A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(13)

Parker instantly curbed her anger. Garrett lost his best friend, the one person that had been by his side since he was nine years old. She couldn't be mad at him for wanting to know why he was gone and for doing everything in his power to get answers. It hurt her that he had never told her he didn’t believe the “accidental death” explanation, but if she was being honest with herself, there were plenty of things she had been keeping from Garrett as well.

"It's not your fault, Garrett, any more than it is mine.”

Garrett didn't say anything to that. He may not have been the one to set off the bomb that killed Milo, but it didn’t ease his guilt or take away his feelings of failure.

"So how long will you be gone?" Parker asked softly, looking up into his face and wrapping her arms around herself.

Garrett felt his nerves instantly calm when he saw Parker’s anger had been replaced with concern.

Garrett reached out and rubbed his hands up and down her arms to warm her skin.

"As long as it takes.”

Garrett received intel that Milo had several meetings with the leader of the Dominican Republic, President Fernandez, the last couple of days before he died. He was going in under the guise of a reporter for Fox News to interview the President about all of his philanthropic accomplishments. Garrett wanted to dig deeper into the mission that killed his best friend by gaining access to information they didn’t have in the states. There were rumors that not all of the President’s business dealings were legal, and Garrett had a gut feeling the man would know something about what happened to Milo.

Parker shivered but not from the chill in the air. Garrett's hands on her skin always did that to her. His hands encircled her arms and when he touched her, she always felt small and protected.

“At least I’ll get to brush up on my interviewing skills,” he said with a smirk. He knew he shouldn’t have divulged that information, but it was a small detail that wouldn’t affect the mission. He had to give her something.

"Wow, interviewing, huh? Did you even make it to any of your journalism classes senior year of college?" Parker teased.

Garrett gave her a heart-stopping smile, and she knew things were going to be okay between them. They were back to their usual friendly banter.

"What did I need to show up to class for when I had you to do my homework?"

Parker just shook her head at him and rolled her eyes.

"You would have never passed that class if it wasn't for me. You’re lucky I liked you or I would have made you fend for yourself," she laughed.

"Blasphemy! You would have never been so cruel," Garrett teased. “I am a computer genius; you’re the one with the mad literary and public speaking skills. It would have been a crime if you didn’t help me.”

Parker unhooked her hands from around her waist and placed her palms flat on Garrett's chest. The heat of his skin through his shirt and the feel of his heart beating against her hand was so familiar but still had the ability to make her breath catch.

"You better come back to me," Parker whispered softly.

Garrett's heart beat furiously inside his chest, and he knew she could feel it. He only hoped she chalked it up to nerves about the mission and not about how her words affected him.

Parker knew what she said could be taken two ways but she didn't care. She just wanted him safe and whole and alive when this was all over.

The weight of her words hung heavily in the air between them. The ringing of Garrett's phone broke the spell, and he let go of his grip on her arms to reach for the clip on his belt to retrieve his phone.

"McCarthy," Garrett answered curtly.

He stared into Parker's eyes while he listened to his CO on the other end of the line tell him about a glitch in the mission already.

It turned out their Navy photographer, Petty Officer First Class Sasha Mitchell, was injured on her ship that morning before she was supposed to fly in from Greece. Sasha was going to pose as Garrett's co-worker and lover for this mission. Under normal circumstances, the co-worker cover would have been enough. But the Dominican frowned on working women unless they were accompanied by their husband. They needed a photographer who could sneak into areas with the team and acquire the photographic evidence they needed. Sasha was the Navy’s best photographer and had been on several under cover missions, not to mention she was fluent in Spanish. She had been the perfect woman for the job and now Garrett was going to have to deal with a last-minute replacement that wasn’t going to be as efficient.

Garrett hung up the phone and pulled away from Parker. He was irritated that something was already screwed up and he hadn’t even left California yet.

Parker asked Garrett what the phone call was about, and he made the mistake of telling her. He should have known that as soon as the words, "our photographer can't do the mission,” left his mouth, a light bulb would go off in her head.

Parker felt the old familiar bubble of excitement in the pit of her stomach as she listened to Garrett. It was the same one she always got when a new assignment was given to her or when she stood in the quiet blackness of her darkroom and waited for a photo to develop.

That feeling had been dormant for the past six months while she was on her leave of absence but now it was back. She wouldn't have to worry about Garrett because she could be there with him every step of the way. She wouldn't have to sit back doing nothing, wasting her life away every single day just waiting for another knock on her door.