Blood dripped from his mouth and oozed from a cut above his eye. He glanced at me. “Fine,” he rasped, getting painfully to his feet.
I stepped between them. “Enough,” I said. “That’s enough.”
Parker was breathing hard and looked no better than Ryker. His suit was dirty and torn, and there was blood on his face and knuckles. He swiped his sleeve at the blood underneath his nose, his eyes fixed on Ryker. The dry cleaner was so going to hate me.
“You want somebody to plant fucking bugs for you, then find somebody else,” he spat. “You put Sage in danger. Not that I expect you give a shit.”
“Fuck you,” Ryker retorted. “If it wasn’t for you, those assholes wouldn’t even know about her.”
“What if she’d gotten caught tonight, Ryker? She’d be dead.”
“And it’d be your fault. Again,” Ryker shot back. “Another dead woman to add to your tally. How many have there been since Natalie?”
I sucked in my breath at Ryker’s vicious jeer, but Parker didn’t attack him as I’d expected he would.
“I think you’re forgetting exactly why she killed herself,” Parker bit out. “It wasn’t just me.”
Whoa, wait a sec—newsflash. Natalie had committed suicide? Because of them?
Ho-ly shit.
“Tell yourself what you want,” Ryker sneered. “Whatever you have to do so you can sleep at night.”
“Just stay the fuck away from Sage. Don’t pull her into your cop bullshit.”
Hey, now. “I wanted to do this,” I interjected. “Ryker didn’t make me. It was my idea.”
“And you think it was just coincidence that the man who let you put yourself in grave danger just happened to have been in your bed the night before?” Parker asked me, his tone rife with condescension.
Ouch. “So you’re saying that if I screw a guy, I’ll do whatever he tells me to do?” I retorted, anger and embarrassment getting the better of my good sense. “That can’t possibly be true, because I take orders from you constantly.”
Parker’s jaw clenched as we faced off. “I’m saying that Ryker is a manipulator.”
“And you think I’m easily manipulated?”
“Aren’t you?” he shot back.
I sucked in a sharp breath, feeling as though he’d slapped me. Was that how he saw me? As someone he could easily manipulate? But…he had, hadn’t he? Friday night he’d kissed me and touched me—something he knew I wanted from him—and he’d told me what to do…and I’d done it.
Parker seemed to realize he’d screwed up because he muttered a curse, shoving a hand through his hair.
“Sage, I didn’t mean—”
“Save it,” I snapped, cutting him off. I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my arm.
“Listen to me—”
“Don’t touch me,” I snarled, ripping my arm out of his grip. “Just go, okay? I don’t want to talk to you or see you right now.”
“Let me take you home,” he said, his tone contrite, but I knew better. He didn’t want to leave me here with Ryker because then it would seem like he’d “lost” and Ryker had “won.” What-the-fuck-ever.
“I don’t need you to take me home,” I said. “Just go.”
He stared at me for a long moment; then Ryker spoke. “You heard her. Go,” he said. “Or do I need to arrest you for trespassing? Just give me a reason.”
Parker’s gaze flicked to Ryker, his expression turning hard and cold. He turned away without another word and we watched as he got back in his car and tore off down the street.
Well.
Tears pricked my eyes as I stared down the street. I tried to process what had just happened, all that Parker had said about what were apparently his real thoughts about me. I felt Ryker’s hand envelop mine.
“Come inside,” he said, lightly tugging.
Wordlessly, I followed him into the house.
He went to the freezer and took out an ice pack, laying it against his jaw, then sat down at the kitchen table with a grimace of pain.
I sat across from him. There was a box of pizza on the table and I lifted the lid. It was still lukewarm and I was ravenous, so I took a piece. I chewed glumly as we sat in silence.
“I take it you didn’t get the bugs planted,” Ryker said at last.
I looked at him. “Ya think?” My sarcasm was thick. “Parker walked in on me, saw what I was doing, then got incredibly pissed off. He threw the bugs out the window on the way here.”
“Something that will count against him when this all goes down,” Ryker said.
I bristled. “I don’t think it’s because he’s working for them,” I