All I Want Read online

  “Shit, man, I can’t keep eyes on everyone,” Joe said. “She’s probably in the can; give her a minute.”

  Parker’s gut was screaming now and he strode down the hall, making the turn to the end, to the door he hadn’t been able to get back into from the outside. It had a folding chair shoved under the handle, blocking it from being opened.

  Fuck.

  He whipped around. No way had Carver jammed that chair beneath the door and then just vanished into thin air.

  And where the hell was Zoe? Certainly not where he’d left her . . .

  He didn’t want to put a name to the emotion trying to choke out his common sense. An emotion shockingly close to panic.

  He never panicked.

  He strode back down the hallway and right into the women’s restroom. He pulled the gun from the small of his back as he entered, hoping like hell he wasn’t about to scare some woman to an early grave.

  Zoe was in the corner between the sink and a bathroom stall, hands up, facing . . .

  Carver, who had a gun on her.

  “About time,” Carver said. “What did you do, take a nap?”

  “Let her go,” Parker said. “She has nothing to do with this.”

  “Too late for that,” Carver said. “Get in here, shut the door quietly behind you, and lock it. Now.”

  Parker looked into Zoe’s eyes and felt his heart seize when he saw something besides terror.

  Regret.

  He stepped into the bathroom and, with his gun still trained on Carver, shut and locked the door. “What do you want, Carver?”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Carver asked. “I want what was promised. A life free of looking over my shoulder for you, asshole. Thanks to you nosing around, people got jittery. My people. They found out about my deal.”

  “You mean they discovered you ratted them out,” Parker said, gun still on Carver.

  “I had no choice,” Carver said, voice hard. “But you do. You’re going to choose to let me walk out of here without a fuss. I’m going to get on that plane I chartered in good faith, or your cutie pie here is going to pay the price. Not today, maybe not tomorrow. She won’t see it coming, but you can count on me to make it happen.”

  “Parker, don’t do it,” Zoe said. “Don’t let him go.”

  Carver smiled grimly. “A tough cutie pie. I should’ve hired you instead of Devon for today. Three seconds to decide,” he said to Parker. “And take your gun out of my face.”

  Deep down, Parker knew that Carver wouldn’t risk taking a shot in here. He didn’t have a silencer on his gun and the report would make a huge noise that people wouldn’t mistake. It would bring a lot of unwanted attention to Carver. And this might be a small airport, but it was an airport with rules and regulations. If a gunshot was heard, no planes would be landing or taking off for a good long time. Carver would be grounded and quickly arrested. This was logic, and it went through Parker’s head in a nanosecond.

  But so did something else: the knowledge that Carver was a desperate man, and desperate men did stupid things.

  Parker should know. He was a desperate man about to do a very desperate thing. “If you come back here,” he said to Carver, “if you so much as lay an eye on her, ever, all bets are off. I’ll find you. So you’d better make sure you’re going somewhere far and you stay off the map.”

  Carver slid one last look at Zoe and then met Parker’s gaze again. “Deal.”

  “Get the fuck out of here, then,” Parker said.

  Carver’s eyes lit with malice and greed and triumph as he backed to the door. But one last time he aimed his gun at Zoe. “If you change your mind,” he said to Parker, “if the authorities stop me now or when I land, all bets are off. She will pay for your mistake.”

  A month ago Parker wouldn’t have been able to fathom this, letting Carver walk. His need for vengeance wouldn’t have allowed it, but he had something to live for now. And it wasn’t the job. Fuck the job. He stepped in front of Zoe so that Carver’s gun was aimed at him instead. He looked at the son of a bitch with cold steadiness. “Go.”

  Carver nodded once, and then he was gone.

  Parker turned and pulled Zoe in, wrapping her in his arms as close as he could get her. Then he pulled back, taking her in with one quick sweeping gaze, not seeing any injuries.

  “I’m okay,” she said.

  He lifted her chin and looked straight into her eyes.

  “Really,” she said.

  “You’re shaking.”

  “Like a leaf,” she agreed. “But I’m not hurt.”

  He nodded and yanked her back in, holding her too tight and he knew it, but he couldn’t make himself loosen his grip.

  “Parker? You heard me, right? I’m fine.”

  “I’m not,” he said, and buried his face in her hair.

  She let out a watery laugh and squeezed him back just as tight. Christ. If anyone had asked him an hour ago how he reacted to stress, he’d have shrugged and said stress wasn’t one of his problems.

  That had changed in a blink. He had little experience with the level of terror he’d just experienced, and he didn’t want to ever feel it again. Far more importantly, he didn’t want Zoe to ever feel it again.

  It was hard to see past the little black dots floating in Zoe’s vision—a side effect from holding her breath so long—but she didn’t need to see in order to absorb the feel of Parker’s arms around her.

  She could’ve stayed right here forever.

  But eventually Parker pulled back, keeping one of her hands in his as he kicked in the doors of the four bathroom stalls.

  “There was no one with him,” she said. “At least n-not that I saw.” Great, now she was shaking and stuttering.

  “Only a few more minutes, Zoe,” he said with quiet understanding.

  She started to say she was still fine, but her teeth were chattering now. As if from a great distance she felt Parker tighten his grip on her hand and pull her from the bathroom. He led her down the hall, slowing his long-legged stride to match hers.

  In the front reception area, he pushed her into one of the chairs and squatted in front of her. “Take a few deep breaths,” he said quietly. Calm steel.

  As she did just that, he kept one hand on her and with the other pulled out his cell. “Sharon,” he said. “Carver just took an outbound flight from Sunshine Airport. Tell me you got everything you needed from him—Yeah, I do realize you would have rather I called you before he took off, but there were extenuating circumstances—Such as? Such as I had to make a deal to keep someone I care about safe. We can’t tail him. Now did everyone get what they needed from him or not?” Eyes on Zoe, he let out a breath and briefly closed his eyes. “Okay, good. Yes, I’m sure you do want to talk to me. Later.” He disconnected and hit another number.

  Zoe couldn’t imagine who he was calling now, but the mystery was immediately solved.

  “Kel,” Parker said. “Incident at the airport. You’ll want to come down here and get it on record personally.” He disconnected and slid his phone away. It was already ringing, but he didn’t pull it back out or take his eyes off Zoe. “Joe,” he said in his normal speaking voice, and how he’d known Joe was heading his way, Zoe would never know. “I need a soda for Zoe.”

  Shocking the hell out of Zoe, Joe did an about-face and headed for the soda machine against the far wall without a word. “Can you teach me how to do that?” she whispered.

  Joe came back and handed Zoe the soda.

  “Sip it,” Parker said. “It helps with shock.” He rose to his feet and said a few quiet words to Joe that she couldn’t catch—undoubtedly telling Joe some version of a story about what had just happened and that the authorities were on their way.

  She closed her eyes a moment and then Parker was back, crouched in front of her, his face a mask of concern.

  “You told me to stay,” she said. “Stay.”

  “Which, by the way, you didn’t do.”

  “Because I’m no