A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(78)

"Brady and I went to Occidental El Embajador last night. One of the maids identified Milo. She saw him leave one of the rooms with Catalina a few months before she was killed," Garrett said softly.

Parker saw his lips move, heard the words he spoke, but couldn’t feel anything else. She was numb.

Like she was floating in a dream, the edges of her vision just starting to blur, making it hard to focus on what was real and what wasn't. Garrett was still talking, telling her he was sorry and that he was just as shocked as she was, but she barely heard him.

She stared at a spot just over his shoulder, wondering what the hell was wrong with her.

What kind of woman could be trained by the best government agency in the world, know how to force even the most hardened criminal to admit truths and crimes he'd never told anyone yet fail to see the man she befriended, loved, and was going to build a life with was doing something so vile right under her nose?

She'd never fully trusted Milo from day one, but she'd always chalked that up to her broken family and her refusal to allow anyone to get that close.

Now she wondered if maybe it was something deeper, maybe some sixth sense told her he wasn't who she thought he was, and she kept him at arm’s length for that reason alone.

"Take me there," Parker stated firmly. “I want to talk to the maid myself.”

Garrett tried to pretend like he hadn't heard her, but he knew it was useless. He knew she’d want tangible proof this was real. She’d want to confirm for herself what he already knew to be true. Even though she’d tried to tell him the night before that Milo had secrets, Garrett knew Parker never expected them to be this bad. No matter what he said to her, she wouldn’t trust the information until she saw it with her own eyes. All he wanted to do was go back to this morning, go back to the moment when they stood together in the room after the shower, drying each other off. Go back and pretend like nothing else existed but the two of them, crawl under the covers and pretend like they didn’t have to meet the team for breakfast and this assignment wasn’t top priority. They could go back to the moment when Parker looked at him like he was the only thing that mattered instead of like her whole world was crashing down around her.

Garrett was fighting a battle with his mind and heart. He burned with jealousy. Parker was upset about Milo betraying her, and he wanted her to forget all about any other man that had ever touched her, including his best friend. But at the same time, he understood that something like this would hurt her no matter what the two of them had done in the past twenty-four hours.

Parker stood up when Garrett didn't make a move to leave and he grabbed her arm.

"You don't have to do this," he told her sadly.

Parker didn't want to hurt Garrett. She didn't want him to think that she was still in love with Milo and that was the reason why she was heartbroken. The more she learned about Milo, the more she questioned her actions and her heart where he was concerned and wondered if she’d ever really loved him.

She felt betrayed by Milo. No matter what she did or didn’t feel for him, he was still her best friend. If he had stopped loving her and had changed his mind about the wedding she would have understood probably more than any other woman. But this? She just couldn’t wrap her mind around it. These were not the actions of the man she’d known for the past eight years. These were the actions of a stranger.

She was upset Milo had made a fool of her and that she'd spent so much time wishing she had loved him more and feeling guilty for everything she felt towards Garrett.

All that wasted time.

Time she'd never get back.

Her heart broke for Garrett. His friend of more than twenty years had turned out to be a liar and a criminal. Garrett trusted him, loved him, and thought of him as a brother. She could see the sadness in his eyes and hear the betrayal in his voice even though he tried his hardest to mask it. His friend, his brother, his confidant; the man he trusted with his family and his life – he was a stranger to Garrett now. The pain he felt was staggering. But he was concerned for Parker.

Always for her.

She thought back over the years and all the times he had put her first, supported her, and been there for her. All the times he’d helped her without a second thought. She remembered how she always had to convince herself that Milo did the same things. But he didn’t. Milo always put himself first, but that was his personality, and during their time together, it suited her independent nature. But maybe he was like that with her because she’d always kept that little bit of space between them, that tiny bit of expanse that he just couldn’t cross. That she wouldn’t allow him to cross.

Maybe Milo knew all along she’d let Garrett barrel right through that gap from day one.

Brick by brick, her walls started coming down the first day Garrett sat next to her in the coffee shop. She always thought they had been intact this whole time, that she’d decide when and if they ever came down. But looking at him now as he stared at her with concern and worry in his eyes, she knew she’d never had a choice in the matter.

The wall crumbled to dust when she wasn’t even looking.

Parker thought she needed to see the place where Milo had betrayed them both to try and come to grips with what was happening, but as she stood there in the restaurant looking down at Garrett, she knew it wasn’t necessary. The knowledge that he did it was enough.