“What?” She gives me a big fuck you smile. “You said one of them bought it for you. I just want them to know that it’s getting used.”
“We did not use it,” I clarify, shaking my head quickly.
Courtney throws her head back and laughs. “I got that for him as a gag gift for his birthday last year.”
“That was you?” It came in the mail with no return address. I should have known it was her.
“Oh, I would have made him gag all right,” Kat says with a wink.
While everyone is too busy laughing and wiping the tears from their cheeks, I place my arm around her shoulders and pull her into me. “If I remember correctly, you were the only one gagging earlier.”
She smiles. “Touché.”
*****
KATHERINE
When we finally lay down, it’s past one in the morning. Tate and Missy stayed the latest. All the others had to get home to put their kids in bed. I left the mess in the kitchen, not even caring how messy the house is. It’s nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow.
“God, I’m so full of food and beer, I just wanna pass out,” Parker moans.
“So, it begins,” I say, rolling over onto my side to look at him.
He rolls over onto his side as well to face me. He reaches up and runs his hand through my hair. “I want you to know that I’m not gonna push you.” I frown. “A lot has happened in the last week, but I’m here for you. I want you to know that when you’re ready to open up to me, I’ll be right here. Never doubt that. Okay?”
His statement reminds me of how little we know about each other. But I understand it. I love him for the way he makes me feel. Not because of where he came from or where he’s heading. I love him because of who he is at this moment. And at this moment, he is mine. “Okay,” I say softly as I snuggle my body into his.
He runs his hand up my bare ass and then my side. His hand makes its way to the base of my neck and he pulls my head back as his lips come down on mine. I dig my nails into his side as I rock my hips against him.
He pulls away. “I want you so bad I can taste it.”
“What do I taste like?” I ask.
“Bitter.”
I pull back and see the smile grow across his face. I reach up to slap him in the chest, but he grabs it and rolls me onto my back. He pins my other arm down by my head as well. He leans down and inhales. “I was just fucking with you,” he whispers.
“You’re not fucking anything at the moment,” I say lifting my hips to his.
He chuckles. “Are you challenging me?”
“Absolutely.”
*****
“Where are you?” I ask Ashley as I speak into the phone. “You’re scheduled to work tonight.” She never misses a shift.
“Perry called me today,” she says excitedly.
“What? What did he want?” I ask looking around the hospital as I sit at the nurse’s station.
“I just left from seeing him,” She sighs. “It’s been so long.”
“Don’t you find that odd?” I question “I mean, you haven’t heard from him in almost three weeks.” Parker has been knee deep in finding out who her boyfriend is since she came over to the house three weeks ago.
“He said he was undercover and couldn’t talk.”
“And you believed that?” I roll my eyes. “Men lie. Sorry to have to tell you that but this guy is bad news.”
“Is this where we tell each other how stupid we are?” she snaps. “Because you are no longer the sane one among us. Hello? You allowed a man to move in with you.”
“A man I love,” I say with a smile, not allowing her words to affect me.
“Well, I love Perry.”
“Perry is not real,” I say.
“He apologized and said he was gonna explain it all tonight. I’m heading home now.”
“Okay. At least wait until tomorrow? I’ll watch Megan while you go and see him,” I offer. I just have a bad feeling about his guy.
“He said he could only meet up with me,” she says.
“Where at?” I say grabbing a pen and paper. “What’s the address?” I’ll call Parker and tell him then he can arrest the guy.
“I’m heading home. He hasn’t told me where to meet him yet. He’s gonna call me later.”
“I don’t understand. You just saw him, right? Why didn’t he tell you everything?”
“He said he didn’t have the time to explain. He just needed to see me.”
I sigh heavily as I drop my head. “This doesn’t make sense.” She huffs. “Just promise me you won’t go without me or Parker. Call me after he calls you.”
“Okay,” she says reluctantly and we hang up. I immediately call Parker. Of course, the idiot doesn’t answer. I leave him a voicemail.
I go to call the precinct when we are notified that there is a trauma on its way in. So it’s gonna have to wait. She said he wasn’t gonna call her til later. We have time.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
PARKER
Work has been extremely busy tonight. I had to chase down a man on foot. I arrested a drunk driver. Now I’m headed to a call where gunshots were fired. The neighbors were the ones who called it in, but they don’t know who lives there. They said it’s been vacant for years. A rundown party shack is what they called it. We advised them not to enter.
I bring my cop car to a screeching halt and get out of it. I see Mason walking up to the door. Just arriving himself.
“Go through the back door. I’ll take the front,” I say to him. I make my way quickly up to the front door. And I bang on it. “Police!” I yell. Nothing. I grab my radio and speak into it. “Going in.” I stand back and kick the door in. I lift my weapon as I enter the entryway. “Clear,” I yell as I continue to the house. As I enter the living room, I hear Mason yell from the hallway. “Parker, call an ambulance.”
I come into the hallway and see a woman lying face down. Blood covers the back of her shirt and the floor underneath her. “She has a pulse,” he calls out, but he isn’t touching the woman lying face down. He’s touching the little girl who also has been shot that lies next to her. I pause for a split second and my heart stops.
It’s her. It’s Megan. “Move,” I say, bending down and shoving him out of the way. He just stares down at her as his body shakes. I touch her neck, and she does have a pulse. It’s faint, but it’s there.
“1022.” Dispatch comes through the radio. “On its way.”
“She can’t wait,” I say looking at her. It looks like she was also shot in the back. I don’t know, it’s too hard to tell. Too much blood on her little body.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he demands as I lift her small body into my arms. “Parker…”
I turn to face him. “Get your ass in your car and drive us to the hospital,” I yell. This isn’t protocol, but I don’t give a fuck. It can take an ambulance at the least fifteen minutes to get here. We can be at the hospital in twelve.
I run out of the house hating to leave Katherine’s friend, but it’s my only option. She’s already gone. I can’t save her. But Megan, there’s a chance.
Mason speeds down the road, running stoplights as I hold her in my arms. I can feel her getting colder and colder against my skin. I push her blond curls off her face and press my fingers to her neck. “Come on,” I demand as I feel for a pulse. It’s still there, but it’s fading.
We pull up to the hospital, squealing tires. Nurse and doctors are already running out waiting for us. I place her on the gurney and they wheel her in. I follow after them but not to help the girl. She’s in their hands. I go in search for Kat.
“Parker?” Mason yells my name standing beside the cop car.
“I have to tell her,” I say wiping the sweat from my face with my bloody hands. “I have to tell her,” I mumble to myself as I go crashing through the doors.
“Katherine?” I ask the nurse sitting at the nurse’s station. If my blood-covered uniform affects her, she hides it well.
“She’s on lunch. She went to the cafeteria.”
I nod my head and walk away, making my way down to the first floor. I walk into the cafeteria and spot her immediately. Her back is to me, and she laughs at something that the girl who sits in front of her says. I hate that I’m about to tell her that her best friend’s child is up in surgery.
“Kat?” the girl says her name and nods to me.
Katherine turns around with a smile on her face but drops the second she sees me. She shoves her chair back and runs, stopping in front of me. “What’s wrong?” she asks as her eyes look over my bloody face, shirt, and hands. “What happened?”
“Megan…” is all I get out.
Her hands hit me hard, shoving me out of the way before she runs out of the cafeteria. I turn and run after her. She shoves the door to the stairs open and takes them two at a time. When we finally make it to the third floor, she yanks the door open and immediately starts yelling. “Where is she? Where’s Megan?”
Mason stands there, and he takes a step toward her. “I’m sorry, Kat,” His voice breaks.
“No,” she screams. “Where’s Ashley?” she asks in a rush as she looks around the nurse’s station expecting to see her friend.
“Parker,” Mason says my name as if he wants me to answer her question. And at this moment, I want to shoot him. How much can she handle at once?
She spins around to face me. Her eyes wide with fear and I have to break her heart. I hate to do this to her, but I need to be the one to tell her. “She’s gone, Kat, but Megan...”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I don’t understand,” she cries out. “Where are they?” she demands. “I called you.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask shaking my head confused by what she’s saying. “When did you call me?”
She pushes her hair back from her face. “I spoke to her earlier.” She swallows nervously. “I just spoke to her.” She takes off down the hallway, and I give Mason a go to hell look before I follow her. “Ashley,” she calls out. She opens door after door until she finds the one she was looking for. I know it the moment she sees it because she falls to her knees as she covers her mouth with her hand.
Each step that I take toward her makes my throat tighten to the point I can’t breathe. I look through the door and I see Megan lying on a table. Tubes in her, still covered in blood. But all the nurses and doctors are just standing around her. She didn’t make it.
I fall to my knees beside her and pull her to me as I watch the woman I’ve fallen in love with finally breaks. Finally allows herself to feel.
*****
There were other nurses who knew Ashley and Megan well. They found us. We weren’t hard to miss on our knees in the middle of a hallway. They helped Kat stand and I stood there as they took her away from me. We never really spoke. But there was nothing to say. I allowed her friends to comfort her. I had work to do. I had to find out who would want to hurt such a wonderful woman and an innocent child.
Now I sit in my captain’s office as he paces back and forth with Mason silently rocking back and forth beside me. “Fill this out.” He tosses the police report on the desk.
I grab a pen and start to recount the horrors of what I just saw.
“What were you thinking about?” he demands.
“My cock,” I inform him, not looking up from the form.
He slams his fists down on the desk and his eyes narrow at mine. “You think this is funny?” he shouts.
“No,” I snap. “I was thinking that we needed to save that little girl,” I yell as I stand. “And we did what was best for her.” I know what I did was right. It just wasn’t enough.
“And how did that work out?” he questions.
“She fucking died. How do you think it worked out?” I snap.
“Watch your tone with me, boy.” He points a finger at me. “Sit down and finish that report,” he orders. I do as he says. “We have rules for a reason. You completely went against them. We could be sued. The liability…”
“Who the fuck is gonna sue?” I demand. “The mother was lying next to her child dead,” I inform him. “And your rules. You think I give a fuck about your rules?” I demand. “Are you seriously telling me that you would have sat there and waited fifteen minutes for an ambulance to arrive?” I ask wide-eyed.
“That’s the rules.”
I fall back down into my chair and let out a long sigh. I look up at him with narrowed eyes. “You know what,” I say, scribbling my name at the bottom of the report. Then I remove my badge off my bloody vest. “Take your rules and shove them up your fucking ass.” I stand and remove my gun from my holster. I remove the clip and slam it on his desk. “I quit.” And with that I turn and walk out of the room. Letting the door hit the wall on my way out.
I rip my shirt off, throw it in the trash outside of the police station, and then discard my vest. I jump in my truck and head home.
It’s raining. Hard. I squint to try and see through the windshield as the wipers try to keep it clear, but it’s just coming down too hard. I sit at a stoplight and pick up my cell out of the center console. I go to Kat’s number. It doesn’t even ring. Straight to voicemail. Hey, you’ve reached Kat. I’m unavailable to answer the phone. Leave me a message. I hang up, throw my phone over to the passenger seat, and hit the gas.
I take my time in the shower once I get home. Clean myself until my body is raw. And when done, I do it again.
Once done, I get out and pull a pair of sweatpants on before I sit on the end of my bed. I think about what I had to do today. I don’t regret one second of it. I made the right decision. And yet, it still didn’t save her. I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of…
I look up from the floor when I hear the front door open. I stay seated as I wait for Kat to enter our bedroom. My heart breaks for her. For what’s she’s been through. For everything that she has lost.
She looks awful. Covered in blood and now soaked from the rain. I stand and look down at her. Tears run down her face and she closes her eyes. I wrap my arms around her and her body shakes. “I don’t understand.” Her voice cracks. “Why them? Who would do this to them?” Her fingers dug into my skin.
“I tried,” I say feeling the tightness in my throat. “I’m so sorry.”
*****
KATHERINE
I open my eyes and can still hear the rainfall on the rooftop. My hair is still damp from the rain, and my body still feels numb.
I roll over in my bed and find myself alone. That doesn’t surprise me, though. I sit up and make my way into the kitchen. I find him sitting at the kitchen table with papers spread all over it.
I sit down across from him and he looks up at me as if he expects me to say something. And I swallow nervously, looking down at the table. It’s time.
“I lied to you.” He places his hands on the table and tilts his head to the side. “My mother isn’t dead.” He frowns. “But to me she’s been dead since I was six. That’s how old I was when she left us,” I say softly. “It’s funny the things you can remember,” I say with a little laugh. “There are days I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I’ll never forget the day she left us. The day she decided we weren’t what she wanted.” I take a deep breath. “She told me to be strong and never count on anyone but myself.” I lick my chapped lips. “She said she loved me but the life he had made for her was not what she had always wished for.” I shake my head. “At the time, I didn’t understand what she meant. All I knew were fairytales. Princesses. We dressed up every day after I got home from school and had tea parties. How could anyone not want that life?” I shrug as I knot my hands together on the table. “As I got older, I understood what she meant.” I finally look up at him through my lashes. His brown eyes are watching me closely. His hands rest on the table and his lips are thinned. “I didn’t want that life for myself, either. The one where you fall in love only for it to not be what you thought. She wanted something so bad that she had
this picture in her mind. But when it didn’t live up to her expectations, she just walked away.” I sigh. “I was doing great. Until…” I pause. “Until my dad got sick.” I reach up and rub my forehead. “It took me years to get over her walking away from us. There were times I would sit on the couch and wish for her to walk through the front door, grab me in her arms, and tell me that she was sorry.” Tears fill my eyes. “Tell me that she loved me.” I laugh at how stupid that sounds now. “But as the days went on, I forgot about her. I learned to let go. I learned not to love something that isn’t meant to stay.” I reach up and wipe the single tear that fell to my cheek. “The first day he called me by her name made me cringe. We never spoke of her. I prayed that it wouldn’t happen again. But it did. It became an everyday occurrence. Every time he looked at me, he saw that woman who left him. Only he didn’t realize that she had left. He was back when she loved him.” I close my eyes tightly. “Rollin tried to get me to put him in a home, but I couldn’t do it. He was my responsibility. I was supposed to care for him. But one night, I woke after my father fell down the stairs. I put the first clothes on that I could find and my heels were by the front door. I rushed him to the hospital.” I look back up at him. “They told me it was time. He needed care that I couldn’t provide. When I got home, Rollin scared me to death when I found him standing in my kitchen demanding some stupid piece of shit metal that sat in the driveway. When I told him no, he grabbed my face and shoved me into the refrigerator.” His back stiffens and his eyes harden. “I did the only thing I knew to do. I fought. I let myself go crazy. And it felt good.” I chuckle. “I had come to a breaking point.” I swallow nervously and say what I should have said weeks ago. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I took it out on you. It wasn’t your fault. And I know you were just doing your job,” I finish. There’s more I can tell him, but it wouldn’t mean anything. Not to him. He’s a cop. He sees how ugly things can get out there. Me having abandonment issues isn’t all that important when you look at the world the way he sees it on a daily basis.
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