A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(119)

“I’m ready if you are,” Garrett told Parker conspiratorially as he wiped another tear off of her cheek. He tipped his head forward and let his forehead rest against hers. To the guards, they looked like two lovers saying goodbye. Garrett kept her face in his hands and willed her to understand the real meaning of his words. He was ready to try and get them out of there, with her help.

Garrett watched the fight drain out of her slowly while they were held captive. After hearing her father killed over the phone and then unleashing her anger at Fernandez, her eyes glazed over and he knew she was in shock. Too much had happened down in that basement, and he feared that even if she did survive, she’d never be the same again. He pulled his head back so he could see her eyes better, and it worried him that she seemed to be staring right through him.

“I’m ready if you are,” he told her again, more firmly this time.

Garrett’s whispered statement finally got through to her. His words put a spark back into Parker’s eyes, and he knew she finally understood. She lifted her chin and clenched her jaw with renewed determination.

“Remember on the flight here how surprised you were when I told you what I did for a living?” Parker asked in him.

Garrett nodded his head, unsure where she was going with this.

“Remember the story I told you and how you couldn’t keep your eyes off of my cleavage?” she asked, her voice suddenly raising an octave and turning sultry.

Parker breathed heavily, the force of the motion pushing her breasts out from the edges of the torn shirt that hung off of her.

Garrett wondered momentarily if she had lost her mind, when suddenly, the memory of their conversation on the plane burst forth.



Parker had confidently reached up and popped open the first three buttons of her shirt until her cleavage and the edges of her red lace bra were visible. Garrett's eyes immediately flew to her exposed skin, watching her chest heave with every breath she took, her breasts straining against the thin lace fabric covering them.

"Distract man number one long enough to disarm him," she had said softly as she removed her hand from inside his coat, carefully palming the .45 caliber she slid from his shoulder holster while his eyes were otherwise occupied. With a straight face she had mimed the action of shooting him in the chest.



Garrett’s heart sped up as he replayed that moment in his mind. He knew without a doubt that the two guards behind him would be staring straight at Parker’s chest right this very moment. The perfect distraction. If he had more time, he’d kiss her and tell her how much he loved her for being so brilliant.

Parker shook her hair away from her face, the action forcing her shirt to open even further and making one arm fall completely off of her shoulder and pooling around her elbow. Everyone in the room now had a clear view of the smooth, taut, naked skin of her stomach, and if they were staring hard enough, which Garrett knew they would be, they’d see the rose colored circles of her nipples peeking through the lace of her bra. Parker angled her body slightly to the right, which gave the room full of men a better view of what she had on display, and it gave Garrett a clear view of where her arms came together behind the wooden beam. He watched as rivulets of blood dripped off of her fingers into a puddle on the floor directly below them. Only then did he realize that the small tremors that shook her body weren’t from fear or nerves, but from the effort she was making to pull her hand through one of the handcuffs. Garrett knew if her thumb was broken, her hand would easily slide through the metal. He looked up into her eyes with a questioning look.

Break it, she mouthed silently.

“That is enough. Time is up,” one of the guards stated as he cocked his gun close to Parker’s ear.

“I love you. Don’t snub nose me,” Parker told him with a wink.



“Don't be so dramatic. The safety is on. At least I didn’t grab the loaded Beretta Jetfire in your ankle holster or the back-up .357 snubnosed revolver in mine."



Garrett only had one second to contemplate the craziness of this plan, and one second was all he needed. He ran his hands quickly down the sides of Parker’s arms and wrapped his arms around her. In one swift motion, he grabbed her left hand, the one she wouldn’t need to shoot with, whispered an apology in her ear, and the slammed her hand against the wooden beam. The snap of her thumb as it broke sounded like a gunshot in Garrett’s mind when he knew it was probably nothing more than a whisper of noise.

Garrett’s hand quickly slid into Parker’s pant leg and found her backup gun in her holster. He whipped it out and spun around, firing a round into the shoulder of the guard directly behind him before he even knew what happened. The guard’s gun went off as his arm flew out to the side but Garrett paid no attention to where it landed since he knew Parker was safely behind him.

Parker ignored the screaming pain that radiated from her thumb all the way up her arm as she pulled her hand free, letting the cuffs hang loosely and dangle from her other wrist. She jumped up onto her feet and kicked her leg up high, knocking the gun out of her guard’s hand. The gun skidded to a stop against the far wall and for a moment, she and the guard stood still, staring each other down. They both took off, diving across the room for the gun at the same time. She heard scuffling and grunts from behind her, but couldn’t allow herself to worry about Garrett when she had her own fight to handle. She needed to trust that he could handle himself.