A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(49)

“I tole’ you, I know nothin’ about that bitch. She trouble and I’s glad be rid of her.”

Garrett and Parker stood on the porch of the childhood home of Catalina Olvera, listening to her drunken father rant in broken English.

After fifteen minutes, Parker realized this man had been drunk for most of Catalina’s childhood, and after she ran away, he never saw her again until he had to identify her body at the morgue.

Parker’s blood boiled with every word that * slurred. He reminded her too much of her father. She was pissed off that this man let his child get brutalized and didn’t even care..

Garrett thanked the man for his time and scribbled down his secure cell phone number and gave it to the man in case he thought of anything. He grabbed Parker’s arm and gently pulled her off the dilapidated porch. He could feel the anger coming off her in waves and knew he had to get her out of there before she did something stupid like pull a gun on the guy.

They got to the bottom of the porch when Parker stopped and turned back to the man standing in the doorway glaring at them.

“Espero que usted quema en el infierno para darle la espalda a su hija,” Parker said quietly to him through gritted teeth.

Garrett watch the color drain from the man’s face as Parker shook her arm out of Garrett’s clutch, turned, and stalked to the car. She got inside and slammed the door closed.

Garrett jogged over to his side of the car, got behind the wheel, and started the engine. He looked over at Parker and stared at her profile as she put her elbow on the window ledge and rested her chin on her fist, gazing off into the distance outside her window.

“Wanna tell me what you said to him?” Garrett asked.

“I told him that I hoped he burned in hell for turning his back on his daughter. Even the most despicable Dominican *s take their religion very seriously,” Parker told Garrett without looking at him.

Garrett wanted to reach over and use his fingers to brush the hair away from her cheek so he could see her eyes. He wanted to pull her across the console toward him so he could hold her. He knew what kind of man her father was, and he knew that any time she saw a man neglecting his daughter it cut into her and felt like it was happening to her all over again.



Her father was the one thing Milo and Garrett had ever fought over.



Parker had been out of town for work so Garrett and Milo got together for pizza and beer at his and Parker’s place. Milo had set the open pizza box down on the coffee table in front of them and plopped down on the couch next to Garrett.

“So, Parker told me to write up a guest list for the wedding while she was gone,” Milo said as he took a slice out of the box and took a bite.

“Sound like loads of fun. Don’t even ask me to help you with that shit,” Garrett replied around a mouthful of pizza.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, bro. I’m almost done anyway. I think I’m going to invite her dad as a surprise,” Milo said nonchalantly.

Garrett tossed what was left of his slice back into the box and looked at Milo like he was insane.

“You’re kidding right?” he asked him.

“What?” Milo asked obliviously. “She hasn’t spoken to him in like...forever. I think our wedding would be a great time to mend fences.”

Garrett leaned against the back of the couch and shook his head.

“You cannot be that f*cking stupid, Milo.”

“Fuck you!” Milo yelled angrily.

Garrett felt bad that he was pissing Milo off but he couldn’t help it. He had to see how bad of an idea that was.

“Dude, you can’t just ‘mend fences’ with someone who wishes you were dead. It’s not that simple, and it definitely shouldn’t be attempted on what’s supposed to be the happiest day of Parker’s life,” Garrett reasoned with him.

“Oh cut the bullshit,” Milo fumed. “Don’t pretend like you knowmyfiancée better than I do.”

“I’m not. I’m just trying to help you out. If you do this, it’s going to blow up in your face. How many times has she said she wants nothing to do with that man? You can’t just drop this bomb on her at your wedding.”

Milo had stood up, kicked the coffee table out of his way, and stormed down the hall. The next sound Garrett had heard was the slamming of Milo and Parker’s bedroom door.



The subject was never brought up again between Milo and Garrett, but a week later when he met Parker for lunch she had told him about a huge fight she’d had the night before with Milo when he mentioned inviting her father to the wedding.

As they drove back to the resort in silence, Garrett wondered if he’d thrown things like that in Milo’s face just to prove hedidknow Parker better than Milo did. At the time, he thought the advice he’d given Milo frequently was to help him.

Now, he wasn’t so sure.



<> ~ <>



When Garrett and Parker got back to the resort, a message was waiting for them stating that a palace car would pick them up at five o’clock. That meant they had an hour to pack and decide how they were going to do this.

“You’re not nervous about this, are you?” Garrett asked her as he threw a pair of pants into his bag.

“Nope. You?”

Garrett shook his head while he glanced at Parker as she stuck her bag of toiletries into her duffel.