Chapter Twenty-five – Let It Be Me #2
“Parker?” Kurt’s voice had me spinning to face him with a snarl. Taking in Chuck’s puffy face and my grimness, his lips flattened into a straight line. “Two guys are here to see you, but what’s going on in here?”
Most of the Marquess Enterprises security team had shown up last night.
I’d debriefed them over the phone from Fallon’s place.
They had a list of things to do today, including installing over fifty new cameras and patrolling the property in new, random shifts only I was privy to.
Once Wylee had dropped his accusations, Dad and I had agreed the new arrivals would report only to me.
Part of their job would be to question the existing security team and any staff who remained as part of the skeleton crew.
Whoever this was wouldn’t walk away from the ranch now, and in order to remain below suspicion, they’d have to sign up to help or stand out like a sore thumb.
I glanced again at Chuck’s teary-eyed face and then headed for the barn doors.
“I’ll let Fallon catch you up. But, Kurt, we need to keep a lid on what Chuck has told us until we catch this fucker.”
When I stepped outside, the sun blinded me, and I raised my hand just as a fist pummeled me in the shoulder. In two seconds, I’d gripped the wrist and twisted the man’s arm behind his back, only to release it when I heard Cranky’s rough voice chuckling.
“Damn, you don’t mess around, Baywatch.”
Next to him, Sweeney’s lips twitched, eyes hiding behind the same tinted sunglasses Cranky wore.
Both men were over six feet tall with shoulders the size of a linebacker’s, but that was where their physical similarities ended.
Sweeney was dark-skinned to Cranky’s pure white.
Sweeney had hair that curled into knots when not shaved down to the scalp, and Cranky’s was straight and ice-blond.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” I asked, but inside, relief swelled .
“Leave no man behind,” Sweeney said. “That doesn’t just mean while we’re on assignment, shithead.”
“You talk to JJ and Ace Turner?” I demanded.
“We had a nice long conversation with those assholes.” Cranky grinned. “Six men in black clothes and ski masks had them pissing their pants.”
“And?”
“JJ insisted he’s been in San Diego since his arrest. I had a look at his ankle monitor anyway. No one messed with it,” Cranky said.
I looked to Sweeney. “So, you believe JJ? He isn’t behind any of this?”
“He told us the truth.” Sweeney’s mouth tightened. “He doesn’t know shit about what’s happening here.”
“But not Ace?” I demanded.
“He clearly hates Fallon. I won’t repeat the things he called her.
” Fury spiked again, dark and ugly, but I just bit my cheek and let Sweeney continue.
“He insisted he hadn’t left town, but he was smug about it, as if he knew we couldn’t prove it.
I left Pigpen sitting on the place, and right after we left, two men showed up in a black Escalade.
Ace joined them, and they headed to a construction company. Ever heard of Lopez Construction?”
I shook my head. “Are they Ace’s drug connection?”
Cranky chimed in. “Definitely. I may have tapped into some facial recognition software I wasn’t exactly supposed to use for personal reasons and found out one of the guys was Jesus Lopez.
He’s muscle for the owner of the construction company, who also happens to have ties to a seriously nasty cartel in Mexico.
Never got a clean capture of the second guy, but I’m working on tapping cameras around their job sites and offices. ”
My conversation with Dad came back about Lorenzo’s cousin going to work for a construction company in the LA area. “This construction company do work in LA?”
“Major hub there, why?” Cranky raised an eyebrow at my questioning him.
“Fuck.”
“You know him?”
“One of Puzo’s cousins got out of jail and went to work for a construction company in LA.”
Did this really have nothing to do with Fallon? Was it about the Puzos and the hatred they had for her dad? Rafe’s house in Tennessee had been broken into, and like I’d told my dad, I didn’t believe in coincidences.
“You have pictures of them?” I asked.
“Do bears poo in the woods?” Cranky asked, yanking out his phone.
I grimaced. “You and your shit analogies. Let’s see if our inside man knows any of them.” I grabbed the phone and swiveled around to head back into the barn.
“You’ve identified your insider?” Sweeney’s voice was gruff.
I didn’t respond, but as we walked into Kevin’s office and they saw the puffy-eyed teen, Cranky snorted. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Chuck looked up, and fear swarmed across his face as his gaze swung from me to my equally muscled friends. Kurt stood up, stepping between my teammates and Fallon in a protective move that reassured me that at least this one man on the estate was on her side.
Fallon put her hand on Kurt’s arm. “These are some of Parker’s teammates.”
The tension in Kurt’s shoulders eased slightly.
“Sweeney, Cranky, this is Kurt and Chuck.” I waved to the two men.
“Fallon, Fallon, Fallon,” Cranky said, shifting so he could take her in again. “My girl, how dare you drag our Baywatch into all the action without asking us to tag along.”
Fallon gave out an exasperated laugh. “You Frogmen are a bunch of adrenaline junkies.”
“Damn straight,” Cranky said as Sweeney said, “Fuck no.”
It only made her laugh, and for that, I was thankful.
It was the first laugh I’d heard from her since last night when she and Maisey had been tucked up in her bed.
Who knew I could be jealous of a one-hundred-and-ten-pound nurse?
But I had been. Because I’d had plans of staying with Fallon last night.
Of keeping her not only safe but personally making sure she relaxed and got the rest she needed to heal.
I’d known exactly what I’d do to make her relax, and instead, I’d been in a bed across the way with Theo jamming his knees in my spine.
Behind us, a little kid’s excited voice had us all turning.
“Parker, Teddy says I can have the masked puppy as long as you say yes!”
Theo ran straight for me, and Teddy followed behind, his lips twitching once again.
Theo slid to a stop when he caught sight of Cranky and Sweeney.
Sweeney lowered to his haunches and held out his hand. “Hey, little man. I’ve missed your lucky high fives.”
Barreling into Sweeney with a smile, Theo slammed his tiny hand into my friend’s palm with all his might. “No high fives. Mine are five fousands. I give five fousands!”
Sweeney shook his hand as if it hurt. “You sure as heck do.” He surreptitiously slid Theo a roll of Starbursts he’d pulled from who knew where.
Cranky reached down and held out his palm. “Don’t leave me hanging, bud. I can’t be left behind in the lucky dollar race with Sweeney.”
Theo smacked Cranky’s hand too. “The pain. Oh, the pain.” Cranky fell on his ass, dragging Theo with him. “It hurts so good, man. Hurts so good.”
Theo burst into laughter, tucking a second roll of candy into his pockets.
Before Will had died, I would have added my own candy to Theo’s stack.
I’d have filled the kid with sugar and then sent him back to his dad to deal with.
Now, I’d be the one who had to calm him down when my teammates left and he was riding a sugar high.
When I looked up from the shenanigans of my teammates and Theo, I caught Fallon’s gaze. She was smiling, but she looked washed out again. Exhausted. And all the humor and lightness of the moment deflated for me. She needed rest.
“Okay, fun and games are over,” I said. “Fallon needs to get back to bed.”
“I’ll happily take her to bed,” Cranky said, setting Theo aside and snapping to attention with his innuendo hanging in the air .
Fallon laughed. “You know, Cranky, the way I feel right now, it wouldn’t be fair to you. You’d only get half of me today.”
“Half of you, sweetheart, is ten times better than most women.”
“No one is taking Fallon to bed but me,” I growled and then wanted to slam my fist into my own face as every single pair of eyes in the barn jerked to me, including hers. Kurt and Sweeney barely held back their smiles, Teddy and Chuck frowned, and Cranky let out a huge laugh.
Ten minutes ago, I’d been relieved to see my teammates show up, and now I was ready for them to get the hell out of Rivers so I could figure out the rest of my life. And that singular thought brought to the forefront exactly what my subconscious had already figured out about my future.
Those fleeting flashes of family I’d always denied wanting were suddenly exactly what I craved.