moment, he could’ve asked me to pirouette naked on Lake Shore Drive and I’d have probably done it. I nodded.
“Good. I’ll see you Monday.”
He stepped away and I stared after him, nonplussed.
“Wait a second,” I said, and he halted, already almost at the door. “That’s it? You kiss me like that and now you’re just going to leave? What the hell, Parker?”
“I told you last night. I don’t do relationships.”
“Well, I don’t do friends—or bosses—with benefits,” I retorted.
Parker walked to where I stood, encroaching on my space until I took a step back and again hit the wall. I didn’t want to appear vulnerable, but there was nothing I could do.
“So you’re telling me you don’t like it when I kiss you,” he said, lifting a hand to trail a featherlight touch down my cheek. “That you want me to stop and never touch you again?” The touch of his other hand on my hip made a shiver dance down my spine.
I swallowed. I was turned on and angry at the same time at the power he had over me. “You’re using our working relationship against me,” I said.
“I’m using your body against you,” he corrected. “Let’s make that perfectly clear.” His hand skated underneath the hem of my T-shirt. I sucked in a breath as his fingers drifted over my stomach. “And if that’s what it takes to make you do what I say—to keep you safe—then so be it.” Leaning down, he pressed an openmouthed kiss to my neck. “It’s not exactly a hardship,” he murmured.
“This is wrong,” I said, but the breathlessness of those words took all the impact from them.
“I really don’t care so long as it keeps you out of harm’s way.”
I’d just reached up to hold him to me when he stepped away. A moment later, he was out the door and gone.
Chapter Thirteen
Saturday I moped. I didn’t hear from Parker, which was probably a good thing. Yet it didn’t feel that way. I felt depressed in the way you do when you keep waiting for the phone to ring and it stays determinedly silent. No calls. No texts. No nothing. He’d successfully sucked me back in to thinking that he and I might be a possibility. After all, he’d kissed me again, touched me again, and I was a firm believer in actions spoke louder than words.
I worried about Hanna. I wondered if anyone had bothered to tell Tania that her sister was dead, or if the police even knew that poor Niki had a sister.
I couldn’t sleep and was curled up on the couch, watching a Criminal Minds rerun—what a gripping life I led—when my cell rang. I didn’t know the number, but I did recognize the voice.
“Hanna!” I exclaimed, surprised and glad to hear from her.
“Did you mean it?” she asked abruptly. “That you would help me?” She sounded nervous.
“Absolutely,” I assured her.
“I need a place to stay,” she said. “I want out, but I have no place to go.”
“You can stay here,” I said, deciding not to ask too many questions over the phone. I gave her my address.
About thirty minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. It was her. “Come in,” I said, helping her inside. I noticed that she had nothing with her but her purse. I guessed she probably hadn’t wanted to take anything larger and tip off whomever might be watching that she was making a run for it.
She seemed awkward and unsure, standing in the foyer. “Are you hungry?” I asked, hoping to make her feel more at ease.
“Um, yeah. I guess.”
Poking in my fridge, I took out the leftover frozen lasagna I’d picked up last night after smelling the homemade one at Parker’s. It wasn’t nearly as good, but it would do. I heated some up in the microwave and sat down with her at the table.
“Tomorrow I’ll call a friend of mine,” I said. “He’ll know how to help you.” Normally, I’d be thinking of Parker. Not this time. Ryker would be the one I turned to for help. Parker seemed powerless against these people and I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t by choice. The thought depressed me, so I shoved it away.
Hanna nodded, her attention focused on the food. She’d obviously made an effort to be real cleaned up before she’d come here. Her hair was thick and had been brushed until it shone, the deep chestnut color a mirror of my own.