Parker: A Reed Security Romance

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Thanks,” I snapped at her. “Aren’t women supposed to stay together?”

  “Not really.”

  I rolled my eyes, but never stopped watching Knight. He came at me hard, striking low, but I anticipated the strike and slid to the side, staying just out of his reach. I wasn’t stupid. I knew that he was cunning. I could see how he was anticipating my every move. That first strike was more to see how I would react to his attack.

  He shot forward again, but this time, he swept my legs out from under me, sending me falling to my back. I pulled the same move I had on Parker, kicking at his face as he bent down to attack. His head snapped back and I leapt to my feet, ready for him to counterattack. He smirked at me, wiping the blood from his lip.

  “She’s not bad,” the woman said. “I kind of want to get in the ring with her.”

  “Not a chance,” the man snarled.

  “Why?” I smirked. “Worried I’ll kick her ass?”

  The man’s eyes glowered at me and the woman stepped forward, like she was about to prove that she could take me. The man grabbed her and held her back, and I saw the spark in her. She was ready to come at me with everything she had. With Knight already prowling around me, I knew that starting shit with the other two wasn’t really the smartest thing.

  The ding of the elevator distracted me for just a moment, and it was a moment too long. Knight was on me, shoving me back toward the wall and spinning me around to slam my chest up against the wall as he yanked my arm up behind my back painfully. I grimaced, but refused to make a sound as he moved in closer to me.

  “You need to watch who you’re fucking with. You may think you can take us on, but you’ll only end up dead.”

  “Get in line,” I gritted out. “I already have the feds on my ass.”

  I heard his low chuckle and he stepped back, releasing my arm as he shoved me slightly forward. I didn’t shake out my arm before I swung around with my other arm and slammed my fist across his face. He looked slightly stunned that I had moved so fast. He was probably betting that I would have been in pain and needing to recover, but I had dealt with plenty of pain before. Pain, I could handle.

  “Knight,” Cap snapped, drawing his attention as well as my own. “Let’s try not to piss her off before we have what we need.”

  He growled at me, but moved back. “This isn’t over.”

  “Yes, it is. I’m not sticking around.”

  I headed for the elevator, hoping that he wouldn’t try and make another move on me. Cap stepped in front of me, holding out his hand.

  “Just hold on.”

  “No,” I snapped. “I didn’t ask to come here, and frankly, I’m not sure that I like any of you.”

  “Well, that’s too fucking bad. Look, we need your help. Knight is on to something, and even though he hasn’t told any of us about it yet,” he said, snapping his gaze to Knight’s, “if he says we need you, then I trust him. I’m sure there’s something we could do to convince you to stick around and talk this through with us.”

  I watched him carefully, looking for any signs of deception, but I wasn’t seeing it. While the other guys used their brute force to get their way, I sensed that Cap truly was a good man that needed help. It had been a long time since anyone had asked for my help, and hadn’t wanted to steal my information from me, and while I felt like maybe I could trust Cap, I needed his word.

  “If I stay and help, I want in on wherever the information leads us. You don’t get to take it and run.”

  “Fine, but you can’t run back to your fed friends.”

  I smirked at him. “I have no fed friends. There’s a reason I’m out here on my own.”

  “Deal.” He held out his hand and I shook it.

  “Deal.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Parker

  “Look, all I’m saying is that it’s eight o’clock in the morning and there was no fucking breakfast on the table,” a male voice grumbled.

  “Wait…Oh, thank God. See, for a minute there, I thought that your hands were missing,” a woman said with a sigh. “I thought, oh shit, Hunter’s hands are missing. How’s he going to work? We’re going to end up in the poor house because Hunter suddenly started missing his hands and is incapable of doing anything!”

  “It’s morning and there was nobody in the kitchen! I walked in, thinking we would have a nice breakfast together, and you weren’t there!”

  “Well, I guess you shouldn’t have removed the chain from around my ankle then!”

  I grimaced at the screaming and peeled my eyes open. What the fuck was going on? Hunter came into sight and then a very pissed off, spunky-looking woman. She was glaring at him, and then I heard a low rumble.

  “See? My stomach is fucking growling, trying to eat me from the inside out because you weren’t there to make me breakfast,” he said, pointing to his stomach. “How am I supposed to work on an empty stomach?”

  “You know, it amazes me that I get up with the kids, get them fed and clothed, get myself ready for work, and then take care of them every night-”

  “And you still managed to miss the part where you didn’t feed your husband!” Hunter shouted.

  “Guys!” I shouted, just wanting the chaos to stop. “Some of us are trying to stay passed out.”

  Hunter turned and glared at me. “Are you dying? I’m guessing not.” He sighed and shifted into work mode. “How are you feeling?”

  “Well, aside from the searing pain in my side and the headache I now have from listening to the two of you argue about food, I’m fucking peachy.”

  Hunter’s stomach growled again and he shot a scathing look at who I assumed was his wife. “I’ll check you over, but I hope I don’t pass out from hunger, or give you the wrong medicine because my vision goes blurry from hunger pangs.”

  I rolled my eyes as the arguing started again. Hunter poked and prodded at me, and I had a feeling that it was more because he was pissed off than anything, because he was poking me just a little too hard.

  “Alright!” I shouted, sitting up from the bed I was lying on. “Enough. Geez, this is fucking ridiculous. I’m fine.”

  “If you were fine, you wouldn’t have ended up here again with blood all over you,” Hunter pointed out.

  “That was stupidity more than anything.”

  “Yeah, I heard all about your stupidity. I saw it too.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What do you mean?”

  He chuckled and his wife smacked him. “I mean you showed up here with a woody. Yep, standing proud for all to see. People from all across the land came to take a peek at your monster cock.”

  “All across the land?” I asked.

  He shrugged lightly. “Well, they came from the training center. Either way, you’re a fucking legend now.”

  I groaned, wiping my hand down my face as I tried to wake up a little more.

  “Doc said that it was probably the kick to the nuts that Blake gave you that caused the constant hard-on.”

  “Blake?”

  He stared at me blankly. “The woman you were fucking.”

  I shook my head, scared for a minute there that I had met a guy named Blake and didn’t know anything about it. “Wait, her name is Blake?” I tried to picture it, but she didn’t really seem like a Blake. Then again, the only time I really saw her was when she was kicking my ass.

  “You know, you should really try and introduce yourself before you fuck someone,” his wife said.

  “And you are?”

  “Lucy,” she grinned. “Big fan, by the way.”

  “Hey,” Hunter snapped. “Is one cock not enough for you?”

  “Of course it is, baby. But he’s really wielding some magical cock there. Blake said that you almost split her in two. I would love to know what that feels like,” she said dreamily.

  “I’m standing right fucking here,” Hunter growled.

  She patted his chest without actually looking at him. “Don’t worry, baby. You’re all I need and
want.”

  “Why did that not sound convincing?” Hunter sighed, running his hand down his face.

  I sat there uncomfortably, wondering if Lucy was going to attack me or something. She looked like she was daydreaming about something, and that made me a little worried. “Maybe the two of you could give me some privacy so I can get dressed.”

  “One last peek?” Lucy asked. I stared at her incredulously as Hunter shoved her toward the door. “What? It’s not like I’m gonna jump him, but that thing was huge. I just want to see it one more time!”

  Hunter shoved her out and slammed the door, then turned back to me. “If my wife says one more thing about your monster cock, I’m going to personally cut it off and shove it down your throat.”

  “Hey, I didn’t tell all of you to come stare at my dick. It wasn’t really everyone, was it?”

  He cringed slightly, telling me that it was more than just a few. “Well, it started with Lindsey, Vanessa, and Ice. Then, when Ice brought you in, a few more showed up. Sorry, but you had several visitors that came to see the exhibit.”

  “You make me sound like a circus attraction,” I grumbled.

  He leaned in, like someone else was in the room with us and would overhear. “So, has it always been that big?”

  I tilted my head, and stared him straight in the eyes. “Yes, I was born like this. The doctor was shocked because my dick was as long as my body.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Fine, don’t tell me, freak. I was asking from a medical standpoint, anyway.”

  “Right,” I snorted, “because there are a lot of big cocks out there that need your help in the field.”

  I quickly pulled a t-shirt over my head that he handed to me and slipped on my shoes. I needed a shower and a toothbrush. And even though I knew that I had passed out twice in two days, I felt tired and in need of some sleep.

  “Now that you’re awake, you need to head up and see Cap. Everyone’s waiting on you.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “Apparently, Knight wants you in on whatever he’s cooking up.”

  “Yeah, I’m thinking that’s not a good idea. I already told him the last time I was here that I wasn’t interested.”

  His eyes glimmered in humor. “I think you’ll want in on this.”

  I didn’t know why the fuck I agreed to come here. I was tired and the last thing I needed right now was to argue with Knight about the shit that was going on here. He wanted my help, but wasn’t giving me all the facts. But part of me was still curious, and if he said he wanted me here, maybe he was willing to finally let me in on what was going on. But when I walked into the conference room and saw the woman Hunter referred to as Blake sitting in a chair, I knew that wasn’t going to happen. She was a fed, and there was no way Knight would be handing over any secrets to her.

  “Parker,” Cap stood, walking toward me, “It’s good to see…a little less of you.”

  I rolled my eyes, ready to book it out of there. “Yeah, maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”

  He nodded in understanding. “I thought you might say that. The thing is, you’re recovering and need some rest.”

  “I can do that at my apartment.” He winced, glancing quickly at Knight. “What? What was that look?”

  “Your apartment is no longer available,” Knight said with an evil look.

  “I have a lease,” I clarified.

  Knight shrugged. “Had. You no longer do.”

  I fumed inside, my hands clenched into fists. Whatever the hell he was playing at, I was about to lose it on him. “You can’t do that.”

  “You’d be surprised what money can do.”

  Cap cringed slightly, but otherwise didn’t offer up anything. I glanced at Blake, and she didn’t look too happy either.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I asked her as I took a seat. “I thought you would have been gone by now.”

  “Well, they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, for the time being.” Her eyes slid over to Cap, like she was confirming that with him. With his slight nod, she relaxed in her chair.

  I shook my head, feeling like I had been completely bulldozed while I had been off in lala land. “Fine, let’s get on with it then. Why am I here?”

  Knight moved over to the table and pressed a button. A screen flicked on and documents appeared that showed account information, but what it was for, I couldn’t tell.

  “This is the information that Blake recovered from the senator’s house. Now, without any other information, this all just appears to be useless information. I’ve been working with our IT department, going off some other information that I had already acquired, and we’ve linked the accounts to a bioengineering company, SynGen.”

  “Bioengineering? What is that exactly?”

  “It applies engineering principles of design and analysis to biological systems and biomedical technologies,” Knight stated, like that answered all my fucking questions.

  “So, biological warfare?” I asked, not sure if I was following.

  “Could be. This company is basically a research company, finding ways to incorporate engineering with medical technologies.”

  “Okay, so how do we figure out what the senator had to do with any of this?”

  “That’s where it gets tricky. They have so many different divisions that it would be nearly impossible to discover what the senator was interested in unless we got someone on the inside.”

  “Wait,” I stopped him, needing clarification. “How do we know that the senator was actually after anything? I mean, logically speaking, he could just be an investor, right?”

  “Do you know many low-ranking senators that invest in something like bioengineering on the salary they make as a junior senator?”

  “We all know that anyone in Congress makes money on the side,” Blake interjected. “It’s not like their salaries are what they actually live on.”

  “But they need to have connections,” Knight pointed out. “Someone to tell them what to invest in and how much.”

  “You’re talking about insider trading. That’s illegal, even for members of Congress.”

  “It still goes on,” Blake said. “You have to be able to prove insider trading, and with the way information flows in Washington, that’s very hard to prove. Taking down a Congressman for insider trading is more difficult than you would think.”

  “What does this have to do with Cortez’s investments? Are you saying you have proof of insider trading?”

  Knight flicked to another screen that showed Cortez’s personal accounts. I felt dirty just looking at them. It felt wrong to look into someone else’s accounts, and while I wasn’t an angel, I didn’t like invading someone else’s privacy. Especially without proof, and so far, I hadn’t seen anything that said we should be digging into the senator.

  “I’m saying that the senator has been investing in this company for a very specific reason. I believe that he’s investing in this company to use it to his benefit.”

  “How?”

  “I think he’s planning something, and I need to get into the facility to get records on-”

  “Whoa, hold on a minute. Do you hear how ridiculous this sounds? I’m sorry, but you sound like you’re pulling shit out of a hat right now and reading into things in whatever way suits you. Either give me something more substantial to go on or I’m walking.”

  “I have to agree,” Blake said. “I’m sorry, I was willing to dig into the senator, and I put my job on the line for it. I know there’s something fishy going on, but you’re just speculating now. And you want to break into that facility? Give me a reason.”

  Knight glanced at Hunter, but he just shrugged. “You’re not giving us anything to go on, Hud. You know I’m always with you, but if you want us to break into a company and dig into a senator, you’d better have a good reason for putting our asses on the line.”

  Knight glared at us, his arms crossed over his chest, a stance I was getting used to seeing. Whatever he
was hiding, he wasn’t ready for it to come out. So, it surprised me when he hit a button and the door closed and locked, and the windows went black. Lights turned on to brighten the room.

  “Nice,” I said, waving to the door and windows. “I like the trick, turning this into the bat cave. Interesting that you need this level of security.”

  “This isn’t the bat cave,” Cap said as his fingers moved underneath the table. I couldn’t tell what he was doing, but I had an idea. “That would be at the other end of the property.”

  “Do we get a tour of that as well?” Blake asked.

  “Not until you’ve joined the company,” Cap grinned.

  “And that button you pressed?” Blake asked.

  Cap smirked at her. “Can’t slip anything past you. It’s just a precautionary measure.”

  “Because you think we’re recording you and we’re going to spill your secrets?” I asked. “You came to us.”

  “He did,” he nodded to Knight. “I know about as much as you right now. So, why don’t we get on with whatever this is.”

  “As you all know, Senator Brantley was killed in a home invasion almost a year ago. Through a source, I was able to get ahold of some sensitive information that he held in his safe. The senator was in the business of collecting information that he could use to blackmail others. One of the files I received points to something happening in the next year. There’s talk of the plan being in place in time for the election.”

  My eyebrows shot up at that. That was definitely more than just a conspiracy theory.

  “In that file, Senator Cortez is described as being their inside man. After going over his financials, his accounts point to SynGen. He has a few other investments, but I can’t see how any of them could in any way benefit the senator in an election.”

  “Wait, you’re talking about swinging an election,” I cut in, just to make sure I was understanding him correctly.

  “That’s what I’m guessing is going on. But like you pointed out, right now it’s a bunch of conjecture. I need to know what SynGen could possibly be developing that the senators could use to turn an election.”