Emma stared at me, silently demanding that I snap into action.
“Did you call her?”
Yes, I was being a dick to Emma. But I was also doing my job. I didn’t want to break into anyone’s house to check on them, not without probable cause. Even if it was Parker that we were talking about.
“Yes,” Emma huffed. “I tried calling, texting, and even tried looking through the windows like a fucking creep just to see if there was a dead body on the living room floor.”
When I raised an eyebrow at her, I also crossed my arms over my chest and let them rest under my body cam.
“She has a concussion, Remy. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.”
Shit.
That spurred me into action, and I was at her front door a moment later, pushing Emma out of my way so I could crouch down and inspect the lock.
“She needs a better lock,” I muttered to myself. Then I pulled my wallet from my pocket.
There was a metal card, not really a credit card, but not thick enough to be much more than that, one that I had bought specifically for this reason. After sliding it into place, I put as much weight as I could into pushing it behind the lock. With a satisfying click, I grabbed the handle and twisted it until the door opened.
Emma, ever the impatient girl that I’d known most of my life, pushed her way by and into the house.
“Parker. Where are you?” She wrapped her hands around her mouth, hollering as she marched purposefully through the living room and into the kitchen.
I moved to follow, stopping short when I saw the dog tags hanging on her living room wall underneath the folded flag that she’d been given after Danny died. Hanging from a bronze hook, they were the same ones I’d pulled from his body while we were overseas. A nail stuck in the wall directly to the right of the dog tags held a stained and dirty collar with the name ‘Boo’ engraved on it.
“Yeah,” Emma said when she walked back into the room looking a lot more relieved than she’d been a few minutes before. “She hung them up so that Nox can talk to Danny whenever he wants. And now he can talk to Boo too.”
My throat burned, and I had to blink to get rid of the dust that had appeared in the corner of my eye unexpectedly. “She must have loved Danny more than anything.”
Emma snorted and then rolled her eyes and turned so that she was staring at the flag alongside me. “Remy, you knew them. They got married for the baby. Danny might have had feelings for Parker, but she didn’t love him.”
The world started to tilt to the side as I listened to Danny’s little sister bluntly putting it all out there.
“What?”
Emma shifted next to me and sighed, long and loud. “Danny and Parker didn’t have some whirlwind romance. I might have been young when it happened, but even I knew. They hooked up at a party and somehow ended up pregnant.”
“But when we deployed…”
Emma laughed. “Remy, we were all excited about Nox. But Parker never pretended with us. Mom and Dad love her, we all do. Especially since she stays close for us to be near Nox. But don’t get it twisted.”
My traitorous heart started to race, and it was only then that I realized my body cam was on. With a curse, I made a mental note to ask my sergeant to erase the video for me. No one needed the gossip I shared with Emma to be subpoenaed for anything.
Instead of pelting Emma with questions about Parker and Danny, I turned around. “So you checked everywhere?”
Emma huffed, seeming satisfied with herself. “Yeah. She must have gone with Kennedy or something.”
My shoulders slumped and I pulled my phone from my pocket irately. “You didn’t call Kennedy before you called the police department to have me break into the house?”
Emma shrugged prettily and sat down on the couch behind us with a flourish. “You live to protect and serve, Remy.”
I was ready to throttle her like she was my own little sister. Instead, I dialed Kennedy and stepped into the kitchen.
“What do you want, Remington?” Kennedy’s sweet voice filled my ear, and I could hear raucous noise in the background.
Well, since she’d decided to use the ridiculous nickname that Parker gave me in grade school, all cards were down. “Where are you, Kenny?”
Laughter behind Kennedy somewhere leaked through the speaker. “I’m at the mall with Parker and Nox.” I sighed deeply and shot an annoying glance in Emma’s direction. “We’re shopping,” Kennedy added.
“Can I speak to Parker, please.” Trying not to lose my patience while still maintaining my control over the situation, I used my free hand to rub at my temple, where I could already feel my fucking head throbbing.
“Why? We’re busy, Remy.” A loud whistle had me pulling the phone away from my ear. “Damn, Parker. You look hot.”
“Kennedy,” I snapped. “I need to confirm that she’s okay. Her sister-in-law called the police because she was worried something might have happened to her. I’m just doing my job.” The tone of my voice didn’t change, but only because I really felt like I was at the end of my rope for the day.
After being on shift for the past eight hours, all I wanted to do was go home and sleep for a fuckin’ week. Except I couldn’t, because I had to take Daisy out to Birch Elementary every week for a walk-through of the campus.
While I waited for Kennedy to pull her head out of her ass, I counted to ten silently. Finally, when I got to thirteen, Parker came on the other end of the line.
I heard her ask Kennedy who it was in the background, followed by a grunt. “What do you want, Remy?”
I coughed and put on my best ‘cop’ face, even if she couldn’t see me. “Emma called the station for us to do a well-check when she saw your car here and no one answered.”
Parker didn’t say anything, so I kept going with my explanation.
“I caught the call, and we checked the house to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong. Just following protocol and making sure that I speak to the party in question.”
Parker sighed deeply, and I got the distinct impression she was trying to decide whether or not she should hang up on me.
“I’m fine,” she finally spat out. Although her good manners kicked in, because she waited for me to say something rather than just disconnect the call.
“Thank you.” I lowered my voice, turning away from Emma, who’d popped up out of nowhere. “When she couldn’t find you, Emma got worried.”
There was another sigh on the other side of the line, followed by the unmistakable sound of Kennedy’s laughter in the background. “I’m fine, Remy. We’re busy, though. Do I need to come by the station later to sign paperwork or something?”
I coughed, clearing my throat. “No, Parker. You’re fine. I’ll document it and you should be all set.”
Parker hung up without saying anything else, and I couldn’t blame her.
Fuck.
I couldn’t blame her for hanging up on me. I couldn’t blame her if she hated me for the rest of her life. I ignored her for years. Sure, I saw her and Nox. Our families were best friends, after all, and we lived in the same town. I saw the way she watched her son, ignoring every other person on the planet, when I was home on leave. I stared, from afar, as she mourned Danny. I watched, and I could have tried to fix our friendship, but I didn’t. Life went on, but I never even made an attempt to make things right.