My arms collapsed beneath me and I was aware that I was laying on top of her, but I couldn’t bring myself to move until my heart calmed down a degree. When I finally rolled off her, I pulled her into my arms and for the first time in a long time, I allowed myself to enjoy lying in bed with a woman.
Chapter Nineteen
Blake
Okay, this was really strange. What just happened between us was…amazing. Parker had just opened up and shown me a side of him that I didn’t think existed. But it all made sense now. Every time we were together, there were no emotions involved. It was very straight forward fucking. It was hard and fast, with absolutely no care. And now I realized that it was his way to stay detached from everything.
But this…snuggling with me in bed was something I didn’t expect. I mean, he wasn’t kissing me like a lover would or running his hands over me, but he was holding me to him, which was more than I ever expected from him. And now I had no clue where to go with this. Should I slip out and say thank you? Should I just stay here until he told me that I needed to leave? I didn’t want it to get to the point that he needed to kick me out, but I also wasn’t ready to leave whatever this was.
“Do you want me to leave?” I finally asked.
His fingers started trailing up and down my arm, and I looked at them strangely, wondering why they were doing that. Maybe he was in some kind of daze and didn’t realize he was doing it.
“No, I want you to stay,” he said gruffly.
Okay, now I really didn’t know what to do. He was so different, but why? Was this really all because I told him I didn’t think he was a rapist? Why would he even care what I thought? I was just some random woman. Then again, if I thought back on it, we were sharing something. Maybe that’s what he wanted. Maybe he wanted someone to talk to, but he didn’t know how to do it. Maybe if I started things off, he would open up more and talk to me. It was worth a shot. But he beat me to the punch.
“Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“I grew up with four brothers. I was the middle child, so if I wanted to hold my own in a fight against them, I had to be scrappy.”
He made some kind of grunting noise while he continued to run his fingers up and down my arm. “You don’t fight like you’re being scrappy. You fight like you know exactly what you’re doing.”
I chose my next words carefully, not wanting him to think I was some psychopath. I had a mean streak when someone messed with me. “When I was fourteen, one of my older brother’s friends hung around a lot. He thought he was really awesome. He was always pushing me around when no one was looking. He was a bully and my brother didn’t see it. I hadn’t quite grown into my body yet. I was skinny and had gangly arms and legs, but my chest and my ass were developing rapidly. I just looked weird. He liked to pick on me a lot, call me names all the time. And one day he pushed too far.”
I felt Parker stiffen next to me. His hand stopped moving on my arm as he turned his head to look down at me. “What happened?”
I smirked at him. “I was raised by a kickass dad and had four brothers that were constantly pushing me around. What do you think I did?”
The corner of his lip twitched and I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped me.
“He came at me to push me to the ground and I spun out of his way and then kicked him in the back. He fell to the ground and when he rolled over, I stomped on his junk.” I snorted in laughter, still remembering the look of pain on his face. Laughing, I continued my story. “His face was beat red and he looked like he was about to puke. He just laid there for the longest time, crying like the sissy that he was. And when my dad came out and saw him on the ground, I thought for sure that I was going to get his belt. But when I told him what happened and what the kid had been doing to me, he walked off and got my brothers. They took him out back and doled out their own form of justice on him, but not before they directed me on ways to inflict my own pain on him.”
“What happened to the kid?”
“My brother told him never to come around again. My dad sent him back home, telling him that if he ever told anyone what happened, he would know, and this would be just a sample of what he would do to him the next time. After that, my dad and brothers insisted that I be enrolled in every single defense class possible. From then on, fighting was my life.”
“How did your mom feel about all that?”
“I think she was happy. I mean, she knew growing up that I would never be the girl that sat around in dresses and played tea party. I think deep down, she was happy that I was learning to defend myself since I was surrounded by boys that were constantly rough. And the more I started to be like them, the more they started to treat me like one of them. I started going out hunting with them and my dad taught me how to shoot. It was almost like I was one of the guys after that.”
“I bet your dad was proud when you became an FBI agent.”
“Yeah, he was.”
“So, when you ran, why didn’t you run to them? I’m sure they would have helped you. It sounds like they would have done anything for you.”
“Yeah, they would have helped me, but I didn’t want them involved. I’m sure the FBI has already contacted them, or at least has them under surveillance. If this was so bad that my boss was willing to fire me over it, then there’s something they don’t want anyone to find out about, and I have no doubt that they’re digging into anyone that I know.”
“So, you went on the run and ran into this mess.”
“Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds. There’s this really hot guy that I met.”
“Yeah? Is he a good fighter?”
“He’s not bad, but I haven’t had any problem kicking his ass so far.”
“Well, being trained the way you are, that’s not surprising,” he said matter-of-factly. “But now that he knows just how skilled you are, I think you should give him a rematch.”
“I could,” I shrugged, “but I’m not sure it would do him any good.”
“Oh yeah?” he asked, rolling over on top of me and caging my body into the mattress.
I spread my legs under him, allowing his body to settle in between my thighs. His massive erection dug against my core, making me momentarily forget what we were talking about.
“I bet he has other ways of making you submit.” He slowly pushed inside me, stretching me so much that I gasped at the feeling. I wasn’t sure I would ever get used to him and his giant cock.
“He can try,” I said, putting my arms around his neck and pulling him closer. “But I don’t think he’ll ever get me to submit.”
“Is she still in the military?” I asked casually as we got dressed after our shower.
He glanced up at me with confusion on his face.
“The woman that accused you of rape.”
His face went stony, no emotion getting through. “No, she got out after I was discharged. She was medically discharged and I never heard about her again.”
“So…why did they believe that you did it?” I asked, trying my best not to sound insensitive.
“Because she said it was me.” He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, his head hanging in defeat. “She really believed it was me, and the shit part of it all is that our unit was close. I mean, she wasn’t a woman to us. She was part of us and we all treated her like one of the guys. There was never any sexual shit between any of us, and she was really fucking good at her job. I just…I just never understood how she could think it was me. But the brain does weird shit when you go through trauma. I guess she just put me in her mind as the man that attacked her.”
“Doesn’t that seem weird though? I mean, I get trauma and everything, but something seems off to me.”
“I would say the same thing, but I watched her on the stand. She was crying and she couldn’t look at me. She looked genuinely scared of me up there.”
“You sound like you’re not mad at her.”
“How can I be mad at someone that was assaulted? In her mi
nd, it was me. I’m not happy with the way shit went down, but blaming the victim isn’t going to make this right for me. She went through something traumatic and me getting pissed at her is only going to make her relive those events. I can’t do that to her.”
I had to give him credit, he was a really good person. If it was me, I wouldn’t give up until I made the fucker pay. But the way he was thinking, taking the woman’s feelings into account, that took a very strong person with a high moral standing. Still, it just didn’t make sense to me.
“Did you ever think of hiring someone to investigate for you?”
He snorted. “What for? When I was court-martialed, they didn’t want to hear what I had to say. And getting something like this overturned is nearly impossible. That’s partly why I took the job with Knight. He said that he might be able to help me.” He ran his hand over his face and sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part. I know it would take a lot to get my case reviewed.”
“What would it take?” I asked curiously.
“It would take someone getting this in front of the President. The only way for me to go back to living my life with the same honor and respect that I had when I was serving is to get a pardon from the President. And the way my case looks right now, I’m not sure I have anything that would make the President look twice at my case.”
“So, why do you think Knight can help?”
“I don’t know that he can, but he seemed pretty fucking adamant that Cap might be able to do something.”
“What are you going to do if you can’t get your case reviewed?”
He shrugged slightly. “I don’t know. I’m fucking tired.”
He sounded tired. I could only imagine the weight of his discharge constantly hanging over his head. For someone else, it might not seem that bad, but for a military guy, they took honor and respect seriously. It was the core of what they stood for. Without it, being told that you didn’t deserve to wear the uniform, that was a crushing blow.
“I keep imagining what it would be like to go apply for a job and not have that judgment in their voices when they call me back and tell me they can’t hire me. You know, for the past two years, I’ve been doing underground fighting just to have a decent paying job. I save all of my fucking money because one day I’ll be too old to keep fighting. I can’t get loans to go back to school, so this is all I have. It’s like one day I was serving my country, and the next, I was being cuffed and thrown in a military prison to await my trial. It was over just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.
I slipped my hand into his and gave a squeeze. “I’ll fight with you. I don’t know how much help I can be, but I still have some connections. Maybe I can help. If not, I’ll stand by you. I know what kind of man you are. So win or lose, I’ll be here with you.”
He leaned in and kissed me lightly on the lips, his eyes slipping closed in relief. My heart broke a little for him, for what he must have felt like since his discharge. If I could help him in any way, I would. Suddenly, all this shit that I was dealing with at the FBI paled in comparison to the fight Parker had ahead of him, and I would stand up for him the way my father and brothers stood up for me.
Chapter Twenty
Parker
“Has Becky found anything yet?” I asked Knight. I walked into the conference room just as he was about to walk out.
“Not yet. There’s a lot to sift through, but if anyone can find something, it’s her.”
“Maybe I should just head back to Pittsburgh.”
“Why would you do that? We still have a job to finish.”
“We have nothing but a hunch that something is wrong.”
“No,” Knight said testily. “We have a money trail that doesn’t add up. We have what looks a lot like insider trading, and for a senator to buy up that much stock in a company, he must know something really fucking important.”
“Yeah? And how does any of this have jack shit to do with me? Come on, Knight. So, the Senator is a piece of shit. That’s up to the constituents to vote him out of office.”
“But they’re not going to do that unless they have a reason to.”
“I’m just not seeing why I need to be involved in this. I mean, I’d be pissed if I found out this guy was doing illegal shit, but at the end of the day, how does any of this directly impact me?”
“So I suppose we should all take that attitude. Let those in power do what they want because it doesn’t directly affect us,” he snarled.
“We’re two very different people, Knight. You see people doing bad shit and you want to get involved. Me? I’ve already been involved in the bad shit and now I just want to lay low and live the rest of my life in peace.”
“And you really think that’s going to happen? Your life is shit right now. You could be here, doing good work instead of beating the crap out of nobodys in an underground fighting ring.”
“Yeah? What kind of work would I be allowed to do?”
“You could get into training like I did.”
“Because you can’t legally carry a weapon?” I guessed. His eyes darkened and his whole body stiffened. “If you want to have an honest conversation, then you have to actually tell the fucking truth. I know you read my file. Do you know what I was training for when I was yanked out of the military? I was training in military intelligence, interrogations. They were teaching me to read body language and how to pick up on little things that the average person wouldn’t see. And do you want to know what I saw when I talked to you?” His jaw ticked hard and I knew I had his attention. “I saw that you were carrying secrets way fucking deeper than what I even thought. You didn’t deny that you were the man that went on a killing spree, taking out all his superiors. But all the signs point to you. I tried to do some digging, but everything is sealed up tighter than a virgin’s ass. But you fit the profile perfectly. But I have to wonder, what would make all of the men here protect your secrets? You must have done something that made them all fall in line. And Hunter, he’s practically glued to your ass. He’s different from everyone else around here. He looks at you with the same loyalty that I used to look at the people I was serving with. So, if I had to venture a guess, I would say that Hunter is one of the men that busted you out of prison. Am I close?”
He smirked at me, shaking his head slightly. “You think you’re really fucking smart, don’t you.”
“Oh, I know I am. But then, there’s still the question of where you were all those years. You dropped off the face of the earth and then suddenly you died all these years later.” I started pacing, trying to work it all out in my head. “You pop up on Reed Security’s radar, the same place that Hunter is working. You hadn’t been in contact with him for all those years, because if you had, he would have helped you out sooner. Either that, or you both decided that it was safer if you didn’t have any contact. But suddenly, you’re not only in contact with him, but you’re working with him. He convinces his company that you’re trustworthy, even though you’ve murdered a bunch of people. That’s not an easy feat. You’d have to prove not only your loyalty, but your skills. You’d have to prove that you could be an asset. But you’d been on the run for years.” I stopped walking and looked at him. “Stop me if I’m getting any of this wrong.”
“You have it all fucking wrong.”
I nodded, knowing that was the typical answer I would get, and continued pacing. “So, the real question is what were you doing all those years that would make you an asset to a security company? You have skills that are crazy. I’ve seen the way you train, no mercy. You fight like every time you get in that ring could be the last time. Most men have some level of hesitation, because even though you’re trained for it in the military, it’s not an easy thing to take someone’s life. But you don’t have that. You would kill the man standing beside you if you thought it was necessary.”
I stopped pacing as the dots started to connect. He killed his superiors because he knew what they were doing was wrong.
He showed no remorse for those killings at his court-martial. He fights to kill, like he has to kill. Kill or be killed. Hudson Knight, the name he had been given when Cap gave him a new life. Garrick. The name flitted through my head and I suddenly remembered his wife calling him that when I was brought in and drugged up. Garrick Knight.
My head snapped up and I met his eyes, him wondering how much I had figured out. Garrick Knight, the same fucking name of an assassin that had died a few years back, taken out on a job. An assassin that showed no mercy to those he deemed unworthy. His reputation preceeded him, known as an assassin with a moral compass. You didn’t want to piss him off, because he would take you out whether he had a contract on you or not.
I shook my head, not sure if I should believe what my head was telling me. Could it really be possible? It all fit. It all made so much sense, but would be one helluva job to pull off for Reed Security. Knight had told me that Cap gave him a new life, so that he could start over with his wife. And if they were doing that for him, he must have done something for the company. It had to be more than doing a job for them. It would have to be something big, like saving someone’s life. Possibly even bigger than that.
“So, you’ve finally figured it out,” Knight bit out.
“Were you expecting me to?”
He smirked. “It does make things easier, don’t you think?”
“I don’t get it. Why would you bring me on, knowing that I would figure out your secrets?”
“Because you have a skill that you very rarely use. You read people even better than I do. You were trained well, and if the military hadn’t fucked you over, you would be one of their highest intelligence officers right now. But ever since your court-martial, you’ve been hiding. You should have been using those skills to weed out the lies that were being told, but you were too fucked up over what was happening that you forgot your training. But I need that intuition now. I know that whatever the fuck is going on here is bigger than just some insider training and dirty senators. I know that there’s something happening before the next election. I have no fucking clue what, but I know the answers are out there, just waiting to lead us to the truth.” He shook his head almost tiredly. “I don’t know about you, but I’m fucking tired of being fucked over by people that think they’re above the law. The government is supposed to advocate for the people, but instead, they’re lining their own pockets.”
Parker: A Reed Security Romance Page 16