I glance at him and see he’s totally serious. My brows lift. “You aren’t?”
His head shakes. “I’ll take over on the investigative end. Do some surveillance, put ears to the ground and see what I hear. No offense, but it’s what I do for a living, and I’ll find out more in a shorter time frame than you could anyway.”
I scowl. He’s a patronizing ass.
Unfortunately, he’s also right.
“And I suppose you just expect me to sit on my hands and do nothing?” I ask in a scathing tone.
Nate’s head shakes. “No. I expect you to do what you’re best at — keep pouring through his files until you find things we can use against him.”
“Nothing I find is going to be admissible in a court of law. Hacking a server isn’t exactly the same as possessing a search warrant,” I point out. “You do realize that, right?”
Nate’s lips slowly curl into a scary smile. “Who said anything about a court of law?”
A shiver goes up my spine. This boy does not fuck around.
“I’ll go get started.” Nate nods at Parker. “Let you know what I find out.” His gaze moves to Luca. “It would be helpful if you could come back to headquarters, discuss some of the shit you found at the factory in more detail with me and my men. I’m sure Lancaster has the area locked down, now that they know you and Zoe are digging into things. We might not be able to get in a second time.”
Luca nods. “All right.” He glances at me, then Parker, then back at me. “You gonna be okay?”
I roll my eyes. “Luca.”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “Fine. Got it. I’m going.” He turns and starts for the elevator, gets halfway there, stops in his tracks, and stomps back to me. Before I can ask what he’s doing, he hooks an arm around my neck, hauls me close, and plants a kiss on the side of my head. “Scared me today, babe. Don’t do it again.”
“I’ll do my best,” I whisper, telling myself not to cry.
He nods, turns, and follows Nate into the elevator. I wave as the doors slide shut and they rattle away. When the sound of the elevator fades, the loft is abruptly silent. Parker Can’t-Stop-Babbling West is uncharacteristically quiet. I look at him, fully prepared to ask if he’s feeling feverish, and feel my eyes widen.
He’s sitting on the edge of my bed with his face in his hands.
My feet falter. The words dry up on my tongue.
I’ve never seen him look so utterly… Defeated. That’s the only word for it. It sends an awful, gut-wrenching sensation through me.
“Parker?” My voice is shaky as I walk slowly toward him and sink down by his side on the edge of the mattress. “Honey… are you okay?”
He heaves a sigh and pulls his hands away to glance over at me. “Are you?” he asks in a broken voice.
I blink. “It’s just a cut. It’ll heal. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m not talking about the cut, Zoe.”
“Then…” My mouth gapes a bit. “I… I don’t know what you mean.”
He looks away. “I talked to Phoebe.”
A lump forms in my throat. No matter how many times I swallow, I can’t seem to dislodge it. “Oh? And?”
He looks back at me and his hazel eyes are so sad it steals my breath. “And she told me what happened. You storming out of lunch with the girls.”
“So, I didn’t want to sit around gossiping over cupcakes. Sue me.”
“We’ll get to the reason you stormed out of there later.” He straightens so he’s no longer hunched over and stares down into my eyes. “Point is, that was hours ago, Zoe. Phoebe called me at two. I found you at six. Lying in the snow, half frozen to death. You were fucking blue. I thought…” His voice breaks, and it damn near kills me to hear it. He runs a hand through his hair, clearly frustrated, and when he speaks again his tone is low, like he’s barely hanging onto his control. “I thought you were dead.”
I suck in a breath. With a tentative hand, I reach for his. He flinches when my fingers curl over his knuckles.
“I’m happy you found me,” I whisper. “You saved me.”
He pulls his hand from mine and I feel something painful fissure through my heart.
“Are you really happy?” he asks, a note of disbelief in his voice.
“Of course I am. What, do you think…” I swallow. “Do you think I wanted to die out there? That I wanted to be attacked and left out in the snow?”
He rises to his feet and starts to pace. “I don’t know what the fuck to think, Zoe. All I do know is, at any point in the four hours you were out there wandering in a fucking blizzard, sad and scared and upset… you could’ve called me. I would’ve dropped anything to come find you. No matter what.” A muscle jumps in his cheek. “You chose not to do that. And then, some man attacks you…” He looks at me with ghosts in his eyes. “You’re a fighter. I’ve known it since the second I clapped eyes on you. And yet, today, when you were cornered, when you were knocked down… You didn’t get back up. Didn’t call for help. Didn’t fight.”