Parker took a deep breath. “Again. I’m security.”
“Not dressed like that you’re not.”
“I try to blend in with the crowd. Riley had a dinner party tonight. There was a crowd.”
Dakota wheeled on him. “And you didn’t invite me?”
“It was for the players and their significant others.”
“Were Keenen and MG here? I wanted a selfie with them for my InstaSnap account.”
“They sure were,” Parker said.
“You’ve changed, Riley. We used to make a great occasional couple. I always thought of you as more than a celebrity hookup. I’m even rooting for you to win that damn Stanley Cup.”
“Super Bowl,” Parker corrected her.
Dakota ignored her. “I can have any man I want, but I choose you. I don’t care if sex is phenomenal with you, I won’t be treated this way. I’m breaking up with you.”
“We were never together.” He sipped on his beer, but she thought it was to hide a smile.
Parker didn’t bother to hide a smile of her own.
Dakota turned to her. “What are you so happy about? He has an enormous sexual appetite. I hope you’re ready for it.”
“Again. I’m security. I am not his new girlfriend.”
“Whatever.” She gave Parker a onceover before putting her sunglasses back on. “And just think I was going to ask you to have a three-way with us.”
Riley spit out his mouthful of beer.
“I’ll reminisce over this fondly as a road to hell not taken,” Parker fired back.
Dakota glared at Riley. “I’m going to unfriend you on all of my social media accounts and tell everyone what a jerk you are. I’ll tell everyone you cheated on me, kicked my toy dog FeFe, and you think recycling is for idiots who have nothing better to do with their time.”
Parker folded her arms across her chest and moved in closer to Dakota. “You really know how to manipulate the masses, that’s quite the Internet outrage trifecta that’s guaranteed to attract unwanted, negative attention. But think about it. Do you really want to do that?”
“Just watch me. And I’ve decided you were cheating on me with a cheap prostitute named Parker. I bet you’ll lose a million followers in three hours.” Dakota cocked her head to the side.
“Prostitute? I’m not the one who looks like she’s headed to the Best Little Whore House in Texas.”
“Is that another Jurassic slam? Because it went totally over my head.”
“My mistake. I usually fight with smarter people.” Parker moved closer to her.
Riley stepped between them. “Dakota, you apologize to her right now and grow up. You don’t get to come into my house and threaten people I care about. Parker is a smart, classy, beautiful woman and I trust her with my life. Aren’t you supposed to be a faux feminist? It wouldn’t look too good, you tearing down another woman because you feel unjustifiably scorned.”
Dakota snorted. “I can do what I want. By game day you’ll be media fodder.”
Parker let out a dry laugh. “Think again. If you do that I’ll have no choice but to call your father and tell him about your less than stellar behavior.”
“You’d have to talk to approximately seventeen people before my father will even entertain taking the call of a common person.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Even if you were able to get through to him, which you can’t, he wouldn’t believe a word you said. It would take you a month to get his office cell number.”
“It only took one phone call to get his private cell phone number.” Parker opened the contacts app on her cell phone and found the number. Dakota damn near fainted when she saw the number.
“How did you get that? Daddy doesn’t give out his number to anyone.” Her eyes widened.
“I could get the President of the United States on the phone if I wanted.” Parker squinted at her. “And I’m not afraid to use it.”
“Riley.” Dakota smoothed her hair. “On second thought, a quiet breakup would be best for us. I wouldn’t want it to overshadow your playing in the World Series.”
Parker started to correct her again, but Riley intervened.
“Thank you, Dakota,” he replied. “I appreciate that.”
Dakota put on her things and scurried out of the apartment. When the door closed, Parker and Riley both burst into laughter.
“Sorry about that. Dakota is all kinds of crazy. How did you get her dad’s number?”
“When you want to talk to a billionaire, it helps when you know another billionaire. I got his number from John Jacob last time she was around. They play golf occasionally when he’s in town. I wasn’t sure if she’d turn into a problem. She’d been blabbing on her social media pages that she was in Texas to see you for your big game. So I covered my bases.”
“You are very crafty, Ms. Carson.”
“It was nothing. Women like Dakota aren’t scared of anything except their dads.”
“Ah.”
“I’ll let you go. We’ll go over those letters in the morning. We’ll see if anyone sounds familiar to you.”
“Thank you for everything tonight.”
“You’re welcome.” She smiled. “Thank you for standing up for me with Dakota. They were very kind words.”
“I meant every word I said.” He caressed her cheek.
“You could do so much better than Dakota.”
“Is that an invitation?”
She cleared her throat and ignored the question. “Everyone looked like they had a great time. You’ve made great strides tonight with bringing your team together. Maybe once all this stalker business is over, you can really show the entire team a good time at a real restaurant.”
“I don’t know. I thought you and I made a pretty good team.”
Parker didn’t know what to do when Riley moved even closer to her. She looked up and saw that smoldering, sexy look he’d give her sometimes when they were at the ranch. A kiss would have been perfect right now, but she had too much to process. She had to get out of there.
She backed away. “I hope you got what you wanted.”
He smiled. “Not yet. But I’m working on it.”
Parker headed to her apartment, happy that Riley’s party went well. He’d made a lot of progress with his teammates, and the night made him forget about the threat for a while. She’d made some headway on the letters and there were a few leads she intended on turning in to Kendrick. More importantly she’d found out that he hadn’t slept with Dakota. She wanted to believe it didn’t mean anything, but it was huge. He had changed. He wasn’t the same love-them-and-leave-them, self-centered athlete he’d been when they’d first met. He’d shown tonight that he genuinely cared about other people, and he’d let it slip that he cared about her.
She crawled into bed after she’d showered, got into her pajamas, and emailed Sam her nightly report. She turned out the bedside lamp, and her thoughts immediately went to Riley. He’d looked absolutely sinful tonight. They’d almost kissed before she’d high-tailed it out of there. It surprised her that she wanted to know if his lips were as soft as they looked or if his facial hair would tickle her face. She liked how those Mediterranean-blue eyes followed her when she walked around a room. She tried not to stare at the way the expensive fabric clung to his well-defined arms or how his slacks showcased his firm ass. Tonight, when she closed her eyes, she wasn’t afraid of a nightmare. She was scared she’d dream of the erotic things she wanted to do to him. The animosity she once felt was morphing into real feelings. Things just got more complicated between them.
* * *
The next day, Parker waved hello to the new administrative staff of the executive offices as she made her way back to J.J.’s office. She could see them scrambling for the phone to announce her. Cleary they were still getting used to their positions. It amazed her that it now took three people to do Anna Beth’s former job. Now that she was VP of operations for the latest venture, the Blake Hotels, they’d found it
hard to find a superhuman replacement to keep up the lightning pace she had around that office. The Blakes had lost a really great admin but gained a great exec and family member. Parker knew Anna Beth and Corbett were doing great and were living together until they found a place they both liked. She thought it would be cool if they moved into her and Avery’s building.
When J.J. sent her a text asking to have lunch with him in his office, she knew the family’s collective worry must have been hitting a boiling point. J.J. was the big gun, but she’d gotten used to it. The only other person that made her this jumpy was Deke Jr.
She tapped on the door, then opened it.
“Hi, J.J.”
“Well if it isn’t my favorite PI sister-in-law?” He rounded his desk and gave her a hug.
She laughed. “I’m your only PI sister-in-law.”
“When there are so many wonderful women in a family, you get creative and specific with the compliments.” He smiled. “How are you?”
“I’m fine.” He’d ordered her favorite, a Walforf salad. He held out a chair for her to sit. “Are you still planning that surprise vacation for you and Sam? I want to mark it off on my work calendar to make so I don’t take any cases while I’m babysitting the boys.”
“I thought I’d finish making the arrangements after the Super Bowl.” He went over to the bar and retrieved two bottles of her favorite pomegranate juice from the mini-fridge.
She flashed a cheesy grin. “Your life was so much simpler when Anna Beth helped out.”
“Don’t I know it.” He placed the bottle in front of her. “So you and Sloane have been getting along?”
Her eyebrows furrowed. She wasn’t about to tell J.J. what transpired between her and Riley last night. “Yeah. I’ve put aside my usual animosity to get the job done.”
“Good. I was hoping things were working out well.”
“I am a professional. Is this some kind of interrogation? Did Sam tell you—?”
“Hold on, feisty.” He held up a hand as he took the seat opposite her. “You and I meet for lunch all the time. This has nothing to do with my wife asking me to check in on you because she’s worried. She always worries. I always worry. Do you notice a pattern here?”
“You two need something else to focus on, like a third kid.”
“As much as I would enjoy that, your sister and I have come to a compromise about a third child. But I’m hoping to change her mind before Tate and Isabelle start trying again.”
“Ha!” She wagged her finger. “I knew you and Tate had some sort of procreation conspiracy going on.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He bit back a smile. “Back to you. I hope you don’t mind, but Samantha Jane told me you’d been having nightmares.”
She didn’t mind because she hadn’t asked Sam to keep it a secret, so she assumed J.J. would know eventually. “I’m working through them. I see a shrink to clear my head. I know my behavior toward the end of my police career was a little erratic.”
“I just want you to know I’m here if you need to talk. I promise I won’t lure you into the exercise room and spar with you.”
“Thanks, J.J.”
“And if you want to talk about Sloane, we can do that too.”
“What about him?” she said, annoyed. She really didn’t want to talk about Riley right now. She feared J.J. would pick up on her change of attitude. “I protect him, he keeps breathing.”
“I notice that distinct tone of disdain has left your voice when you talk about him. Anything change?”
“I may think of him as a little bit more human these days. He’s not the arrogant, self-centered, dumb jock pretty boy I’d pegged him for in the beginning,” she mumbled.
“Is that right?” He grinned.
She shrugged. “So can we eat? I’m hungry and I have to see Cassie before I leave.”
“Sure.”
“And J.J.? Thanks for taking the time and for talking to me like an adult.”
“It’s my pleasure. And I’ve been married to your sister long enough to know Carson women don’t respond to brute tactics like that.”
“Thank goodness for Sam.”
“I’ll tell her you said that.”
“No.” She shook her head and bit into a forkful of salad. “Don’t tell her that.”
* * *
Riley pulled his Bugatti into the parking lot of the Tomcats stadium and got out. He’d be suiting up and going on the field to practice, but the real action would be interacting with the press.
He knew Parker wasn’t thrilled about him taking his own vehicle, but media day was all about hyping up the crowd as the team made its way to the Super Bowl. Showing up in his flashy car may have seemed like a shallow gesture, but to him it represented that his head was still in the game and the attempt on his life hadn’t left him rattled. He explained to her that the subtle show of strength, that he was the same old super-confident Riley, would turn the attention back to where it belonged, on the team. When he did answer interview questions, he steered things back on the main event and all of the people who made up this wondrous moment, not just him. He looked up and saw Parker smiling at his answers and that warmed his heart. He’d worked so hard to get the cameras off him round the clock, and it had been working until the incident at the radio station.
He handed the keys to the valet, then rounded the car to open the door for her. “Don’t worry. Everything is going to be fine. There are too many people here for anything to go wrong.”
She frowned at him. “There’s no safety in a big group from a crazy lone gunman. Besides, there are a lot of important people here today and a lot of attention. Seventy-five percent of Regency’s staff is out in force.”
“Exactly.” He stopped and waved when a herd of photographers aimed their cameras at him. Then they continued into the stadium. “We’ll be OK.”
“I’ll be watching over you,” she said tersely.
He could tell she was on edge. He tried to lighten the mood a little. “That’s the best part about this. You get to ogle me all day and get paid for it. Lucky you.” He stepped on the escalator that led to the lower level where the lockers were located.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m going to barf.”
“See you later, Bruiser.”
* * *
Parker was dreading this day. There were always media people floating around the stadium, but this time there were triple that amount roaming around. She checked her phone. Kendrick was in the building as well as a few members of the Blake family, T.K. Holbrook, the governor, and Jack Stanton, the owner of Regency. This was the epicenter of important people in Texas and that meant it was going to be a really tense day.
She made her way to the second level; she liked the view from there. She could see the entire field and would still be able to get there quickly if she needed. Riley was out on the field warming up while talking to his teammates.
“You must get bored staring at him all day,” a familiar voice said behind her.
She turned. It was Carmichael. “Not really. He’s amazing to watch.”
“He’s a great player, but he’s a little distant with me.”
She’d noticed. Riley was usually pretty charming and easygoing, but he was colder with Carmichael.
“It’s the pressure from the upcoming game. He’s usually more personable.”
“I think he just likes you.” Carmichael laughed.
“No, we just have an extensive history. Most of it is comprised of yelling at each other, but it’s our thing.”
“He basically gave me the stay-away-from-my-girl speech in guy code.”
“Guy code?”
“Yeah, he told me you were super dangerous and to stay away from you. But what he really wanted to say was that he didn’t want any other competition.”
“I am super dangerous,” she smiled sweetly, feeling surprisingly warm inside at the thought of Riley being all protective and jealous. She snorted and shook her head, dis
missing it.
“Was he right about warning me off?”
She sighed. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but she was hoping he wouldn’t work up the courage to ask her out. She’d suspected that “show me the ropes thing” was just a ruse, and it disappointed her a little that he’d used it. Carmichael might be a nice guy, but he wasn’t her type.
“I’m not a complete psycho, but I am doing some personal growth right now which doesn’t leave much time for dating.”
“Fair enough. But I’d get ready if I were you.”
“Ready for what?”
“After Sloane wins the Super Bowl, you’re his next target.” He winked and walked away.
* * *
By four o’clock, Riley was ready to leave. He normally didn’t stay that late but he’d stuck around and talked to the media and some of the VIPs that were floating around the building. When they exited the building, he nodded to the valet, who ran off to get his car.
“Want to grab an early dinner?” he asked Parker when he met up with her again.
“My shift is almost over.”
His eyes gleamed. “I know. You want to grab an early dinner?”
Before she could answer, the valet came running back.
“Mr. Sloane, your car won’t start.”
“What?”
“I tried, twice but the engine wouldn’t turn over. Maybe it’s the starter.”
“What sound did it make?” Parker asked.
“A clicking, like the alternator was bad.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m not a mechanic, but I had that problem once.” He dug into his pocket. “I found this funny note on the floor of the car.”
Boom. This time you’re dead.
“Sloane, stay here.” Parker grabbed the keys out of the valet’s hand and started running toward the vehicle. There was no reason why Riley’s car wouldn’t start. It had been working fine the last few days. But the valet at the building had taken it to get detailed yesterday.
She got out her phone and dialed Kendrick as she continued her manic trek through the parking lot.
Hard Target (All or Nothing Book 1) Page 13