or not. Or I could help him and know for sure that he was very much alive and breathing.
“Help me. Please,” he whispered in my ear.
“How are we going to do this?” I asked, softly placing my hands on top of his.
“We’ll set up a scene at my apartment. Colin will take care of the rest. The only thing I need from you is to act like it’s real. The media needs to see you break.”
I nodded, letting out a deep breath. Turning in his arms, I grazed my fingers over his hard abs. “When you come back to me, and I know you will, you’ll have to help me. I am fragile.”
“No.” He pinched my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “You are fucking strong. The strongest person I have ever met. We will get through this together. Do you hear me?”
“Parker.”
“I said, do you hear me?” he repeated, his voice firm.
“Yes. Sir. I hear you.”
“Good girl.” He placed a soft peck on my lips. “You won’t know when this will happen. There won’t be a body. But there will be a funeral.”
My eyes widened. “I have to bury you?”
“We need to make this as real as real can be.”
“Parker, this is fucking crazy. Let’s just go bang Devin’s door down and destroy him!” I cried. “I’ll do the hacking job he wants me to do. I’ll do anything. As long as you stay with me.”
“No!” he yelled. “I refuse to have you working for that bastard again. You give in once and he’ll be right back at your door, demanding you do another job for him.”
“But I can’t bury you!” I screamed, shoving out of his grip.
“It won’t be me.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders as I fell to the floor. “It won’t be me, angel.”
Sobs wracked through my body. “I can’t. I’m not strong enough for this. I was just getting better. You were helping me get better. I need your dominance. I can’t do this without you.”
“Shhh…” he whispered against my hair. “You have me. You have my heart. My notes.”
“They don’t do shit,” I snapped, roughly wiping the tears from under my eyes.
“Angel, I need you here with me. I can’t do this if you don’t agree.”
Him begging only made me cry harder. If only we could have a normal life. A normal relationship. But no, I had to help my boyfriend die. The love of my life. The man who promised to take away my nightmares and replace them with dreams of him.
“I’ll help you,” I whispered.
His big body relaxed. “Thank you.”
I knew then that this would be the last time I would see him for God knows how long. Although his death was fake, I felt like I actually lost a piece of myself. My heart.
OW WAS your meeting with Agent Cross?” Jones asked as I slipped into the passenger seat.
I rolled my eyes. “He’s worse than a nagging five year old.” I turned to Jones. “But he knows stuff. So does Devin.” I scrubbed my hands down my face. “I don’t know how they know but they do. He was asking me how I helped Parker die. It’s all so…so…confusing.”
“Don’t worry, Miss Price.”
I scoffed. “How can I not? I’m going to go to fucking jail for this shit.”
“Keely.”
My eyes widened as a deep, muffled voice washed over my skin. The smooth vibrato that I hadn’t heard in so long made the hairs on my body tingle. “Parker?”
The window separating the front seat from the back lowered halfway. “Act natural, angel. Do not turn around.”
My body was vibrating with the need to see him but I listened. “I’ve missed you,” I said softly. It was an understatement. I felt like I hadn’t slept in weeks.
“I...” He cleared his throat. “I’ve missed you too. More than you’ll ever know.”
Tears welled in my eyes. “I ran out of hearts twenty-eight days ago.” The little plastic hearts that had been filled with notes were scattered around his cottage, reminding me of him.
“I know.”
“Where are we going?” I sat up when I noticed that Jones was turning onto the freeway.
“Do you trust me?” Parker asked.
“With all of me,” I said softly.
“Keely, please forgive me for the shit I’ve kept from you. Jones, tell her where we are headed.”
I frowned and waited for some sort of explanation from either of them.
Jones nodded once. “Colin Vain and I have known each other our whole lives.”
“Really?” I asked, curling my feet under me.
He nodded. “Our mothers