“I’ll go to your office. Be there.”
“Why am I here again?” Cain groused as he opened the heavy metal and glass door and let me into the reception area of his firm. I looked around. The place was fancy as fuck. I had known Cain owned his own security firm, but I had no idea it was anything like this.
I felt like a sack of shit in comparison. I was trying to catch a killer and running a club. Cain did all that and helmed a serious fucking company.
Plus, he was a daddy. A sharp spear of envy hit me in my gut.
Kids. I wanted kids. I’d never thought about it before Parker. Before I knew she was a woman. Now I couldn’t stop imagining her pregnant or holding my child.
And I couldn’t stop thinking about how fun it would be to get her pregnant either.
Focus, Shane. Somebody needs to pay for what they did to her.
“What’s this about?”
“We need to locate Parker’s family. She won’t tell me where they live.”
His jaw ticked as he threw the deadbolt.
“She’s a nice girl. I like her. Is she not going to like what happens when you find them?”
“She doesn’t have to know.”
“So, why?”
“Because he needs to pay. And I want to make sure he doesn’t do it to anyone else. All these fucks are repeat offenders.”
His jaw clenched and he nodded. I followed him down the hallway, making promises. I was so afraid he would tell me to go to hell. I didn’t want to start over. I wanted to handle this.
Right fucking now.
“Help me with this and I’ll give you the time and place I end the other situation.”
He stopped and turned to face me.
“What do you want, exactly?”
“I want her stepdad. I want him so bad I can fucking taste it.”
“I don’t blame you.” His eyes were dark. “If you didn’t do this, I would have.”
Cain opened a door and I stared inside. A guy dressed in leather and covered in tats sat in front of a large bank of computer monitors. It looked like a scene from a Sci-Fi movie.
“I’m glad you came. It’s been weighing on me.”
I looked at him in surprise.
“She told you?”
“No. The girls figured it out. She didn’t say much, but she didn’t deny it. Kelly is beside herself about it.”
The guy sitting in the only chair didn’t look up.
“Trace, this is Shane. He’s here about that thing I told you about earlier.”
Well, fuck. Cain really had already been looking into it. Parker did that to people. She brought out the protective streak in everyone. I could see it with Mason and Michelle already.
“Parker.”
“Yes. Did you track her down?”
“Her?” I asked angrily. “It’s her fucking scumbag of a stepfather I want.”
“Easy there. We need to find her identity to find out who her stepdad is.”
“Right,” I said, trying to control my breathing. I was way too fucking upset. I wanted blood and I wanted it now. I wanted to crush the fucker’s windpipe in my bare hands. And staple his eyelids open. And set his dick on fire.
Yeah, I was pretty much ready to put Ramsey Snow to shame.
Cain looked at me, assessing me.
“You really care about the girl, don’t you?”
I stared at him.
“What?”
He grinned suddenly. I was pretty sure I’d never seen him smile before. And this was a smile so big it nearly split his face in half.
“It happens fast sometimes. Like a goddamn lightning bolt. I knew the first second that I saw Kelly that she was mine.”
I clenched my jaw and my fists. I didn’t want to talk about this. I felt like a fucking idiot for not seeing who Parker really was. And now the possibilities were overwhelming me.
“I didn’t even know she was a girl, let alone an adult.”
He nodded.
“I nearly had a heart attack when I thought Kelly was underage that first night. It wouldn’t have stopped me. I just would have had to wait.”
I looked at him in a new light.
“No shit? That didn’t make you feel like some sort of pervert?”
“No, man.” He slapped my arm. “I am a pervert when it comes to my woman. But I was thunderstruck.”
Thunderstruck was a good goddamn word for it. I didn’t want to think about my feelings though. I wanted to maim the sonofabitch. I wanted to kill.
I wanted to go full-on Dante on his ass.
“There’s a punching bag in the back. Come on.”
He led me down the hallway to a locked storage locker. It was lined with cases mounted on the walls. Mostly guns and other tactical devices, from what I could tell. Each had a wire lock holding it to the wall. They looked like they would be hard as fuck to get out, unless you were Cain or his guys, of course.
In the middle of the room hung a massive punching bag.