The UN Series Complete Box Set (201 page)

“Oh, yes,” he says standing over me. “Now be a good girl and place your hands behind your back,” he says sweetly as if he’s trying to coax a child to take their medicine.

I shake my head quickly as I try to take in a few breaths. Fuck, I think he broke a few ribs.

He sighs heavily as he kneels down beside me. He wraps his hand in my hair and yanks my head back. “It will be worse if you fight me.”

If I can just keep him here long enough. Until Parker shows up. “Go fuck yourself,” I hiss.

He leans down and places his face in front of mine. “That’s what you’re for, sweetie.”

I spit in his face. He stands and yanks me up by my hair, tearing strands out of my scalp. I grit my teeth not wanting to give him the satisfaction of screaming. He shoves me down, face first onto the kitchen table.

My vision fades once again and the room spins from the power behind it. I try to fight him, but my arms just won’t work as he pulls them behind my back and places the handcuffs on me. “Help!” I scream, but he spins me around quickly. He acts like he’s gonna walk away from me but at the last minute he steps to me and raises his elbow. It connects with my face and I feel an instant pain shoot through my face before it all goes black.

*****

Pain like I’ve never felt before wakes me. I try to open my eyes, but I can’t get them to open. My entire body aches and my head pounds. My body sways as I sit on my knees. I try to move my hands, but they are cuffed behind my back. I can feel the blood run down my hands from how tight they are. “Parker?” Even my words are slurred due to my busted lip and swollen tongue.

I hear a laugh come from in front of me. “The princess is awake,” I hear a male’s voice say. Then his voice comes closer as if he’s sitting right in front of me. “He’s not here yet, but he will be soon.”

“What do you want with him?” I question trying to open my eyes, but they just won’t. They’re swollen shut.

I hear a pair of shoes coming toward me from behind. They click as they make contact with the concrete. “He has been fucking with my business,” a familiar voice says. I know that voice. Where do I know it from?

A hand grabs my jaw and I cry out with the pain. My heart start to race and my breathing picks up. I try to pull out of the grasp, but it just tightens on my face.

“I told him you would cost me.”

My head snaps back and I fall to a hard, cold surface. I roll over onto my side as I scream. My body starts to shake and I suck in a deep breath.

I hear those shoes again come close to my face and I try to open my eyes once again but they won’t work. “Sit her back up,” that familiar voice orders.

I moan out in pain when I’m grabbed by my hair and jerked to my knees. I sway and hang my head. “I feel like breaking some shit.” I hear Mason’s voice.

“By all means. That is why she’s here.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

PARKER

“Kat?” I yell out in our house.

“Where are they?” Slade asks looking around for Tate as well.

“I don’t know.” I pull out my phone and dial up his number.

“What?” he whispers.

“Where are you?” I demand. “And why are you whispering?”

“I’m at the doctor’s office. Missy had an appointment.”

“Is Katherine with you?” I ask, looking around once again.

“No. She’s at home.”

I start to panic. “No, she’s not.” I run out the front door to do a double take to make sure her car is still in the driveway. “Her car is here, but she is gone,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Parker,” Slade yells from the kitchen, and I run in there. I come to a stop when I see spots of blood on the sliding glass door. I look at the floor and see some more by the cabinets. Also some on the kitchen table.

“What the fuck?” I ask running a hand through my hair. “What happened?” I shout.

I look down at my phone when I feel it vibrate. I see I am still talking to Tate, but I hang up in order to look at the incoming message.

It’s an address. And the sender is Mason. “What the fuck!” I yell.

*****

“You don’t have to do this,” I say to Slade as I pull up to an old abandoned warehouse outside of town. I don’t know what is inside there, but I’m gonna find out.

“I know,” is all he says as he places a gun in the back of his pants.

I pull up to the back of the warehouse and turn my lights off. “I’m gonna go in the back.”

“I’m gonna climb up the fire escape and come through the second floor,” he informs me and I nod.

I get out of my truck and place the gun in the back of my pants. Another one sits comfortable down in my boot. But Mason will expect those. Any cop would.

I open the back door and cuss when it squeaks alerting everyone to my presence. As far as I know, it’s just him but I highly doubt that he has orchestrated this entire thing himself.

I step into the warehouse and look at the big empty space. “Mason?” I yell; he already knows I’m here.

“Mason?” I yell again. My eyes scan over the huge open space. I turn and to the right of me is a set of stairs that leads to the second floor.  “Where the fuck are you?” I demand and it echoes.

I hear a clapping sound followed by a dark laugh toward the left, back corner, and I start walking that way. As I start to near the corner, I can see it better. Mason stands there in his fucking uniform. His arms lay crossed down in front of him, crossed at his stomach. A gun hangs in his hand.

“Where the fuck is she?” I yell.

He starts to lift his gun toward me, and I yank the one out of my back. “I asked you a question,” I snap.

“Lower your gun,” he says in a calm voice.

“Over my dead body.” He’ll have to shoot me first.

He takes the gun he’s pointing at me and lowers it to the ground and takes a step to the right. “What about her dead body?”

My heart stops when I see Kat kneeling on the ground. He had been standing in front of her and with the warehouse being so dark, I wasn’t able to see her until now.

She bows over, her long dark hair covers her face and most of her body. I can tell her hands are behind her back, but I can’t tell what they’re being restrained with. Probably handcuffs.
Fuck!
I have a knife in my back pocket, but that’s not gonna get them off.

“Katherine?” My voice booms in the warehouse as my heart now races. She doesn’t even finch. “Baby. Look up at me,” I beg.

Mason chuckles. He cocks the gun and points it over to her head. “Like I said. Drop the gun,” he shouts.

I have no choice. I lift the gun up in the air and slowly place it on the floor. Where the fuck is Slade? “Katherine, sweetheart, please look at me,” I plead with her. Why won’t she move? “Did you drug her?” I demand, and he just stares at me blankly.

“The other one.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I shout losing my fucking mind. I can tell she needs medical attention. Maybe that’s why he brought me here…to watch her slowly die.

He shoves the gun into the side of her head, and she moans. A moan of pain. And I grab for my second gun in my boot. “Okay. Okay,” I say quickly. I place it on the cold, cemented floor.

He just stands there. “You don’t want her.” Just keep him occupied until Slade can get down here. “I’m the one who found out it was you,” I say. “I know you killed…”

“Stop,” he demands and his hand starts to shake. “I would never…” He stops.

“You would never what?” I question. “Kill a woman and her innocent child?”

His nostrils flare and his jaw ticks as he points the gun at me. “Shut up.”

I raise my hands. “I can help you,” I say taking a slow step toward them. “If it wasn’t you.”

“I didn’t kill them,” he screams. “I loved Ashley,” he cries. “But you.” He points the gun back to Kat. “But her. She is the one who fucked it up for me. She was the one who had to run her mouth to you.” He places the gun to her temple.

“Please don’t,” I beg him, dropping to my knees in surrender. “Please don’t do this.” I point a finger at my chest. “Kill me. Make me pay.”

“Oh,” He gives a dark laugh. “You’re gonna pay all right. And he said this was to be your payment.”

I look down at Kat in panic when I see him start to pull back the trigger. I stand and start to run toward him at the same time a sound of breaking glass comes from above us. Mason takes the time to look up at the second floor, but I keep running toward him. I know it’s Slade.

I hit him hard. My shoulder running into his chest. We go flying back and fall to the floor, before rolling into a wall. I hear the gun hit the cement, but it’s too dark, I can’t see where it landed.

“He’ll never let her live,” he yells as I straddle him.

“Who?” I demand before throwing a punch to his face.

He takes the time to cover up his face with his hands as he cries out and I land a punch to his ribs.

His hand comes up and shoves me off him. He starts to crawl away, looking for the gun, and I kick him.

He rolls over onto his back and kicks me in the chest as I was about to jump on him.

I fall to the ground as the wind is knocked out of me. I try to take in a breath as he kicks me in the chest again. I grind my teeth as the pain travels through my body. I roll over onto my hands and knees as I try to breathe.

“You know, Parker,” Mason says taking in a deep breath as he now stands above me. “You’ve convinced me.” He points the gun down to me. “I’ll just kill you both.”

Bang!

My body jerks as a gun goes off. And I sit there on my knees as I watch blood start to pour out of Mason’s mouth. He falls to his knees and then onto his face. I look up to see Slade standing in front of me with one of my guns. He lowers it and places it in the back of his jeans.

“Where the fuck were you?” I ask. Still trying to breathe.

“Sorry, it took me longer than I thought it would.” He reaches down to help me up, but I push his hand away.

I crawl over to Katherine on my hand and knees. “Kat,” I say softly as I kneel in front of her. “Get his keys to the handcuffs,” I call out to Slade.

“Baby?” I say. She doesn’t move, and I’m afraid to touch her.

“Did they drug her?” Slade asks as he kneels behind her to uncuff her hands.

I watch as drops of blood fall from her covered face and land on her thigh as if from a horror movie. “I don’t know.” I place my hands on the side of her head and she lets out another moan. Her body starts to shake. “It’s okay, sweetheart.” I gently lift her head up to face me as I try to move her hair out of the way.

“Jesus Christ,” Slade hisses, when he gets a look at her face.

I stare at her in shock and pure terror. Her face it’s almost unrecognizable. Her eyes are black and blue and swollen shut. Her entire face looks lumpy, swollen, and I know exactly why. I’ve seen it before—her jaw is broken. “God, Kat,” I whisper as my eyes look at her in horror. Blood runs from gashes in her forehead, nose and mouth.

“Kat? Baby?” I ask as my eyes search her face. For anything to show that she recognizes me. That she can open her eyes.

Her busted lips slowly try to move, but nothing comes out. “What is it, sweetheart?” I ask.

“Help…me,” she mumbles and my heart breaks.

“I’m here, Kat. It’s me. Parker.” I look up at Slade. “Get the car and meet me at the front door.” We’ve already wasted too much time. He takes off in a mad dash.

I stand and bend down to pick her up as carefully as I can. But it’s not soft enough. She lets out a blood-curling scream before her body goes limp in my arms.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

PARKER

I sit next to her hospital bed after her four-hour surgery. She has a few broken ribs. A broken nose. Broken wrist. She ended up needing over a hundred stitches all over her body, and they had to wire her jaw shut. They beat the shit out of her. And I bet my life that she was awake for all of it. They had her for hours and her tox screen came back negative along with her sexual assault kit. I hope at one point she blacked out and quit feeling the pain, but the fact that she moaned when he placed the gun to her temple and the fact that she asked me to help her tells me that she was still awake. And the thought that they even touched her makes me want to kill every person that I fucking see.

I look at her now and she looks worse. With all the blood gone, you can see the physical abuse she endured because of me. What I cost her.

“Hello?” Slade whispers as he stands over in the corner on his phone. “Yeah. They just brought her to her room,” he informs someone as he leaves Kat’s room.

Her room. I sigh heavily. They said that she would be in the ICU for at least a week. It’s a waiting game now. Pray she doesn’t get an infection. Pray that she doesn’t have brain swelling or internal bleeding. There’s so much that could go wrong. Yet I keep praying for the best.

I lean down and kiss her cold hand before I place it under her blanket. Then I stand and walk over to the little window that allows us to see the outside. The people who take their life for granted. I used to be that bastard.

I turn around when I hear the door open. Slade walks back in as he places his phone in his pocket. “Angel is taking Sadey to my parents’ house and then heading up here.”

I nod my head then look back at the window. “I know how you feel,” he says softly as he comes to stand beside me to look out the window.

“And how is that?” I question.

“Like it’s your fault.”

“It is.”

He turns to face me. “You saved her.”

I continue to look out the window. “I brought her into it.”

He sighs heavily. “She was already involved. She was Ashley’s friend. Ashley told her more than she should have. That’s what got Kat involved. Her knowing you is what saved her.”

I shake my head and then turn to finally face him. I go to speak, but the door to her room opens. “What?” I snap. I sigh when I see it’s a nurse with a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

“Sorry. These just arrived for Kat.”

Slade takes them from her and thanks her as I rub the back of my neck. I’m stressing. I’m on edge. “Sam?” I ask and he shrugs.

I reach up, take the card out, and open it up. Type in black letters it reads-

I told you she would cost me. But in the long run she ended up costing you as well.

Then below, it’s signed
Dick

I reach over and rip the flowers out of Slade’s hands. I throw them into the far wall. The glass shatters and the water puddles on the floor along with the flowers. “Goddamnit,” I roar.

“What’s going on in here?” a nurse asks as she pops her head in.

“Everything is fine,” Slade says to her.

I spin around and run out of the room. “Who delivered these flowers?” I demand to the nurse’s station.

“A man…”

“What in the fuck did he look like?” I demand, and they gasp. “Well?” I snap.

“He looked homeless to be honest. He just set them on the counter and said they were for Katherine,” a nurse in red scrubs says in a rush. I run to the stairs and rush down them all the way to the first floor. I’m sweating and breathing heavy when I rush outside. It’s dark. The only light is from the parking lot. I look around trying to see something, anything. I know the bastard is here. I know he wouldn’t want to miss this. But there’s nothing.

I make my way back up to Kat’s room. I walk in to see Slade picking up the last pieces of the flowers and vase that I destroyed.

“They want to remove you from her room,” he says throwing the remaining glass into the trash.

“I’d like to see them try.” I walk over to her bed and sit down once again. “I’m sorry,” I whisper to her. I had only ever planned on loving her. I never thought that love could cost her her life.

“Are you going to tell me why you threw the flowers and then took off?” Slade asks aggravated.

I reach into my pocket and hand him the card. “Fuck.”

I look over my shoulder at him. His eyes meet mine and I can see the terror in them. “Right. It was my father.”