Desert Angel (Family Justice Book 2) Read online

  Unaware that she’d returned to the city early to surprise him, he’d been having a brain fart moment with one of his colleagues—a very nosy co-worker who Parker didn’t particularly like or trust.

  “Counselor, you are a dog! Who’s the fresh-faced coed we see you traipsing around town with? Jailbait, much? Hmmm?”

  He’d been pissed right away. Knowing that people were talking about her—he couldn’t give a shit what anyone thought about him—infuriated Parker. Thinking he was protecting Angie, he’d said a bunch of dumb shit to throw the colleague off. Words that blew his relationship with Angelina Marquez into a million pieces and that stood between them to this day.

  “Watch your mouth, Anderson. She’s family. Sister of my best friend who happens to be Special Forces in Afghanistan. She’s in D.C. for school and it’s my job to keep an eye out for her.”

  And then he said the words that damned him for all time.

  “Bit of a nuisance, really. Had a crush on me since she was like ten years old. But bro code, you know? While her brother is fighting Al-Qaeda, she’s my responsibility. It’s like having a baby sister.”

  As soon as the words left his fucking mouth, he heard a gasp and looked up to see his Angel standing right outside his office door. She looked—stricken. Her face was ashen and her expression felt like a painful brand being pressed on his soul.

  Muttering a horrified, “Fuck,” he’d jumped to his feet and made for the door as she turned around and hauled ass to the elevator. He had caught up with her seconds before the doors slid open.

  “Angie . . . I can explain.”

  “Fuck you, Parker! Baby sister? A bit of a nuisance? What was I? A pity fuck?”

  And then she threw something at him. He’d asked her to bring him back a jug of his favorite saguaro syrup. When it hit his chest with a thud, he’d been jolted back a step. The girl had an arm on her that rivaled any minor league ballplayer.

  She bolted into the elevator in a mass of shaking limbs, wide, teary eyes, and a trembling mouth. He’d stood there slack-jawed as the horror of what just happened exploded in his head. When the doors slid shut, the last thing he saw was his Angel’s wounded expression as she flipped him off.

  Afterward, she’d cut him out of her life so completely that he’d had no choice but to let her go. He hadn’t seen her alone or spoken to her since that day. Not even when she came home with her folks two years ago after his father had his heart attack. He’d been in shock and out of his head dealing with his hysterical mother and ailing father and a never-ending slew of practical details—the type that ended up forcing him to leave the DOJ and return to Arizona to take over the family firm.

  After that, with Angie on another continent and engaged for the past year to a pansy ass looking Spaniard, he’d never expected to see her again. Maybe that was why he was a fucking mess and acting on impulse. She wasn’t engaged anymore. They were back on home turf. And he wanted her as much today as he had for more years than he could count.

  “Do I have to kick your fucking ass?” he heard a familiar voice snarl that snapped him back to the present.

  Alex. Oh, great.

  He looked at his old friend and did nothing to hide the regret he was feeling.

  “Probably.”

  He looked at Angie. Meghan was by her side, and except for a brief sympathetic look in his direction, she kept her attention on her soon-to-be sister-in-law.

  “Dude—I’m not blind. Or stupid.” Alex was shaking his head at his sister’s back and frowning at Parker.

  The band told the cheering crowd they were taking a break between sets. Thankfully, when the music stopped, his head started to quiet down. Not that it helped much—Alex’s frown was right on the edge of a menacing scowl. Shit was about to get real.

  “I need another beer,” Parker grumbled.

  Alex’s stone-faced response scared the piss out of him. Elbowing him toward the end of the bar, they walked in silence. As soon as they settled on a couple of empty barstools which magically got vacated when his friend’s angry scowl preceded them, Barry appeared with two cold ones and a bowl of peanuts.

  They sat there—more silence—both of them nursing their drinks while he searched for what the hell to say. Alex Marquez was family. More a brother to him than if they’d been blood-related. The man wasn’t going to like what Parker had to say.

  “In the interest of cutting through the bullshit, what do you know? What has Angie said?”

  Parker had argued cases before the Supreme Court, and those black-robed justices weren’t nearly as scary as Alex and his dark scowl.

  “Don’t cross-examine me, counselor. You’re on the witness stand, not me, you asshole,” his friend bit out.

  Shit. He winced. This wasn’t getting off to a good start.

  Alex slammed his beer down and growled. “Why don’t you start with why my sister just left a handprint on your ugly face. You said you wanted to talk to her. Not start up a fight club.”

  Parker zeroed in on Angie where she stood with the gaggle of women as they laughed and looked like they were having the time of their lives.

  Alex’s warning growl, the second in less than a minute, cut through the noise at the bar.

  “Look at her again, dude, and I’m going to stick a fork in your eye. You have like ten seconds to start talking or I’m calling for backup and you can find out what a Justice smack down feels like. Hope your health insurance is paid up.”

  Crap. What choice did he have at this point? He had to tell Alex the truth and just hope he survived the confession with all his body parts still intact.

  Downing most of his beer, hoping for a bit of drinkspiration, he put the bottle down, lowered his elbows on the bar, clasped his hands together, and rested his chin on them for a moment while gathering his thoughts.

  “Your sister,” he began rather apprehensively as Alex speared him with a hostile look, “um, I mean . . . oh, shit. Let me start over.”

  To Parker’s astonishment, Alex held up five fingers, then lowered them one at a time, muttering, “Five, four, three, two, one,” until a beefy fist was formed. “I said ten seconds.”

  The gulp was a reflex. The sigh was a silent prayer that he was doing the right thing.

  “I’m in love with Angie.”

  Alex’s eyes widened but the clenched fist still hung in the air between them.

  “Excuse me?”

  He knew exactly how his friend felt. Parker was also astonished at the words that just came out of his mouth. Until that second, he’d never said them aloud.

  “You heard me,” he muttered.

  This time it was Alex who looked toward the group of women with an expression that seemed a bit . . . incredulous. Thankfully, the fist dropped away leaving only his friend’s flabergasted face.

  They sat there quietly, absently twirling their bottles in unison.

  “What the fuck, Parker,” Alex finally muttered. “I always thought there was something going on with you two, but shit, man. Hearing you admit to being in love with her—well, seriously. A bit of a game changer.”

  This was news, Parker admitted silently. Here, he’d thought all these years that he’d covered his love-struck tracks pretty well.

  “For me, too.” He sighed deeply and shook his head. “I think she hates me.”

  “Hmmph, well, what the fuck did you do?”

  “You’re not going to like the answer.”

  Alex was quick to respond. “Maybe you better not tell me then.” He thought for a moment with an unhappy frown on his face and added, “How ‘bout you just nod or shake your head?”

  “Uh, okay. I suppose. But I reserve the right to plead the fifth if necessary.”

  “Pfft. Fucking lawyers.”

  Parker shrugged. Occupational reflex.

  “The she hates me thing. Is this recent?” Typical Alex. Straight to the point.

  With a strangled groan, he shook his head, no.

  “Okay. Did she, uh . . . hate
you when she and my folks were here last? When your dad was in the hospital.”

  “Fuck.” He nodded.

  Thinking out loud, Alex murmured, “Guess that explains why you and she managed to never cross paths even once that trip. I thought it odd at the time.”

  Parker grimaced at the reminder and groaned, “Fuck,” again.

  “Did you have anything to do with her breaking off her engagement?”

  Parker clenched his fists and his mouth formed a thin, unhappy line. He shook his head, no.

  “Whoa. Little too close for comfort?”

  “Sidebar,” he mumbled.

  “Go ahead but keep it short.”

  “That little prick wasn’t good enough for her.”

  Alex snorted, obviously amused. “Off the record? My folks did a happy dance when she broke things off. Something wasn’t right with those two.” Raising his eyebrows, he added, “Think I’m starting to understand. She didn’t agree to the engagement until after she’d seen you. Smacks of desperation or surrender.”

  “My fucking life passed before my eyes when I heard she was getting married.”

  That seemed to strike a chord with his friend.

  “Understood. That’s how I felt when Meghan kicked my ass to the curb and left. Worst feeling ever. Didn’t think I’d recover.”

  The band was making its way back to the stage and people began shifting to the dance floor. A couple of guys called out to them, motioning for him and Alex to come join the fun, but they both stayed seated and basically ignored everything going on around them.

  “Okay. Two more questions and don’t even think about not answering.”

  Parker sighed and waited like a man condemned—pretty sure he knew the question that was coming.

  “Did you sleep with her while I was in Afghanistan?”

  Shit, shit, shit. He covered his face with his hands, leaned on his elbows, and hung miserably over the bar. Turning just enough to peek out between his fingers, he gave his friend the respect he deserved by looking him in the eye and nodding, yes.

  The punch Alex threw knocked him off his barstool and sent him flying to the floor. If anyone even noticed, they certainly didn’t interfere. This was Whiskey Pete’s, after all. Punches thrown at the bar were commonplace, and unless a holy hell scuffle broke out and the bouncer had to get involved, people tended to mind their own damn business.

  While his friend calmly went back to nursing his beer, Parker hauled himself from the floor, knocking peanut shells off his clothes. Fucking, eh. First, a ferocious slap, and then, a heavy punch. On both sides of his face, too. Looking in the mirror tomorrow morning was going to be fun.

  Resuming his spot on the barstool, he swallowed what was left of the beer and cleared his throat. Massaging his jaw, Parker growled at his friend. “Thank you, sir. May I have another?” he sarcastically bit out.

  Alex scrubbed his hands back and forth against his skull and snickered. “I’d count on it if I were you.”

  A few seconds ticked by. “Last question,” Alex grumbled.

  Jesus Christ. What the hell was left to ask?

  “Got a plan for how to fix the mess you made, shithead?”

  Parker shook his head. “Not a fucking clue, man.”

  “OKAY THEN,” MEGHAN CHUCKLED AFTER looking over her shoulder in time to see Parker go flying off a stool and onto the floor.

  Lacey gasped with Tori hanging onto her arm as she doubled over giggling.

  “Holy crap!” Typical for Lacey Cameron. That was about as pithy as the woman ever got. Someday, Meghan was sure her friend was going to let rip with an epic tirade of vulgarity that would make the Guinness Book of World Records. She hoped so, anyway.

  “That was fucking awesome!” Tori choked out between giggles.

  Cam and Draegyn, their ever-present protectors who were just a few feet away, stood staring in bemused silence at whatever had just taken place at the bar.

  She loved it when her sexy Major got all alpha and went into beast mode. Meghan should probably thank Angie now because she was pretty damn sure that once she and Alex were alone . . . well, after they laughed about whatever was going on, he’d be finishing out the night on top. The sound she made fell somewhere between a giggle, a sigh, and a moan.

  Tori’s knowing snicker forced a rush of embarrassed heat up her neck and onto her face. Wrinkling her nose, she stuck her tongue out playfully at her friend and rolled her eyes.

  “Shut up.”

  “Didn’t say a word, Irish,” the naughty imp chuckled.

  Watching their exchange, Drae walked over and jokingly smacked his wife on the butt. “Behave, woman!”

  Tori snickered some more and whispered something in her husband’s ear that got the man laughing gleefully. Those two were always the life of the party.

  Cam motioned to Drae, caught up with him, mumbled a couple of words that she couldn’t hear, then headed in the direction of the bar.

  She stuck her free hand out to stop them. “Hold up, guys. I think we should just let the Major handle that by himself.”

  Angie, who had run to the ladies’ room, was weaving through the crowd on her way back to join them when she noticed where everyone was looking. Meghan quickly got to her side and nudged her playfully.

  Angie looked up, a curious expression on her face. “What?” she asked.

  “Well, your brother—my hunky fiancé, just put Parker’s ass on the floor with one punch. Any idea what that was about?”

  “How’d you know?” Parker asked.

  His friend chuckled as he scooped up a handful of peanuts and put them down in a pile next to his beer. “The signs were all there. Just took me a while to put all the clues in the right order.”

  Shelling a couple of nuts, Alex dropped the dusty hulls on the floor and popped the small nuggets into his mouth with a shrug.

  “My sisters were pen pal fanatics when I was overseas. They used a team tag approach. Got a letter every week. Sophia would write about her exploits and give long, detailed updates on what our folks were doing . . . but Angie. Shit. All Angie ever talked about was Parker this and Parker that.”

  More evidence for Parker that he’d had his head up his own damn ass. It’d never even occurred to him that anyone in their two families, let alone Alex who was halfway across the globe, saw anything unusual about his closeness to Angie. Had he really been that stupid?

  “I might have had a shit ton of other things on my mind at the time, but it didn’t escape my notice that at some point, you more or less fell off the face of the earth as far as Angie was concerned.” Alex shrugged and continued to feed peanuts into his mouth. “If she’d had a boyfriend, it would have made sense. She’d always had a crush on you. Just figured that shit would stop when someone caught her eye.”

  Parker made a strangled sound somewhere between a groan and a gasp. “I fucked up and she, well . . . she got hurt. I didn’t mean to. It just happened and . . .”

  “I will fucking kill you if the word cheat comes out of your mouth,” Alex growled in a not-at-all-friendly tone.

  Parker jumped and almost toppled off his stool. “Fuck, no! Shit, Alex. It wasn’t like that. Nobody cheated. Fuck,” he ground out.

  Suddenly, Alex grew menacing. “You’re too fucking old for her, man.” The barely concealed displeasure radiating off his oldest friend cut like a knife.

  With all the sincerity he could muster, Parker met his friend’s gaze. “That was true then—but it’s not true now. She’s grown up and I’ve stopped pretending. Has to count for something,” he mumbled.

  Alex sat quietly and worked on his drink. Finally, Parker said, “I can fix this,” without actually knowing how.

  “In case you hadn’t noticed, so far you’re zero for two. Each time you two occupy the same space, UN Peacekeepers are needed. And tomorrow your face is gonna be a sight, so . . .”

  “Let me ask you something,” he murmured. “If Meghan had refused to come back after you came to your senses,
would you have given up and gone away?”

  “Fuck to the no,” Alex growled. “I would have bought the house next door and driven her up a wall until she gave in. The woman belongs to me. Plain and simple.”

  Parker sighed heavily. “I’ve made my share of mistakes with Angelina. Coming on too strong earlier was one of them. It’s just that when that damn song started up . . .”

  Parker noted the way Alex tightened up and cleared his throat when he mentioned the song the band played. They’d said it was a request.

  “You motherfucker,” Parker ground out. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

  Alex didn’t exactly say anything—just sat there with an amused smirk on his ugly face.

  “Why, I oughta kick your sorry ass for a stunt like that. You knew that fucking song would stir the pot!”

  “Settle down.” Alex chuckled. “I figured it would lighten things up—never expected you to drag my little sister into the shadows and accost her.”

  The whole thing became funny. Laugh out loud, write a screenplay about it, never gonna get old funny. They had laughed together for a minute before Parker smacked Alex hard on the back.

  “Help me, Major Obi-Wan. You’re my only hope.”

  “Stupid, you are,” Alex smirked. “Women” he snorted. “Strange and mysterious creatures. Surprise them you must! Upper hand you must take if hope you have of winning.”

  “Well, fuck, dude! The surprise dinner worked out so damn well, right? So did tonight’s little unplanned get-together. I think the surprise factor is a bust. Got anything else?”

  Alex thought for a moment then told him, “I’m sending Meghan and Angie to Sedona for the weekend. They’ll be at the L’Auberge. You’ll look in on them for me while they’re away from the Villa, right?”

  “GUYS . . . GOTTA TELL YOU. DIGGING these morning meetings. Including Brody and adjusting for the time difference totally works for me.”