with a lost look in her beautiful eyes.

  “Kat?” I ask, lifting my hand to her face. She flinches and looks down at me. Her eyes hold a darkness to them as if she’s trying to forget what she was just remembering.

  She gets up off my lap and I allow it. “I told you that we didn’t need to share.”

  “But you asked about my father…”

  “Yeah. Well, I changed my mind,” she snaps.

  I stand from the chair and go to reach out to her, but she pulls back. “Just leave, Parker.”

  She’s like trying to keep a cobra happy. You’re gonna get bitten no matter what. “Why do you do this?” I ask, getting angry.

  “Because I don’t need you to tell me what you feel. I don’t need to tell you how I feel,” she says and her voice rises. “I’m not that girl who needs a white knight to come and take all my problems away. Those problems are my life,” she yells, pointing a finger at her chest. “I don’t need to have a man in my life. And I certainly don’t need you,” she finishes. Her chest rises and falls quickly as she breathes heavily.

  She doesn’t need a man. Well, I figured that out the moment she came walking out of her garage dressed to kill and ready to do just that. But saving people is in my nature. I may be a fucking prick, but I still have that soft spot and she’s made her way under it. “You’re right.” I swallow because I hate saying those fucking words. I turn around and start to walk to her front door. But I stop. I turn back around to face her. Might as well get everything out in the open.

  “Actually, you’re wrong. You choose to be alone. You choose to be a fucking bitch,” I yell, and she opens her mouth to speak but I don’t let her. “You choose to bare all your problems on your own. And one day they’re gonna be too much to carry and you’re only gonna have yourself to blame when you come crashing down,” I yell. And with that, I go straight to her front door and slam the door behind me.

  *****

  KATHERINE

  I’ve never been that girl who is dependent on another. Well, as a child I was dependent on my father. But that’s part of being a child. Ever since I was able to take care of myself that was exactly what I did. My father deserved a life. My father deserved to find love again. But he never really lived and he never found that love that I knew was out there. I know he fought it on purpose. And now look at him. He’s in a nursing home—a nursing home that I placed him in.

  I left my house right after Parker stormed out. I changed my clothes and went to see my father. I’ve been here all night. I lie on the couch in his room, covered up with a blanket, as he sleeps. Visiting hours were over hours ago, but they’ve allowed me to stay. My father was having a good day, and I wanted to take advantage of that. But once he fell asleep, I couldn’t leave him. I want to be here when he wakes up in the morning. I want to be the first thing he sees, hoping that will help him have another good day.

  Parker’s words keep playing in my head. I was wrong for wanting to know about his life. But I was shocked the second I realized who his father was—the mayor. I never put the last names together. I mean, O’Hare isn’t that common. It just never crossed my mind. But, then again, why would it?

  I sigh as I try to adjust myself on this uncomfortable couch. I want to be mad at Parker, but I can’t. What he said was true and it stung. That’s why I let him leave the way he did. That’s why I didn’t say something hurtf
ul back. Because it was my fault. He opened up and I just sat there trying to keep my mouth shut. He doesn’t really want to know about me. My past. He already sees me as a heartless bitch who is fucked up. Why give him a story to go along with it? So what if my mother left us? So what if she took a piece of me with her? So what if I can’t get over it? People have worse things going on with them in this world.

  I feel my phone vibrate as it sits on the floor next to the couch. I look down to see Sexy Motherfucker written across my screen with that stupid selfie of Parker. I press ignore and turn my phone off. I’m exhausted.

  *****

  I yawn as I stretch while still lying on the couch. The morning light fills my father’s room as the sun rises. My back hurts and my eyes are still trying to focus.

  “Jules?”

  I look over at the bed that my father lays in. And I smile, trying to hide my disappointment. But what did I expect? You don’t have many good days once you are put in a nursing home.

  “Good morning, William,” I say. The nurse had told me not to call him father because that would only confuse him. And I don’t want to do that to him. Not more than he already is.

  “Where’s Katherine?” he asks, looking around the room.

  “She’s downstairs,” I respond, walking over to him.

  He looks up at his clock that hangs on the wall. “You need to get her ready for school. You don’t want her to be late.”

  I nod and pat him on the hand. “You’re right,” I say softly, swallowing the knot in my throat. “I’ll do that and be right back. Je te aime,” I say softly in French. It means I love you. He used to love it when my mother told him that. I grab his cup that sits beside his bed. I’ll go grab him some coffee and then come back. And I’ll let him know that his little girl made it to school safely.

  I walk out of his room and come to a stop when I see Parker standing there looking at me. He’s dressed in the same clothes as last night. I stare at him half surprised, half ashamed.