Conflict of Interest

43: Connections

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When I came to I literally popped up like a Jack in the box with one thought in mind.

Parker.

I looked around and realized that I was tucked into a twin bed in a small room. I looked down at my hands and rubbed each of my wrists where the zip ties had been before looking back up. The walls appeared to have at some point been white but were now stained a yellowish brown. A wooden dresser that was missing a drawer and a smashed in box tv were in one corner while a door was on the same wall a foot from the other corner. I looked down at the grey bed sheets and they seemed silky, soft, and clean in contrast to everything else. I swung my legs over the side of the bed and carefully stood up, my legs slightly less weak than the last time I remembered standing. I hobbled over to the door and let out a breathe as I took the handle and slowly turned it. It creaked open a crack and I peeked out seeing a run down looking dining room. A lantern was placed on the table and in the shadows I could make out her figure sitting across from a familiar man. I swung the door open and they both looked straight at me. His face was illuminated by the lantern and I recognized him instantly as Mr. North.

They both were frozen, an awkward silence settling over us that I broke after a moment with a whispered voice "Believe it or not this isn't my first time waking up in a strange place after being knocked out this week."

Parker frowned, clearly not liking the joke as she stood to walk over to me.

She let out a shaky breathe "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged, overwhelmed as I looked back at her "I could be better."

She bit her lip and nodded nervously "Understandable."

I moved in and pulled her into a tight hug, her scent and warmth completely enveloping me. She hugged back carefully as though she could break me if she squeezed too tightly.

"God I missed you." She whispered, her hand running through my hair

"Same." I mumbled lamely as she pulled back

She titled her head to the side "Are you ready to talk?"

I nodded and she took my hand helping me over to the table and into the seat at the end between her and Mr. North. She pulled a bottle of water from her backpack and set it before me. The label was the same as the one Sam had given me. I stared at it, tracing the lines of the logo with my fingertips.

"Good to see you again." Mr. North's voice broke me from my trance as I looked up to see him smiling at me

I smiled weakly in return "Same to you, and I'm assuming your the friend that helped us."

He nodded "Yeah that's me."

"Thank you," I stated, my voice cracking as I fought back tears "I seriously can't thank you," I paused looking over at Parker as a single tear escaped and rolled down my cheek "or you, enough."

She wiped a tear away herself, both of us clearly thinking the same thing.

She wiped away another one of her tears and then let out a shaky breathe "Alright let's get down to business."

I nodded "Alright so what do we know?"

"Well when I arranged for Sam's transfer, an insider had her rerouted by someone on her side. Very similar play to what I did to get you ironically." Parker stated looking over at me "Anyway that was the issue I was trying to resolve that weekend and clearly I didn't do so well." She let out a breathe and then continued "Monday morning when I let you go get coffee, I had Dave following you to make sure you were alright as he was who I had put primarily on your security. Little did I know he was a traitor working with Sam who seems to have really worked her way up the ranks in the midst of all this. At this point we have no idea what our next move should be and we have no idea where she even is. We were lucky to have escaped but this is literally as far as we had planned out. I mean it was a stretch that we'd even be able to successfully get you."

"How did you get into the car as a driver?" I questioned looking over at her

"Mr. North owns a good share of the automotive industry including a few driver services and he managed to hack them using some technology that I don't even understand to be honest." She paused looking over to him

He cleared his throat looking over at me "We basically hacked their servers and made it so when they went to book a car it went directly through us."

"Okay," I mumbled out looking back to Parker "and from there you and a few other drivers went to the scene but how did you know which car they'd be putting me in."

"When we hacked the servers we were also able to get ahold of some communications between a number of big players, including Sam." Mr. North stated

"Do you have the names of anyone else?" I asked

Parker nodded and grabbed a paper from the middle of the table passing it over to me. There were two columns, one of names and the other of numbers. I saw Dean Harrington and Miles Turner listed, the names familiar from our previous conversations.

I continued on, scanning down through the list and stopped at one "I need to see Talia's messages."

I looked up at her, the world seemingly slowing as my thoughts quickened in their coming and going.

Parker gave me a confused look but nodded to Mr. North who typed something into his computer before turning it to face me.

"You can access anything on her phone from here." He stated

I looked at the top and saw Sam's name so I clicked on it.

Sam: I'll be arriving soon.

Talia: Make up is done. I definitely look fucked up and everyone's set to go.

Sam: Good, be there shortly.

My breathing came out in nearly gasps as the world around me resume all at once and started spinning as though I were on a tilt-a-whirl.

"Harper what is it?" Parker asked looking worried

I let out a shaky hysterical laugh "She was working with them the whole time."

"Talia?" Parker asked so I nodded before she replied "How do you know Talia?"

My heart was racing as I realized that I had yet to tell her a single itty bitty thing about anything even remotely related to Talia. As I thought back about the club and everything else the realization that she probably would've been able to piece it all together ages ago if I had just told her hit me like a ton of bricks. How could I have failed to mention the strange circumstances under which Aurora and I had met? I mean really this all could've been known and out in the open so much sooner if I had just told her.

"Parker I need to tell you a story and I need you to just listen because it's a lot." I stated looking at her

She nodded "Okay, I'm listening."

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