A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(10)

“That can’t all be mine. I’ve only been out for a few weeks.”

Garrett stood up and pulled the bin toward him and glanced inside.

“Actually, sir, some of it is yours and the rest is Lieutenant JG Roberts’. The receptionist thought you’d know what to do with his things.”

Garrett thanked the man and started leafing through the envelopes. Most of it was interoffice Navy mail: forms, letters, and other paperwork that went back and forth between Navy offices on a daily basis. Garrett piled those things off to the side so he could look at them later and see who they should be sent to or which ones he could file himself.

He flipped quickly through the mail, nothing urgent catching his eye until a white envelope stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of all the manila-colored interoffice ones. Garrett pulled that out of the stack and was confused when he saw it was a cell phone bill for Milo from T-Mobile. Garrett knew for a fact that Milo had Verizon, just like he and Parker did because they all shared the same Family Share plan.

After a quick phone call to Parker to confirm that Milo did indeed still have the same phone and plan before he left, Garrett tore into the envelope. He didn’t recognize the cell phone number listed at the top of the bill and briefly wondered if maybe the Navy had given Milo a phone for work-related purposes. That didn’t make any sense, though, since Garrett, Milo’s superior, would have had first-hand knowledge of this information and would have been required to sign off on the expense.

Garrett scanned through the bill, noting that every phone call Milo made or received was to the same phone number with an 809 area code. After a quick Google search, Garrett found out that area code belonged to the Dominican Republic. According to this bill, Milo had been receiving or making at least twenty phone calls every single day the month before he left on his mission.

Garrett double-checked the date on the bill, wondering why it was just now being delivered since it was dated four months ago.

He picked up the phone at his desk and called customer service. After fifteen minutes on hold, and being passed around to countless people, he finally found someone who could help him.

“I’m just trying to figure out if this account was set up as a business account,” Garrett explained to the operator.

He heard the sound of typing keys through the line and waited.

“It looks like that account was opened by a third party and it is classified as personal.”

Garrett had no idea why Milo would ever need a second personal phone.

“Can you tell me who this third party was?” Garrett asked.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t give you any more information than that due to privacy laws.”

Garrett sighed in exasperation.

“Milo Roberts is deceased. Isn’t there some sort of statute of limitation on the whole privacy thing once someone is dead?” Garrett asked.

“Unfortunately, no. Unless you can send us proof that you have the power of attorney for Mr. Roberts, I can’t give you any more information.”

“Can you at least tell me why this bill is just coming now, when it was from four months ago?”

A few more seconds of typing and the operator spoke again.

“It looks like those bills are normally sent elsewhere, but there was a glitch in the system, and Mr. Roberts received that month’s bill by mistake.”

Garrett had thanked the man for his help and hung up the phone more confused than ever.

He still couldn't figure out why Milo would have needed a separate phone. And more importantly, who the hell had bought and paid for it if it wasn’t the U.S. Government?

Garrett would go to the Dominican and do what he did best. He would dig and he would question and he would use every skill he had ever learned in the Navy to get answers.

When Milo and Garrett first began the Naval Academy, Garrett had no plans to be career military. He would put in his time, keep an eye on Milo, and then get out. After graduation and their first few months in California, Garrett often wondered why he was doing this. In the words of his late friend, “Do you have any idea how much * you’ll get as a Navy SEAL? You have to do it so I can live vicariously through you.”

The thirty months of Seal training were the most grueling, mind-f*ck of a situation he had ever been in. But he made it and was surprised to realize he liked it. He had been on a handful of extractions with his SEAL team, and though he got a rush and a sense of accomplishment with each one, he knew this wasn't what he wanted to do forever. He preferred sitting behind a computer, analyzing reports, finding backdoor ways into secure websites and developing military code for top secret government programs.

Garrett earned his master’s degree six months before his completion of Seal training, and due to his nature of study, he was assigned as a Technical Surveillance Analyst. He could still be called out on extraction missions, but more often than not, his expertise was better served on the home front. While Garrett sat behind a desk all day, Milo went all over the world on Special Operations.

Garrett was a nerd and he wasn't ashamed to admit it. He would use his geekiness to figure out what really happened on Milo's mission, and if all hell broke loose, at least he had his SEAL training to keep him alive.

Garrett had lived through boot camp, Hell Week, SEAL training, and suffered through extreme conditions in several third world countries during special reconnaissance missions. He had prided himself on being strong, not letting his emotions show, and not breaking when his will was tested to the limit. He had held firm when he got the call that his best friend had been killed in action and had been the rock that Parker needed these past six months.