A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(47)

“I just got off the phone with the post office, which is a huge clusterf*ck by the way, and according to them, the forwarding order was a typo in their system,” Brady jumped in to explain. “It turns out they are updating all of their software and it reset a bunch of forwarding requests from years ago. The request to have mail from the address I printed sent to the insurance company was from eight years ago.”

Garrett and Parker glanced at one another. Eight years ago was when The Target Agency first opened—and when Parker became CIA. Neither one of them understood why everything was starting with correlate to that point in time. It left them feeling more than a little unsettled.

“The forwards lasted for two days before the post office caught the error and stopped them,” Brady finished, forcing Parker and Garrett’s attention back to him.

“I’m assuming whatever was in the envelopes wasn’t anything important?” Garrett asked.

Cole shook his head.

“Nope, just some junk mail. We figured the two of you would want to check out the address yourselves.”

Everyone finished up breakfast, then Garrett and Parker headed out to the parking lot to get one of the rental SUVs while the guys stayed at the resort in case they needed something looked up on the computer quickly.

On the drive, the big fat elephant in the car, the sleepover they were supposed to have at the palace that night, was shoved into the trunk and never brought up. Instead, they discussed possibilities of what they might find once they got to the address.

After a few wrong turns, Garrett drove down a long dirt road for about three miles until they came to an old abandoned warehouse in the middle of a field.

Garrett parked the car and they both got out. Parker turned in a circle, looking every which way.

“There is absolutely no sign of life anywhere around here.”

Garrett glanced around and nodded his head in agreement.

The only sounds that could be heard were the rustling of trees when a breeze blew and the cry of a bird every so often. They were so far off the main road you wouldn’t even be able to hear cars driving past. Not that the building was located on a busy road, though. Garrett and Parker hadn’t seen any other vehicle on the main road the entire fifteen minutes they drove on it.

“Nice. Secluded place where no one would hear a thing,” he said as he stepped away from the car and slammed his door closed. “I do not have a good feeling about this.”

Parker agreed as she shut the passenger door and began walking towards the building. It looked like it could have been a factory at one point, but the busted windows, overgrown weeds, and chipping paint indicated it hadn’t been used as such in quite a long time.

Garrett walked a few feet behind Parker and watched her navigate the weeds, downed trees, and rocks littering the way. When they got to the door of the building, Parker reached behind her with one hand and lifted up the bottom of her shirt a few inches until Garrett could clearly see the Glock stuck into the waist of her jeans in the middle of her back and enough of her creamy skin to make his mouth water. He stopped in his tracks and watched her use the opposite hand to pull the gun out and get into the Weaver stance, a defensive shooting position.

Parker twisted her neck to look behind her as she held her gun and aimed at the door.

“You ready?” she asked Garrett quietly.

He stood there staring at the gun in her hands, not moving.

“Yo, McCarthy, wake up!” she whispered loudly.

Garrett jerked out of his trance and put a halt the internal scolding he was giving his body about settling down.

He quickly reached down to grab the Beretta out of his ankle holster. When he stood, Parker was still looking at him with her eyebrows raised.

“Sorry, you holding a f*cking gun is still messing with my mind,” Garrett said irritably as he motioned for her to proceed.

It took everything in him not to turn into a caveman, shove her out of the way, and go in ahead of her so she’d be kept out of harm’s way. Garrett knew without a doubt that if he did that, she’d knock him flat on his ass...and maybe even shoot him just for the hell of it. He had to show her that he trusted her and had faith in her abilities.

Parker finally turned away from Garrett and his weird behavior. She walked up to the door and tried the handle, finding it locked. She shook it a little and pushed on it with her shoulder. It didn’t budge.

“Here, let me,” Garrett said as he came around Parker’s side and tried his hand at slamming his shoulder into the door.

“Problems, McCarthy?” Parker asked as the door remained firmly closed.

“Not at all, Parker,” Garrett replied without turning around.

Garrett lifted up his knee and projected all of his power through his leg as he kicked his foot out and connected with the locked door. It flung open and banged against the inside wall.

It was Parker’s turn to stand there with a stunned expression on her face. She’d seen him train, she’d seen him at the shooting range, she’d imagined him in every different type of dangerous scenario over the years, but nothing compared to standing next to him and watching him put his skill to the test in a real life situation while he was gripping a gun.

Everything about Garrett made Parker’s body’ stand up and take notice from the way he trusted her to take the lead up to the building to the way he barreled his foot through the door like a battering ram. She knew he was strong; she’d seen him work out and had been a witness to his six pack abs on more than one mouth-watering occasion. But seeing him right that moment in a pair of jeans that hugged him perfectly and a t-shirt that showed off his sculpted arms, she felt the power of his strength pouring off of him in waves. He stood calm and sure next to the door, and she had never felt safer in her entire life. She had always been the one in charge during missions, always the one who rushed in head first and ensured the safety of everyone on her team. She was at the top of her game in a man’s profession, which meant she had to work twice as hard and be just as ballsy to earn the respect of her teammates. It was unnatural for her to hand the reins over to someone else.