Parker’s Price (14 page)

The gun went off, the report almost deafening in the enclosed space.

Dean!

Parker whipped around and slapped her hand to her mouth to smother a distressed cry. White dust fell down on the two struggling figures. Renata was making animal-like sounds of fury and frustration. Dean had her pinned against the wall, one hand manacled around the wrist of the hand still hanging on to the gun. He yanked her arm over her head and smashed her wrist against the wall. It took three tries before her fingers opened and the gun fell to the ground. Dean kicked it back away from them. It slid in front of Parker.

Doors below them slammed open, followed by male voices shouting and the pounding of many feet. As uniformed NYPD officers filled the stairwell, Dean released Renata and stepped back. With a sob, she slid down the wall and covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders shook.

Feeling weak herself, Parker lowered herself to the floor. It was over. The police were here. They were okay. She brushed a shaking hand over her face and it came away wet.
Dean
was okay.

She must’ve said something out loud because he was suddenly beside her, pulling her into his arms.

“It’s okay,” he murmured into her hair.

She buried her face in his chest. “I’m not crying.”

“I know.”

“I just can’t stop shaking.”

His arms tightened. “I know.”

“I’ll be okay in a minute.”

“I know.”

Parker wrapped her long, red scarf tightly around her neck and walked through the door held open for her.

“Thank you, Henry.”

“Should I hail you a taxi, Miss Quinn? It’s rather chilly out.”

She smiled at him. “No, thank you. I’m just going to walk in the park for a bit. I need the air.”

The elderly doorman looked like he wanted to argue and Parker wondered what instructions Dean had given him. For the last two weeks, she hadn’t been allowed to be alone. At first, she’d been grateful for the attention, especially since it soothed her mom’s nerves and convinced her Parker didn’t need her moving in for a few days. Fourteen days later, however, she was starting to feel a little claustrophobic. The only times she’d been allowed out were for her early morning runs around the reservoir in the park. Even then, Dean had been by her side.

Luckily, today she’d managed to convince a reluctant Gordon she would not fall to pieces if he left her alone while he went out and picked up a few grocery items.

“I’m going batty from being cooped up in that apartment. If Dean asks, you can tell him I pulled a fast one and snuck out the back.”

Henry’s mouth curled with amusement and he tipped his hat to her. Parker strode to the end of the block and, when the light turned, crossed the street into a shower of yellow and orange leaves. She tucked her hands into the pockets of her coat and continued walking along the perimeter, leaves crackling under her feet. God, she was going to miss being so close to Central Park once she moved back to her brownstone. But she couldn’t impose on Dean anymore. Just this morning, his administrative assistant had called to say the items on Parker’s to-do list were complete. Her place was still skimpy on furniture and accessories, but the entire space had been repainted and all the essentials had been replaced. She no longer had a valid excuse to stay with him, and he hadn’t mentioned anything about making their temporary living arrangement permanent.

Once she was back in her own home, they would fall into the dating routine, see each other once or twice a week, maybe talk on the telephone a few times. No more seeing his face over breakfast every morning, no more falling into bed with him every night, even if all they did was sleep. Which was all that had taken place in the last two weeks. Parker told herself Dean was being considerate.

Still, the prospect of moving out was dismal and made her steps falter.

“Parker!”

She turned around to see who was calling her. The tiny remnants of her good mood vanished. Tyler stopped several feet from her. He wasn’t his usual handsome self. The clothes were still urbane, from his tan overcoat to the trousers with the knife-edge creases and the shoes polished to a mirror shine. His face, however, with his tired eyes and hollow cheeks, told of too many sleepless nights and skipped meals. And his nose was at the yellow stage of bruising and still painful-looking underneath the butterfly bandage. A gust of wind ruffled hair that wasn’t gelled to within an inch of its life. Parker tried but couldn’t recall Tyler ever in public without perfectly styled hair.

“What are you doing here?”

He stuffed his gloved hands in the pockets of his overcoat. “They let me out on bail.”

The more serious charges, including attempted murder, against Tyler had been dropped and Dean had lied to Renata about the false confession to throw her off guard. However, even though he hadn’t been behind the break-ins and the drive-by shooting, Tyler had allowed the police to believe Renata was his alibi for the night of the second break-in and had subsequently been charged with a misdemeanor. Parker was surprised he hadn’t managed to work a deal with the authorities to get the charge dismissed yet.

“I tried calling you.”

“I turned off my cell phone,” she told him. Her shoulders tensed. She looked around, uncertain and uncomfortable. “Too many people calling to get the gritty details for some sort of sick vicarious thrill.”

He nodded. “Can we go somewhere and talk?”

“I don’t think there’s anything you have to say that I would want to hear.”

“Please, hear me out. I’ve been waiting for the last four days to catch you alone. Everyone working in Maxwell’s building turned me away.”

For a second, she was paralyzed with fear. Her eyes darted back to Dean’s building, back to Henry. Tyler quickly lifted his hands up, palms facing out. “I just want to talk,” he reassured quickly. He gestured behind her. “We can sit on that bench over there. This will only take a few minutes. I promise.”

She considered him and his request for a long moment. Finally, she nodded and went to the wrought iron bench. Gathering her own thigh-length coat tightly around her, she sat down. Tyler joined her, careful to keep a foot of space between them. The silence stretched between them as he sorted out what he had to say.

“I know it’s not enough, but I want to apologize for what Renata did to you and Maxwell.” He took a breath. “And I want to tell you I hired a criminal lawyer for Renata. He plans to go for an insanity plea.”

Parker’s throat was suddenly dry. “If he’s successful, she won’t do any jail time.”

“No, but she might be in a psychiatric hospital for the rest of her life.”

A hitch in his voice made her stare at him. He turned his head away, but not before she caught the redness of his eyes, the sheen that hadn’t been there earlier.

“You love her,” Parker said softly, incredulously.

He exhaled, his chest seeming to deflate, and shrugged, the movement stiff. “Maybe. Probably.”

She shook her head as if to clear it. “Then I don’t understand it. Why did you let her believe you were still hung up on me?”

One of his shoulders twitched in a half-shrug. “I don’t know.”

An invisible string inside her drew taut, very close to snapping. “You don’t know? You had a beautiful woman so devoted to you she changed her appearance to please you, and you went and ruined the relationship even though you were starting to love her. Tyler, for such an intelligent man, you’re an idiot.”

He rubbed his hand over his face. “I liked knowing she wanted to please me, would do anything to please me.”

Try as she might, Parker couldn’t stop gritting her teeth. “You didn’t have to make her insanely jealous to get that!”

“What I did was stupid and wrong. I know.” His voice lowered to barely more than a whisper. “And now Renata’s paying for it.”

Some of Parker’s anger abated as she witnessed Tyler’s very real remorse and pain. He was so different from the man she’d dated and ultimately decided wasn’t suitable.

“Normal people don’t react as extremely as she did. If she’s sentenced to a psychiatric hospital, maybe she’ll get the help she needs.”

Tyler didn’t seem to hear her. “I didn’t realize what she was doing until it was too late. Or maybe I just refused to see it.” He sat back and stared blankly into the distance while Parker had the uneasy feeling she wasn’t done with the role of father confessor. “She came to me one night, wearing lingerie I thought looked a lot like something that belonged to you. I didn’t ask her about it; I just assumed it was a coincidence.”

Parker’s mind flashed back to the afternoon Dean had found her front door unlocked and the cold feeling that had skittered down her spine.

“You made copies of my keys,” she said calmly, making it a statement and not a question.

He froze, then nodded.

“Where are they now?”

“I believe the police took them as evidence.” He braced his elbows on his knees and dropped his head into his hands. “Even after I discovered they were missing, I didn’t question Renata.”

“She made you happy,” Parker heard herself say. “You didn’t want to think she was capable of being so unstable, so dangerous.”

“No,” he agreed. He blew out a breath and finally turned to her. “You and I…we can’t be friends, can we?”

Without hesitation, she shook her head. Her gaze moved across and down the street to Dean’s apartment building. Fifteen days ago, Renata had tried to kill Dean while he’d stood under the front canopy and waited for Parker. Tyler had been the unwitting catalyst that had set Renata off. Parker could forgive him, but she couldn’t forget.

“She tried to kill Dean,” Parker said simply.

“He paid me a visit, I let my mouth run off, and he ended up breaking my nose.”

“So she tried to kill him. Had he not acted so quickly…” Parker swallowed and her laced fingers tightened and twisted. She’d come so close to losing him.

A sudden, urgent need propelled her to her feet. “I have to go.”

Despite being a car’s width from the curb, the yellow taxi came to a stop. Parker glanced at the meter, pulled out some bills from her wallet, handed them over and got out. She hurried up the stone steps and pushed through the rotating door. After a quick exchange with the uniformed man at the information desk, she stepped inside the glass elevator and waited impatiently for it to shoot up thirty-nine floors. When the elevator stopped and the doors slid open, she stepped out onto a marble floor. Quickly spotting the reception desk, she went over to ask for further directions. The immaculate twenty-something sitting behind the desk broke off her conversation with a handsome woman whose grey hair was short and stylish and smiled as Parker approached.

“I’m here to see Dean Maxwell, please.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“No, but I’m sure he’ll see me.”

The smile dimmed. “I’m sorry, but he’s quite busy this afternoon.”

Parker bared her teeth in a poor imitation of a smile. “Will you call him and tell him Parker is here to see him.”

“Parker Quinn?”

Bemused, Parker glanced at the grey-haired woman. “Yes, that’s me.”

The other woman stuck out her hand. “I’m Katie Takahashi, Dean’s admin assistant. We spoke on the phone.”

“Oh!” Parker shook the proffered hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person. I’ve been meaning to thank you for taking care of everything for me since I got back to New York. I don’t think I could’ve handled things quite as smoothly as you did.”

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

“You have to let me take you out for lunch to properly thank you.”

Katie waved a dismissive hand. “No worries. I’ll remind Dean when it’s time to write out the Christmas bonus checks. Now, why don’t you come with me and I’ll take you to Dean’s office.”

Parker followed Katie to an office that served as a waiting area for an inner office, whose door was open. Parker stopped in her tracks, feeling as if someone had just socked her in the stomach, knocking all the air out of her. Two people, a man who was unmistakably Dean and a voluptuous redhead, were embracing. The redhead stretched up on her tiptoes, clearly moving in for a kiss, and Parker whipped her head to the side.

God, she was so stupid. Good thing she saw that touching scene before making the irrevocable mistake of declaring her love for Dean Maxwell.

“I came at a bad time,” Parker said tonelessly, and swiveled on her heel and started walking away.

Katie went after her and grabbed at her arm, but, without looking back, Parker shrugged her off, not quite sure where she was going, but knowing she couldn’t stay there. She had to get away before the numbness wore off.

Somehow, she reached the bank of elevators. Her fingers found the recall button but did no more than brush over the metal surface before a hand encircled her upper arm and pulled her around.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Dean reached for her other arm and she tried to jump back. She didn’t get too far since he still had a hold on her.

“Let me go, Dean.”

“
You
came to see
me.
”

“Only to tell you I’ll be out of your place by tonight.”

His lips became grim. “Like hell.” He looked around at the people who were making an effort to not seem like they were eavesdropping. “My office. Now.”

Not wanting to create even more of a scene, Parker let him propel her into his office via Katie’s office, where she and the redhead stood, wearing identical amused looks. Parker blinked, not quite sure when she’d stepped through the looking glass. The redhead wiggled her manicured fingers at them, but Dean didn’t stop. He thrust her into an office large enough to have a separate casual seating area. Floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides offered views of the Hudson and the Jersey skyline Parker was too agitated to appreciate.

The door shut. She whirled around. And heard the
snick
of the lock before Dean faced her. In his dark suit, blue shirt and striped tie and with his arms folded across his chest, he looked menacing, but her mind was still on the redhead who didn’t seem to mind being pushed aside while Dean went after another woman. Parker rubbed her left temple.

“First of all, where’s Gordon? Why didn’t he call to tell me you were coming?”

Her fingers stilled, then swept down to grasp her opposite elbow. “I guess giving you advance warning would be part of his job description.”

He scowled at her. “No,” he said through clenched teeth, “but staying with you is.”

“I’m a grown woman,” she said through clenched teeth of her own, anger warming her tone. “I do not need a babysitter. Yes, I probably lost a few years off my life when Renata pointed her gun in my face, but I’m not suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. I was shaken, but I’m not so fragile that something like that would break me.”

His eyes glittered, and Parker shuffled back half a step before she realized it. Dean’s smile was little more than the baring of gleaming teeth. Before she could retreat farther, he took hold of both her arms and dragged her up against him.

“Good,” he said roughly, and kissed her. It was hard, deep and over before she could react. He broke off the kiss and thrust her back at arm’s length. He pulled off her scarf and pushed her coat off her shoulders, letting it fall and pile at her feet. She blinked at him, brains too scrambled to focus on anything except her quickened pulse and tingling lips and the wild thrill left in the wake of his touch. Her breathing was shallow and audible. His smile took on an edge of grim satisfaction. “I’ve been going insane the last two weeks.”