Page 9 of Rescuing Air

“Jay,” I whispered, drawing his steel gaze. “I have a company name but there’s something really odd about it. There aren’t any records of employees, leases, how they make their money, or even who the founder is. I’m gonna send this off to Beth and see if she can use the Elementi contacts to dive into it. My thought was you might have a different perspective on it from the military side of things. They cover their tracks differently than the standard money laundering types do.”

“Leave up the information you need me to look at and I’ll see what I can find. Wait on sending it to Beth. It would be best to keep things close to the chest while we can, if you think you have them backed into a corner,” Jay directed. “It’s late. If you can’t do any more, then I think it’s best if you head out for the night. We’ll talk tomorrow. Make sure you check in with me before you come over.”

The cool tone Jay was using, as if I was one of his soldiers to order about stung, but I’d promised to do what was needed to help.

“I need some different things if this is the type of work I’m going to be doing so we don’t get caught in a trap. The last thing we need is for them to catch onto us and walk in the backdoor, looking at everything we have on them,” I said, getting up and stretching after being hunched over the coffee table for hours.

“There’s a plate she made for you in the oven,” Brayden commented. “It would upset her if you didn’t eat.”

Nodding, I wandered off to see what she’d made and found personal chicken pot pies along with mashed potatoes. My stomach grumbled, smelling the amazing aroma as I pulled the tray out to one set aside for me. Leaning on the counter, I wolfed the meal down and heard someone enter.

“I’m leaving to head back to Ryevick at the end of the week,” Cami warned. “Until then, I’ll buffer for you where I can with the guys but you have to fix this, Parker. I know how much you love her, even if it took you fucking it up to realize just how much.”

Setting the fork down, I met her fierce gaze. “They all want answers I don’t really have, Cami. This element has been a curse to me my whole life. It puts me into situations that set me up for failure. The first time I felt like I was getting a handle on things was with her around but now I’m just a joke of a knight.”

Cami marched up to me and kneed me right in the dick. The sudden attack and the pain stole the air from my lungs as I crouched over, moaning in pain. “What the actual fuck, Cami?”

“Oh, you just seemed to like punishing yourself so much I thought I would help,” she quipped. “Grow the fuck up, man. We get it. You’re a wounded puppy that’s whining about losing his favorite person, rolling on his back, baring his throat, waiting for the killing blow. Instead of just waiting to be kicked, prove to those assholes you learned your lesson. Show the woman you love just how much she means to you in every way you can, instead of tiptoeing around. Lailah has four other men in her life that remind her every day that she is their world. Fight for her, fight for your place back, or get the fuck out of this house and don’t ever come back. You’ll get them all killed if you keep this up.”

“There wasn’t another way you could have explained that without ruining my chance at having children someday?” I grunted as I finally managed to stand upright. “I’m pretty sure my dick just became an innie in the hope to protect itself from that ever happening again.”

“So did I make my point? I was hoping the extra blood to your thinking brain might be helpful,” Cami commented with a grin. “You’re lucky that’s all I did and that I’m willing to even give you advice on how to fix this.”

“Could your advice come with less pain next time?” I begged. Her glare had me holding up my hands in defense. “Okay, okay, I hear you. No more wounded puppy. I’ll work on it. First, I’m going back to Lailah’s parents and icing my dick, so take comfort in the knowledge I’ll still be in pain you crazy ankle-biter.”

“Good enough for me,” Cami chirped, spinning on her heel and leaving so I could finish my dinner before I left.

seven

Lailah

“Sunshine, we should get you back up to bed,” Hudson whispered, running a hand down my arm. “You fell asleep at the table again.”

Blinking, I sat up and found he was right. I’d had a nightmare at three and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I came down to go through the records of the mystery company.

“This is the third time this week we’ve found you here,” Hudson chided. “I don’t think it’s healthy to have you so involved in this. Maybe we need to send you back to Ryevick where Cami can keep an eye on you and give you some space from us and all of this.”

My heart slammed in my chest at his words. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“What? No, Sunshine, that isn’t what I want at all,” he spluttered, pulling me onto his lap. “I’m just worried about you. Things are regressing, not getting better, the harder we push to find Jay’s mother. My first and only purpose is to make sure you’re healthy and happy, which I should point out, you are neither of those things.”

I looked up at him, seeing the truth in his words as he leaned in and kissed me softly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out. My brain just went into panic mode hearing you say that.”

“Talk to me. Tell me where your head’s at. You always used to come to me when you couldn’t get out of your own thoughts, but this time, you’re just internalizing it,” Hudson pleaded, resting his forehead against mine.

“It’s all the same things.” I sighed. “Will we find his mom in time? Can we really do this? Parker, me, you guys, the Elementi—it might be easier to tell you what I’m not thinking about. The only time my brain turns off is when I’m cooking or working on things like this where I have to pay attention to the details.”

He hummed in understanding as he pulled me close, resting his chin on the top of my head. “I’m going to ask you a question and you need to answer it honestly.”

“What’s the question?” I asked, feeling I knew what it was already.

“Not until you promise to at least think about the answer before you give it,” he challenged.

I wrapped an arm around his neck to have him as close as I could get him. “I promise. Now ask your question.”

“Is Parker being here every day making things worse?”

As I promised, I thought about his question, the one I had a feeling he was going to ask me. It was so hard to answer because it just wasn’t that simple to put into words. Since the first day he came over to help, he’s been invaluable to us, getting information from places none of us could access. Come to find out, no one knew about this mysterious company called Alpite but that was about all we knew about it for sure. Each time we uncovered something, it led to another wild goose chase. It just proved that once we figured it out, we would have exactly what we needed to find the demons’ military base of operations.