A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(106)

“He’ll be okay,” Brady told him. “The bullet went through and through and didn’t hit anything major. When he finally came to he was cursing a blue streak and wanted to put a Band-Aid on it and go find the f*ckers responsible. Cole found me a few minutes later when I was calling for an ambulance. Actually, he stumbled to me. He had a nasty gash on his head and a knife wound to his torso,” Brady explained.

“What the f*ck is happening?” Garrett asked, his eyes widening in horror.

“There’s more,” Brady told him softly. “SEAL team four…”

Brady trailed off, unable to voice the words that tightened his throat and made him clench his teeth. Garrett closed his eyes and turned his face to the sky. He breathed deeply a few times before looking back at Brady.

“How many?” Garrett asked with trepidation in his voice.

“All of them. Dragon, King, and Maxwell. I went on a few training ops with them over the years. They were good men. Strong men. The best of the best,” Brady told him sadly, shoving his hands in his pockets and bowing his head.

“Tell me how in the f*ck they are taking out trained Navy SEALS?” Garrett pleaded.

“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. They fight dirty. And they have a very big secret that needs to be kept. They know Fernandez will make their lives a living hell if they fail to do what he orders,” Brady said. “They know that everyone in their lives will be dead if they don’t keep his secrets. That’s a lot of motivation.”

“We need to find Parker before Milo gets her anywhere near Fernandez,” Garrett said.

“Agreed. I’ll access the locator chip on her phone. Assuming that she still has it on her, I should be able to find where she is in a matter of minutes.”

Brady pulled out his cell phone and opened up the application linked him to Parker’s phone.

A resort employee walked up to the desk, finally responding to the bell Garrett had rung minutes ago.

Garrett prayed Milo still had a little bit of good left in him, and he wasn’t following in his father’s footsteps. If he’d turned into the same type of monster whose blood ran through his veins, Garrett didn’t even want to think about what that would mean for Parker’s safety.

He showed the employee a picture of Parker and asked if he’d seen her within the last hour. The man smiled as he recalled how her “husband” had carried her out front to a waiting car because she’d had too much to drink. He never noticed what direction the vehicle went. He’d seen plenty of unconscious people needing to be carried out by a loved one over the years. He never paid much attention to where they were going or what they were doing.

What little hope Garrett may have had about there being any good left in Milo vanished in the blink of an eye. He’d taken Parker out of the resort, unconscious.

All pretenses and fake background stories were finished. At this point, there was no need to keep up with the lies; Fernandez and his people knew everything about them. Garrett whipped out his military ID and told the resort employee to take him to the security office where the surveillance tapes were stored. They pulled up the video from the past hour and Garrett searched frame by frame until he found what he needed.

The camera angle was from across the courtyard of his and Parker’s villa, and it looked to be shot from high up in a palm tree, but he could tell immediately that he’d found what he was looking for.

Garrett watched in silent, black and white clarity as he walked away from Parker an hour ago. He watched her stare after him with a look of complete devastation on her face. He watched as Milo came up behind her and made to put his arms around her. He saw Parker move away from him and begin talking. Garrett had no idea what Parker was saying, but he could tell that whatever it was agitated Milo. He watched Milo get in her face and could tell he was yelling at her. Parker’s back was to the camera. Garrett would give anything for her to turn around. He needed to see her face. He watched as Milo spoke to her, stalking towards her as she walked backwards, until her back was up against a tree. The top halves of both of their bodies were now partially behind the palm leaves.

Garrett’s hands clenched into fists and his heart rate accelerated.

Through the leaves, he saw Milo’s arm swing up and hold something against Parker’s neck until her knees give out.

Garrett’s fist connected with the wall next to him, his hand easily breaking through the drywall. Brady ran into the office just as Garrett swept everything within reach off of the table, sending it crashing to the floor.

“McCarthy! Calm down man,” Brady shouted as he ran into the office after hearing the commotion. His words were ignored as Garrett lashed out at the wall on the other side of the table, leaving another fist-sized hole in that one as well.

Brady hurried up behind him and wrapped his arms around Garrett, holding his back against his chest until Garrett stopped fighting him.

“It’s okay, I found her. I found Parker,” Brady told him.

Brady felt the anger drain from Garrett as he unclenched his fists and his shoulders relaxed, and he finally felt confident that he could let him go. As soon as he let him go, Garrett turned to face him.

“What the hell are we waiting for then? Let’s go get her,” Garrett said as he started backing towards the door.

“It’s not that simple,” Brady told him.