A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(86)

“I don’t know. Someone had to have known we found the boat. It’s been in and out of that marina for years and all of a sudden, the day we find out about it, it explodes. I doubt it was a timer. Whoever did it wouldn't have had any idea of when or if we’d find the boat. There was no way for them to properly gauge the right time to make it go off,” Parker said. “Fuck! I wish I would have seen something that could have help us. There was something familiar about the cover sheet of that list. It feels like something I’ve seen before. But it was just a fax cover sheet with a picture of a nondescript flag up in the top right-hand corner. I don’t know why when I first looked at it I felt a sense of déjà vu. The papers didn’t even have Milo’s name on them. They were addressed to someone named Roberto.”

Garrett took his eyes off of the road for a moment to look over at Parker.

“Roberto Mils?”

Parker nodded. “Yeah, that was it. Why? Do you recognize it?”

Garrett swore under his breath and then explained who Roberto Mils was and how Brady had stumbled across that name. He told her the truth, how there was no record of Milo ever taking a domestic flight his entire life and his mother had coincidentally applied for visa applications to the Dominican right before she left Milo and his father. He even shared his concerns about everything they uncovered revolving around Parker and when she met Milo. Parker couldn’t help but stare at Garrett in amazement as he rattled off all their findings and admitted his fears. Garrett wasn’t the type of person who shared his feelings easily. The fact that he didn’t even hesitate to share all of this information with her showed her that professionally, he really did view her as an equal and not just someone he needed to protect.

He connected all of the dots for her. The day Lacie died was the same date Milo flew home from the Dominican, and within a few short months, they were running into Parker in a coffee shop. Milo, who had never been the kind of guy to settle down, immediately jumped at the chance to do so with Parker, almost to the point of obsession.

“I think we need to talk about Lacie again,” Garrett said softly.

Ever since Parker told him about her death, he had suspicions. He knew the CIA could be sketchy at times and did a lot of things off the books, but they would never kill an innocent college student just for being friends with a new recruit. At most, Parker would have been reprimanded for divulging the secret of her job. Garrett had figured once this mess was over and they were home, he could get to the bottom of what really happened to Parker’s one and only girlfriend. He never imagined it could have something to do with Milo. If Milo was connected in some way to Lacie’s death, it could also be conceivable that he had something to do with Parker’s father getting involved with the Capuano family. At this point Garrett just didn’t know what to believe anymore. He didn’t know who to trust or who the real enemy was, and it began to mess with his mind.

“You always assumed the CIA was responsible for Lacie’s death as a way to keep you in their pocket or show you what they were capable of, right?” Garrett asked.

Parker nodded her head, trying to focus on what Garrett was saying to her instead of dwelling on all of the secrets he’d just spilled about Milo’s timeline in her life.

“Every once in a while, when I was feeling particularly melancholy, I’d wonder if I misinterpreted things or let the fear I had for my father’s life cloud my judgment of what happened over the course of the week she was killed. But I never had any reason to act on those suspicions or to think what I believed wasn’t true. There was never any reason to doubt that the CIA would do whatever it took to get what they wanted. I mean, let’s face it, they aren’t exactly known as a touchy-feely, friendly organization,” Parker admitted as she pulled one of her legs up under her in the seat. “They dangled my father’s life over my head and basically told me to join them or his debts would eventually get him killed. And who knows what would have happened to me if they hadn’t paid for me to finish school? I got swept up into the romance of it all. I could save my father’s life and have all my money worries put to rest. All I had to do was sign on the dotted line,” Parker said softly with a shrug of her shoulders. “Anytime I got stuck in memories of the past and got pissed off about what happened to Lacie, all I had to do was wonder what would have happened to my father, or even myself if I said no to the CIA. It was better if I just didn’t think about it at all. Pretend like it never happened. There’s only so much anger a person can hold inside before they explode.”

Parker didn’t want to think about it, and she certainly didn’t want to go down memory lane and recall every detail of that dark time, but she knew it was necessary. If it was true, and she really did let her anger blur reality, she would need to amend every thought and belief she ever had about her employer.

“I think you know better than anyone that you can’t pretend like it didn’t happen. Something awful happened to one of your friends. Something that I know, deep in my gut, the CIA wouldn’t have done. And I think some small part of you knows that’s true, has always known that’s true,” Garrett told her, reaching across the console to brush Parker’s bangs out of her eyes and cup her cheek while they waited at a red light. “But it’s easier to blame something you can see and something you know, than to think there’s some faceless, nameless entity out there that wanted to do you harm. If you accepted it was the CIA, you had something to be angry at, someone to blame, a reason to work your ass off and make sure her death wasn’t in vain. If you let yourself go down the path of wondering who or what could be out there, trying to hurt you, it would've driven you crazy.”