“Dad was cooking dinner. Now he’s getting a macaroni noodle out of Gabe’s nose and mom is in the gym. She said to give these to you.” He went over to the hall closet and came back with two rattan fighting sticks.
Parker sighed. It was going to be a long night. “By any chance is she wearing her karate gi?”
“Yes.”
“Remind me to thank your dad for building that gym space for her.”
“Can you stay for dinner?”
“If I can move my arms after talking to your mother, sure,” Parker mumbled as she removed her jacket, hung it on the coat rack, and rolled up her blouse sleeves. “Thanks, cutie pie. Maybe you should help your dad with the noodle up your brother’s nose so he can finish dinner.”
“OK,” he said as he dashed toward the kitchen.
Some people sat down for coffee or split a bottle of wine when they wanted to bond. Her sister thought fighting was a good substitute. Parker hadn’t done martial arts training in months and she was pretty sure Sam knew that. She punched in the code to gain entry to the gym. It was locked up pretty tight to make sure the kiddies didn’t wander in and get curious. As soon as she walked through the door, Sam launched toward her with her own pair of sticks. Parker scrambled and countered with a few strikes of her own, which her sister expertly deflected.
She had to admit it was kind of cathartic after the last few days she’d had. She was tired of the creepy bozo who was stalking Riley being one step ahead of them. The idea that they’d gotten their hands on confidential information didn’t sit well with her either. Tomcats Stadium had an excellent security system, but she had no idea of what protocols were in place at the other places that micromanaged Riley’s life. Right now there were too many unknowns.
Thirty sweaty minutes later, she and Sam had dropped the sticks were now fighting hand to hand. Damn, she hadn’t done Krav Maga in a while, but luckily Sam was all over the place with her fighting style. She’d dodged a few punches but got dinged pretty good with her sister’s right hook. Not to be totally outdone, she did a sweeper move on her, got her on the floor, and put her in a light choke hold. Sam maneuvered out of it and turned the tables on her and locked her hands behind her head, so Parker rolled her over on her back. Suddenly they heard giggling. Jack and Gabe were climbing on them.
J.J. leaned against the door. “I see you two are working things out.”
“A normal sister would have invited me here for a glass of wine. Or just ask if I’d done any hand to hand combat lately.” Parker gave Gabe a good squeeze.
“True. But this way was so much better.” Sam grinned.
“And you wonder why people call the Blake kids a roving gang at that fancy school they attend.” Parker shook her head. Sam and J.J. were summoned to the school last month because someone tried to cut the line in front of Jack at recess, so he went and got his cousin Jake. They were great, good-natured kids, but all of them attending the same school had its challenges. If someone tried to bully them, Jake, the oldest grandchild, would posse up the rest of the Blake kids in search of the troublemaker hassling one of his kin.
“I finally got the noodle out of Gabe’s nose, so dinner will be done in fifteen minutes,” J.J. said.
“Thanks, babe.” Sam inspected her youngest son’s face. “I can’t wait to hear how this happened.”
“Um,” Gabe said.
“Save it for the dinner table,” Sam replied.
“I’m so hungry I don’t mind hearing snot talk while I eat.” Parker rubbed her stomach.
“I say Jack and Gabe are the winners of the tag team. I think you two should forfeit your dessert.”
Parker laughed. “I think so too.”
“Come on, boys. Let’s wash up for dinner and set the table while Mom and Aunt Parker get cleaned up.” J.J. ushered the boys down the hall toward the kitchen.
Sam stood and held out her hand for Parker. “Want to tell me what the hell happened yesterday?”
“I’ll brief you while I’m rifling through your closet for a change of clothes.”
Parker recapped yesterday’s events as she followed her sister upstairs to the bedroom. She continued prattling on as she zipped into the bathroom to freshen up before raiding her sister’s massive walk-in closet. They were roughly the same size so she relished flipping through her sister’s wardrobe for something she would never return. It was just like when they were kids. They fought over clothes and makeup, but at the end of the day, Sam was always there for her.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Sam demanded. “You won’t take a company SUV; you let him go to that radio interview. You’re letting Riley do whatever he wants.” Sam loosed the belt on her gi.
Parker put her hands on her hips. “I was thinking I saved Sloane’s life. And I am getting the job done while working with the client.”
“Tough. Security over image is more crucial, especially when there’s an active threat.” Sam pulled a pair of jeans off a hanger and slipped them on.
“You had to know having an obvious detail was going to rub a macho football player the wrong way. Turns out he’s not that easy to control. But then again you knew that. Why did you ask me to take this job again?”
“Because you were such a big help busting up that High School Crush ring during the season.”
Professional football players were always being targeted for something. There was a ring of women flanking the hotels in the cities they traveled to pretending to be former high schoolmates. When the players’ defenses were dropped, thinking they had some kind of—even if miniscule—history with them, they’d party with them, then get them into a compromising position for blackmail. The troubled player MG had fallen victim to two women at an away game. Then another player a couple of weeks later at another away game. Parker had looked back at the team’s playing patterns and discovered similarities in the incidents. It had happened a few times before then, but the guys were too embarrassed to tell anyone. After a tough talk from Sam, they finally came forward, and she and Kendrick put a plan together to stop it. Parker went to the next few games a week ahead of time and was able to pinpoint how the set-up went at the hotels. She got lucky and befriended one of the ladies who had loose lips after a couple of sangrias. They were able to coordinate with vice in that city’s police department to break up the scam, as well as put the word out to other football teams.
“I was pretty good.” She continued rummaging through the rack of clothes.
“And I thought you would keep him in line.”
“Why would I be able to do that?”
“Because he listens to you.”
“That remains to be seen.” She shook her head. “I did bring you a peace offering though. I talked to Rembrandt in cyber warfare. He gave me the skinny on the publicist’s servers, which he said were so unprotected a grade-schooler could have hacked it.”
“When did his publicist get hacked?”
“Rem said the anomalies in their server appeared to have started right before Thanksgiving.”
“Right around the time the notes started coming. Just perfect. That idiot didn’t think his clients had a right to know?”
“He’s been afraid to tell his clients for fear they would jump ship. Now it’s blowing up in his face.”
“He covered his own ass but didn’t do the same for his clients.” Sam shook her head.
She could feel it coming. “Look, I know I should have waited to open that box. But I had a strong feeling that something wasn’t right and that we didn’t have a lot of time left before something bad happened. And considering the note hinted that he’d be poisoned by that water, it was a good thing that I didn’t wait. Sloane would be in the hospital or worse. It was a risky move, but I’d do it again if I had to. But given what a tight ship you run, I would totally understand if you reprimanded me or relieved me from duty. I can go back to my PI cases anyway.”
“You finished?”
“No.” She held up a chambray shirt with gold butt
ons. “This would look much better on me. So would those jeans you’re wearing.”
“Think again half-pint.”
“I am only one-inch shorter than you. Technically I tower over an average-height woman.”
“And I’m still above you.” Sam stuck her tongue out at her.
She rolled her eyes. “You never let me forget.”
“Hey, I should be able to bust your chops. You just took all the fun out of disciplining you. And no, I don’t want you off the assignment, even though you listed some really good reasons why I should remove you. What you did was dangerous. You could have been hurt. Other people could’ve been hurt. It was terribly risky.”
“A calculated risk. I felt like I had no other choice and was running out of time.”
Sam didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded slowly. “Let’s just make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“Oh.” Parker squinted at her. “Are you giving me special treatment?”
“Why would I do that?”
Parker folded her arms across her chest. “You’re being way too nice lately. You’ve been periodically hiring me to work on cases and now you’re not going to rip me a new one for going rogue multiple times?”
“Wow.” Sam put her workout clothes in the hamper. “Gratitude masked as indignation.”
“No. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me since I left the force. Including backing off.”
“Don’t thank me, thank your brother-in-law. I don’t know how you got that man to come around to your side. He invented the word stubborn.”
“That’s because he listened to me and he’s been through this all before. He said being married to you has made him a wiser and savvier negotiator.”
Sam looked amused by that, but she let it go. “Kendrick told me he covered for you the other day because you had something important to do.”
“I did. Is there a problem?”
“No. I was just wondering where you went.”
“What I do on my time is my business.”
“You’re right.” Sam sighed. “I was asking as a sister, not as a temporary boss.”
She took a deep breath. “I’ve been seeing a shrink since I left the force. At first it was to deal with behavior that arose at work. But now that we’re digging in, I think it has to do with what happened when I was a little. Do you ever think about it?”
“Every day of my life. How could I forget the day we almost lost you?” Sam caressed her cheek.
“I have these terrible nightmares. But lately dad has been popping up in them.”
“Ladies, I hate to interrupt, but dinner is on the table,” J.J. called to them from downstairs.
“We’ll be right down babe,” Sam replied.
“I couldn’t decide which one of your wife’s fabulous blouses to borrow and never return.” Parker let out a dry laugh.
“Since you’re working on the detail, I asked Anna Beth and Corbett to watch the boys this weekend.”
“Oh, OK. I’ll make it up to them when this is all over. Maybe we’ll have another backyard jamboree with all of the kids.”
“They’d love that.”
She changed into the chambray shirt and ran a brush through her hair while Sam put on a T-shirt. They walked out of the bedroom together, but not before Sam grasped her hand.
“If you ever want to talk, I’m here.”
“Thanks.” She squeezed back.
* * *
Riley signed the last poster on his desk and stuffed it into the shopping bag. He’d autographed a lot of merchandise for Wyatt’s Tomcats promotion for Super Bowl week. He thought it was nice that Cal was talking him and the Tomcats up at the Bright Star. Cal was a close personal friend of the Blakes, but it also meant that Cal and Wyatt were now warming up to him. Or so he hoped.
He groaned when he looked at the text from his teammate Wade. The guys were going to a club tonight and wanted him to join them. He wouldn’t have gone anyway—the loud high-paced environment didn’t seem all that appealing these days. But he was pissed at the fact that he couldn’t leave his apartment if he wanted to without an armed entourage. Regency was taking precautionary measures by restricting his movements. Now any public place he visited had to be checked out beforehand and that took hours to do. Not to mention the attention it attracted. People seemed to be curious to see who was so important that men dressed in suits communicating on walkie-talkies were skulking about, surveying exits.
Today he’d been a little disappointed when Parker said she had to leave early to visit her sister. He knew she’d been ducking Sam’s calls, but he had the feeling there was something else going on too. She was awesome yesterday, the way she’d figured out his water bottle may have been spiked with something. It was also reckless. He was thankful, but he also knew why Regency was none too happy that she’d done something so dangerous. How could you be furious at someone who’d saved your life? Nothing Parker ever did was simple, and neither were his feelings for her. Feelings?
He shook his head and headed to his bar and got a beer out of the mini-fridge. He was used to their usual snark-filled banter. Or as he would call it, Sunday dinners at the ranch. Recently, he’d had to rein in his desire to provoke her so she could do her job effectively. He didn’t want Sam to reprimand her. Parker had her own style; her sister had to know she wasn’t right for such a pedestrian job. He suspected that was part of the reason Parker didn’t want to work for Sam or Regency or the police force. She had a fierce, free spirit that couldn’t be contained. It was obvious by the way she dressed and the car she drove. Most women dressed to attract, whereas Parker didn’t give a damn what you thought of her.
He had to admit that was sexy all by itself. Being gorgeous was just the icing on the cake. She had a nice athletic body, which included those perfect breasts he’d forced himself not to stare at for fear she’d knock his lights out. She always had her hair done in some interesting style complete with barrettes. She had confidence, charisma, and a deductive mind. Detective work suited her. She picked up on people’s body language and could read between the verbal lines better than anyone he’d ever known. Unfortunately that also made her come off as a know-it-all. Sure, she was right when she made an assessment more times than not, but she didn’t realize that people got annoyed when they felt they were being pigeonholed. But he also suspected she did that on purpose so no one would get close to her.
Who would be crazy enough to get to know someone who always seemed to be a step ahead of them mentally? She thought like a football player. He was familiar with being a strategist. Trying to predict the behavior of those around you was delicate work.
The house phone rang, shaking him out of his thoughts of Parker. It was rare that anyone called him on that number. He thought about not answering it, but this was nuts. He looked at the caller ID display. It was his sister.
“Hey, Sis, what’s going on? Why did you call the house number?”
“Um, you didn’t answer your cell.”
He’d left it in his study. “Sorry, I’m moving around the house doing a few things. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on? Some crazy nut tried to kill my brother, and I had to hear about it on the news,” she squeaked. “There’s a pic of you being escorted out of a radio station with an entourage of men in suits.”
“I know it seems like a big deal, but believe me, it’s been blown out of proportion. Someone is trying to rattle me before the Super Bowl.” He looked up at the ceiling. He hated lying to his little sis.
“I read somewhere there have been threats for months. Why didn’t you tell anyone in the family?”
“Sis, there’s nothing to worry about. If there were something to worry about, I would have called. Trust me. The media sees my name and automatically sensationalizes the topic. I have a top-notch security firm checking things out for me.”
“OK.” She sighed. “If that’s all it is.”
“That’s all it is. Now, how are the travel pla
ns going?”
“I am going insane trying to wrangle this family for the trip to Texas. You’d think it would easy to get people together, especially since they’re not paying for anything. Remind me again why you didn’t get your personal assistant to do this for you?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Are you experiencing game day brain fog all the time now? I spoke with that nice lady Parker the other day. She answered your phone while you were at practice. She said she was your personal assistant.”
“She was joking. We’re—” He trailed off. He didn’t want to alarm his family with talk of a stalker. “It’s complicated.”
“She sounds pretty nice and funny. Please don’t sleep with her.”
“I do not sleep with my employees.” He winced. He had in fact slept with his last assistant and subsequently had to fire her when she started acting more like a girlfriend than an employee. He’d also slept with the chef he’d used for his private parties and had to cool it with her for a while too. Sometimes he was a real idiot.
“I can’t wait to meet her.” She giggled. “Listen, I wanted to know my limit on the credit card you gave me.”
“Do you need something?”
“No, but it’s proving to be more difficult to accommodate everyone in the family. Some people insist on staying in the same hotel as the team, but it’s super expensive. We could get more bang for our buck at another hotel just a mile away.”
He smiled to himself. She was always so sensible. “Book everyone in the hotel where the team is staying. I have the hotel’s contact person you should talk to ensure you get the best rooms. I’ll text it to you.”
“Wow. Special treatment.”
“Well, I am the star quarterback.” He laughed. “It may not get me extra mashed potatoes at our family’s dinner table, but I have a little more clout in Texas.”
“Finally, the respect you deserve.” She laughed too. “Have I told you how proud I am of you? Not just for making it this far with the team, but for how much you’ve grown the last couple of years.”
Hard Target (All or Nothing Book 1) Page 10