The Private Serials Box Set (38 page)

   “Right.”

   “Why would he be calling you?  Isn’t he the man you were working for when we met?  I thought Derrek got what he wanted and all that was over?”

   “Well, it turns out Derrek got what he wanted, but Edgar didn’t.  Derrek was in deep with Edgar and owed him a lot of money.  When Derrek disappeared, he did so before he paid Edgar back.  And now Edgar wants his money.”

   “Sucks to be Derrek,” Lena said just before popping a strawberry in her mouth, chewing with more force than necessary.  I tried not to smile at her sass, but I lost that struggle, my mouth curling upward.  Fuck, she was perfect.

   “It does suck to be Derrek, but that’s not really news.  News is, Edgar wants me to find Derrek.”  Lena stopped chewing, her eyes locked on mine.  When she moved again, it was to speak.

   “I thought you knew where Derrek was.”

   “I did know where he was—a week ago.  I haven’t kept up any investigative work since I’ve been here.  I could probably find him again, and there’s also the chance he hasn’t moved at all.  But that’s not all Edgar wants.”

   “What else?”  She sounded nervous.

   “He wants me to kill Derrek.”  I didn’t know how else to put it to her, didn’t know any other words to say.  It was blunt and to the point, but I figured she needed it that way.  Needed to know exactly what was happening.  Exactly what we were facing.

   “Kill him?”  Her voice was shrill and scared.

   I nodded in response.  She remained quiet for a few minutes and I watched her profile as she looked out to the ocean.  She blinked and she breathed, but she did nothing else.  Finally, she turned back to me, her eyes worried.

   “If I ask you a question, do you promise to be completely and one hundred percent honest with me?”

   “Yes,” I answered instantly.

   “I’m not kidding, Preston.  I need the truth, even if it changes everything.  I need you to give it to me.”

   “Ask me.”

   “Have you ever killed anyone before?”

   “Never.”  My answer came immediately and with force.  I pushed the word out as if it weighed a thousand pounds.  I needed her to believe me, needed her to realize that not only was I telling the truth, but also that killing people wasn’t something I did.  I turned toward her and made sure she was looking me in the eye before I continued.  “I am not a thug, a gangster, or a mob boss, Lena.  I am a clean, law-abiding private investigator.  I got caught up in
one
questionable job to protect my sister.  One.  And that job led me to you, so I can’t regret it.  But I am not crooked.  I promise you that.”  I sighed, feeling some tension leave my body with my words.  “I might have killed Piper’s ex, I wouldn’t have cared at the time if I had, but that was different.  That was me protecting my baby sister.  He lived.  But I’ve never killed anyone.  Not for the job and not for any reason.”

   “Okay,” she whispered.  I reached my hand out and wrapped it around the back of her neck, pulling her over to me, our bodies stretching out to meet each other’s, my forehead gently touching hers. 

   “You believe me?”

   “Of course I believe you,” she whispered gently.

   I sighed out my relief.  Of course she believed me.  I pressed my mouth to hers, kissing her just barely, then let her go, resting back into my chair.  “I’m not going to kill Derrek.”  I looked over at her just in time to watch her nod.  “Edgar wants him dead, but we’ll find a way to work around that.”

   “Do you think if Derrek gives Edgar his money, he’ll leave him alone and let him live?”

   “I honestly don’t know.  My instincts tell me no.  Edgar may not be the most prominent boss out there, but he’s still dangerous and definitely means business.”

   “Wait,” Lena said, new worry and panic filling her voice.  “If you don’t kill him, won’t Edgar then come after you?”

   “Let me worry about Edgar, sweetheart.”

   “Where was Derrek the last time you tracked him?”

   “Caribbean.”

   “Do you think he’s still there?”

   “I don’t know.  He moved around a bit at first, then landed there and didn’t leave for a few days before I found him, but that doesn’t really mean anything.  He could be anywhere.”

   “I assume that means you’ll have to go wherever you end up finding him.”

   I sighed.  “Yeah, these aren’t the kind of conversations you have with someone over the phone.  I have to go wherever he is.”

   Lena turned to look back out to the blue sea.  “I want to go with you,” she nearly whispered, her words so light and soft, almost as if she were afraid to say them, afraid of how I would respond.

   “You know I never want to be away from you, but this isn’t safe.”

   “I need to go with you.”

   “I need to know you’re safe, Lena.  I need to do my job without worrying whether or not you’ll get hurt.”

   “And I’m supposed to just stay here and wonder whether or not you’re safe?  That isn’t fair to me.  That will drive me insane.”

   “What if you went to Portland and stayed with Parker?”

   “I am
not
going to Portland.  Not now.  Not yet.”

   “Portland, with Parker, is the safest place you could be right now, Lena.  The only place where I would know someone would be watching out for you.”

   “And who would be watching out for you?  Edgar?  Derrek?  What if Parker came with us?”

   This was not an angle I’d considered.  Parker was someone I could always count on, and I had used him before in my work, but not in this way.  I had never asked Parker to help me with something so fundamentally and obviously illegal.  I didn’t want him knowing anything about what was going on.  I couldn’t implicate him that way.  “He can’t know what I’m up to, Lena.  That would mean, if I were caught, he’d be an accomplice.  I can’t do that to him.”

   “Now you think you’re going to get caught?”  She was almost to the point of panic.  Her face was pained, eyebrows arched toward the sky, hands gripping her thighs, and I swore I could see her pulse beating in her neck.

   “Lena, baby, Derrek isn’t dangerous.  He’s got money, but that’s all.  He doesn’t have contacts—and even if he did have any, he’s abandoned all of them, gone dark.  I’m not planning on getting caught.  But if something were to go wrong, I wouldn’t want you and Parker there.  It’s just not worth the risk.”

   Suddenly Lena stood and took two quick steps, standing right in front of me.  I couldn’t help it when my eyes roamed down her body, landing right where my white shirt ended and the smooth skin of her thighs began.  Before I could reach out and touch her, like I ached to do every time she was within reach, she knelt between my legs and I was taken by a whole new visual.

   “Listen, Preston.  I know you’re used to getting your way, and you’re used to people bending to your every command, but you forgot to take one thing into account.”

   “And what’s that?” I asked, too mesmerized by the image of her mouth and lips so close to my cock.

   “I refuse to be away from you.  Especially if you’re going to find Derrek.  We decided, together, we were going to find him.  So, I’m coming with you.”

   I could have argued with her, could have fought with her all day and all night, explaining all the reasons I didn’t want her to come.  When we’d decided to find him, it had been on our own terms, for our own reasons.  This was different.  This was dangerous.  If Derrek knew we were coming for his money, coming for him, coming to finish whatever Edgar had wanted done before Derrek had so conveniently disappeared, he wasn’t going to welcome us with smiles and handshakes.  But I couldn’t argue with her.  Not when she was in front of me, half naked, asking to be near me, her mouth so close to me, so lush.  There was also the fact that I did, always, want her with me.  So, in that moment, I decided it would be pointless to argue, and better to just give in and let her think she’d won.

   “Okay,” I said softly, raising one hand to run the backs of my fingers along her cheek and down to her chin.  Her eyes closed and she leaned in to my touch.  “Come here,” I said softly, opening up my body, signaling her to come closer.  She stood and curled her body onto my lap, her cheek resting high on my chest, ass right where I wanted it, knees curled up.  I held her, feeling how small she was in my arms, and knew I didn’t want to be without her.  So she would come with me.

   “Will we bring Parker?” she asked, sounding hopeful.

   I shook my head.  “He needs to be in Portland for Piper.  She’ll need someone to be there for her as she tries to put her life back together.”

   Lena was quiet for a moment and then lifted her face to look at me.  “Are you sad it won’t be you who’ll be there for her?”

   I knew Lena was amazing in many ways.  I loved her for a variety of reasons.  But in that moment I loved her because she
knew
.  She knew, without me having to tell her, that it would be difficult to be away from Piper.  I pressed my lips to her forehead, mumbled, “Yeah,” against her skin.  She sighed deeply, then inhaled a big breath.

   “I’m sorry my estranged husband is causing so many problems for you.”

   It hurt me to hear her apologize for him.  His actions were not her fault.

   “Soon, hopefully, we’ll find a way to get him out of our lives for good.”

   “When do we leave?” she asked on a sigh, her eyes wandering out to the ocean, peaceful and blue.

   I kissed her brow again.  “We should probably leave when Piper and Sam leave.”

   “That doesn’t give me any time to give notice at my job.”

   Silence hung between us.

   “I’m sorry,” I whispered.  She’d worked hard to build a life before I showed up, and now she was being forced to leave it behind.  It was important to her that she’d done something on her own for once, without the help or influence of anyone else, and I knew she would be sad to leave it at all, let alone on bad terms.  That’s just the kind of woman Lena was.

   “In the end, when everything is sorted out, it’ll all be worth it, right?”  She looked up to me, searching my eyes for an answer.

   “Right,” I promised, knowing I had no right to make that promise to her.

   “Parker, I need your help with something.  And fast.”  I had snuck back up to the apartment, leaving all three girls on the beach, sunning themselves, soaking up as much Hawaiian sun as they could before we all left paradise.  With my phone to my ear and my eyes on the girls, I quickly called my brother.

   “What is it?”

   “I need you to draft up divorce papers between Derrek and Lena.  And I need those papers to indicate that Derrek gives up everything in the divorce.  The house, the cars, and gives her all but two million dollars.”

   “What?  Why?  He isn’t going to agree to that.”

   “He won’t have a choice.”

   Parker was quiet for a moment, then spoke.  “What’s going on?”

   “Nothing you need to be looped in to.  I just need those papers drafted, and I need them faxed to me when you’ve got them.”  I dragged in a deep breath.  “Piper’s coming home and I need you to look after her.”

   “Where are you going?”

   “Lena and I are going to find Derrek.”  I heard Parker sigh, and knew what his next words would be.

   “Do you think it’s wise for Lena to go with you?  Perhaps she should stay here with me as well.”

   “Lena doesn’t want to be in Portland.  She might never be in Portland again.  She wants to be where I am, and honestly, I want her with me, too.”

   “It sounds like shit’s going down, Preston.  It doesn’t sound safe and it doesn’t sound like you’ve really got it under control.”

   “I need something else.  And this might be more difficult for you to get a hold of, but you’re the only person I can ask.”  I took in a deep breath, knowing I was about to ask something of him I never imagined I would, knowing it would probably change our relationship and the way he viewed me.  I could see no other way to get from point A to point B.  There was a piece missing, and Parker was the only person I could think of who could provide us that missing link.

Chapter Six

   The four of us had flown into Seattle, working around Lena wanting desperately to not have a layover at the Portland airport.

   “The last time I was there I was completely broken.  I don’t really want to go back there,” she’d told me in a whisper one night as she lay sprawled over me in bed.

   I didn’t need any more convincing than that, so we flew into Seattle and Parker had no problem meeting us there for dinner.  Parker and Lena hugged tightly when they reunited and, again, I was filled with gratitude, grateful he was there to support Lena when I couldn’t be.

   We had dinner at a restaurant inside the hotel Lena and I were staying at that night, waiting for our morning flight.  It was a sham of a dinner; the girls were pretending not to be sad, even though the grief of separation was weighing down the very air we breathed.  Parker and I were trying to be sensitive to their situation, but all three of the women were shredded, knowing they’d be saying goodbye again for who knew how long.

   When we could extend dinner no longer, the girls reluctantly stood and headed toward the lobby of the hotel, Sam already wiping tears from her eyes.

   “Be safe,” Piper said as she wrapped Lena in a hug.  My heart pounded just a little harder seeing the two women who meant the most to me in the world embrace.  I’d give up everything for either one of them, and something felt right when I saw them together.

   “Don’t be a stranger,” Sam said, still crying, as Lena hugged her.  Lena was surprisingly quiet, and I assumed it was because she was afraid if she spoke, she’d just end up crying.  Everyone took in her silence and didn’t press her.  When she hugged Parker though, the two of them exchanged words in hushed whispers, quietly enough I couldn’t hear.

   I hugged the girls, kissed Piper on the cheek as she murmured the same “Be safe,” to me, then hugged me again a little more tightly.  I tried not to look in her eyes as we pulled apart; didn’t want to see the pain I knew would be lighting them up.