A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(90)

“It’s okay. You can put it away,” she told Garrett softly.

Garrett stared at Parker, checking her face for any signs of panic or fear. All he saw was a healthy dose of shock which he was sure mirrored on his own face as well.

He slowly lowered his arm and slid his gun into the holster in the waistband of his jeans, safely secured against his lower back. He watched as Parker crossed her arms in front of her, and he could see the muscles in her forearms constrict as she squeezed them tightly, trying to physically hold herself together.

“What are you doing here, Joe?” Parker asked.

He winced at her use of his first name and had to stop himself from scolding her like a child. She wasn’t a child anymore. She was a beautiful, intelligent young woman who he shut out and pushed away. He had done everything he could since then to make up for it, did everything in his power to make sure she was safe. It didn’t make up for all of the hurt he caused her, though, that much he knew.

“I haven’t heard one word from you in over twelve years. And now suddenly you show up at my doorstep in the middle of the Dominican Republic like it’s no big deal? You have no right to be here. No right to have anything to do with me,” she fumed.

Garrett had immediately recognized the man as Parker’s estranged father as soon as he’d opened the door. Not long after they’d met, Garrett had found a box of old photographs she’d shoved in the trunk of her car when he had gone in there to grab her spare tire.

He wanted more than anything to cross the threshold and punch Parker’s father in the face for the torment he put her through over the years. If he learned anything over the last few weeks it was to let Parker fight her own battles. She deserved this showdown with her father, even if it was at the most inopportune time.

“Look, sweetie–”

It was Parker’s turn to wince. That was twice in the span of a few minutes that he used the nickname from her childhood. She wasn’t that same, gullible child anymore, and he couldn’t just show up here out of the blue when she was in the middle of an assignment. His presence could mess up everything.

“Don’t!” Parker shouted. “You don’t get to use that name for me anymore. Tell me what the f*ck you’re doing here and then get the hell out.”

Garrett almost felt sorry for the man. He’d been on the receiving end of Parker’s anger enough times to know how much her words could sting. His sympathy was short lived, however. He knew what her father did to her, and the scars he left by his actions almost hadn’t healed. He’d have to do a lot of groveling and ass kissing to even begin to fix things with Parker. And even then, Garrett wasn’t sure Parker would ever fully be able to forgive him or trust him.

“I’m not proud of the way I treated you or the way I behaved after your mother died. If I could go back and change everything, I would do it in a minute. I hope you at least believe that. I know that I’m the last person you want to see right now, but I told them I had to be the one to tell you,” Joe explained with years of regret etched into his face.

The muscles in Parker’s jaw clenched, and Garrett knew it was taking everything in her not to lash out at him again and slam the door shut in his face.

“Tell me what? And who’s them?” Parker asked in confusion.

Garrett was equally puzzled by what Joe had said and tore his gaze away from Parker so he could focus on Joe and why he was there.

“You’re in danger, sweetie,” Joe said, completely ignoring her previous admonishment of using the nickname. “I never worked for the Manchester Township Police Department. I’ve been an agent with the CIA for thirty-five years. My team was in charge of the Fernandez file for a majority of that time. I made a lot of enemies over the years in Fernandez’s camp. Enemies that would do anything to stop us from finding out the truth about what goes on over here,” Joe explained in a rush of words and hand gestures. “When they found out who I was, and that I had a daughter, you became their prime target in order to get me to stop digging. You were recruited into the CIA because of me. I begged them to bring you in. I knew you would never let me personally do anything to protect you, but I hoped that by learning how to protect yourself and by being involved with the organization you could shield yourself from harm if anything ever happened to me. That you’d be safe. Never in a million years did we ever think Fernandez would go this far to get to you. The man who you-”

Joe’s frantic speech was immediately cut off and the fierce look on his face was replaced with one of shock.

Parker’s arms dropped to her sides as her father stared at her in confusion, his mouth opening and closing like a fish gasping for its last breath. She took a tentative step towards him, wondering briefly if he’d become mentally unstable in the years they’d been estranged. It was shocking enough to see him standing on the other side of the door when Garrett opened it, but to hear him spouting off all of that nonsense about how he worked for the CIA had almost been too much. Parker was ready to tell him to stop talking about such ridiculous things and ask him if his shrink was traveling with him before he suddenly stopped on his own.

“Dad? Are you okay?” Parker asked. Was it possible for someone’s brain to short circuit, to be so overloaded with fabrications that it just couldn't handle the stress of keeping it all straight anymore?

Joe didn’t say a word. He just continued his dead fish impression and then stumbled forward into the room. Parker and Garrett both lunged towards him when they saw he was falling. His hands smacked down onto Parker’s shoulders, and he became dead weight in her arms, forcing her legs to buckle and her arms to go around his waist as they both went down. Parker landed roughly on her knees, wincing in pain just as Garrett got to her and wrapped his strong arms around Joe’s chest in an effort to get his weight off of her. Parker was repeating Joe’s name over and over and continued to ask him what was wrong as Garrett slid his arm around Joe’s chest, his other hand touching something sticky and wet when he placed it on Joe’s back. Garrett pulled his hand away and stared down at it and was horrified to see it coated in blood.