The UN Series Complete Box Set (184 page)

Mia was an attorney. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with her. My father dated her for about a year. I thought that she would become my new mother, but when you’re thirteen, you don’t understand how relationships work. She took me shopping; she showed me how to fix my hair, and how to put on make-up. But most of all, she showed me what a powerful woman looked like and I looked up to her. I wanted to be her.

As I lie in bed, I try to think like her. What would she do with a guy like Parker? She would eat him alive and spit him out; that’s what she would do.

That kiss, though, it was so soft and yet I liked it. I’m not usually one for softness. I like my kisses to be desperate and my sex rough. I like a man who knows how to handle a woman in the bedroom. And I have a feeling Parker’s the type to just lay there and make the woman do everything as he looks up at her with a cocky smile on his face.

“Geez,” I hiss, rolling over onto my side. Why am I wasting so much time thinking about Parker? It’s because it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had sex. That has to be why.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes, needing to get some sleep.

*****

After spending most of my morning with my father, I find myself at work trying to stay awake. I yawn as I sit at the nurse’s station in the ER, and I look up to see Dr. Robert Jones. I smile and then drop my head remembering that he had asked me out. Thankfully, he had to cancel that Wednesday date. Now I’ve been trying to avoid him.

“Hey, Kat.”

“Hey,” I look up at him and give him a fake smile.
Please don’t ask me out again.

“I know you’ve been avoiding me,” he points out with a frown.

Shit! “I’m sorry, it’s just that…”

“I stood you up, I know.”

Not what I was expecting. “No.” I shake my head.

“Well, I had to cancel after we made plans, and I’m truly sorry.”

“No worries. I promise,” I say, and I hear Ashley giggle as she sits beside me filling out charts. If I could reach her with my foot, I would kick her in the shin.

“Well, I wanna make it up to you.” He smiles brightly.

“No need…”

“I’m a gentleman, and that’s what a gentleman does.” He looks over at Ashley with a frown as her laughter grows. “I’m free tomorrow. I have to leave from the hospital so if you don’t mind, I will just meet you there.”

Well, that’s a bonus.
“Sounds great.”

He nods. “I’ll see you lovely ladies later.” He turns and walks off.

Ashley throws her head back laughing, and I spin in my chair to face her. “What was that?”

“The guy is totally clueless to how you feel about him.” She chuckles.

“What? He’s attractive,” I say to defend him, even though I don’t know why. 

“If you’re into that type of man,” she says with an eye roll. “I mean he probably still has his mother iron his pants for him in the morning.”

“He wears scrubs.”

“So you’re saying you never wear regular pants?” she questions.

I roll my eyes. “Whatever. Maybe he’s a freak in the sheets,” I offer. You never know.

“Doubtful,” she throws over her shoulder as she gets out of her chair.

“How did your date go?” I ask, sitting back in mine.

She gives me a big smile, and I know she’s about to unleash all the details. “He was perfect. He showed up and had a teddy bear for her.” She places her hand on her chest. “I almost cried.”

“What does he do again?” I ask.

She narrows her eyes at me. “I’m not falling for that.”

“Is he married?” Is that why she’s keeping it a secret?

“Hey.” She points a finger at me. “I am not the one who has slept with a married man.”

I throw my hands up in the air. “I didn’t know that,” I say defensively.

“It still happened,” she says matter-of-factly, and I sigh heavily.

“Yes, it did.” And it sucked ass.

She looks around the ER before she sits back down next to me. “You can’t tell anyone. Okay?” she whispers.

“Okay.” Geez, is he that important?

“He’s a cop.”

“Oh, please. No.” I shake my head. “Dump him. Dump his sorry ass right now,” I say.

Her face falls. “Why?”

“Because cops are the worst. They’re all cocky and full of themselves.” One cop I know comes to mind. And so does that kiss he gave me. I shake my head to get rid of that thought.

“I haven’t been able to tell anyone because he’s an undercover narcotics officer.” Hmm. That actually sounds like it would be fun. “And he’s on a case at the moment.”

I scratch the back of my neck; my tag from my scrubs always bugs me. “Well, I guess if you’re happy,” I offer with a shrug, and she giggles before she reaches over and hugs me.

CHAPTER EIGHT

PARKER

My roommate, Tate, my best friend, Slade, and me are all owners of a security company. Slade came to Tate and me with the idea about a year ago. After we had found Samantha bound and drugged in an old house outside of town, he walked away from his lifelong dream of being a defense attorney to be someone different. He changed his life for his wife and their baby on the way. I couldn’t imagine how hard that decision was for him, but he made it look easy. But after you find out your pregnant wife was kidnapped, bound, and drugged, I guess you look at things differently. The thing was that it had been a cop. A cop in my precinct had been buying and selling drugs right out from under our noses. And Sam’s ex-boyfriend was a part of it. We had found him when we found Sam. We found out who the cop was that was involved, but he had up and quit. Vanished in the middle of the night type of shit. I looked long and hard to find him. And months later, that hard work had paid off.

I still remember the morning I called him to tell him I had the sorry son of a bitch who called himself a police officer.

“Hello?” Slade’s voice sounds rough from sleep

“Slade. It’s Parker,” I whisper. “Were you up?” I look out my cop car window and see the sky is black as night. Of course, he wasn’t up.

“No. What time is it?” he asks softly, and I know it’s because Samantha is sleeping next to him in bed.

“It’s four ten.” I pause. “In the morning.”

“Why would I be up at four ten in the morning?” he growls. “What do you want, Parker?”

I take a deep breath. “I found him. I found Officer White,” I say proudly. The man who’d had Samantha kidnapped and drugged. He was helping her ex-boyfriend pay a debt, and she was the offering.

“Are you sure?” he asks as if I would play with him at this time of night. I can be a kidder, but I would never joke about something like this.

“I’m positive. He’s got himself holed up in a farmhouse about an hour out of town.”

“How do you know it’s him?”

“Because I’m staring right at him through my binoculars,” I growl. “I wouldn’t have called you unless I was a hundred percent sure, Slade,” I say quietly.

“What is your plan?”

I rustle around in my cop car to find the piece of paper I had written the address on. “Well, I haven’t called it in yet. I thought I would give you a few minutes with him.”

“You would do that for me?” he asks sounding shocked.

“Of course, I would. He deserves to know what pain feels like.”

“Send me the address. I’m on my way.” And that is exactly why I called him.

“Now just do one thing for me,” I ask as I eye him up and down as we stand by the side of an old farmhouse in the middle of fucking nowhere. It literally took him thirty minutes to get an hour out of town.

“What?” he asks impatiently.

I sigh. “Just don’t kill him. I can explain a lot of things but death—” I shake my head.

“I can’t promise you anything,” he says truthfully.

“That’s about what I figured you’d say. But I had to try.” I nod as he starts to walk away from my car.

I sit in my car with my guns ready. I have one in my hand and the other tucked into the back of my jeans. I can hear them yelling but can’t really make it out. I curse loudly when I look down to see Tate calling my cell phone. What in the hell is he doing up?

I hang up my phone when I hear a loud crashing noise and a cry of pain; I jump out of my car and run up to the door.

Once I kick it in, I find Slade holding White by his throat. “Slade, let him go,” I say calmly.

He shakes his head. “I can’t do that,” he grinds out. And White’s face starts to lose color. “The bastard deserves to die.”

“Believe me when I say jail will be much more brutal than you just choking him to death,” I respond. “Now, let him go,” I order.

For some crazy reason, he actually lets go, which is good for me. But I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I would have just killed him.

“You deserve to spend the rest of your life being someone’s bitch,” Slade spits out.

I walk over to them with my gun now drawn and pointed down at White. “Face down and hands behind you back,” I demand.

He shakes his head quickly with his hands on his knees still trying to breathe. “I won’t go to jail.” His voice sounds raw. “Cops don’t survive in jail.”

“Maybe you should have thought about that beforehand,” I shout as I continue to point the gun at him.

“You did hear about Jax, right?” White asks looking up at Slade taking a deep breath as he refers to Samantha’s ex-boyfriend. “I hear he had an accident while in his cell. It’s terrible, really.” He laughs and it turns into a cough. “But I did hear that he got to see Samantha one more time.” It’s true, Samantha had gone up to the jail to try to get information out of Jax. Wanting to know who and why someone would want to kill her. He didn’t tell her much, but he told her enough. The next day he was found dead in his cell. Slade still hasn’t told her.

He then looks over at me. His beady eyes and beer belly hang out from underneath his shirt. “You should listen to Tate more often.” His words send up a chill up my back. “There are dirty cops on the force, and I promise you, you’ll never find out which ones are the good ones.”

“You’re lying.” I shake my head. There’s not. I would know. “He’s just trying to fuck with us,” I tell Slade. “Now quit stalling and lie down and place your hands behind you back,” I say once again. I can’t kill him. I need to know what he knows.

“Fine.” He sighs raising his hands as I start to walk over to him. Just as I pull my cuffs out, White lunges right for me. Both my guns and cuffs go flying as we hit the ground. 

I scramble to get to my gun, but Slade beats me to it. But White is up before me and goes running into Slade. They run into the front door and fall down the front steps. I pull myself up to stand and head over to the front door. I pull out my gun from my jeans and point it right at them, but I don’t have a clear shot of White.

They fight for a good thirty seconds before Slade gets away from him. As White pulls a knife out, I aim and fire. 

I stand there, ready to take another shot if he moves, although I know he’s dead. I ask Slade, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he manages to say through gritted teeth as he holds his shoulder.

“Thought you wanted him alive?” he asks trying to stand.

“Yeah, well…” I walk down the stairs to help him up slowly. “I didn’t have

any other options.” I point to the pocketknife that lies next to White on the ground. “I wasn’t going to let him kill my best friend.”

“I had it handled.”

I give him an ‘are you crazy’ look. “Your wife would kill me if she knew I was the one who got you killed.” I frown. “So, I was saving both of our asses.”

“Thanks for the consideration,” he says inhaling sharply from the pain in his shoulder.

“Don’t mention it.” I laugh.

I hear the sirens in the distance, and he looks at me with a raised eyebrow. “I called Brad,” I say. Brad is my captain. My boss. “And your wife, along with Tate, are with him.”

“What? Why?” He sits down on the stairs and takes a few deep breaths.

“She woke and you were gone. She called Tate. Tate called me.” I shrug as if I don’t understand it. Women.

We sit on the steps as we hear the sirens get closer. I watch as my boss gets out of his car and looks down at White’s dead body and then narrows his eyes on me. “Parker,” he shouts.

I stand from the stairs and growl. “I’m coming.”

“
Parker?”

“I’m coming,” I mumble.

“Parker.” I hear my name being shouted. And I sit straight up.

“Huh?” I ask looking around my office.

“Were you having naughty dreams?” Slade asks with a smirk as he sits down on the chair in front of my desk.

“Why would you ask that?” I wipe the drool off my face.

He smiles. “Because when I yelled your name your response was
I’m coming.
”

I shake my head. I’m not gonna tell him what I was dreaming about. Slade and the rest of us have come to forget all of that.

“Why are you so tired?” he asks, not going to question my words anymore.

“I worked last night.” We all know that I can’t quit the force. We don’t know how much of what White said was true, but just in case, I have to stay there. I’ve been trying ever since then to find someone who I think may be a part of all the drugs that are being sold around town but so far, no luck. Plus, I couldn’t imagine leaving my job as a cop.

“Well, that sucks.”

I smile. “Not really. Katherine got arrested again…”

“What?” he asks interrupting me. “What are the odds that you arrest her twice in two weeks?”

I shake my head. “I didn’t arrest her. I just happened to be there when she was brought in.”

“What for?” he wonders, and I wave my hand in the air. That doesn’t matter.

“Fun fact-I kissed her.” I sigh as I sit back in my chair. I had fucking kissed her. And my balls survived.
I consider that a win.

“You did what?” he asks wide-eyed. “Why would you do that?”

“Why wouldn’t I? She’s hot as fuck.” I place my hands behind my head, trying to stretch my back. I need a massage.

He shakes his head quickly. “This is not good, Parker.”

“Why not? You were the one joking about us getting married at Tate and Missy’s wedding,” I inform him.

“I don’t recall that.”

“Jesus, how drunk were you?” How many glasses of wine had he drunk?

“Drunk enough to be bitched at all the next day by my wife,” he says, leaning back in his chair, getting comfortable.

“So, no sex like you had planned?” I ask with a smile. Ahh, the married life must suck.

He shakes his head. “Not unless you call hugging the toilet sex,” he adds.

And I laugh. “I tried to warn you that your dick wouldn’t work if you continued to drink, but you wouldn’t listen.”

He shrugs. “It is what it is. Let’s get back to you and Katherine.”

“It was just a kiss.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” he says with a smirk.

“Have you ever known me to want more than one night?” I ask, placing my hands in my lap.

He gives me a big smile. “Have you ever met a woman who would give you a run for your money?”

“Well, no, but…”

“She will.” And I have a feeling he’s right. He stands from his chair. “Angel has to work late tomorrow night since Missy is still away. My parents want to take Sadey to dinner to show her off to some of their friends,” he adds with a proud smile. “Wanna go out to dinner?”

“Sounds great,” I say before he walks out of my office.

*****

I dragged ass yesterday but felt much better today after getting a good night’s rest. Today was actually a great day. Work kept us busy up at the office. We had several calls and have some security jobs lined up. The day passed by quickly, and I went home, showered, and got ready for dinner with Slade. I pull up to the front of the restaurant and see Slade get out of his truck.

I open the front door and spot her the second I walk into the restaurant. She sits at the bar in a light blue dress. It looks like a babydoll dress. Tight around her ample chest and then has a high white belt on it. The bottom half of it is short but fans out a little bit.

“I’ll be right there.” I throw over my shoulder before I walk away from Slade and over to her. I hear him chuckle behind me.

“Is this seat taken?” I sit down knowing she’s not here alone. No woman comes to dinner dressed like that alone.

“Yes,” she replies not even looking over at me.

“First come, first serve.” I’d gladly serve her.

“Well, I’m not going to serve you,” she replies as she pulls her eyes away from her drink and looks over at me. She sighs heavily when she sees who has occupied the seat next to her. “You’re like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.”

I smile. “So, you dream about me?”

She snorts. “Not quite.” Reaching, she grabs her drink and takes a sip of it.

“Do you sleep naked?” I ask.

She chokes on her drink and grabs for a napkin to absorb the dribble that rolls down her chin. I have an urge to lick it off. “Excuse me?” she snaps.

“You said I was a nightmare.” I look down at her large breasts and I swear I can already taste them. “I can’t help but wonder if you’re naked when you think of me.”

Her eyes narrow at me, and she leans over to place her face right in front of mine. “I don’t know who in the hell you think you are….”

“I’m Parker O’Hare,” I say simply. “But you already know that.” I smile.

“Parker O’Hare.” My name rolls off her tongue with venom. “I’m on a date and you are in his seat. So, get your ass up and walk away.” With that, she looks away from me and straightens once again.