A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire #1)(98)

“You’re absolutely right,” Milo said quietly, a serene look taking over his face. “I can’t lose focus. Not now. Not after everything I’ve done. Thank you for reminding me what I’m here for.”

Parker didn’t have any time to think about the way Milo worded his statement and no time to prepare for the needle that was quickly jammed into the side of her neck. As a syringe full of sedatives was emptied into her bloodstream, her last conscious thought before the world went black was that her time had just run out.





Chapter Twenty-One



By the time Garrett rounded the corner of the row of villas he’d managed to cool down somewhat. He was so lost in thought he ran right into Brady.

“Where’s Parker?” Brady asked as he picked up the cell phone he’d dropped when Garrett had come barreling around the corner.

“Talking to Milo,” Garrett growled. “What’s going on? Did you find out anything?”

Brady took a step past Garrett to peer around the corner and saw Milo and Parker talking in front of the Villa about a hundred yards away. Satisfied everything looked okay, he moved back in front of Garrett.

“I called a few of my contacts and word on the street is there was a very top secret, unofficial mission here in the Dominican involving someone from our SEAL division. It was an undercover operation that had been in place for at least six years. There was never a paper trail because it was not a government sanctioned mission, so we can only go by word of mouth at this point. About a year ago, critical information about the mission was leaked and supposedly, the undercover SEAL was compromised. According to the official reports, Milo was sent to the Dominican at that time to clean up a ‘routine mission that went awry.' At least seventy-five percent of the report is blacked out. There was definitely something in that report no one was supposed to know about. My contacts believe Milo was the undercover agent the entire time, and that the government needed to send him to the Dominican in an official capacity to solidify his cover as a double agent. Obviously the information they have wasn’t obtained legally, so they had to go through several channels to get it. I don’t have concrete evidence Milo is telling the truth, but I trust these guys, and they wouldn’t tell me something they didn’t believe to be accurate.”

Garrett paced back and forth in front of Brady and tried to make sense of everything he just learned. Garrett trusted Brady and if Brady trusted his contacts, Garrett had no choice but to believe the information he found, even if his gut was telling him something wasn’t right, that everything was falling too easily into place after weeks of hitting dead ends.

“So Milo was telling the truth,” Garrett muttered as he stopped his pacing. He didn’t expect an answer from Brady; he just felt the need to say the words out loud to see if it changed anything.

It didn’t.

“I decided to err on the side of caution anyway,” Brady explained. “Captain Risner sent us a few of the boys from SEAL Team four. I did some training with them early on in my career, and they are all good men. I currently have them stationed at the entrance of the resort. If Milo leaves, they’ll follow him. Vargas and Conrad are canvassing the area to make sure Milo came alone.”

Garrett went to reach into his pocket for his cell phone to get a status update from his men when he realized he still had Parker’s gun in his side holster from when he unarmed her. A feeling of dread washed through him when he realized he’d left her unarmed, alone with Milo.

“Shit,” Garrett cursed as he looked down at the gun and then quickly turned to go back to Parker. He stepped around the corner and stopped in his tracks at what he saw.

Across the lawn Parker’s back was to him. He couldn’t see her face, but he could clearly see her body pressed up against Milo’s and her arms around his shoulders. Milo had his face buried in her hair at the side of her neck and his arms wrapped tightly around her body as the two of them swayed slowly from side to side. The happy reunion made Garrett sick to his stomach, so he turned back around and realized Brady had come up behind him and was taking in the same tender scene across the way.

“This is a lot for her mind and heart to process all at once,” Brady tried to reason. “She’s been through a lot today, and I’m sure she’s just confused. Once things settle down and you two have time to talk it through―”

Garrett unholstered the gun, grabbing it by the barrel, and pushed the butt of Parker's weapon into Brady's chest so he would take it. “Don’t waste my time with your psychobabble bullshit. Make sure she gets her gun back and keep an eye on her.”

Garrett walked around Brady, pulling out his cell phone as he went.

“What are you going to do?” Brady called to Garrett’s retreating form.

“Burry that son-of-a-bitch,” Garrett responded.

Brady shook his head and sighed as he watched Garrett disappear from sight, wondering if he was referring to Fernandez or Milo.



<> ~ <>



Milo always felt out of place in life. He always felt like there was something better waiting for him just out of his reach. One day, eight years ago, he found out what that something was.

He had a father.

Not the man his mother had left him with that used him as a punching bag. He’d celebrated the day that * drove his car into a tree and felt an enormous amount of satisfaction that his life had been snuffed out.