by Taylor Hart
He grunted, then smiled and twirled her again, but this time he snatched her little purse off her wrist and slipped it inside his tux pocket. “It did mess me up.”
“I need that.” She stopped dancing.
He picked up her hand and twirled her, his other hand on her hip, forcing her to dance. “Why?” His tone was quiet, but firm. Challenging.
She kept dancing, pushing away the tears and sucking in a big breath. If Jose came back now, she could still get close to Carlos and stab him with her dagger.
Parker pulled her closer. To observers, it might look like he was just flirting with her. He pressed his lips to hers.
An electric jolt zapped her. She pushed him back.
He frowned and whispered, “Hey, Ari.”
She froze against him. Shock coursed through her, but she forced herself to act. “Let me go.”
He didn’t move away but reached over and gently pulled the tiny bandage off her neck, then cursed. “All these years.” His hand slid down her thigh and reached for the knife.
She pushed him hard in the chest and ran for the stairs. No. No. No. This couldn’t be happening.
Just then, the door at the top of the stairs opened and Jose came out, with Carlos by his side. Jose looked down at her and grinned.
Chapter 8
Parker stared as the woman he used to know as Ari ran up the large staircase. He’d thought about going after her, but the security next to the stairs circled up as soon as she’d gotten to them.
Jose and Carlos and a passel of armed guards were coming down the stairs.
Parker had stuffed her purse into his pocket, but he’d shimmied the gun out of it now, holding it in his hand inside of his jacket pocket.
“Find something interesting, old friend?” Chuck asked, appearing beside him.
“You knew all this time?” Parker asked, with a surge of anger.
Chuck turned to the side and revealed his gun inside. “I told you, I only found out about her this afternoon when I might have been sent to watch this situation with the senator and the drug lord.” He winked. “But what can I say, cowboy? I’m not sad to be working with you again.”
“Shut up.”
Chuck laughed. “We’ll save your girl from starting a war. That’s a good thing.”
Parker would make Chuck pay later. For now, he focused on the situation, thinking about everything he knew about the corrupt senator and the rumors about Carlos. “I need more intel.”
Chuck tapped on his phone. “The boss will be sending an encrypted copy of everything to you.”
The music stopped, and the senator spoke into the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the guest of the hour, the man who has helped fund a whole slew of projects in California and various places in this country and in Mexico, the man who has generously donated to my campaign—Carlos Fuentes.”
The room erupted in applause.
Parker watched Ari reach for the knife.
She jolted when it wasn’t there and then her eyes met his.
Of course he’d gotten it. Taking a weapon off a civilian wasn’t that hard. Pure child’s play. He nodded at her.
She glared at him.
“So she was going to kill him?” asked Chuck.
It was stupid and it wasn’t right, but he wasn’t going to turn in the woman he’d been looking for the past thirteen years. “I have no idea.”
“Sure you don’t,” Chuck said.
A flurry of people began to surround the staircase as Carlos, Jose, and their whole group descended. Parker noticed that Ari rushed back up the staircase and disappeared inside the upper door.
“The Bureau wants to use her to dig up dirt on Jose and Carlos,” Chuck told him.
Parker jerked like he’d been whiplashed. “What?”
Chuck nodded. “We need you to convince her to work with us.”
Parker shook his head. This whole situation was insanity.
Chuck nodded to the men coming down the stairs. “She’s the senator’s personal assistant. And you just thwarted her plans to possibly get revenge on her father’s killer tonight. But if you could convince her to play the long game, we could take him down along with a lot of other criminals. We could take down the whole Fuentes family, not to mention a good chunk of the other five mafia families they are associated with. That’s a lot of criminals put away. A lot of justice.”
Somehow Parker kept his focus. This was the craziest thing that had happened to him since he’d left the Bureau. But justice was important to him and he knew all about the mafia families and the crimes they’d committed. “How?”
“Carlos is staying this week in California. You heard it, they have business meetings to fund philanthropic organizations.”
Parker cursed. “Right, drug money laundering.”
“Jose has set up various mayors and crime bosses to come in and meet with him,” Chuck shrugged. “under the guise of all these organizations meant to help the people.”
Parker processed it all quickly. He’d been trained to be quick. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”
“You pretend that you’re her brother, here to visit for the holidays.”
“What?” Parker couldn’t even fathom that.
Chuck nodded at Karen, who was coming back with another round of drinks. “Think about it. And think quick, because your girl just got away.”
Chapter 9
Ari slipped into the offices on the other side of the building and began to search. She knew Jose had a weapon in here; she’d seen him put it back one day. She looked through his desk. No gun. She opened up every cabinet, but they all came up empty.
Shoot. He must have taken it with him.
Her mind clouded. This was supposed to be simple. Easy. Perfect. She’d just shaken Carlos Fuentes’s hand. She’d looked into the eyes of the man who killed her father. She’d gotten her nose redone and changed her whole appearance years ago so she’d be unrecognizable to the Fuentes family. Her father had insisted on it. But, what good had that done her now?
Ari cursed and walked out of the office, wondering how she would get to the man now. She leaned against the wall, feeling a bit light-headed. When was the last time she’d eaten?
She sucked in a breath and tried not to think about Parker Kelly. The sheer magnetism of the man was overwhelming. And now he knew who she was. Her hand shook, and she rushed to the large plant in the corner and dry heaved into it.
What was she supposed to do? She couldn’t stay here. She slammed her hand against the wall and let out a wail. At this point, she’d thought she’d either be bugging out or taken to jail. She’d hoped the sight of Carlos’s blood would set her free from the shadow of her father’s death. But no. Parker had taken her weapons.
Carefully, she worked her way down the stairs and out of the building. The night was cold, and she realized she didn’t even have a coat. She called an Uber, hating that she’d failed. Now she didn’t know what to do. Parker Kelly had taken the only thing she wanted: the ability to kill Carlos Fuentes.
Chapter 10
Parker searched the building, but he couldn’t find Ari. His old boss had just sent him her file along with a contract to work this case .
Now, he sat in her small apartment living room. It hadn’t been hard to pick the lock and get in.
The place was nice, clean, barely decorated, but it didn’t look like anyone really lived here. The only picture he’d seen was of Ari and her father, but it had been taken a long time ago—during the time when Parker had known her.
His thoughts swam with all of the unknowns. Impossibly, he’d been brought back into her life just when she was going to commit a crime.
Her weapons sat on the coffee table in front of the couch. He scoffed. A tiny nine Glock and a dagger. She was clearly an amateur—at least at assassinating someone.
Uneasy, he scanned the file on his phone for all the places she’d lived and the identities she’d used. There were a lot.
The
file also contained a full dossier on the man she wanted to kill. Carlos Fuentes was the son of mafia boss Marco Fuentes. The report said Lee Claire, Ari’s father, had testified against Marco, putting him in maximum security for the rest of his life. According to many witnesses, Carlos had sworn he would kill both Arianna and her father.
Parker stood, sucking in a breath as he thought about all the years. He hadn’t known the details, but deep down, he’d suspected she must have been on the run or with WITSEC or something. That’s why he’d broken all the rules and tried to use his position in the Bureau to search for her.
He cursed again, thinking about how his father’s little speech last Christmas, about settling down and finding true love, had precipitated Parker’s indiscretion and gotten him fired, which, in turn, had eventually resulted in him finding her. Being proven right didn’t make him feel any better about this situation.
The sound of the doorknob jiggling and a key turning in the lock made him turn. When he’d been on assignments before, he’d never been nervous. He didn’t like the feeling.
She walked in and froze. “Parker.”
Finally, there would be no more lies between them. He crossed the room quickly, pushing the door shut behind her and locking it.
“Parker,” she whispered again.
Unable to stop himself, he took her by the shoulders a bit roughly. “What were you thinking? That you could just stroll right up and kill Carlos and shoot him? Carlos Fuentes, son of Marco Fuentes, the most powerful mob boss in the western United States?”
She ripped her arm away. “You mean the man who killed my father,” she snarled. “The man who vowed to kill me!”
“And your mother died at Carlos’ father’s hands, correct?” He hadn’t seen that in the file.
Tears filled her eyes and she pushed him in the chest, again. “Yes, my mother! She refused to sleep with him and he killed her.”
Fear tapped at the center of Parker’s chest. “He won’t kill you.” He determined this in a moment. “No way.”
Her eyes turned sad and she put her hand to her mouth. “Parker,” she said, her voice strangled and shaking. “I walked into my home that day and my father was lying on the couch, a knife through his heart. He killed my father and left a note—he would find me. I had my chance to get to him first tonight, and you stopped me! You shouldn’t have taken my weapons!” She threw herself at him, pounding her fists against his chest and cursing.
He grabbed her hands and held them.
She still struggled. “You stopped me! You stopped me! I hate you!” She broke into sobs.
A myriad of emotions clattered inside his chest. The need to comfort her won out. She’d been through so much. “Shh.” He dropped her hands and pulled her into his chest. “It’s okay.”
She kept crying, leaning into him. “My father. My father.”
Parker wondered what it would be like to be in her shoes. What lengths he might have gone to if something so horrific happened to his dad. What would he do to avenge his family?
He didn’t know how long he held her, drinking in the vanilla scent of her perfume. She finally calmed and she stayed against him.
This whole situation felt surreal. Like it should be a movie or something. Was he really holding the woman he’d been searching for since he was a teenager?
Finally, she pulled back, staring up at him. “I can’t believe it’s you.”
“I can’t believe it, either.”
For a moment they both just stared into each other’s eyes.
Her lips turned up. “How’s Pepper?”
The question startled him because it felt so out of context, but then he smiled. She loved that horse. He didn’t know what to say.
“Is Pepper still there?”
He thought of the text his dad had sent after his mother passed, detailing how Pepper had been lost to an injury. “No.”
“I …” She threw a hand up. “I never thought I’d be able to talk to you again.”
He squeezed his eyes shut briefly. He couldn’t do this. He had to stay focused on the mission in front of them.
She put her hand to his cheek. “I wanted to reach out to you a thousand times, but I never did, because I didn’t want to put my father, or you, at risk.”
Her touch was so soft. When he’d kissed her back at the Christmas ball, it hadn’t been tender. Now, he wanted a redo on that kiss. Unable to stop himself, he leaned in.
Her lips met his.
Soft, slow chills rushed through him.
He had imagined how it would be to finally find this woman, yet he’d never quite imagined what was happening now.
She pulled back. “Parker,” she whispered. “I …” she shook her head. “I missed you.”
Hearing those words nearly tore his heart out. For a long time, neither of them spoke.
He let go of her, pulling back and sucking in a breath. He had to get some perspective. He blinked, trying to clear his mind, and thought of everything he’d read in her file. His mind finally began working properly and he had to know. “Why were you on the pier last night?”
She was silent.
“Why?” he growled at her.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s a lie!” He pointed at her, finally vindicated for all the times he’d seen her places. “That’s a lie, and you know it.”
She put a hand to her forehead. “Fine, it’s a lie.”
He waited, his heart racing. “Why?”
“Because I had to see you,” she whispered, breaking their gaze and smoothing her clothes. “I had to see you.”
“Have you been watching me the last six months?” he quietly demanded. “Were you at my dad’s funeral?”
“I have been watching you, but I wasn’t at his funeral.” Her eyes turned sad. “I read about it online. I’m so sorry.”
He brushed away her sympathy. “So you found out I was here and you just spied on me?”
She exhaled loudly, squeezing her eyes shut. “I didn’t know I’d be here. In Oceanside.” She let out a long breath, then looked up at him. “But periodically, I would check your social media, and I saw that post with JJ, Ryan, Seth, and Clark and your father six months ago in front of the Surf and Soup.”
He knew the picture she was referring to. Ryan had insisted on taking the selfie. They’d all come out and surprised him when Parker leased the motorcycle shop.
JJ had posted it on social media and it’d spread like wildfire with his upcoming tour.
“Parker, I never meant to spy on you. I just couldn’t stay away.”
Her admission brought him right back to when he was seventeen and in love. She’d turned him into a clueless teenager.
“I don’t know how Carlos got to my father, but after it happened, I had to find him. And if you know anything about the Fuentes family, you know they play for keeps. I had to do it covertly.”
“And the senator was your way in.” There was something about her maneuvering that actually impressed him.
“I read that the state of California would be working with the ‘philanthropist’ Carlos Fuentes on a plan for rebuilding state-funded programs that could no longer be state funded. And then I did what had to be done.”
Parker couldn’t believe anything he was hearing. “What, exactly, was that?” He’d seen the way the governor had kissed her.
“I had surgery years ago because my father was worried, even then, about the Fuentes family finding us.” She touched her nose. “When I decided to move here, I got contacts. I didn’t tell my handlers that I wanted to come to Oceanside because of Jose; I simply told them I needed a fresh start after my father was killed.” She shrugged. “They agreed, and they helped me relocate.”
He nodded; he’d seen all of this in her file.
“I have skills as a secretary and an office manager, and I studied Senator Sanchez. I followed every one of his social media accounts, and I waited for my chance to get close to him.”
He gave her
a dry look. “As his personal assistant.”
She nodded. “And I’ve put up with the man hitting on me and all of his advances for months.”
“It looked like you’ve done a good job,” he said, trying to cover the disgust in his voice.
Her eyes held his, and a lifetime seemed to pass between them. Dang it! He didn’t want to be attracted to her.
“I’ve never been with him,” she stated quietly. “I’ve never …” She broke off. “Don’t look at me in that judgy way, Parker Kelly.”
He raked a hand through his hair, hating how much relief he felt at her admission. “You don’t have to explain anything.”
Awkward silence ensued.
Parker shifted his feet, trying to take it all in, and wishing … Well, wishes didn’t matter anymore, did they? He went into FBI mode. “So you did all of this for tonight.”
She glared at him. “And you ruined it.”
“Listen up.” He swallowed. “I’ve been asked to help the FBI get information about Jose Sanchez and Carlos Fuentes.”
“What?” she gasped, giving him a horrified look.
He crossed his arms. “I’ll be acting as your handler and helping you gather intel so the government will have a case against him. Against all the crime families.”
She wagged a finger at him. “You’ll be handling me?”
He frowned at her. “Yes, I am the consultant assigned to handle you for the FBI. There are several agencies working on this operation.”
Her face turned a bit pale. “I don’t understand.”
Certainty pulsed through him. He liked the feeling, and he grappled to hold on to it. “Right now we have to focus. Our job is to take down Jose and Carlos and keep you safe while attending the conference in Santa Monica. You spy on them.”
“What?” She let out a sardonic laugh. “Are you crazy?”
Parker shook his head, not allowing himself to get side-tracked. “At the conference, we can collect intel to put them away. To put Carlos away for good.”
She hesitated. “And you’re coming?”
