A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(77)

The clench of Parker around him and her quiet whimpers of release pulled his orgasm out of him, and he held still, fully sheathed inside her as he came in long, pulsing surges.



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With any other two people who had been friends for eight years and suddenly found themselves having sex, it would have been awkward. There would have been blushing, stuttering, embarrassed looks, and strained conversations.

But not for Garrett and Parker.

The fact that they didn't talk about what happened or what it meant could have been the reason why all of that awkwardness was avoided, or it just could have been natural for the both of them.

Easy.

Nothing that needed a label or an explanation.

At least not for now.

Parker was still surprised Garrett wasn't brooding, and Garrett was surprised Parker hadn't kicked his ass for leaving the bed this morning. They were okay. Their bodies spoke the words their lips could not, and an inner peace they hadn’t experienced in a long time, spread through both of them.

They got dressed together after their shower, sneaking glances in each other's direction out of the corner of their eyes.

They stole kisses as they moved around the room and laughed when one of Garrett's buttons fell out of Parker's shoe from the night before.

They joked about the probable shortage of hot water in the entire resort for the rest of the day as they made their way to their breakfast meeting with the team.

They were able to be completely professional as they sat down with the other men and Garrett gave Parker a run-down of the phone call he'd received the night before after she left the room.

He left out the part about Milo. That was not a conversation he wanted to have with her in front of other people. Telling Parker that Milo had been sneaking around for years and most likely engaged in disgusting, illegal activity with minors here in the Dominican while he planned a future with her back home was something that he needed to do with her alone. It made Garrett sick to his stomach just thinking that his friend had been capable of something like that.

Brady understood the silent communication Garrett gave him with just a look as he stopped the story with the end of the phone call from Maria.

Parker looked about as stunned as Garrett had felt when he originally received the phone call the night before.

"Wait," Parker said as she squeezed her eyes closed and tried to figure out the sudden flash of a memory in her mind. "Catalina, you called her Cat."

Garrett nodded. "Yeah, that's what Maria called her."

"Son of a bitch! I can't believe I didn't put that together before," Brady said as he flipped through the file of notes he'd brought with him. "The conversation you overheard when you were walking around the palace."

Brady found the piece of paper he had been looking for with Parker's notes on the conversation.

"They talked about a cat and how we'd never figure it out," Parker said. "I thought maybe I had misinterpreted it wrong. But they weren't talking about a cat. They were talking about Cat, as in, Catalina."

"Fucking hell," Austin muttered.

Parker watched Brady and Garrett stare at each other, and she felt like there was something they weren't telling her. But Brady pulled more papers out of his file before she could question either of them.

"I had Vargas get me a list of every local missing teenage girl between the ages of thirteen and eighteen over the past few years. There were one hundred and seventy-five," Brady explained, "and over half of them were listed as being employed by The Target Agency."

Parker felt the quickening of her pulse and excitement in her stomach that she always got when it felt like they were on the right track during an assignment. Things were slowly starting to fall into place with regard to nailing Fernandez, but it still didn't explain what had been going on with Milo. She said as much out loud, more to herself than anyone else. Once again, she watched the silent communication between Brady and Garrett and knew without a doubt they hadn't told her everything.

Parker suddenly realized that Garrett never mentioned the name of the hotel where Maria said Catalina had gone.

"The hotel," Parker said, turning towards Garrett. "You never mentioned the name of the hotel Catalina met the American man at."

Garrett looked away from her as soon as she said the words out loud, a cold feeling of dread washing over her as the puzzle clicked into place. She started shaking her head no before she could get the words out.

Garrett watched Parker make the connection and it made his chest ache for her.

"No. It wasn't him," Parker insisted as she watched Brady start to pack up his file.

"Can you guys give us a minute?" Garrett asked the rest of the men.

They didn't mask the curious looks on their faces, but they did as they were told. Brady led them away from the table to fill them in on what Garrett would be telling Parker.

Parker stared at Garrett and Garrett stared at the retreating forms of his men, wishing he didn't have to break the spell of last night and this morning.

"Tell me it's not as bad as I'm thinking," Parker demanded.

Garrett took a deep breath and turned to face her.

She saw it all: the pain, the betrayal, and his knowledge of the truth she didn't want to accept. It was right there, written all over his face.