A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(37)

“We were just going over some of the things Parker found while I was gone today,” Garrett finished for her.

He tried as hard as he could not to look at Parker’s toned ass as she bent over the bed to scoop up the reports, but it was right there, and the movements she made as she leaned over the mattress reminded Garrett of what she would look like if he had her bent over that same bed, chair, couch, or kitchen table, and pounded into her from behind.

Parker stood up and turned around, forcing Garrett to breathe a sigh of relief and groan in frustration at the same time.

“So, Marshall, what did you find?” Parker asked, getting down to business, fantasies of her friend pushed aside for the moment.

Garrett looked between the two in confusion, and Brady jumped in to explain.

“Parker gave me a list of the shell corporations she uncovered that lead back to Fernandez. She wanted me to look into them further and see if I could come up with anything that didn’t look right.”

Garrett nodded in understanding and motioned for him to go on.

Brady walked up to each of them, handing them a few pages he printed out.

“At first, everything on that list seemed on the up-and-up, even questionable businesses that you would normally think of as being perfect front companies. Massage parlors, tattoo shops, saunas, insurance sales—things like that. Every single one had spotless books and records. Every penny is accounted for, complaints that had been filed were disputed and proven false, and employee records were comprehensive and organized.”

Parker and Garrett scanned the pages while Brady spoke. He was good at what he did, that was certain. He dug as deep as he could and got the information they needed, taking copious amounts of notes on the pages he printed.

“What’s Agencia de Destino?” Parker asked, looking up from the page.

“I believe that means The Target Agency,” Garrett said with a smirk.

It made Garrett feel good to actually know something Parker didn’t. The big, bad CIA agent obviously didn’t speak Spanish.

Parker narrowed her eyes at him and responded rapidly.

“Yo sé lo que significa que culo. Deja de mirarme como un pomposo gilipollas. Tenemos trabajo que hacer, imbecile.”

Brady laughed and Garrett’s jaw dropped.

“I believe she just called you an ass, McCarthy. And maybe a jerk.”

“Don’t forget dickhead,” Parker retorted. “What I meant, before I was so rudely interrupted, was what kind of a business is The Target Agency?”

Brady flipped through some more of the papers in his hand until he found the one he wanted and handed it to Parker. Garrett, finally recovering the ability to function, stepped over towards her and looked over her shoulder.

“According to tax records, The Target Agency doesn’t exist. Not on paper at least. The phone number goes directly to voicemail and instructs the caller to leave a message if they are interested in working for The Target Agency. Very vague, no other information provided. According to the Dominican Chamber of Commerce, The Target Agency is listed as a temporary staffing agency,” Brady explained.

“Why wouldn’t a temp agency have tax records? Is it a new company?” Garrett asked.

Brady shook his head.

“Nope. According to the Chamber, it was established eight years ago.”

Parker looked up at Brady suddenly. Something didn’t feel right about this.

“Eight years ago was when I was first brought in to keep tabs on Fernandez. It was my first job and his first term as President. His years as a senator preceding his presidential term left a lot of unanswered questions. Many government heads here and in the U.S. were shocked when he won that first election. There were rumors floating all over the place for years that he was involved in shady dealings. He covered his tracks well though; we never found anything that tied him to the rumors.”

Garrett looked down at Parker’s face.

“Your first assignment was looking into Fernandez?” he asked in astonishment.

Parker turned her head to look at Garrett over her shoulder.

“It’s one of the main reasons your CO wanted me for this job. He knew I was one of the lead investigators on this guy. Risner knew I had a lot of inside information I could contribute. Unfortunately, nothing we did for eight years ever turned up any pertinent information, like The Target Agency. That business never showed up on any of our reports in the past.”

Brady chuckled lightly, breaking the stare between Garrett and Parker.

“Well, maybe that’s because you didn’t have me helping you out,” he said to Parker. “For the record, I may have done a few illegal things to get this information. Including charming a very beautiful, very young government official to obtain a list of non-profit organizations that are on the waiting list to be turned into for-profit once a thorough investigation has been done. It turns out our little Target Company has been pushed back down to the bottom of the pile every couple of months.”

“So once it becomes for-profit…” Garrett paused.

“They have to start reporting tax information,” Parker finished. “Son of a bitch! No wonder we couldn’t find anything. Who knows how many people Fernandez has under his thumb doing his bidding?”

Parker shook her head in disgust.

“What else?” she asked Brady.

“Well, from what I could find, The Target Agency states they have a minimum of forty-seven new employees that apply to become 'temps' every month. On average, in the Dominican, staffing agencies get maybe fifteen new candidates each month. So either they are a kick ass firm that finds people great jobs or—”