Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
T he next day, Parker strolled into Supreme Security still shaken from the dream he’d had of his mother. Her death had traumatized him. It had been one of the darkest times of his life. He’d been a twelve-year-old kid living in an adult world doing adult things. Illegal things forced upon him by his father.
But the hardest part about his mother’s death was keeping the “incident,” as his father referred to it, a secret. Parker wanted to call the police and have him arrested. He didn’t care if it meant ending up in foster care. Unfortunately, he couldn’t and he hadn’t said anything to anyone. Being a member of the Kingz meant you kept their business in-house, and you sure as hell didn’t snitch.
His dad hadn’t meant to hurt her, and he sure hadn’t meant to kill her. Wolf had been obsessed with Mina and treated her like fine china. Then, as Parker got older, his parents’ relationship started changing. It started when Wolf insisted that he wanted his son to one day rule over the Diego Kingz. That meant Parker had to work his way up the ranks, starting with selling drugs at a young age.
He ambled through the quiet halls of Supreme while trying to forget about his past, the memories. But his mind kept being pulled back. After he and his father cried over Mina’s body, willing her to wake up, Wolf moved into action as if on autopilot.
One of Wolf’s roles in the Diego Kingz, before he became the leader, was a cleaner. He was responsible for disposing of bodies and then cleaning up afterward.
By the end of that day, Mina’s body had disappeared, and the kitchen was spotless. As if nothing had ever happened. No funeral. No memorial. Nothing.
Wolf attempted to placate Parker with promises that it would all be okay, but even at that age, Parker knew it wouldn’t. Nothing would ever be okay again.
If anyone asked about his mother, he’d been instructed to say that she was in Europe taking care of her sister who was sick. Months later, if anyone asked about her, he’d been instructed to say that she had decided to move there.
It wasn’t like she had many close friends outside of other wives who were a part of the Diego Kingz crime syndicate. Parker was sure others knew he and his father were lying about Mina, but no one was bold enough to question them in depth.
Accidental death or not, Parker would never forgive Wolf for killing his mother. Even as a teenager, he had vowed that he’d make Wolf pay one day. It had taken Parker five years to learn everything he could about his father’s business—the Diego Kingz’s business. Five years to drum up enough courage to take his father down, and five years to put a plan in action.
What had initially been a solid plan, ended up backfiring, though. Somehow, Wolf found out about Parker’s betrayal, and how he had started a war between the Diego Kingz and their biggest rival—Euclid Disciples.
Parker’s cell phone vibrated and snapped him out of his thoughts. Digging the device from his pocket, he glanced at the screen.
Laz: meet me in the kitchen
Parker had been on his way to the small conference room where they usually met before an assignment but turned back the way he had come. Passing several pieces of artwork hanging on the walls, he barely spared them a glance as he mentally got into work mode.
They still had over an hour before they needed to pick up the client, but it wasn’t unusual for them to eat before a job. One of many things he loved about working at Supreme—they took good care of their employees. Egypt and her admin team were great at having a fully stocked kitchen at any given time.
When Parker entered the large space, with its cream-colored walls and top-of-the-line appliances, the blend of various spices reached his nose. Inhaling deeply, he could tell the scent included garlic, cloves, and maybe cinnamon, but also something sweet and savory.
Laz was peeking inside of several white Chinese food boxes. There had to be at least ten of them spread out on the center island, along with spring rolls, crab rangoon, pastry puffs, and potstickers, to name a few. Considering all the food, no doubt there were other teams on assignments tonight.
His gaze traveled over Laz, and the way his thick, dark hair was slicked back brought more attention to his olive skin. He no longer sported a ponytail at his nape, but it was still long enough to brush his collar. Both men were similarly dressed. They’d all been fitted with tuxedos years ago specifically for jobs like tonight, but their styles were very different. While Laz’s tux was single-breasted with peak lapels, Parker’s tux was double-breasted with notch lapels. His was more of a slimmer cut and presented a bolder appearance. Neither of them should have a problem blending in with tonight’s wealthy crowd.
Laz glanced up. “Well, well, well, look who finally got off of punishment.” He moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a couple of flavored waters and set them on the counter. “For a while there, I thought you’d be on front desk duty until you retired.”
“Man, don’t start with that crap. Remember, it’s because of you Mason punished me in the first place. Now that I think about it, I’m always getting into trouble because of you,” Parker said, and greeted his friend with a handshake and a one-armed hug.
Laz chuckled. “I’ll admit I’ve gotten us jammed up a few times, but whatever the hell you did to get on desk duty for months was all on you. Come on, dig in so we can talk about what to expect tonight. Egypt said I’m lead on the assignment and there’s been a couple of changes.”
Parker glanced at all the food and grabbed one of the bottled waters. “Not hungry,” he said.
Laz was scooping shrimp fried rice onto his plate, but stopped. “What’s wrong with you? You’re the greediest person on our team. Normally, if you found out there was a spread like this, you would’ve been in here before anyone could tell you what was on the menu.”
Parker snorted at the truth in that statement. He had an active metabolism and had always loved food. He could eat all day and night and never get full. It was like a going joke around the building that his stomach was a bottomless pit.
But since finding out that the media had snapped a photo of him, and breaking up with Chelsey, he hadn’t had much of an appetite.
Parker waved him off. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, if you say so, but these last few months, you haven’t been eating, you’ve been quieter than usual, and clearly you haven’t been sleeping.”
All true statements, and Parker waited for Laz to say more. He didn’t. Instead, he moved over to the long table near the window and dug into his food. The silence between them was almost deafening, and unease crawled through Parker.
Lazarus Dimas going quiet without giving him the third-degree was as unnerving as going to the dentist for a root canal. He and Laz had worked together for years, and Parker knew his friend’s tells. Like when he was thinking about doing something crazy, his hazel-green eyes darkened and looked like the color of a malachite crystal. Or when he was mad, he had several tells, but one was a tick in his left jaw. And when he got angry enough to murder someone, he put a gun to their head. Kind of like Parker had done to Terrance the night before, which still bothered him.
But this eerie silence? Nah, something was up. Laz didn’t just ask a few questions and drop the subject. It wasn’t in his nature. Normally, he’d be giving Parker a hard time about front desk duty, or not eating, or even…
Wait a minute.
Parker carried his bottle of water over to the table and sat across from Laz. “What do you know?” he asked. “And don’t insult my intelligence by saying nothing .”
Laz’s lips twitched as if trying to hide a smile, and he hesitated before saying, “So your dad’s a gangster, huh?” He stuffed fried rice into his mouth and chewed while shaking his head. “A damn O.G. on the streets. That explains a lot about you.”
Parker narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He wasn’t surprised Laz knew about his past, but he was curious to know just how much he knew. The man was like a bloodhound when he wanted information, and he wouldn’t stop until he got what he wanted.
“What do you mean by that explains a lot ?”
“Learning your dad is the leader of one of the most notorious crime syndicates on the west coast explained a few things I hadn’t been able to figure out. Like that edginess about you that doesn’t come from just being a cop or a former SWAT officer. I had a feeling you came from the streets despite what we knew about you on the surface.”
Thanks to Mason and a few of his connections, Parker had been given a whole new life. It was a bit unnerving that Laz knew anything about his past.
Parker’s identity had been scrubbed and changed. Mason and his buddies had hooked him up with a plastic surgeon, a psychiatrist, an etiquette specialist, and a few other people who helped him go from street thug to almost cultured. That included him getting his GED, as well as a bachelor’s degree in criminology that he earned online.
Parker had decided to go into law enforcement, determined to be the opposite of everything he’d been raised to be. He was committed to being a better person and upholding the law, not breaking it. Getting thugs off the street and drug dealers behind bars had been paramount, and for years, he helped in that cause. Until Mason recruited him to join his Atlanta’s Finest team.
“It’s the way you carry yourself,” Laz continued while eating. “Your head is always on a swivel, which isn’t unusual in our line of work, but you’re different, man. You have the type of street smarts that can only be learned one way—on the streets.”
Laz would know. He’d been a cop in some of Atlanta’s roughest neighborhoods, a white cop at that, and he’d seen it all. He was one of the coolest dudes Parker knew. He might still be somewhat of a hot head, but being married to a former prosecutor, he had cleaned up his act.
Well…somewhat. He still toed the line between right and wrong, especially when it came to family or protecting people he cared about. Nothing was off limits, even murder. He was a good-bad guy in every sense of the imagination.
“Is that where your street smarts and fearlessness came from, the streets?” Parker asked, even though he was sure he knew the answer. No way Laz could be the way he was without having similar experiences as Parker. Maybe he’d been in a gang, too, or at least hung around gang members growing up.
Laz gave a nonchalant shrug. “We’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you.”
“How much do you know?” Parker asked. “And how did you find out?”
Laz’s left eyebrow quirked, and his mouth twitched like earlier when he’d been trying to hide a smile. “What makes you think I know anything more than what I told you?”
“Because you’re you, and please tell me you were discreet when digging into my life.”
Laz sat back in his seat and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “First of all, I never reveal my sources. Second of all, I’m always discreet, but let me just say, I never would’ve guessed that Maverick Fucking-Wolf Farron was your father. That shit is crazy , but before I tell you what little I know, what do you know about your father?”
Parker cringed each time Laz referred to Wolf as his father. He hated his sperm donor and everything the bastard stood for. “All I know is that he’s alive, and he’s not in Atlanta.”
That’s all Parker cared about. He wanted to know the moment the asshole took his last breath and until recently, he’d wanted to make sure they were never on the same side of the continent.
Laz nodded. “I know he’s deep in the drug business which has quadrupled over the last fifteen years. That’s partly because he’s not just dealing cocaine. He’s connected to a producer of some of the purest fentanyl on the market.”
Parker cursed under his breath. Knowing his father was continuing to get rich while slowly killing people with his products angered him. He had to stop him, which was something he should’ve done years ago.
Soon, though. Soon Wolf would get everything that was coming to him.
“Authorities have tried to connect him with a new cocktail drug that hit the streets of San Diego two months ago. It’s linked to ten deaths already, and authorities fear there will be more. Your father’s name has been tossed around as the supplier. So far, he hasn’t been charged with anything because they can’t make a solid connection. Probably because your father has dirty cops on his payroll. No doubt they’re helping his ass stay out of prison.”
Parker wanted so bad to ask Laz about how he knew any of this, but he’d be wasting his time. “What else do you know?”
“Rumor has it, he partnered up with a gun trafficker a couple of years ago. A guy named T.B. Barron out of Arizona, and he’s been in the game a long time but is currently under federal investigation.”
Hope bloomed inside of Parker, and he sat up straighter. “Does that mean Wolf is also—”
“Nope. He’s not listed in the investigation report. At least not yet. That’s pretty much all I know. What I don’t know is what you did to piss off the Kingz and why they think you’re dead.”
Parker broke eye contact and gave his head a little shake. Damn . The fact Laz knew anything was unnerving.
At least he didn’t seem to know how Parker had gotten free of the Kingz. Meaning, his own contact in the Kingz was still keeping his mouth shut. He and Luis were the only ones who knew exactly how that went down. Mason didn’t even know that part. At least, not all of it.
“Oh, and does Kenton know you’ve been fucking his sister?”
Anger lit inside of Parker, and he jerked his gaze to meet Laz’s. “Careful, man. Don’t talk about her like that,” he said, hating the way those words sounded coming out of Laz’s mouth. The guy made it sound as if Parker had been using Chelsey for sex, when that was the furthest from the truth.
Laz grinned. “I figured it was more than just sex. Considering how you’ve been moping around here like you lost your best friend. I assume you’re in love with her.”
Parker didn’t respond.
“So, let’s recap. The Kingz think you’re dead. You’re in hiding, sort of. Chelsey has threatened to kick your ass, and she isn’t speaking to you. Then there’s Kenton. Since your ass is still alive, it’s safe to say he doesn’t know about you and Chelsey. Did I miss anything?”
Parker glared at him. “Sometimes I hate you. Who else knows about my past?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t said anything but like me, the guys know something’s up with you, but no one has said anything.”
Parker nodded. “Good. I need to talk to Chelsey first, but once I fill her in, then I need to run something by you and the guys. I want to take Wolf and the Kingz down once and for all, but I might need some help.”
Laz released a long whistle. “ Dude, I’m good, but going after the Kingz? That won’t be easy, but you know I got your back and so do the others.”
Parker knew that. He just had to decide if he wanted them to risk their lives and their families’ lives for him.
“Oh, and as for Chelsey, she’s working with us tonight,” Laz said nonchalantly.
Parker stiffened. “She’s not a security specialist.”
Even if she’d already gone through the extensive training, she wasn’t ready. Well, maybe she was ready, but Parker wasn’t ready for her to be on anyone’s detail. Their job might not be as dangerous as a police officer protecting the streets, but they had their moments. When she first mentioned applying for a security specialist position, Parker had hoped she’d change her mind. She hadn’t. Not only had she applied for the position, but she had voluntarily gone through the training.
“What happened to Ashton?” Parker asked. “He was scheduled for this assignment.”
Laz shrugged. “Don’t know. Didn’t ask. But what I do know is whatever shit is going on between you and Chelsey will have to be tabled. The only fights I’m breaking up tonight are those involving our client.”
A noise at the door caused Parker to glance over his shoulder, and he almost swallowed his tongue at the sight before him. Chelsey stood there looking like a wet dream in a red halter evening gown that caressed her curves like a second skin. The fitted garment showed off one long, smooth, shapely leg, and Parker bolted out of his chair, causing it to tip over in the process.
“You can’t wear that!” he snapped before he could stop himself.
Chelsey glowered at him, then turned her attention to Laz. “Why the hell is he here?”