sacred9

She didn�t know if Lyle had finally wrested control of the Centre. She didn�t know if Parker was part of the plan.
�You have to help us, Miss Parker. Please. Do whatever it takes. And if you�ve seen him, if you�ve talked to him�tell him to give my boy back or I�ll kill him myself. I'll dig his eyes out with my fingernails. And this time he�ll stay dead.� Her tone rang hollow in Miss Parker's ears.
She would blame Parker.   If not now, then later, when she calmed down. How could she not? Miss Parker was supposed to keep them safe, she was supposed to have kept Lyle from them once and for all, thirteen years ago. Miss Parker had even spoken those words, promised over and over again that Lyle would remain a nightmare and nothing more. Kara was a smart woman and damned vengeful; if she didn�t have Lyle�s body dumped on her doorstep, this would be the end of any friendship or chance of it they ever had.
Though that was the least of her worries. Her own fears aside, the thought of Lyle taking Nate, manipulating him, controlling him�
�I�ll do everything I can,� Parker breathed.
Kara hung up so softly that Parker didn�t even hear the click.
This was how he got to her. This was how he controlled her. This was how he would start a game of chase bloodier and more dangerous then any she could possibly conceive. Not by breaking down doors and dirtying his hands. By stealing children, taking them from their mothers, daring them to come to Africa and take him back. A game that was rigged destroy her and Jarod both.
   And they�d probably still end up dead at the end.
   He could imagine Lyle, touching Nate, embracing him like a father. They could have caught Jarod that way. Such a lonely little boy, so desperate to understand; before long he would forget everything Parker had ever said, or dismiss her words as jealous lies. Growing up, soon enough, just like the old man.
She ran through the door, shoved past Jarod and dashed into the luxurious corporate bathroom. For the first time in many, many years, she was physically sick at the thought of her brother. And it had nothing to do with her feelings about his murder.
�Miss Parker!� Broots shouted after her, only a few steps behind Jarod. �Are you all right?�
He followed her, oblivious of the silhouette of a woman in a dress on the bathroom door.
Alone in the hallway, Jarod�who understood instinctively that Miss Parker needed solitude, time to regroup with the new facts she�d just learned�could only look on forlornly and guess what had happened.