One Good Reason (Boston Love #3)(96)

“We knew something was wrong almost immediately after you left. You’d barely been gone a minute when the match started — as soon as Luca walked down into the arena, we knew. Nate, Chase, and I headed for the exits, trying to find you. You were just… gone. Vanished into thin air. Eventually, we got surveillance video from the gym. Saw that douchebag hit you.” His jaw clenches.

“Steve,” I murmur.

“Yeah, Steve. He’s a dead man.”

“Birkin threatened his family. He felt like he had no choice.” I shrug lightly. “I get it. I don’t like it, obviously, but I get it.”

Parker glowers. “Yeah, well, I don’t f*cking get it. I don’t care what the stakes are. You don’t sacrifice the life of an innocent woman. You find another way.”

“It was a shitty situation. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Understatement.” Parker runs a hand through his hair. “We knew Steve had you, but we didn’t know where. We didn’t know why. We figured it might have something to do with the case, but Lancaster and Linus were both already in federal custody. We contacted Agent Gallagher anyway, asked him to check the logs to see if either of them had made any calls, arranged for someone to attack you.”

“And you realized it was Birkin,” I murmur.

“Not at first. We suspected, but we weren’t sure. He was the one piece of the LC puzzle unaccounted for. We assumed he’d fled the country with a shit-ton of money. Didn’t foresee that his drug problem had made him desperate for more.”

“He wanted me to hack into the FBI network in under an hour, using only an ancient MacBook and the weak WiFi hotspot from his iPhone.” I shake my head. “The man was not thinking logically.”

Parker sighs. “Clearly. But, anyway, we thought he might have you. We knew for sure when that text came through, though.” His hand squeezes mine. “That was brilliant.”

“I wasn’t sure you’d understand it.”

“My sister is Phoebe West. She owns four Birkin bags.” He grins ruefully. “There was no chance I would misunderstand that text.”

I smile.

“Anyway, once we had his phone number, the boys at Knox Investigations were able to track its signal to Birkin’s old offices. Luckily, Nate and I were already on our way there. As soon as we suspected he might have you, we started making our way down the list of his known addresses.”

“Smart.”

“Not smart enough,” he says, guilt swimming in his eyes. “If we’d gotten there two minutes sooner, we could’ve stopped him before he laid a hand on you.”

“It’s not your fault, honey.”

“Yeah, well, when we got inside and saw you lying there, that f*cking scumbag standing over you…” Parker’s expression darkens dangerously. “I would’ve killed him. I almost did kill him.”

My eyes widen as they drop to his bloody, bruised knuckles. “Parker…”

“Don’t worry. Nate stopped me.” He sighs. “Barely.”

I squeeze his hand gently. “I’m glad you didn’t kill him. You know what I—” I almost say love but I chicken out at the last second. “—like about you?”

His eyebrows lift. “I wasn’t aware you liked anything about me.”

I elbow him and he laughs.

“You walk through life with this lightness inside you. It shines like a beacon. Your laugh, your sense of humor, the way you see the world… You remind me that there’s still goodness and kindness out there. Even though you have your own slew of reasons to be bitter or negative… you always see the light.” My voice gets thick with emotion. “And when you share that light with me, it makes me feel like… maybe I don’t have to live in the shadows anymore.”

He leans forward and kisses me until there are tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Okay,” he breathes against my lips. “I’m calling the doctor back in here. Clearly, there was much more intense brain damage than they originally thought. I’m going to suggest brain surgery. Perhaps a pre-frontal lobotomy will restore you back to your former misanthropic self.”

I smack him on the shoulder. “You’re a jerk.”

“I’m your jerk.”

I roll my eyes. “Uh huh.”

“How tired are you?” he asks.

I’m instantly suspicious. “Why?”

“There are some people who’ve been sitting in the waiting room for the past three days,” he says carefully. “If you’re up for it, I think they’d very much like to see you.”

My eyes widen. “There are people here? Who?”

He shrugs. “Everyone.”

“But… why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He kisses me. “Because they love you.” His eyes soften. “We love you.”

My eyes fill with tears and I find I can’t say anything. Not one single word.

Parker doesn’t seem to mind. He just leans forward, brushes his lips against mine, and wipes away my tears with the pads of his thumbs.

“I’ll go get them.”

I nod.



* * *



They come in groups of two — I guess they think it’ll be less overwhelming, that way. Parker supervises from the corner, glaring at anyone who gets too close to my injuries like some kind of demonic guardian angel.