A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(96)

“Parker, don’t do this. Can you honestly tell me that you trust him and everything he’s told us? We need to let Austin restrain him immediately and keep him in our custody until we can get him back to the states and he can be questioned properly,” Garrett argued.

“If you keep me here, Fernandez will know. He’ll pull together every single resource he has to get to you. As it stands, I’m the only one he’ll listen to. I can keep him at bay long enough for you guys to get what you need. If I don’t get back to that palace and head him off, there’s no telling what he might do to you or the girls who he still has control of,” Milo warned.

“So what you’re saying is if we don’t believe this bullshit story about how you’re trying to protect us and let you go scurrying back to Fernandez, people will die, including us,” Garrett said sarcastically. “Well isn’t that convenient for you.”

Time was running out and Parker didn’t know what to do. She just knew she couldn’t stand there and watch the two of them have a pissing contest. Parker had no problem gambling with her own life if it came down to it, but she would never put the lives of so many young girls, who had no idea what they were getting into, in jeopardy. If there was even a thread of truth to what Milo said, she had to do something.

“If that’s the case then you need to get back to the palace ASAP,” Parker said calmly.

“Will you listen to yourself?” Garrett shouted. “You’re doing it again. You’re letting yourself fall for his lies. We don’t have one shred of evidence that says he won’t go running back to Fernandez and help him kill us.”

Milo stepped closer to Garrett and pleaded with. “I let both of you down, and I know that. You have no reason to believe me when time and time again I let you down. Garrett, you were my best friend. My only friend during a time when no one gave two shits about me. Give me a chance to make this right.”

Parker moved to Garrett’s side to try and calm him down but he stepped away from her. She tried to hide the hurt she felt because she knew Garrett was in just as much turmoil.

Garrett saw the belief in Milo’s words written all over Parker’s face, and it opened up old wounds inside of him that he thought he had laid to rest. Once again, Garrett was on the sidelines watching his former best friend get the girl. Only this time she knew exactly how much Garrett loved her, but her choice was still the same.

“If you want to take his side, be my guest. But I won’t have any part of it,” Garrett told her.

“I’m not taking anyone’s side, Garrett,” Parker pleaded with him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and take away the hurt she knew he was feeling, but all of a sudden it didn’t feel appropriate. She was so confused by everything going on around her that she didn’t know what to believe. She wrung her hands together nervously as she looked back and forth between Garrett and Milo while they stared each other down. Regardless of the fact she no longer loved Milo, he’d still been her best friend at one time. She wasn’t a hundred percent certain she trusted everything he said, but she felt like she needed to give him a chance to prove what he said was true. She had never been the type of person to pass judgment on anyone, least of all the people she cared about. Garrett was wrong. She wasn’t falling for Milo’s lies. She just wanted to know the truth. And to do that, she had to show Milo she was willing to listen.

“I want to hear what else he has to say, what other information he can give us. If he really is who he says he is, he can get us what we need,” Parker explained, leaning her body closer to Garrett’s. “All of this can finally be over.”

Garrett knew nothing he said would change her mind. He knew they didn’t need Milo to nail Fernandez, but Parker didn’t trust that. She didn’t trust him and his team to do their job. She’d rather put her faith in a man who almost ruined all of them. Garrett felt like he’d been punched in the face instead of Milo. He was disappointed in Parker and disappointed in himself. Maybe Garrett was overreacting, maybe he was letting his emotions cloud his judgment, but hearing Parker say that all of this could finally be over made him wonder if she was including the two of them in that statement. He needed some distance. He needed to clear his head and let Parker do whatever it was she needed to. He would meet with the new SEAL team and take care of business on his own. He wasn’t a complete ass though; he wouldn’t let her do this alone. He would tell Brady that their team was now completely at Parker’s disposal.

With his decision made, Garrett began walking backwards away from her.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said, turning his back on her, rounding the corner of their villa, and disappearing from sight.

Parker watched him go, too pissed off to try and stop him. He claimed to trust her and to love her, but at the first sign of trouble or conflict he walked away.

“I’m sorry. I can’t say that enough,” Milo said quietly from behind her.

Parker had been staring after Garrett for so long she almost forgot he was there.

“You should be,” she told him as she turned around. “If you knew I was with the CIA, you should have known that I could help you.”

Milo shook his head. “I couldn’t tell anyone. I had strict orders. The less people who knew, the better our chances. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt you, Park.”