Parker: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  I quickly checked my monitor, but it was clear. Whatever they were seeing, it either wasn’t me or it was a faulty sensor. It was very possible that’s all it was. Whenever you hacked into someone else’s system, especially a system as large as OPS, there was a chance that something would go haywire.

  “Check the feed.”

  “I’m doing that. I’m not seeing anything. It all looks clear. It looks like a few sensors are acting up. I can reboot the system and get it all back online.”

  “How long will that take?”

  “Five minutes.”

  “Alright. Call the local PD. Have them send someone over to monitor the house while you’re doing that.”

  “It could take them a fucking half hour to get there.”

  “Get Rodriguez on the phone. He’ll take care of it. He owes me a favor.”

  I lowered the volume and continued through the house. I only had five solid minutes until I risked getting caught. I slipped into Reid’s room and moved quickly over to his bed. Slipping my hand over his mouth tightly, I steadied him as he jerked awake. I could see the fear in his eyes as he came awake and I fucking hated it, but I needed answers. When he finally realized who I was, he relaxed and nodded, letting me know that he was okay.

  “What’s wrong? Are Florrie and Alec okay? Is the baby okay?”

  “Everything’s fine, kid.”

  “Then what are you doing here?” he whispered.

  “I need some answers, and I don’t have a lot of time. Understand?”

  He nodded.

  “Okay, I need to know if when you were living with your step-dad, if you ever overheard any conversations that were sensitive.”

  “Sensitive?”

  “Things you shouldn’t have heard. Maybe something he was planning?”

  His eyebrows scrunched together and he shook his head. “I heard a lot of stuff. Stuff I was never supposed to hear. Is there anything specific you want to know about?”

  I didn’t want to go into specifics, but I needed answers. “Plans he would have made for something happening this year. Something-”

  His eyes went wide and I shut my mouth, waiting for him to say something. He squeezed his eyes shut and his lips moved rapidly, like he was trying to recall something. “The last week I was with the senator, I overheard a conversation he was having with another man in his study. Fat guy, gray hair, balding. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place him. The man had come to him with information, some kind of plan. He said that it would take about a year and half for everything to fall into place. He said they would get everything they wanted.” He shook his head slowly. “I think there was something about a lab working on something.”

  “Did he say who else was involved?”

  “No. I know there were others involved, like a group. He made it sound like there were a lot of people in on it. The senator took the papers, proof of what they were doing, and he hid it in his safe. He said he wasn’t getting involved, but he would be there to collect.”

  “Did anything else happen?”

  He shook his head. “He caught me eavesdropping. He tossed me down in the basement for a few days. When I was finally let out, I overheard him planning to kill me. That’s when I ran.”

  I nodded and stood. “No one can know that I came here. Do you understand?”

  He nodded. “Will I see you again?”

  “Miss our training sessions?” I smirked.

  He shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe after I figure all this out, kid. Remember, not a word.”

  He nodded and laid down, closing his eyes as I left the room. I quickly made my way back downstairs, turning up the volume on my earpiece to hear that the police were stationed outside and the reboot was almost done. I quickly slipped out the side door and locked it behind me. The officer couldn’t see me from where he was parked, so it didn’t take much to get away. Another fifteen minutes and I would be on my way home.

  I tossed my keys on the desk in my office, then flicked on the light. Cap was in the corner, but I had known that as soon as I opened the door. It wasn’t locked like it was supposed to be. That was his first mistake. His second mistake was leaving my files on my desk slightly askew. I could see dust prints from where he had moved them. His third mistake was that he was sitting in the most likely spot to hide, and I knew what Cap smelled like. Some would think that was weird, but when you stayed alive by noticing that kind of shit, it stuck with you.

  “Is there something you needed?”

  “OPS called.”

  “Yeah? What did they want?” I asked, sitting down in my chair.

  “They called to say that they had some sensors out at the Fuller house. They assured me that nothing was wrong. They reset the system and had a cop outside the whole time, but wanted to let us know.”

  I shrugged lightly. “Why are you telling me?”

  “I was just wondering what it is you needed from Reid that you had to break into their house in the middle of the night.”

  “Who says I broke in?”

  He chuckled slightly. “Are we still doing this? After all these years, you still think that you can pull the wool over my eyes?”

  “I wasn’t trying to.”

  “Yet you’re avoiding the question.”

  I watched him for a moment, wondering if I should tell him. I didn’t really care if he knew, but I liked fucking with him. It kept both of us on our toes. On the other hand, I was getting too old to have so many fucking secrets all the time. And I promised myself the Christmas that I killed the senator that things would be different. I swore I would trust the men around me, as much as I could.

  “I’m looking into something with the senator. I needed information from Reid.”

  “And you had to do it in the middle of the night?”

  “I’m not ready to let anyone know what I’m looking into. It could be nothing.”

  “You still could have gone during the day.”

  “And then people would know that I was looking into something. Let’s face it, Cap, I’m not the type to go pay friendly visits to people for no reason. Anyone would see through that.”

  “Do I need to worry about anything?”

  “Not yet. I’ll let you know if that changes.”

  He stood and headed for the door, but stopped. “You know, you don’t have to keep doing everything alone. If you can’t trust us by now, I’m not sure you ever will.”

  “I do trust you. If I didn’t, I would have shot you as soon as I walked into my office and saw that my files had been moved.”

  He chuckled and turned for the door. “Well, thank God you weren’t monitoring Reed Security while you were gone. You might have seen the changes I made.”

  “What changes?” I asked as he walked out the door. “What changes?”

  His booming laughter filled the hall and I narrowed my eyes at him. He was fucking with me. He hadn’t changed anything. I went back and sat down, pulling out the file I had taken from the senator’s house, but as I read through it, I kept glancing at my computer. Fuck it. I needed to find out what Cap had done first.

  I waited at the end of the alley against the wall, watching for anyone that shouldn’t be coming my way. He knew better than to show up with anyone else. He knew that I would end him immediately if he even thought about it. When I called Jim Caldwell, I knew I was taking a big risk. He was a fed, and the only reason I trusted him in the slightest was because I had saved his ass, and he had since helped me out whenever I needed it. I knew he didn’t like owing me any favors. Hell, if half the people that had come into contact with me over the years knew I was still alive, they would be shitting their pants, thinking I would be coming back to collect on favors. And if this was my old life, that’s exactly what I would be doing. But I had a new life with Kate now, and I wouldn’t screw that up by letting anyone know that I was alive.

  Jim was a different story. I had to go to someone last Christmas. I couldn’t let the cartels continue with
what they were doing. Not when I had evidence that could take them down. Jim had done as promised and my name was never mentioned. Not that anyone would believe him since I was officially dead. Still, it was always a risk to go to someone from my past.

  When I last saw him, I told him that he would never hear from me again. I smirked to myself as I remembered hearing the dread in his voice when he got my call. Of course he wasn’t happy to hear from me. I knew he felt threatened whenever I was around. The truth was, it would take a lot for me to kill him. Jim was one of the last honest and truly good agents that I knew of. Sure, there were always young, idealistic agents that cropped up, but they always ended up being swayed by power or money. Jim wasn’t like that. The only reason that he worked with a killer like me, was because he felt he owed me for saving his life. And he never took anything but evidence that could help take down someone that was dangerous. So if I had to kill him, there would be a damn good reason. I was just hoping that it never came to that.

  I heard the footsteps first, and then the shadow of a man made its way down the alley. I waited until he was almost right on me before I stepped out into the alley, making him jump.

  “Jesus, Knight. You scared the shit out of me.”

  “Isn’t that the point?” I asked, even though I didn’t mean it. I didn’t step out at the last minute to scare him. I was merely covering my bases and making sure that he wasn’t double crossing me.

  “I’ve never given you a reason to doubt me.”

  “Let’s keep it that way,” I said, motioning for him to follow me. Now that we were here, I didn’t like staying in this location. I felt exposed. But I always had a backup plan, so I started moving quickly, sticking to the shadows as I moved around the city. We were on the move for a good five minutes before I finally stopped in an Irish pub. Everyone here minded their own business, knowing that if you overheard something you shouldn’t, no one would hesitate to take you out in the alley and shoot you. I led him to a dark corner of the bar and sat in the booth, making sure I had my back to the wall. I wasn’t about to get any surprises.

  “I got what you wanted.”

  I motioned for him to hand it over. The file wasn’t all that thick. This couldn’t have been his whole service record, could it? I flipped open the file and started reading.

  Michael Parker.

  D.O.B. January 18, 1985

  Years of service- 15 years

  Service Branch- United States Marine Corp.

  Discharge- Dishonorable Discharge, Conduct unbecoming an officer.

  I scanned through the rest of the file, not seeing anything that I hadn’t already found on my own. I needed the details that weren’t included in the file. This wasn’t telling me jack shit.

  “This isn’t what I asked for,” I growled.

  “What you asked for isn’t something you’re going to find in a file.”

  “That’s why I called you.”

  He leaned forward, glancing around to make sure no one could overhear us. “Do you know how many favors I had to call in to get the information you wanted?”

  “I don’t give a fuck what you had to do.”

  He shook his head with a scoff. “I hope you don’t plan on coming to me for anything else, because I’ve used up every single contact I had to get what you need.”

  “I don’t have all night to sit around here waiting for you to tell me, so either get on with it, or we can end this night a different way than I planned.”

  He took the threat as I intended and nodded. “Officially, this guy got off easy. A woman in his unit accused him of raping her. She had the bruises and everything to prove it. The medic looked her over and photographed everything. It was a brutal attack.”

  “Evidence?”

  “No semen. They couldn’t prove that it was him, but he couldn’t prove that he was where he said he was. He even claimed that he made a call to someone back home during the timeframe that he was accused.”

  “So, he could have had his phone records summoned.”

  Jim shook his head. “There was nothing. No records that he placed a call or that anyone on the other end answered.”

  “Did his lawyer order the friend to testify?”

  “The judge wouldn’t allow it. He said that if there was no record of the phone call, he wasn’t going to allow the testimony.”

  “Are you saying that someone had the phone records scrubbed?”

  Jim ran his hand across his jaw. “I’m not saying anything. I’m saying that this is the way his court-martial went. These are the facts of the case.”

  “What else?”

  “The guy had no defense. He swore up and down that he would never rape a woman, but she took the stand and identified him as her rapist. Without solid evidence that he committed the rape, it was a case of he said, she said.”

  “And that’s why he was a dishonorable discharged with conduct unbecoming an officer,” I surmised.

  “They couldn’t prove it was him, but they sure as hell wanted him gone. So, he served no jail time, but he’s screwed for the rest of his life.”

  I nodded, but it just didn’t feel right to me. “What’s not in the report?”

  He glanced around again and leaned in even further. “I talked with a guy that knew a guy. Trust me, this is very thin.”

  “How thin?”

  “It’s as skinny as a runway model. Supposedly, this comes from someone that knows the victim. According to my source, the victim was fucking her senior officer for two years on and off. She was good friends with Parker even. Up until the night of the rape, she spoke about him as if he was a very good friend. Then, the night of the rape, supposedly they got caught. The senior officer freaked out. Apparently, he was up for a promotion and didn’t want to be slapped with a court-martial. She would have most likely walked away scott-free. Enlisted members wouldn’t be court-martialed for that type of relationship. There’d probably be a slap on the wrist, and all that goes along with it. But he was at risk of losing a lot. So, word is that he raped her for real and then framed Parker to take the fall.”

  “And she just admitted that it was him?” I asked unbelievably.

  “She had been raped by a man that she was supposed to trust, all so that he didn’t get in trouble. I’m guessing there were a lot of threats in there if she didn’t do what he wanted.”

  “Still, in order for that to have happened, those phone calls would have had to have been wiped. You have to have a lot of pull to accomplish that.”

  He nodded, but there was something he wasn’t telling me.

  “Who was the officer?”

  He shook his head slightly. “Trust me, you don’t want to open that can of worms.”

  “Tell me who the fuck he is,” I growled. “I’m not asking you to fucking turn the guy over. I need a name.”

  He gritted his teeth, knowing that he couldn’t hold out on me. I had too much power in this relationship. “Colonel Marcus Barrow.”

  The name sounded familiar. I thought back, trying to figure out how the hell I knew that name, and then it hit me. “The same Barrow that saved a Muslim woman from being raped a few years back?” Jim nodded. “He took out a terrorist that day and saved his unit.”

  “Now you see why no one would have believed her. That’s if this is true. Like I said, it’s all from someone that said she knew the victim.”

  “What’s your take on it?” I trusted Jim. He had good instincts and I knew that he wouldn’t just jump to conclusions.

  He hesitated and I knew he was considering everything, including what the implications would be based on what he told me. “I’ve read through the court documents, and based on what I’ve seen, I would say there were a lot of unanswered questions, and yet a man was still dishonorably discharged. I think the court needed someone to pay for what happened and Parker was convenient. I could be wrong on that, but that’s the way I read it. And if that’s true, that guy didn’t just get the short end of the stick, he got royally screwed over
.”

  I nodded in understanding. There were so many things that happened once you were dishonorably discharged. He would have immediately lost all veteran benefits, along with the chance of ever receiving any kind of government help, like financial assistance for unemployment. Employment would be difficult, considering a DD is like a felony conviction. No wonder he went to work for Adams. He couldn’t make any fucking money because no one would hire him. And that didn’t even come close to the shame of a dishonorable discharge. I knew, because I had been given a dishonorable discharge. The difference was, I didn’t give a fuck because I knew exactly what I was doing when I killed my superiors. I felt justified in how I was protecting my brothers, and I would do it again. But for Parker, if he wasn’t guilty, it was a mark on his military career that he couldn’t erase, and no soldier deserved that injustice.

  I snatched the folder from the table and moved to leave, but Jim grabbed my wrist. I slowly looked down where he was holding me and then glared at him.

  “This is the last time, right?”

  “We’ll see.”

  I saw the defeat in his eyes before I walked out of the bar. I had a feeling that what I was about to do would lead me back to Jim’s doorstep yet again. There was no point in making him think that this was over.

  I had read through the file folder a dozen times now, but I still wasn’t satisfied. I had a feeling that Parker was the type of man that I needed for this job, but I needed to be sure. If he really had raped a woman, he wasn’t the type of man that I wanted to be involved with. Hell, I might actually kill him for what he did. If it was true, the woman hadn’t gotten any justice. But if it wasn’t true, if Parker was telling the truth and the woman was lying, Parker had gotten fucked over and his life would never be the same.

  I studied the file for the woman’s name and typed it into my computer, finding her last known address. Kiera Lawson lived in Washington D.C. now. It was only a four hour drive to her place. Kate knew that I was out of town until this afternoon. If I left now, I could get to Kiera’s house before dawn and still make it back as I had planned. I ran all my usual checks on her, checking out her property for a security system or dogs. She didn’t have either. Hell, she didn’t even have a fucking cat. It didn’t make any sense to me. The woman had supposedly been raped, yet she didn’t do anything extra to protect herself? She had plenty of money and a good job, so there was no financial reason not to do it.