A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(82)

"Shut up, Parker. I'm not letting you go, so just deal with it," Garrett said as he started walking at a fast pace down the dock and out into the parking lot to where he parked the car.

Parker wrapped her arms around Garrett's neck and stared at his profile as he got them to the end of the dock in record time. She couldn’t stop thinking about the look on Garrett’s face as he’d pulled her from the water. His eyes had been watery, full of unshed tears. The blood had drained from his face like every single fear he’d ever known had come to fruition.

"I'm sorry I scared you," Parker whispered as Garrett opened the passenger door of the car and gently placed her inside.

He knelt down next to the open door and pulled the seatbelt across her chest and fastened it while she shivered from shock and cold.

Parker knew now wasn't the time to break down, but she couldn't stop the tears from pooling in her eyes when she thought about how close she’d come to never being able to touch or kiss Garrett again.

He wiped the tears from her cheeks and brushed the hair out of her face. Something cracked wide open inside of Garrett the moment he thought he might have lost Parker forever. He was done pretending, done keeping everything he felt buried deep inside. But he needed to get them out of the marina. The sirens were getting louder. It would only be a matter of minutes before the place was filled with the authorities.

"I wasn't worried," Garrett said with a shrug and a smile. "You're too stubborn to let anything happen to you."

Parker let out a laugh and rolled her eyes as Garrett stood up and shut the car door.



<> ~ <>



Garrett called Brady after they pulled out of the marina and explained what happened. Instead of making Parker sit in the car for over three hours with wet clothes, Garrett decided to get a hotel room so she could rest. They could get up first thing in the morning to head back to the resort.

He checked them into the first hotel he came to, drew Parker a hot bath so she could get rid of the chill, and then walked to a corner store once she was situated in the tub. He picked up first aid supplies for the cut on her head and a change of clothes since hers wouldn't be dry any time soon.

Forty minutes later he paced back and forth outside of the bathroom door waiting for Parker to emerge.

The light splashes of water and soft sighs he heard on the other side of the door every so often were the only things preventing him from barging in to make sure she was okay.

Garrett's phone rang and he momentarily stopped his pacing to answer it.

"McCarthy."

"Hey, man," Brady replied. "How's Parker?"

Garrett sat down on the end of the bed and stared at the closed door.

"She's alright. Relaxing in the tub. Did you find out anything?" Garrett asked.

On Garrett's walk to the store, he had asked Brady to get a copy of the marina's phone records and find out what the blocked number was that always made the appointments for Milo's boat.

"Yeah," Brady sighed. "The number is the same one for the extra cell phone Milo owned."

Garrett suspected that would most likely be the case, but it was still frustrating to have it confirmed. He kept thinking back to the kid he'd grown up with, the one his parents had taken under their wings, encouraged, and supported in every way. Garrett had no idea how Milo had strayed so far from them and turned into someone like this.

"There's something else," Brady said, the trepidation evident in his voice.

Garrett waited for him to continue.

"I tried to pull up flight records for Milo, but there was absolutely nothing listed on any of the public airline's itineraries for him," Brady explained. "I found the records of his trips for the military easy enough, and they all legitimately matched his missions. I find it hard to believe that Milo never took one personal flight his entire life though."

Garrett's head spun as Brady added even more details to the mystery.

"I looked through every private charter service’s flight plan, and he's not listed on a passenger log on of any of them. But, my computer has an anagram program that will take the letters of a name, mix them up, and tell you what other names can be made using those exact letters," Brady explained in a rush of growing excitement.

“On August 29, 2004, there was a passenger by the name of Roberto Mils listed on the flight roster of a private jet that landed in Maryland from the Dominican at Saint John’s private airport. If you take that name and rearrange it, you get Milo Roberts.”

Brady paused to let the information sink in with Garrett.

“That flight was in the summer right before Parker started her senior year of college,” Garrett mused to himself out loud. “Milo flew to Florida around that time for a cousin’s funeral...or so he said. He never mentioned the guy in all the time I knew him but said something about how it was the only family member he kept in touch with, occasionally. I tried to go with him but he said he wanted to go alone,” Garrett told Brady.

The door to the bathroom opened and Parker stepped out into the room, wrapped in a towel.

“Good work, Marshall. Call me if you find anything new.”

Garrett disconnected the call and tossed the phone down onto the bed as he stood up and crossed the room to Parker.

He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. Parker hadn’t been able to get warm enough no matter how hot she made the water. She’d been in plenty of dangerous situations but none where she was two steps away from being blown to bits. The chill that burrowed deep down into her bones had more to do with nerves than it did with actually being cold. Garrett’s arms enveloped her and melted everything away from the past couple of hours.