Page 96 of Parker

The guy was like a caged animal. Cornered by his prey and desperate in his search for a way out. Only this asshole wasn’t looking for a way out.

Not anymore.

McMahon knew this was it for him, and from the determined look in his eyes, the prick planned to take as many of them down before he died. So he continued fighting Quinn for control of the gun.

Back and forth, the two pushed and pulled and twisted in their efforts. Shouts of harsh orders came at McMahon from all directions, but Parker didn’t say a single word.

With his gun trained and his eyes laser focused, he saw only the man he was preparing to kill.

This wasn’t a video game, and he wasn’t sitting in the safety of his mansion on the beach. This was real life with a real bad guy. And gripped tightly in his hand was a real fucking gun.

Real gun, real bullets, asshole.

Ignoring everything else around him but his target, Parker adjusted his stance and steadied his breathing. He watched as McMahon moved this way and that, refusing to take his eyes off the dickhead for even a second.

But he should have.

If he’d been paying better attention to Quinn, he would’ve seen the fateful decision in her eyes. Might have had the chance to stop her. To keep her from risking it all to protect him and the others.

But he hadn’t. Not until it was too late.

Parker was still standing there, weapon pointed and his trigger finger ready when Quinn turned to him. It was only a split second, so quickly he missed that first soulful glance. But the move caught his eye just in time to catch a glimpse of her sad, loving stare.

Quinn’s lips parted. She mouthed the wordsI love you. Parker’s heart exploded with conflicting emotions, and then…

It happened.

He was standing there—they were all juststandingthere—waiting for the first chance to safely intervene when the woman who’d somehow become his other half did the unthinkable.

In one fluid motion, Quinn turned and threw her body’s entire weight against McMahon’s center. The unexpected move sent the man’s center of gravity spiraling, and as he stumbled back, he tried like hell to find purchase with his loafered feet.

“Quinn!” Parker’s feet moved in record time across the tar-patched roof.

He didn’t think about Charlie Team. He didn’t think of his training or worry about getting struck by a stray bullet. He didn’t think aboutanythingother than getting to Quinn.

But he was too late. McMahon had already tripped over the roof’s shallow ledge, and the greedy man was already falling…

And he’d taken Quinn with him.

“No!”Parker watched helplessly as she and the other man flailed through the air. The oxygen in his lungs ceased to exist when he witnessed the love of his life splash forcefully into the frigid water below.

“Holy shit!” Asher came to a stop beside him. “Ah, Christ!”

Winters began barking orders, he and the others taking off for the door. Asher started to follow but stopped when he realized Parker wasn’t hot on his tail.

“Collins, let’s go!” The other man faced him.

“You go.” He shoved his gun into his back waistband before pulling off his shoes and socks and tossing them to the side. “I’ll meet you down there.”

“What the hell are you—”

The disruptive sound of Velcro being ripped apart filled the space between them as he worked to remove his protective vest. “The fuck you think I’m doing? I’m going in after her.”

“Are you mad? That water has to be thirty-five, forty degrees. If you’re lucky.”

“Exactly. Which means she has about thirty minutes before her hypothermia reaches potentially lethal levels.”

And he refused to waste a single fucking second of that time arguing with his friend.

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