Player (What Happens on Campus Book 1) (25 page)

Flipping open the folder, Detective Joyce scanned whatever was written there. “Your girlfriend is Chloe Newman, correct?”

“Yes.”

“What were you doing?”

Shit, how would Chloe answer? “Watching TV.”

“What show?”

“I don’t remember, we weren’t really watching, if you know what I mean.”

“That’s funny.” Tapping one finger against the table, he took a slow sip of his coffee before continuing, “You see, I’ve already spoken to Miss Newman and she says you were sitting outside watching the stars.” Quirking a brow, he commented, “Very romantic.”

“We did that too,” he said quickly, breaking into a sweat.

“Before or after?”

“Before.”

Sighing, Detective Joyce leaned back in his chair. “Chloe’s British, right? In the U.S. on a study visa?” He waited for Parker to nod tightly, before continuing, “Lying to the police is a crime, she could get her visa revoked if it comes to light that she’s not being entirely truthful with us.”

Shit, he hadn’t even thought of that. He was the worst boyfriend in the world.

Dropping his head into his hands, he rubbed at his tired eyes with the heels of his palms, before mumbling, “I wasn’t with her.”

“What was that, Mr. Mitchell?”

Lifting his head, he repeated, “I wasn’t with her last night. I asked her to say I was, she has nothing to do with any of this. I was with my brothers, but I didn’t do anything, I swear. I left, I walked away. I did the right thing, damn it!”

“I believe you. An all-star quarterback on the way to the NFL, we’re not interested in prosecuting you; we want your brothers.”

Instantly, his heart dropped into his stomach. It was written in stone, more sacred than any law: you didn’t betray your family. Swallowing hard, he repeated, “I don’t know anything.”

“That’s a shame.” Opening the folder again, he pulled out a sheet of paper and presented it to him. “Do you recognize this item?”

Instinctively, his hand lifted to his head. Fuck! He must have left it in the truck. There was no point in lying now, they probably had DNA evidence or something. “It’s my cap.”

“This item, a red baseball cap,” he added for the benefit of the tape, “was found in the abandoned truck, along with five thousand dollars’ worth of stolen goods, after the culprits fled.”

He should have known Axel was scamming him, he thought dully, and now he could end up in fucking prison, all because he’d wanted to earn some quick money.

“I left it in there,” he tried to explain once more. “Like I said, I only drove them as far as Alejandro’s to collect the gear, but then I left.”

“So you knew about the stolen goods and yet you failed to inform the police?”

Shit, shit, shit. He had him there. What could he say to that?

Leaning back with a smug smile that made Parker want to punch him, Detective Joyce continued, “Like I said, we don’t want you, but heads will roll and right now yours is the one on the chopping block. Unless, of course, you can give us something useful.”

He was playing mind games, Parker knew those tactics, but it was still working.

All he’d done was drive to Alejandro’s place, his prints weren’t even on any of the illegal goods for fucks sack! Surely, they couldn’t prosecute him just for being in the truck? It wasn’t even as if he had a criminal record… well, a few minors when he was a teenager, but nothing serious. Yet, Detective Joyce sounded so confident, so certain.

However, his fear didn’t change the fact that he knew nothing about Axel and Conner’s dealings. Except where they stored everything, but that was only useful if he didn’t already know. Still, it was worth a try.

Clenching his jaw tight, his mind raced; he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t grass on his brothers to save his own skin. It went against everything he’d been taught. But then, his brothers had been given the same shitty upbringing as him, they’d had the same opportunities; they could have worked hard and gone into college, or gotten off their asses and got an honest job. They had chosen to break the law, just like he had, and if they went down for it surely that was their own fucking fault. Just like this was his fault for agreeing to help in the first place.

Leaning forward, Detective Joyce asked, “So, what’ll it be?”

Chloe had never been so fuming mad in her life. What had Parker been thinking? She’d wondered why he’d had the sudden desire to go drinking with his brothers, when he hadn’t been able to spend five minutes in their company all day. She should have known he was lying, but she’d never thought he’d be so stupid. And then he’d asked her to lie for him, how dare he!

Pacing up and down outside the front of the police station, she dragged a hand through her hair in frustration. The Detective who’d spoken to her, a Detective Joyce, had been nice enough, but something about him had made her distinctly uncomfortable. Right from the start, she’d known he was manipulating her but what irritated her the most was that she didn’t know if he’d succeeded.

When Parker had asked her to say he was with her, he hadn’t been able to give her any more detail. Her heart had almost stopped when the Detective had asked what they’d been doing. Panicking, her mind had gone blank and in the end she’d just told him what she’d been doing that evening and pretended Parker had been with her.

What had Parker told him? Had she been caught out in her lie? She had a terrible feeling that she had.

Glancing over her shoulder at the door to the station, she wondered if she should go back inside to wait. Taking her mobile out, she checked the time and found that only an hour had gone by. Going over to a nearby bench, she sat down. At least it was warm out here, despite the fact that it was the early hours of the morning, and she didn’t have to put up with the sideways glances from the officer at the desk.

Just then, three police cars pulled up alongside the station. Out of them Axel, Conner and a Hispanic guy she didn’t know were pulled. Catching sight of her over the top of the car, Axel’s mouth dropped open in surprise, before he was forced inside.

Surprisingly, half-an-hour after that, Parker emerged looking confused and rubbing at his wrists as he stepped out into the fresh air, a slither of sunlight peaking over the top of the building behind him. Seeing her waiting, he shoved his hands into his pockets and ambled over, a guilty expression on his handsome face.

Handsome or not, right now she wanted to slap him.

Shoving her hands into her jean pockets so that she wouldn’t give into the urge, she asked tightly, “How’d it go?”

“I… don’t know. One minute I thought I was totally fucked, the next they just let me go.” Frowning, he glanced back towards the station, as if worried they’d suddenly realized they’d made a mistake and come chasing after him.

Nodding abruptly, Chloe spun away from him and began walking off down the road. They didn’t have a car and this town didn’t appear to have a taxi service, so she guessed they were walking back. She could hear his footsteps as he followed behind her, but she was too angry to talk to him right now.

They walked in silence for at least twenty minutes and were almost back at the trailer park, before either of them said a word. Grabbing her arm suddenly, Parker pulled her to a halt and stepped in front of her, so close that she had to look at him.

“Sugar, just stop for a minute. I know you’re mad and that’s okay, but…”

“I don’t need your permission to be mad!” she snapped, punching him in the stomach. It wasn’t a playful, pretend punch either, but unfortunately it didn’t seem to hurt him.

“I’m sorry I asked you to lie, I wasn’t thinking.”

“You know, that’s not even what I’m angriest about,” she exclaimed, throwing up her hands in frustration as she took a couple of steps back. “I’m angry because you’re better than that. You’ve got such a great future ahead of you and you’re throwing it away as if it means nothing.”

“It’s not like that, I’m not throwing anything away. I made a mistake is all.”

“You knew what you were doing, Parker, don’t lie to me. You knew it was wrong and you did it anyway.”

“I didn’t, I walked away,” he protested.

“Too late,” she snapped back. “You walked away too late. You let your brothers pull you back in. Do you really want to end up like them?”

“Chloe, that’s not going to happen…”

“Oh, yeah? You got arrested tonight! Arrested, Parker, handcuffs and all. If you’re convicted of handling stolen goods you could lose your scholarship, you might even be sent to prison.”

“Will you calm down. It won’t go that far.”

“How the hell do you know?”

“They let me go, didn’t they?”

“Well, you’re the expert.” Yanking her arm free when he tried to pull her closer, she stalked away.        

When they got back to the trailer, Boone started barking the minute they opened the door and Parker snapped at him to shut up, while she surveyed the mess that the police had left behind. His parents hadn’t even tried to tidy things up. Snatching up her bag, she threw it onto the mattress and began stuffing things inside.

“Chloe, what are you doing?” Parker sighed, still standing in the doorway.

“I’m going home.”

The panic on his face almost made her feel better. “To England?”

“No,” she huffed, “back to campus.”

“Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve,” he said, walking over to stand behind her, “why don’t we just stay?”

“You can stay, but I’m going,” she shrugged, as if she didn’t really care, tugging the zipper on her bag too hard.

“Don’t be silly.”

“I’m not, maybe we need to take a break so that you can decide what you really want.”

Hands clamping down on her hips, he spun her around and gave her a shake, “Don’t say that, it’s total bullshit. I know what I want. Me and you were never in question.”

“Did you even consider me when you went with them?”

“Of course…”

“But you did it anyway, because you thought you could get away with it.” And if he thought he could get away with breaking the law, what else would he try?

“I did it because I’m an idiot and I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.” When she didn’t respond, he kissed her on the forehead, before moving around her to grab his own bag and began shoving everything on the mattress into it. “We’ll go home.”

Once they were both packed and had found the car keys amid the clutter, Chloe went out to the car while Parker went to tell his parents that they were going. She tried not to be rude in general, but after this evening she was running thin on patience.

Sitting in the car, she toed her shoes off in preparation for the long drive to Texas and curled her legs underneath her. A few minutes later, Parker appeared out of the darkness. Opening the door, he slid silently into the driver’s seat.  

Back on campus, they both headed to their own rooms, though Parker said he’d come by later. He was trying to give her space, she thought; in the car he’d been quiet and uncharacteristically tentative when talking to her, as if trying not to tip the balance.

Hiking her bag up onto her shoulder, she headed towards Willow, glancing around and suddenly realizing why she felt so unsettled. With most of the students gone, this place was like a ghost town.

Up in her room, having taken the lift, she dumped her bags on the floor and flopped down onto the bed. What on earth was she supposed to do now? Her boyfriend was a criminal… well, almost…

She still hadn’t answered that question a couple of hours later, when Parker knocked on the door. Having curled up under the covers by that point, with Rolo held tight to her chest, she just pulled the sheet up over her head and tried to ignore him.

“Come on, Chlo, let me in,” he called and she could hear the frustration in his voice. “I know I fucked up, but you’ve got to forgive me. I’ll never do anything so stupid again, I swear, just please open the door.” Another knock. A long stretch of silence, so long that she thought he’d left, before he said desperately, “I fuckin’ love you, Chloe, you make me wanna be better.”

Tears leaked out of her eyes, despite the fact she tried to hold them back, but she still didn’t answer and after a while he went. Maybe it would do him good to miss her for a while, to feel the same fear and uncertainty she’d felt when he was led away in handcuffs. Maybe time alone would make him think.

Later, when she couldn’t mope any longer, she got up and roamed aimlessly around the room. She even took the opportunity to open some of Riley’s draws and rummage around, but found nothing incriminating.

A while later, she pulled her laptop out of her bag and put it back on the desk. Sitting down, she flipped it open and logged into Skype; she needed to talk to someone. After a couple of rings, her mums face appeared, filling the screen as she peered into the camera on her phone. Smiling, Chloe remembered how she’d spent hours teaching her mum how to use the device so that they could speak face to face while she was away.

“Hello, sweetheart, how are you?” Immediately, tears filled her eyes. “Oh, baby, what’s wrong, are you homesick? I’m sorry you coudn’t come home for Christmas.”

Wiping at the tears which had escaped, she shook her head. “No, I… I’m just… Parker and I had a fight.”

“Everyone fights, Chlo, even your dad and I. What was it about?”

Taking a deep breath, she blew her nose before proceeding to tell her mum everything that had happened. When she was finished, her mum gave her a sympathetic look and she wished she could reach through the screen and give her a hug.

“You think I’m overreacting?” Chloe asked after a moment, when her mum didn’t say anything.

“I think, perhaps, you’re overthinking,” her mum replied carefully. “He made a mistake, but from what you’ve told me about him, he seems like a good guy and given the way he was raised, he’s probably had to work a lot harder than most people to become that way.”

“I know, but it’s the principle of it. He was back one day,
one day
, and he gets talked into doing something illegal. One day, Mum; he didn’t exactly take much convincing.”

“Maybe getting arrested will be the wake-up call he needed.”

“Maybe,” she murmured.

“Sweetheart, if you don’t trust him there’s no point having a relationship anymore. Do you want to break up with him?”

“What? No!” she exclaimed. She hadn’t even thought about breaking up, that wasn’t even an option; he meant too much to her.

“Then you’re just going to have to get past this, baby. Believe me, this won’t be your last fight. You’re both going to make mistakes and there are going to be times you want to walk away. Did you know, your dad and I almost split up shortly before we got married, but we stuck it out and look at us now.”

“Why, what happened?”

“For a while our lives were going in different directions, that’s all. Your dad got a job offer in France, whilst I was still training to become a teacher and didn’t want to leave. It was rocky for a while, but the point is that we worked through it and you two will as well.”

“Thanks, Mum,” Chloe smiled into the camera, “I gotta go.”

“Go, make up with your boy. We’ll ring later, you’ll dad will want to talk to you.”

“Love you, Mum. Merry Christmas.”

Closing the laptop, she shoved back her chair. She needed to talk to Parker, she needed to kiss him, to say she was sorry. He’d made a mistake, but so had she in being so harsh. Truth be told, he was probably angrier with himself than she could ever be and, hopefully, her mum was right and this would be a reality check for him, a lesson learned.

Hurrying out of the building, she all but ran across the quad and arrived panting at Parker’s door a few minutes later. Hand pressed to her chest as she tried to catch her breath, she realized she’d left her bag in her room, keys and all.

Parker hadn’t bothered to close the door properly, so once she could breathe again, she walked straight in. The room was empty, his stuff lying discarded on his bed, but she heard the shower running. Pushing his bag aside so that she could sit cross legged in the middle of the bed, she reached over and snagged a book off Jet’s bedside table to read while she waited, but she was too distracted to take in a single word.

A thud from the bathroom made her jump and she was about to call out to ask if he was all right, when she heard a muffled yell which sounded like cursing, followed by more thuds. She guessed he was hitting the wall and hoped he hadn’t hurt himself.

Several minutes later, he appeared, wet hair dripping onto his shoulders. Seeing her sitting there, he stopped in his tracks. There was a look of confusion on his face, but even that couldn’t hide the pleasure in his eyes.

“If you’re going to walk around naked, you should learn to shut the door properly; I don’t want other girls seeing my guy naked.”

“I’m still your guy?”

“Of course.” Swinging her legs off the bed, she took a few steps over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tight, despite he fact he was still wet. “I’m sorry I freaked out on you, I don’t have a lot of experience with the police.”

“Trust me, sugar, it’s not gonna become a habit.”

“I do trust you,” she promised, kissing his damp lips. “Now, why don’t we make up properly?”

Sliding her hand down his chest, she curled her fingers around the part of his anatomy which was driving her insane, pressing against her stomach, burning hot. Groaning as she squeezed, Parkers eyes rolled back in his head. Hands clamping down on her hips, he pushed her backwards, towards the bed. Tumbling onto the mattress, she struggled to strip off her clothes, fumbling with buttons and zips, while he reached blindly for the pack of condoms he kept in his bedside draw, ripping it in his haste.