Parker's Silver Lineman: Chosen Book 10 Read online

  Copyright © 2018 J.D. Light

  Cover Art by

  Covers By Jess

  https://www.facebook.com/Covers-By-Jess-170528563756562/

  Edited by

  Jenni Lea at LesCourt Author Services

  https://www.facebook.com/SupportingYourBoys/

  Chapter One

  "Fuck!" I limped/zombie-walked into Linus's office, refusing to look down at the back of my left leg. I already knew a good portion of my calf muscle was probably missing. That badger had been downright vicious.

  Closing the door and throwing the lock, I immediately woke the computer on the desk, glaring at the very large picture sitting next to the monitor.

  "Are you kidding me, Linus? What kind of self-obsessed man keeps a picture of himself on his desk?"

  "At least your office smells nice," I mumbled. Opening the internet browser, I accessed the email address we used for getting into other computers and clicked the link in the top message in the inbox.

  Taking another deep breath, I frowned, growing more and more concerned when the smell seemed to have an effect on my body, causing my dick to perk up.

  Shaking it off, I went back to making a remote access account for Linus's computer. Once it downloaded, I emailed Green the pin to get into it and shrugged.

  "Easy squeezie." Reaching out, I tipped the picture of the man that was decently attractive, but way too slimeball-looking to be anyone I would ever be attracted to, until it toppled off the desk, crashing against the floor. "Oops."

  Reaching for the button on my earpiece to put myself back in the conversation, I groaned, and then frowned as waves of arousal hit me hard and fast. "What the fuck," I whispered, freezing just before hitting the button.

  If I hadn’t known any better, I'd have said I was catching my mate's scent. But that would have meant my mate was the sociopath running this little freak-show. The sleazy looking man in the picture.

  Starting to shake just from the very idea, I bent as much as my leg would allow, getting ahold of the corner of photograph and shaking the glass fragments off.

  Taking another look at the picture, I cringed. No way in hell I'd ever be attracted to this man. My stomach turned, threatening to unload my sandwich from earlier in the day.

  My mate was a cult leader? Could this be possible?

  A thump from the direction of the closet made me pause. Setting aside the massive disappointment that was finding out you were the first shifter in the history of forever to get matched with someone so completely wrong for them, I let the picture flutter to the floor.

  Pulling one of the earpieces from my ear, I moved closer to the door, picking up on the distinctive sounds of rustling and heavy breathing. Another thump and a muffled curse had me silently moving in the direction of the closet door.

  Every zombie step-drag toward it brought more of the scent, until I was standing in front of the thick mahogany, my hand reaching for the knob as my heart raced.

  Whoever was on the other side of this door was my mate.

  Sending up a quick prayer that I wouldn't have the horrifying task of killing my mate, I opened the door quickly. Bright green eyes blinked away the sudden brightness before landing on me.

  Even as his focus was on me, clearly angry by the look in his eyes, he continued to work at the tie that had his very strong, very muscular arms tethered to a pipe coming up through the floor and disappearing through the ceiling.

  I may have gotten stuck looking at the way those arms bunched and released as he continued to work the knot at his wrist, because I just stood there like an idiot, watching him struggle.

  With one last grunt and jerk, something gave, and suddenly an angry, aggressive, and physically massive man was barreling at me. I stepped back, planning to catch him without hurting either of us, because massive or not, I was stronger than him, but I'd forgotten about my injured leg.

  "Fuck!" It gave, and as I started falling backward, pinwheeling my arms to stay upright as my other leg moved back to try to catch me, he hit me with his shoulder in the stomach, arms wrapping around my body as he drove me backward.

  My mate's scent enveloped me, and even as I hit the ground so hard all the air whooshed out of me, I was smiling.

  He was taller than me by a good four inches, putting him close to 6'6". He had the large, muscled body of an athlete, his skin sun-kissed and his hair golden brown in a classic cut that made him look like the quintessential boy-next-door.

  Almost as soon as we hit the ground, he jumped off of me, readying himself for me to attack, taking away any opportunity I might have had to touch him, and ripped off the three layers of tape covering his mouth as I sat up and watched him move. Smiling like an idiot.

  This was my mate. He was magnificent.

  After a few moments where I didn't make a move other than to smile happily at my mate, he relaxed his stance and moved a bit closer.

  "Are you okay, man?" My mate's voice was deep and rich.

  I let my eyes fall shut, shuddering slightly, my cock filling.

  "Hey." A hand on my shoulder, shaking me slightly had me blinking my eyes open at the gorgeous man. "Sorry about tackling you. I thought you were one of them. But those bastards would have already attacked me. Did I hurt you?"

  "Hi."

  "Shit. You are hurt." Reaching forward, he dug his hands into my hair, massaging my scalp. "Where does it hurt?"

  "My dick." So good.

  "Uh..." Laughing, he glanced down at my crotch, eyes widening when he saw my obvious erection. "That's not exactly what I meant."

  When I made a pouty face, he chuckled, shaking his head.

  "What about your leg, it looks like it might be bleeding." He rotated my leg slightly, mouth dropping open at the massacre that was my calf. "Shit, dude! That looks bad. Did you get attacked?"

  Coming around behind me, he hooked my armpits with his forearms and lifted me up, pulling me back into his body while I got my footing.

  I leaned back into his embrace, letting my head fall back onto his shoulder.

  Swallowing hard, his hands spanned my abs as he pressed his chest to my back. "Are you––" He cleared his throat. "We probably need to get out of here. That asshole that threw me in the closet has lost his fucking mind. There is something seriously wrong with that dude. I have no desire to see him again."

  "Shit!" Remembering suddenly why the fuck I was even here, I jumped into action, forgetting for a second that I couldn't walk all that well on my left leg, so I stumbled a moment before big hands settled on my sides, holding me steady.

  "Hold on, dude. You can't get out of here like that." Stepping in front of me, he gave me his back, crouching down slightly. "Here, climb on. I'll get us out."

  "I'll be fine. It's healing already. Just still really weak." I spotted the little earpiece I dropped when I'd been tackled and hobbled over, scooping it off of the carpet and popping it in my ear. "But we do need to get out of here. Fast. My team is about to smoke this place out."

  Frowning at my ridiculous gait, my mate watched me not-walk to the door, shaking his head. "Your team? What kind of team?"

  He moved toward me, arms out like he was prepared to catch me if I toppled over.

  "Uh, FBI, really. But we kind of do our own thing."

  His eyes snapped to mine, eyebrows raised. "Wow. That's kind of cool. Are you sure you're okay to walk?"

  Nodding, I moved to the door, making sure to check the hallway before turning to look at my mate, smiling. "You ready, gorgeous? We gots to make a break for it."

  Frowning slightly, he nodded, coming to stand closer. I took another deep breath of his scent, wishing I had time to push him against the wall and kis
s him. I just wanted a little taste of my mate.

  "What's your name, gorgeous?" I asked, easing out into the hallway and trying not to fall on my face when my left leg wobbled under me.

  "Uh, Silver. Silver Bell." When I stopped dead in the middle of the hallway to turn and look at him with one raised eyebrow, he sighed and rolled his eyes, a smirk on his face. "Yes, I said Silver Bell. My parents are assholes."

  Gazing at the sexy, lopsided smile a little longer than I should have considering we were trying to run for our lives, I blinked, shaking my head. "I'm Parker Bradley."

  Easing down the hallway, I stopped just shy of the badger I'd taken down earlier. He was still out cold, but he'd shifted back to human, so he wasn't far from waking up.

  I should probably shoot him.

  "He's one of them, isn't he? That's why he's naked." Silver's lip was curled, clearly disgusted by the man.

  "Do you mean a shifter?" I asked as I grabbed Silver's hand and limped past the downed man.

  "I guess. That man who tied me up in the office could turn into a wolf. I freaked out the first time he walked into the office in his wolf form. I thought they were going to feed me to him." Silver continued to hold my hand as we walked, reaching the other out every once in a while when I wobbled. "When he shifted…I'm not ashamed to say I almost fainted. If it weren't for the fact that I was terrified of what they might do to me once I lost consciousness, I wouldn't have fought it very hard."

  The exit at the end of the hallway was an emergency exit, and I had no intention of setting the alarm off and allowing all these demented shifters to escape.

  Linus might have the ability to manipulate, but the one thing we knew for certain, from all the interviews we'd done with the surviving but locked up cult members, was that they'd all had at least an inkling of wanting to take out the humans before the man got ahold of them. He just used his crazy ability to convince them to go even further.

  "Would you believe me if I told you that all shifters aren't crazy? That the ones you've come in contact with lately are actually a minority?" Winding back in the direction I'd come from on my way to Linus's office, I spotted the exit I'd used to get in, and dragged my mate with me, smiling over my shoulder once my hand was on the door.

  Shrugging, Silver gave my hand a squeeze. "Probably. I mean, I'm pretty sure you're a––" He paused, his beautiful face crinkling up adorably. "Shifter?" he asked, voice rising slightly. "And you seem like a nice guy."

  "How did you know I was a shifter?"

  "You said you were already healing, and I'm pretty sure I saw your eyes shift earlier when you were watching me get myself untied." Shrugging as I nodded, I pushed the door to the outside open, and he followed. "That was originally what made me think you were like the guy who threw me in there, but when you didn't attack me right away, I kinda figured you were probably the same, but different. What do you change into?"

  "A wolverine," I said distractedly. I glanced around the parking lot, then through the trees, trying to spot the SUVs. Unfortunately, when I did, it was to realize they were at the top of a pretty steep hill. "Shit! There is no way I'm getting up that hill in this condition. If I only had, like, another hour."

  "Hop on. I'll get you up there." Again, Silver presented me with his beautiful ass and powerful back. When I thought about it too long, he sighed. "Do you think you can walk that? Because, not to be a dick, but I'm pretty sure you're not. I personally don't want to die because you're being a stubborn ass."

  "Well, when you put it that way," I grumbled, placing my hands on his muscular shoulders.

  When I hopped on, wrapping my arms around his shoulders but being careful not to choke him, he grabbed hold of my knees, bouncing me once to get me into position, before taking off up the hill like I was just an awkward backpack.

  Activating my earpiece, I called Harley. "I'm out!" I nearly yelled, gripping his shoulders a bit tighter when Silver stepped on a rock that slid. "I'm being carried by my knight in super tight black jeans. He was in the closet of Linus's office, but I dug him out."

  "Parker? Thank fuck, man. Did you send Green the information he needed?" Harley's voice sounded relieved, and I kinda felt bad because I'd been jacking off with my mate while they were worried about me.

  Well, not literally, but that would have definitely been fun.

  Snickering at myself, I readjusted, accidentally-on-purpose rubbing my hard dick against Silver's back, not surprised when it caused him to stumble just a bit.

  I could have been wrong, but I was starting to think my sexy mate wasn't completely comfortable with his sexuality. Which really sucked, because I didn't have the type of personality to just leave things alone. I was no doubt going to push entirely too hard and send my poor closeted mate running for the hills.

  Well, shit!

  "I did."

  "This guy you found in Linus's closet, any chance he's chosen? Linus had a fifth chosen stored somewhere."

  "Hey gorgeous, you have a pretty birthmark that looks like a brand of a Celtic knot?" I asked, trying not to smile when he grunted at my endearment.

  "Yeah, why?"

  Smiling like an idiot again, I nuzzled my nose to his neck, breathing in his amazing scent. "Yeah, Har. He's the one. They're all out."

  "Great.”

  ***

  Pulling the material from my pants out of my leg after it had already healed over it was a bitch, and I might have said some things about the doc's mom I hadn’t meant. Then again, I'd seen the way that bitch talked to him more than once. Maybe I had meant it.

  Silver asked to borrow the phone to let his mother know he was fine. After explaining the importance of not talking about the things that he had seen, we let him call his family and his coach.

  Because apparently, my sexy-as-fuck mate had a sports scholarship to a smaller school in Kansas.

  Since he'd been missing for nearly five days, it wasn't a surprise to hear that everyone was worried about him. What bothered me was the fact that his mother seemed more concerned with him losing his scholarship than whether or not he was okay after being kidnapped.

  After ensuring Silver that we would smooth things over with the school, we called the coach and told him who we were––the FBI part, not the shifter part––and that Silver had been taken and held against his will. The man had seemed extremely concerned, and practically bent over backward to make sure Silver had the proper therapy to get through his ordeal.

  "So, how did you get kidnapped?" I asked, trying not to cringe in an unmanly way in front of my mate. "Were you just taken off the street, or what?"

  "Actually, it's all kinda foggy. I was at a party with a couple of the guys, and I remember feeling funny, almost drunk, but I hadn't drunk anything." Glancing at me quickly, he licked his lips and admitted, "I don't like drinking. I've been drunk a couple times, and I always end up doing or saying something I regret, so I try to just go hang out and be the DD.

  "I remember telling Dillon that I was going to the bathroom, but I don't really remember what happened after that. I think I stumbled a few times, because Dillon said something about getting off his fucking toes, but then he went back to making out with the redhead, and that's it. That's all I remember."

  "If you were roofied, it'd be out of your system by now, but it doesn't matter." Though, to me, it really did matter. "It sounds like somebody drugged you with something. We probably need to find out who before you go back to business as usual."

  "I have to go back," he said quickly, jumping to his feet. "We have a game Saturday. I've gotta be performing perfectly, or I'll get benched."

  Putting my hands out in a placating way, I tried to talk soothingly to him. "Okay, okay. We'll figure something out. Maybe I can go stay with you for a while, just to make sure. Whoever did this knew about your birthmark. They also sold you to someone. Or at least sold you out to someone. That means they might do it again. Especially if it can get them some more money. Fuck!" I growled when a particularly stubborn piec
e of material finally broke loose. Glaring at my leg and trying not to reach down and rub the now-bleeding-again hole in my leg, I asked, "Do you remember anyone messing with your drink at the party? Was it ever unattended?"

  Sitting back down quickly and scooting closer to where I was lying on the couch in my rented room just outside of Albuquerque, he reached up and grabbed my forearm, rubbing slightly. "I brought my water bottle. I always carry it with me. The only time I wouldn't have had it in my hand was when I was out on the field or in the shower. Other than that, I try to drink water as much as possible, so it's usually in my hand."

  Trying not to moan, because that would draw attention to the fact that he was touching me, and I was pretty sure he hadn't realized he was doing that, I cleared my throat. "Shit. That means it's probably someone on your team. And they're either a shifter, or an informed human."

  Chapter Two

  I was so beyond screwed.

  I'd managed to keep this secret from everyone my entire life. Through puberty. Through countless times in the locker room, showering with men. Through dates and makeout sessions with girl after girl. Not one person ever figured it out.

  I'd practically become a pro at keeping myself from getting awkward erections when they weren't wanted and springing wood when the situation seemed appropriate.

  Nobody had ever even come close to figuring out my secret.

  But sitting in the chair next to Parker's bed as the doctor they had brought with them from Iowa pulled chunks of his pants out of his leg, I knew without a doubt that my days of hiding my sexuality were done.

  Even before the man had volunteered to go back to Kansas with me, I'd known. I'd known it the moment I looked down into his ridiculously gorgeous face while he smiled at me like I held the answers to all his problems after I'd just tackled him. Hard.

  I'd never wanted another being so much in my entire life. When I'd helped him off the floor, drawing him into my arms in that hellhole of an office, I'd almost said fuck it all and thrown him across that desk.