are best friends.”
“Okay. So...”
“Patience, pet,” Parker whispered in my ear. He was close behind me and I could feel the heat of his breath caress my skin.
It took everything in me not to turn around. Not to jump into the back seat with him and wrap myself around his hard body but I had a few choice words to say to him first. “Patience,” I scoffed. “Do you realize how much patience I’ve had in the past couple of months, Parker?”
“Keely,” he said, his voice filled with warning.
“No! Cross is fucking with my head. One minute he’s asking where you are, how I helped you die and the next he’s calling you on the phone from my cell phone. Patience.” I shook my head. “Please.”
“Cross will pay for breaching your privacy.”
“I don’t want that.” I scrubbed a hand down my face. “God, I just want this over. I hate having to look over my shoulder. I hate that I can’t even look at you.”
“I know,” he said, softly.
“Colin and I have a cottage in the middle of nowhere, about seven hours from here. No one knows about it except for Parker.” Jones looked down at me. “You’ll be safe.”
“Are you staying with me, Parker?” I asked, bracing myself for him to tell me that he’s leaving once again.
“Yes.”
My head whipped around. “You are? What about Reed Industries? What about Troy?”
“I’m still going to lay low. You can run the company from your laptop.”
“I don’t have a laptop. Agent Cross seized it when they picked me up this morning.”
“That doesn’t mean shit. Wait until you see the piece of machinery I got for you,” Parker said, clearly proud of his present.
“What about Troy?” I asked again.
“You’ll tell him that you needed some time away.”
“Jones, please stop at the next service station,” I said, my voice firm.
Jones glanced into the rear view mirror. “Keely, I don’t think—”
“Please.”
“Jones, it’s okay,” Parker said, reassuring him.
I breathed a sigh of relief when Jones nodded.
“I saw you talking to Agent Cross.” Parker’s voice lowered, dripping with contempt at the mere mention of the other man.
“You did?” I sat up straighter. “Where were you?”
“Around. What did he want, Keely?”
I sighed, picking at the hem of my dress. “He picked me up this morning, as you know. He seems to think that he knows all of the answers.”
“Does he?”
“I don’t know. He asked me who Devin is but then he acts like he knows him. I don’t know. I’m so confused.”
“Devin sent you a package,” Parker stated, his voice cold.
“Yeah. It was a box of roses with…blood on them.”
“Shit.”
“Parker, he told me that the blood belonged to you. When was the last time you saw him?”
“Not since before we faked my death. But he must at least have a feeling that I’m still alive . The fucker isn’t stupid.”
I nodded in agreement. This whole situation was enough to drive anyone mad. A part of me wanted to just hand myself over to Devin to give him what he wanted but I knew that that would backfire. If only I could do the hacking that he wanted me to do from far away. Like in another country. But Devin would have none of that. He wanted to see me squirm. Right now, I just needed to spend as much time with Parker as possible. While I could. We would get through this together. We had to.
AS SOON as we stopped a half an hour later, I made sure to casually exit the limo and headed to the back. I took a breath and pulled open the door before sliding onto the seat. I swallowed hard when my gaze landed on Parker sitting on the other side of the limo.
The air around him screamed power and seduction. His emerald green eyes captivated me, pulling me in. “Come here, pet.”
Chewing my bottom lip, I rung my hands in my lap, looking down. I hesitated. I didn’t want to but what if he left me again? What if this would be it? The final goodbye?
“Keely,” his voice was firm but desperate. “Please.”
Tears burned my eyelids and I shook my head. “I can’t…I can’t do this without knowing that you are staying for good.”
His breath caught. The next thing I knew, his hands wrapped around mine. Parker knelt before me, kissing each of my knuckles, my fingertips and then my palms. “Every day I wake up, even more sorry than the last, knowing how much I hurt you. But I will spend the