A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire, #1)

by Tara Sivec

  “There was a message left for you early this morning,” the man said as he handed Garrett and envelope with his name on it and then hurried back to the desk to answer an incoming call.

  They continued walking as Garrett tore into the envelope and pulled out a note written in neat, block letters.

  “Urgent. Need to speak with you. Will come to your villa at ten this evening,” Garrett read to Parker out loud.

  “It’s not signed?” Parker asked as she reached for the note and looked it over.

  “Nope,” Garrett replied as he pulled out the key card for their villa and swiped it through the slot.

  Parker studied the note while she waited for Garrett to get the door open. Something about the handwriting was familiar to her. Her heart thumped erratically in her chest when she saw the date in the top right-hand corner The way it was written―day, then month, then year―such a little thing, but something she’d seen enough times over the years.

  Garrett held the door open for Parker as she walked through, stopping in her tracks and forcing Garrett to bump into the back of her.

  “Holy shit,” Parker muttered.

  “What? Do you recognize the handwriting or something?” Garrett asked as he dropped their bags at the foot of the bed.

  “Kind of, but there’s something else. The flag that was on that fax cover sheet I saw on the boat? This is it,” Parker said, holding the note up so Garrett could see and pointing to the flag in the top right-hand corner. “And I remember where I saw it before. The day Milo left to come here, I was in his office doing some cleaning and there was a fax on the machine. I picked it up and turned to take it out to him in the living room, but he was already there in the doorway. He saw the fax in my hands and blew his top. He started yelling at me to stay out of his things, snatched the fax out of my hand, and shoved me up against the bookshelf,” Parker explained.

  “He pushed you? Are you fucking kidding me?” Garrett yelled.

  “I told you, it was really bad at the end,” Parker said sheepishly. “But that’s not the point. That fax? I glanced down at it when I picked it up. It had the same flag at the top of the first page.”

  Garrett folded his arms in front of him so he wouldn’t feel the need to punch the wall at the thought of Milo being physically abusive with Parker. Arguing with her, keeping secrets from her, and closing her off was one thing. But pushing her around threw Garrett into a whole new level of pissed off towards his former best friend.

  “So the fax on his boat, the fax at your house, and this note all came from the same place. Or the same person,” Garrett surmised.

  “And whoever this person is wants to talk to us,” Parker finished.

  They had a few hours to spare before ten o’clock, so they met up with the rest of the team to go over all of the facts they knew and to make a list of possible suspects that would knock on their door that evening.

  Brady wanted the rest of the team to be assembled in and around the room just in case something went wrong, but Garrett and Parker both agreed that would be a bad idea. Whoever it was didn’t want anyone to know who they were for a reason, and they didn’t want this person to get spooked. They had a feeling that this person was going to provide them with all of the information they were missing so they could figure out this mystery once and for all.

  Brady, Austin, and Cole reluctantly agreed to stay away from Garrett and Parker’s villa, but they refused to just sit back and do nothing. They would keep their distance while still maintaining a visual on the villa just in case they were needed. They placed bugs in the room and one on both Garrett and Parker.

  Garrett tried to get Parker to take a nap when they were done with the meeting, but she was too keyed up. Everything they’d been working for was coming to a head, and they'd finally get all of the answers about what Milo had been up to and how much of a stake Fernandez had in all of it. With this one meeting, they might also get the closure they needed so they could go back home with clear heads and open hearts.

  Garrett sat at the end of the bed, his foot tapping nervously on the floor while he watched Parker pace back and forth in front of the door. At nine-thirty, three sharp raps against the wood made them both jump.

  Garrett picked up his gun sitting on the bed next to him and stood up. He double checked the chamber, making sure a round was in place, and gave Parker a look silently asking her if she was ready.

  She picked her own gun up from the nightstand and switched it back and forth between her sweaty hands as she alternated wiping each palm on the thighs of her jeans.

  Parker gave a sharp nod to Garrett and moved to one side of the door while he went to the other and put his hand on the doorknob. They stared into each other’s eyes from either side of the doorway. Parker quickly leaned in and kissed Garrett’s lips, pulling away too soon and getting back into position.

  “I love you,” Parker whispered with a smile.

  “Love you too,” Garrett whispered back right before he turned the knob and opened the door.

  Parker broke Garrett’s eye contact to turn and face their mystery guest, aiming her gun straight out in front of her.

  The adrenaline coursing through her system while they waited for this moment and the feeling of content she felt from hearing Garrett tell her he loved her came to a screeching halt, and she immediately dropped her arms to her sides and stood frozen in place, staring though the open doorway.

  In an old football team t-shirt, faded jeans with tennis shoes, and his hair a little longer than she was used to seeing, he leaned against the door jam with his hands in his pockets and a guilty smile on his face, looking nothing like Parker had remembered. The heavy five o’clock shadow was a new addition. As long as she remembered, he’d always been clean shaven. It had been so long since she’d last seen him, but he looked older than he should and the heavy bags under his eyes proved he hadn’t been sleeping well for quite a while. That thought almost made her smile in satisfaction considering all of the sleepless nights he forced on her.

  But there was nothing about this moment that would make her smile. Standing in front of her was a ghost that had haunted her and made her second-guess everything. One that made her regret so many decisions and had turned her into someone she didn’t even recognize, forcing her to claw her way out of a life that would have destroyed her.

  All this time, without a word, or a phone call…

  The anger and hatred had been simmering below the surface for so long that just the sight of him standing in the doorway made it all boil over. All the things he should have done to protect her, all of the times he should have been there for her, every moment he betrayed her love flashed before her eyes in an instant.

  “Hey, sweetie.”

  Garrett reacted to his presence and the casual way he said spoke the endearment before Parker could. He gave up all rights to her a long time ago. The fact that he stood there in the doorway, like it was the most natural thing in the world, pushed Garrett over the edge.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Garrett had raised his gun as soon as he opened the door, but unlike Parker, he refused to lower his weapon. There was no conceivable reason why Garrett should trust anyone that came to their door , least of all him.

  “I know it must be a shock to see me now after all this time. Especially here,” he said as he took a step towards Parker.

  She instinctively took a step backwards and his face fell. He knew she wouldn’t welcome him with open arms, but it still stung to see the distrust and fear on her face. He never wanted her to fear him.

  He stopped with one foot in the doorway, not wanting her to retreat any further away from him. That was the closest he’d been to her in ages, and he just wanted to take all of her in. If it was possible, she’d grown even more beautiful than the last time he saw her. A wave of guilt washed through him when he thought about all of the time he'd lost
with her.

  “McCarthy, could you please put the gun down? I’m not armed,” he said as he put both of his palms in the air in an act of surrender and to prove he didn’t come here to hurt anyone.

  Parker finally snapped out of her daze and reached up to lay a hand on Garrett’s arm.

  “It’s okay. You can put it away,” she told Garrett softly.

  Garrett stared at Parker, checking her face for any signs of panic or fear. All he saw was a healthy dose of shock which he was sure mirrored on his own face as well.

  He slowly lowered his arm and slid his gun into the holster in the waistband of his jeans, safely secured against his lower back. He watched as Parker crossed her arms in front of her, and he could see the muscles in her forearms constrict as she squeezed them tightly, trying to physically hold herself together.

  “What are you doing here, Joe?” Parker asked.

  He winced at her use of his first name and had to stop himself from scolding her like a child. She wasn’t a child anymore. She was a beautiful, intelligent young woman who he shut out and pushed away. He had done everything he could since then to make up for it, did everything in his power to make sure she was safe. It didn’t make up for all of the hurt he caused her, though, that much he knew.

  “I haven’t heard one word from you in over twelve years. And now suddenly you show up at my doorstep in the middle of the Dominican Republic like it’s no big deal? You have no right to be here. No right to have anything to do with me,” she fumed.

  Garrett had immediately recognized the man as Parker’s estranged father as soon as he’d opened the door. Not long after they’d met, Garrett had found a box of old photographs she’d shoved in the trunk of her car when he had gone in there to grab her spare tire.

  He wanted more than anything to cross the threshold and punch Parker’s father in the face for the torment he put her through over the years. If he learned anything over the last few weeks it was to let Parker fight her own battles. She deserved this showdown with her father, even if it was at the most inopportune time.

  “Look, sweetie–”

  It was Parker’s turn to wince. That was twice in the span of a few minutes that he used the nickname from her childhood. She wasn’t that same, gullible child anymore, and he couldn’t just show up here out of the blue when she was in the middle of an assignment. His presence could mess up everything.

  “Don’t!” Parker shouted. “You don’t get to use that name for me anymore. Tell me what the fuck you’re doing here and then get the hell out.”

  Garrett almost felt sorry for the man. He’d been on the receiving end of Parker’s anger enough times to know how much her words could sting. His sympathy was short lived, however. He knew what her father did to her, and the scars he left by his actions almost hadn’t healed. He’d have to do a lot of groveling and ass kissing to even begin to fix things with Parker. And even then, Garrett wasn’t sure Parker would ever fully be able to forgive him or trust him.

  “I’m not proud of the way I treated you or the way I behaved after your mother died. If I could go back and change everything, I would do it in a minute. I hope you at least believe that. I know that I’m the last person you want to see right now, but I told them I had to be the one to tell you,” Joe explained with years of regret etched into his face.

  The muscles in Parker’s jaw clenched, and Garrett knew it was taking everything in her not to lash out at him again and slam the door shut in his face.

  “Tell me what? And who’s them?” Parker asked in confusion.

  Garrett was equally puzzled by what Joe had said and tore his gaze away from Parker so he could focus on Joe and why he was there.

  “You’re in danger, sweetie,” Joe said, completely ignoring her previous admonishment of using the nickname. “I never worked for the Manchester Township Police Department. I’ve been an agent with the CIA for thirty-five years. My team was in charge of the Fernandez file for a majority of that time. I made a lot of enemies over the years in Fernandez’s camp. Enemies that would do anything to stop us from finding out the truth about what goes on over here,” Joe explained in a rush of words and hand gestures. “When they found out who I was, and that I had a daughter, you became their prime target in order to get me to stop digging. You were recruited into the CIA because of me. I begged them to bring you in. I knew you would never let me personally do anything to protect you, but I hoped that by learning how to protect yourself and by being involved with the organization you could shield yourself from harm if anything ever happened to me. That you’d be safe. Never in a million years did we ever think Fernandez would go this far to get to you. The man who you-”

  Joe’s frantic speech was immediately cut off and the fierce look on his face was replaced with one of shock.

  Parker’s arms dropped to her sides as her father stared at her in confusion, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for its last breath. She took a tentative step towards him, wondering briefly if he’d become mentally unstable in the years they’d been estranged. It was shocking enough to see him standing on the other side of the door when Garrett opened it, but to hear him spouting off all of that nonsense about how he worked for the CIA had almost been too much. Parker was ready to tell him to stop talking about such ridiculous things and ask him if his shrink was traveling with him before he suddenly stopped on his own.

  “Dad? Are you okay?” Parker asked. Was it possible for someone’s brain to short circuit, to be so overloaded with fabrications that it just couldn't handle the stress of keeping it all straight anymore?

  Joe didn’t say a word. He just continued his dead fish impression and then stumbled forward into the room. Parker and Garrett both lunged towards him when they saw he was falling. His hands smacked down onto Parker’s shoulders, and he became dead weight in her arms, forcing her legs to buckle and her arms to go around his waist as they both went down. Parker landed roughly on her knees, wincing in pain just as Garrett got to her and wrapped his strong arms around Joe’s chest in an effort to get his weight off of her. Parker was repeating Joe’s name over and over and continued to ask him what was wrong as Garrett slid his arm around Joe’s chest, his other hand touching something sticky and wet when he placed it on Joe’s back. Garrett pulled his hand away and stared down at it and was horrified to see it coated in blood.

  Panic rushed through him and he knew he needed to keep it together in order to protect Parker.

  “Get him all the way in the room! Do it now!” Garrett shouted to Parker as he let go of his hold on Joe, pulled his gun out of his waistband and lunged towards the open door.

  No matter the circumstances, Parker knew never to hesitate when an order like that was given. She let Joe down gently onto the floor and then jumped to her feet, dragging him into the room and over to the foot of the bed.

  She checked his pulse and his pupils while Garrett aimed his gun out of the open door and looked around frantically before finally slamming it closed and locking the deadbolt.

  It wasn’t until Garrett started to make his way over to her that she looked down at the carpet where she had dragged her father across the room and noticed a trail of blood from where she let him drop to where they currently were.

  “Shots fired! I repeat, shots fired!” Garrett shouted into the tiny microphone clipped to the inside of his shirt collar, knowing their team was only a few hundred yards away listening to everything. “Joe Parker is down with a gunshot wound to the back. Need emergency medic ASAP and all hands on deck doing a sweep of the entire resort.”

  Garrett crouched down on the other side of Joe’s still form and did his own check of the man’s pulse, bolstered by the fact that at least there was one. Parker looked stunned and bewildered. Garrett quickly reached across Joe to cup her cheek in his hand and force her eyes up to his.

  “It’s okay, we’re going to get him help,” Garrett assured her.

  He hoped like hell he wasn’t lying to her right now. It wouldn’t be ea
sy for her to make sense of the garbage he spouted or his reasons for doing it under normal circumstances. If her father was shot and killed right in front of her, before she got any kind of explanation about his sudden reappearance in her life, he was afraid to think about what that would do to her. She was hanging on by a thread as it was. While he continued to keep an eye on Joe’s heart rate and bent down to listen to his labored breaths, he glanced up at Parker as she sat on her knees with her arms wrapped around her waist, staring down at her father’s still form.

  Garrett’s cell phone rang and he took his eyes away from Parker’s long enough to answer it.

  “He’s got a pulse, but it’s slow. Did you hear any shots?”

  Parker listened to Garrett’s steady voice as he questioned Brady, instead of focusing on the fact that her father, whom she hadn’t spoken to in a decade, was dying on the floor in front of her. Parker refused to believe the last words she would ever hear him say to her were lies. She wondered if by some crazy chance everything he said was true.

  “Negative. Whoever it was used a silencer. Call Captain Risner immediately and get an extra team in here for back-up. One of them should be on stand-by and ready to deploy at our command.”

  Garrett gave a few more orders, and Parker partially listened to him as her brain processed every single word her father said to her that evening.

  The next few hours were a blur of people rushing around, answering questions for medical personnel, and trying to make sense of the night’s events. On top of it all, they still needed to maintain their undercover positions as husband and wife on the off chance that Fernandez had nothing to do with the shooting.

  Garrett remained calm and in control through everything, keeping his arm around Parker to hold her upright, making and receiving calls from the team periodically, and leaving her side only once, just long enough to get her a cup of coffee.