Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
C helsey could only stare at him.
How the hell had they dated for months, and she did not know any of this?
Her mind was spinning with so many questions, she didn’t know what to ask first. All this time, she thought he had grown up in Chicago. All she’d known about his parents was that his mother had died when he was younger, and he was raised by his father who he no longer had a relationship with.
But this ? He’d been brought up in an organized crime family…which was insane. A drug dealer by the age of eight, he was involved in stuff that could’ve gotten him thrown in jail for the rest of his life. Or worse, could’ve gotten him killed.
Parker leaned forward as he ran his hands up and down the thighs of his jeans. Normally, he was calm and laidback, but in the last few minutes, his anxiousness was palpable.
He thinks I’m dead .
His words rattled her, but she couldn’t let it show. She needed to hear everything he had to tell her. No matter how shocking or painful it might be.
He lifted his gaze to hers. “Do you remember a few months ago when Laz was shot, and I was assigned to protect Journey?”
“I remember.”
Journey was Laz’s wife, who’d been a US prosecutor at the time. Now she was with a private practice firm who worked with nonprofit agencies. It had been a tough time for their family and friends because someone had been gunning for Laz. He had feared they’d go after Journey and their daughter. So the guys of Supreme provided around-the-clock protection.
Parker explained that when he was escorting Journey from the courthouse once, they were bombarded by the media. Though they were able to get her in the vehicle without incident, a news station had posted a photo, that included her with him and another security specialist.
“Why did it matter that there was a photo of you? You don’t usually do undercover work.”
Supreme offered personal protection, and on occasion, some of the specialists had been tasked with undercover work, but not Parker.
As for pictures, Chelsey had plenty of photos of her and Parker, but she never had a reason to share them with anyone. Neither of them posted to social media, and she probably never would, but she didn’t understand where this conversation was going.
“Because my father doesn’t know I’m alive,” he said again. “If he did, he’d come after me. If that happens, he’ll stop at nothing to make sure he kills me next time. Which was why I broke up with you.
“Chelsey, Wolf doesn’t give a damn about anything, and revenge is his love language. I’m a dead man if he ever finds out I’m still breathing.”
Unease clawed through Chelsey as she started to understand what he was saying. If this man killed Parker’s mother, whether intentional or not, it was safe to say that he had the ability to take Parker out, too.
“Wiz and his people have scoured the internet for photos of me,” Parker continued. “That one with me and Journey were the only ones they found, and he did the best he could to make sure it was no longer on any sites,” he said, referring to Cameron “Wiz” Miller, one of the owners of Supreme Security-Chicago. He was also a former Navy SEAL and a computer guru. “If Wolf saw that photo, he’d come for me and anyone I care about. I couldn’t risk anything happening to you. That’s why I had to put distance between you and me.”
Chelsey stood and moved over to where he sat on the sofa. She started to sit next to him, but he pulled her onto his lap. She wasn’t sure what to say about what he had just shared. What could she say? The idea of someone interested in killing him didn’t make sense. The man she knew was the sweetest, gentlest person she’d ever been with. It was hard to believe someone wanted him dead.
She wrapped an arm around Parker’s neck and placed her other hand on his chest as she stared into his eyes. There was so much love staring back at her that it almost made her want to cry.
“You should’ve told me,” she whispered. “Instead, you broke up with me and made both our lives miserable.”
He pulled her close and placed a sweet kiss on her lips. “I thought it best to walk away, because I couldn’t keep taking a chance with your life, baby. I was serious about what I said last night. If anything ever happened to you, it would kill me, and if I was the cause…” He dropped his gaze and shook his head. “I didn’t want to break things off with you. I felt I didn’t have a choice.”
She understood why he thought that was the only choice, but it was the wrong one. Instead of telling him that, she laid her head against his shoulder and snuggled against him. His strong arms held her close, while the clean, fresh scent of his cologne swirled around her like a calming elixir. This was where she was meant to be, in his arms like this.
They stayed that way for a few minutes until Chelsey noticed how Parker rubbed his right thumb over the inside of his left wrist. There was a tribal tattoo there and on occasion, she’d notice him rubbing that spot.
Never go back . That’s what he’d told her the tattoo meant.
Both of his arms and his back were littered with elaborate tattoos, but the tribal one was the only one that seemed to hold something more to him than its actual meaning.
Then she remembered something.
She sat up. “You once told me that you had gotten that tattoo to cover up another tattoo that you’d gotten when you were younger. Did it have something to do with the Kingz?” she asked carefully, not wanting to trigger him. For all she knew, the question might cause him to remember something he might not want to.
“Yes. Every member of the Diego Kingz has a six-point crown tattoo with flames shooting out of the center point. Right here,” he said, pointing at the spot that was now covered with the tribal tattoo. “I got that tattoo when I was ten, and it was to let people in our world know what crew I belonged to. At the time, I thought it was cool since Wolf had one. The older I got, though, and the more I had to do within the Kingz’s crew, the symbol felt more like an anchor weighing me down.”
Silence fell between them again until Parker yawned and leaned his head back. Chelsey had noticed his exhaustion last night while they were working, and again when he arrived today. It was clear he hadn’t been sleeping well, but even though he probably needed some sleep, she needed him to finish telling her about his father.
Chelsey placed a kiss on the light scruff covering his cheek, then moved from his lap to sit next to him on the sofa, which had him lifting his head.
She slipped her arm through his and rested her chin on his shoulder, and he glanced at her. “I know you’re tired. I can see it in your eyes, but tell me the rest. Why did Wolf try to kill you? Why does he want you dead?”
He studied her for a few seconds, and then he kissed the tip of her nose. It was so out of character for him, yet so sweet and gentle, that she almost purred.
“I love you so damn much,” he said, gruffer than it had been moments ago. “But I never planned to tell you or anyone any of this. Mason is the only one who knows everything. Well, mostly everything that I remembered.”
That last comment only sparked more questions for Chelsey, but she held back from asking them. There would be time for asking questions. If not today, then soon.
“I was seventeen, almost eighteen, and a punk kid out for my own revenge. Basically, I had turned into my father. My anger was so deep toward Wolf, I had tunnel vision when it came to destroying him. For years after my mother died, I had bided my time until I could take Wolf down.
“So I found out that the Euclid Disciples thought that the Kingz had gotten to their suppliers. Which was probably true, but I wasn’t sure. Still, I figured I could use that information to my advantage. Since the Disciples weren’t receiving their usual amount of product, they were struggling to keep up with demand in their territory. They were desperate.”
Chelsey wondered where he’d gotten that information about their suppliers, but again she remained quiet.
“This was around the same time the Kingz were preparing to get a major shipment. I’m talking huge, to the point that Wolf wanted all-hands-on-deck to receive it. I leaked that information to someone who I knew was connected to the Disciples. I knew once they found out, they’d ambush the Kingz. It had been the perfect scenario, and like I suspected, the Disciples went in hot. That incident was the start of one of the biggest wars the Kingz had ever been a part of.”
Parker shook his head. The tension rolling off him let Chelsey know that it was probably worse than he was letting on. She also had a feeling he wasn’t telling her everything.
“I wanted,” he started, his voice full of emotion as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I wanted Wolf to suffer as much as I had suffered when he killed my mother. I wanted him dead, but I had no intention of sticking around town to see how everything shook out. I conveniently didn’t make it to the delivery sight, and I was heading out of town. Everything was planned out perfectly. Or so I thought.” He cleared his throat. “Wolf somehow found out that I had betrayed him and the Kingz, and he tracked me down not too far from one of his warehouses.”
Parker glanced at Chelsey before looking away, but not fast enough. The torment she saw in his eyes broke her heart, and she felt helpless. Whatever happened that day clearly still haunted him.
He leaned forward, his elbows on his thighs. When he trembled, Chelsey wrapped her arm around him, trying to provide some comfort while a few tears slipped from her eyes. He hadn’t even told her everything, but she knew whatever happened had been bad.
“I thought watching my mother die was the worse day of my life,” he said, emotion clouding his words, “but it hadn’t been. The day Wolf kicked my ass, I prayed for death. Chelsey, I wanted to die, and I thought I would.”
Chelsey didn’t know how to comfort him. Parker was hers.
It didn’t matter that they’d been estranged for months. In her heart, he would always be hers. The thought of anyone trying to hurt this man, her man, scared her to death while also making her angry enough to kill someone on his behalf.
He might be able to take care of himself, but that didn’t stop her from worrying about him. Wolf was still out there. Maybe he didn’t know Parker was still alive, but what if he one day found out? Then what? Was Parker right, would his father hunt him down and try to kill him again?
“Wolf literally left me for dead,” Parker said, interrupting her thoughts. “My face was a bloodied mess. I couldn’t see out of one eye, and I could barely see out of the other. My nose was broken, and I had missing teeth. Broken ribs, a punctured lung, a broken kneecap, and some internal injuries had me in bad shape.”
“Dear God. I just don’t understand,” Chelsey said, her heart breaking for him even more. “What type of person would do something like that to their only child?”
“A low-down, heartless bastard who put the Diego Kingz before anything else, including his son. Remember, I had betrayed him and the crew. In Wolf’s world, that was punishable by death.”
“How’d you get away?” She couldn’t help herself, she had to ask. “If you were almost dead…”
“Chels, with everything that happened after that, I truly believe my mother was watching over me,” he said shaking his head. “There is no other way to explain the events that followed. In the warehouse—where there’s a torture room—there’s also an incinerator.”
“Oh. My. God.” The words slipped out, and Chelsey covered her mouth with her hand as her active imagination took her down a dark road.
“Let’s just say, I believe in angels.”