“We got that journal. We should know more soon.”
“But what if there’s not enough? I’m not naive. I know that we took a huge risk going into that lab. Our faces are probably on every wanted list right now. I just don’t see how we can walk away from this.”
“We’re safe for now,” I reassured her.
“Yeah, but for how long?” she asked, sitting up in bed and pulling the sheet up over her breasts. She brushed her hair out of her face and chewed on her lip. “What if Knight doesn’t find anything in that journal? What if this all goes nowhere?”
“Then we keep looking.”
“Yeah,” she snorted. “Except, you and I can’t just walk down the street anymore. What are the chances that Cap will want to send out more of his guys to find information on something that could go nowhere? We need something rock solid against this guy, and if we can’t find that, we have nothing to defend ourselves with. I’ll go to jail. You’ll go to jail. I’m just not sure it was worth it anymore.”
I nodded, but I didn’t agree. “It was all worth it. Every damn second of it was worth it. You know why?” She shook her head. “Because as cheesy as it sounds, all this led me to you. I haven’t felt as good as I have this past week in years. I never thought I could be this fucking happy. And I know I’m a pain in the ass. I know that this is all new and we might be terrible for each other. But I also know that I have never had so much fun getting my ass kicked. And fighting alongside you has been…amazing. I don’t know what the future will bring, but I know that while I have you right now, I could never regret a single fucking second of it.”
For just a moment, I saw something vulnerable in her eyes. I knew she wanted to take the chance with me, to risk it all to stay together. But I also knew that she would look at this logically.
“Parker-”
“Michael,” I corrected her, realizing that I had never actually given her my first name. “Or Mike.”
She grinned, ducking her head slightly. “I guess I should have known your first name before I slept with you, or even in the week after.”
“Eh. Everyone calls me Parker.”
“Michael, the thing is, no matter what’s going on between us, it’s not going to last. You’re right. This has been…amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. I mean, I loved my job and I lived for it, but it was nothing compared to what I’ve felt like when I’m with you. You challenge me and make me feel like everything I’m working for has a purpose. I haven’t felt that in a long time. And believe me, I want to hang on to it with everything I have, but I just don’t see how this is going to work out in our favor.”
“Then we fight like hell to make it work,” I said, sitting up and pulling her into my arms, cupping her jaw with my hand. Fuck, now that I knew she wanted me too, I couldn’t just walk away. Not when we were so close to having something special. “We fight like hell to win and we don’t fucking stop fighting. If I know anything about you, it’s that you can do anything you put your mind to. So, let’s do that. I know we both chance losing out here, but that’s what makes it all worth it. What the fuck good is it to live life if you don’t have something great to fight for?”
“But the cards are already stacked against us.”
“Fuck the cards. I really don’t give a shit anymore about what anyone else has to say. I’ve been fucked over and I took it because I thought there was nothing I could do about it. But now I know better, and I’m not gonna let life just roll over me because I was too scared to fight for what I wanted. I want you. I think that’s the only fucking thing that I’ve been clear on in years. So, fight with me. Tell me you want this as much as I do, because I know that if you do, we can figure this thing out and we can have everything we want.”
Her lips quirked in a small grin and she chuckled. “I never took you for an optimist. I knew you were a fighter, but I never imagined there was this sappy man underneath.”
“Real men can show their feelings,” I murmured, my lips brushing against hers. “I’m not holding anything back from you,” I said just before I crushed my lips against hers. Her arms wrapped around my neck and her body molded with mine. I’d already had this woman twice tonight, but it still wasn’t enough. I wanted more, because she was right, we didn’t know how long this would last, but I wanted to take every last second and treat it like it could be our last. I was tired of living this scared life where every possible move would land me in trouble. I was ready to start living again, to start taking control of my own life, to have what I really wanted. And it all began with her.
We sat in her bedroom later that morning, eating breakfast that Susan had prepared for us. I had snuck out of the room while she was catching up on sleep and begged Susan to make a tray for us. It wasn’t like I had to beg that hard. Susan was awesome. I crept back into the room with the tray and ran a strawberry over Blake’s lips until she woke up. Except, she was startled and smashed the strawberry into my face in her attempt to push it away. So, covered in strawberry, I did what any rational man would do. I went down on her and added a few more flavors to my breakfast.
After almost knocking our tray off the bed with her thrashing, she laid there and recovered from her blindingly awesome orgasm while I got our tray back in order. I was grinning like a fool, not even wanting to have sex right now. I was just happy to be sitting on this bed with her, eating breakfast like it was the most normal thing in the world.
“Do you see your family often?” she asked, taking a bite of eggs.
“Nah. They live in Montana.”
Her hand slowly lowered and she looked at me with this weird sort of fascination. “What part of Montana?”
“Outside Lewiston.”
She seemed to swallow hard and I began to think that maybe I had said something wrong. Maybe she thought I was a city boy or something.
“Do you…do you wear a cowboy hat when you go home?”
I quirked an eyebrow, assessing her reaction. “Would you want me to?”
“Um…yeah!”
I burst out laughing. I had no idea that wearing a cowboy hat was so sexy.
“Please tell me that you wear tight jeans.”
I winced. “That’s not really my favorite, but yeah, if I’m going riding-”
“Like, on a horse?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, on a horse.”
She started fanning herself, blowing out a long breath. “Oh my gosh. Sorry, but that’s my fantasy.”
“To see a man in tight jeans and cowboy hat?”
“Are you kidding me? A cowboy that could rope me in and tie me up? Hell yeah!”
“Okay,” I nodded, very interested in the turn of events. “Well, maybe someday I’ll take you there.”
She grinned, but then her smile slipped. “Why didn’t you go back there after you were discharged?”
“I did for a little bit, but I needed space.”
“In Montana,” she deadpanned. “Right, I could totally see that with all those trees and horses crowding you in. I mean, they call it Big Sky country because you can’t actually see the sky while you’re out there.”
“Alright, alright,” I laughed. “I know it sounds stupid, but…see, my parents have this ranch, and it’s pretty big.”
“How big are we talking?”
I scratched at my jaw, not really wanting to talk about that. “Um…let’s just say that all my brothers and sisters live on the same property as my parents, but you can’t actually see any one house from the house you’re looking out of.”
Her jaw dropped in astonishment. “That’s…that’s really big.”
I shrugged. I was used to it, but other people thought it was weird.
“So, it sounds like you would have had plenty of space to hide out somewhere. Why not take it?”
“Well, first of all, when you live on the ranch, you work on the ranch. It’s just the way the family works. So, I’d be seeing my family all the time. My oldest brother, Liam, he’s a worrier. I mean,
he acts like he’s my father. He’s always taken it as his responsibility to look after all of us. But he didn’t sit there and ask all kinds of questions. He would just watch every fucking move I made and stare at me. It was creepy. And then Krista, she’s a year younger than me, she would be the one that would be trying to set me up with all the eligible females in town. She’s a matchmaker at heart, but she sucks at it. I mean, they could write stories about the terrible dates she’s set up.”
She groaned, laughing a little. “I bet she’s tried to set you up before, hasn’t she?”
“Once, and I never let her again. Think of your worst date and then quadruple it.”
“I think I’d like to meet her.”
I smiled at her, liking where her mind was going. “Yeah, I’d like that too.”
We were caught in some kind of moment. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I couldn’t stop thinking about taking her home to my family and introducing her. I couldn’t stop thinking of her as mine. My heart was practically pounding out of my chest with excitement.
“Anyway,” I said, finally breaking the intensity of the moment. “Then there’s my brother Jeff. He’s really nosey, so he would ask a million questions and want all the answers that I’m not ready to give. And Lizzy, she’s my champion, there for me until the end. She’s the only one I still talk to right now.”
“Why?”
“Because…because I can’t let her down. She believes in me more than anyone I know, and I just couldn’t break her heart like that.”
“I bet your family misses you,” Blake said after a moment. “You should call them.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. “I know. I just don’t know what to say to them. I know they all believe in me, but I don’t want them feeling this…horrible feeling. I tell Lizzy that everything is good. She thinks I’m moving on with my life, and that’s what she tells everyone else. Nobody has to know that this sucks.”
“Hey, you said it wasn’t going to suck,” she reminded me. “You said that we had to think positively.”
I rolled my eyes and smiled. “You’re right.”
“Of course, I am. So, tell me, if when all of this is over and we can finally have our lives back, are you going to take me home to meet your family?”
I watched her for a second, the way she bit her bottom lip slightly and a blush stained her cheeks. Nah, this wasn’t about my family.
“You just want to see me in tight jeans and a cowboy hat.”
“Maybe,” she chuckled. “Maybe I just want to see how you hide that monster cock in a pair of tight jeans.”
“Baby, we don’t have to go to Montana for that.”
I tackled her to the bed, smothering her in kisses as I ground my erection against her. I was thinking it was time to save a horse. I flipped us over and held her over my cock. “Why don’t you ride this cowboy.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Todd
I dialed again, but still got no answer. Where the hell was she? Yeah, there were times that she dropped off the face of the earth for a few days, sometimes even weeks, but we knew about it in advance. It was usually that she was going out on a job. But I hadn’t heard from her in over a week now. It just wasn’t like her.
“No luck?” my dad asked.
I shook my head. “Blake hasn’t answered any of my phone calls. I’m starting to think that something’s wrong.”
“You know your sister. She gets wrapped up in a case and she doesn’t call anyone.”
“Not like this,” my brother, Matt said.
We were all worried. My brothers, Matt, Doug, and Adam, had all come to Dad’s tonight because we needed a plan. Blake was our only sister, and as kickass as she was, we couldn’t allow anyone to mess with her.
“We need to drive out there,” Doug said. “We’ll go to her apartment and find out what’s going on.”
“I can’t get the time off right now,” Adam sighed. “I’m slammed at work. I would need a few days to make the arrangements.”
“We can’t wait,” I insisted. “This is Blake. You all know that she wouldn’t just disappear. We need to go find out why she’s not answering. What if she’s in trouble?”
“Wouldn’t the FBI have contacted us?” Dad asked. “If something had happened, we would know about it.”
“You really trust them?” I asked. “Come on, Blake has been telling us for years about the crooked people she works with. No, I don’t fucking trust them to tell us if something’s wrong.”
“I’ll go with you,” Doug piped up. “But it should just be the two of us. If something else is going on, it’ll look suspicious if we all show up at her apartment.”
I checked my watch and nodded. “If we leave now, we can get there by two in the morning.”
“Should we wait to leave? If she’s fine, she’s not going to appreciate us showing up in the middle of the night.”
“And if she’s in trouble, she won’t appreciate us waiting for a more convenient time,” I pointed out.
Doug went home to grab a bag and I did the same. I was just leaving my house when I noticed a car down the street. The lights were off and it appeared to be just sitting there, but there was someone inside. I got in my car and checked the mirror. I didn’t recognize the car and not many people in my neighborhood parked on the street. I backed out and headed for Doug’s house to pick him up. As soon as I pulled out, the lights on the other vehicle turned on and the car pulled out behind me. I took the long way to Doug’s house, turning down streets I normally wouldn’t go down, and every fucking time, that car followed me. I finally pulled into Doug’s driveway and shut the car off. He was already turning off the lights, so I raced up to his door and went in before he could step out.
“What are you doing? I’m ready.”
“There’s someone following me.”
“What are you talking about? That’s-”
“Listen,” I said urgently. “When I was leaving, there was a car parked down the street from me. As soon as I pulled out, it followed me. I turned down every fucking street I could to get here and it followed me all the way. It’s parked outside now.”
“Shit,” he said, running his hand over his beard. “What the fuck does that mean?”
“Who the fuck follows people?”
He shook his head. “If it was the FBI, wouldn’t they be more discreet about it?”
“Maybe they just don’t care if we know they’re following us.”
“What the fuck did Blake get herself into?”
I shook my head. I had no fucking idea, but there had to be a way to find her. I peeked out of the curtain to see a man getting out of his car and walking toward the house. “He’s coming this way.”
“Fuck,” Doug swore.
“What if we talk to them?”
“You want to do what?”
“Just hear me out. We’re obviously not going to say anything to him, but if we talk to him, maybe we can get some kind of idea about what’s going on here.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know if anything he says will be true. If Blake dropped off the face of the earth, it was for a reason.”
“If she couldn’t go to the FBI, it means that she couldn’t trust them,” I added. “Still, it’s a starting point. We literally don’t know anything, so we can’t give him anything. We keep our mouths shut and act shellshocked, no matter what he says. Don’t react no matter what he says.”
He nodded. We waited for another twenty seconds before the doorbell rang. I nodded to Doug and he moved for the door to answer it. I stepped back into the living room, and waited.
“Sir, I’m Agent Woodly. Can I come in for a moment?”
“What’s this about?”
“Is your sister Blake Collins?”
“Yes,” Doug answered.
“Sir, are you aware that your sister is missing?”
My heart hammered in my chest. God, I was really hoping that she wasn’t actually missing.
“We haven’t bee
n able to reach her, but we thought she was on a job.”
“Do you mind if I step inside and talk with you?”
“Of course.”
The door opened and the man stepped inside. He flashed his badge at me, letting me know he was FBI. “I’m Agent Woodly, and you are?”
“Todd. Blake’s brother.”
“What do you mean, she’s missing?” Doug asked.
“Can we sit?” Agent Woodly pointed to the seats, but neither of us moved. He cleared his throat and got down to it. “You sister stole confidential documents from the FBI and has been avoiding us ever since.”
“Why would she do that?” I asked curiously.
“We believe that she’s trying to get revenge.”
“For what?”
He glanced between Doug and I and then loosened his tie. He was pretending to be nervous, but this was all an act to draw us in. I wasn’t stupid.
“She was fired a little over a week ago for disobeying direct orders. When she left the building, she took very sensitive information with her. If that information were to get out, it would be very dangerous for not only her, but many other American citizens.”
“That doesn’t sound like Blake,” Doug said. “She follows the law like it’s the Bible.”
“She’s been cited frequently lately for disobeying orders, going out of her jurisdiction for information…Her file shows that she’s been growing more erratic over the last year and half. Has there been anything going on with her that might have caused this change?”
“Not that I know of,” I said, as if I was deeply concerned by what he was saying. “We haven’t seen her in a while.”
“What about when you’re talking with her? Any indications that she’s been struggling?”
“Honestly, our conversations aren’t that long. We check in, but she’s usually pretty busy with work,” Doug sighed.
“Do you have any idea where she might go? Someplace that nobody would think to look for her?”
Parker: A Reed Security Romance Page 23