Edge (Parker Reed #2) Read Online Free Page B

heel.
    “Keely.” Cross grabbed my arm.
    I looked at his fingers on my arm before meeting his gaze.
    He cleared his throat, releasing me. “Listen. I want to help you but I can’t if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
    “ I don’t even know what’s going on,” I cried, startling a few pedestrians as they walked by us.
    Cross’ eyes softened. “We can grab lunch and chat in my office.”
    I held back an eye roll. “Isn’t that a little unprofessional?”
    “It’s just lunch.”
    “Sorry. I’m taken.”
    “Parker is dead.”
    I glared up at him. “Not in my heart.” I turned and headed back to the limo, parked a block away.
    Seeing Parker’s name and the tributes to him in the tabloids and newspaper made my heart clench. I knew he wasn’t dead. Jones and Colin Vain, Parker’s security guard, knew that he was very much alive. But no one else knew. It broke my heart seeing his friends and staff mourn their loss and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
     

 
    Past
     
    NEED you to help me die.”
    “Excuse me?” I stared wide-eyed at Parker sitting across from me on the bed. “You want me to help you with what?”
    He sighed and scrubbed his hands down his face a couple of times before meeting my gaze. “I need to disappear and the only way I can do that is if we allow the public to think that I’m dead. Devin needs to think that I’m no longer in the way.”
    “But won’t that just make him come after me sooner?” I asked, my heart racing against my rib cage.
    “No. You and I both know that Devin will never believe that I’m actually dead but we need to put the idea in his mind. It’ll drive him fucking crazy. And when he starts seeing it all over the news, he’ll have to believe it eventually.”
    I jumped from the bed, pacing back and forth. “I can’t do this. I can’t help you die, Parker. That’s too close to home. It’s…no.” I shook my head. “I can’t.”
    “Yes, you can. You’re strong. You can do this. For me. Please.”
    I stopped pacing and glanced his way. “How can we do this? I’m a hacker. I know nothing about faking people’s deaths.”
    “The CIA can make people disappear. Colin has already agreed to help me.”
    “But you need me to help as well,” I finished for him.
    He nodded slowly. “I could have done it without telling you but after everything you have been through, I didn’t want to do that to you.”
    “You don’t think my fragile mind can take it?”
    He frowned. “I never said that.”
    I looked away. “You didn’t have to.” The hairs on my body tingled when I felt him come up behind me.
    Parker placed his large hands on my shoulders, squeezing, pouring the strength from his very being into me. He was so strong. I couldn’t do this. I refused. But I didn’t have a choice, did I? If he did it on his own and then I would never know if he was alive or not. Or I could help him and know for sure that he was very much alive and breathing.
    “Help me. Please,” he whispered in my ear.
    “How are we going to do this?” I asked, softly placing my hands on top of his.
    “We’ll set up a scene at my apartment. Colin will take care of the rest. The only thing I need from you is to act like it’s real. The media needs to see you break.”
    I nodded, letting out a deep breath. Turning in his arms, I grazed my fingers over his hard abs. “When you come back to me, and I know you will, you’ll have to help me. I am fragile.”
    “No.” He pinched my chin, forcing me to look up at him. “You are fucking strong. The strongest person I have ever met. We will get through this together. Do you hear me?”
    “Parker.”
    “I said, do you hear me?” he repeated, his voice firm.
    “Yes. Sir. I hear you.”
    “Good girl.” He placed a soft peck on my lips. “You won’t know when this will happen. There won’t be a body. But there will be a funeral.”
    My eyes widened. “I have to bury you?”
    “We need to make this as real as