A Beautiful Lie (Playing with Fire, #1)

by Tara Sivec

  Captain Risner managed to get a few messages to Garrett about Parker’s status, each one short and barely containing any real information.

  “She’s awake.”

  “She’s been transported to another hospital.”

  “She has a long road ahead of her.”

  Captain Andrews made sure Garrett knew just how grateful he should be that the Navy was allowing him to have even that little bit of information. They didn’t want Garrett to lose focus or forget his reason for joining the Navy in the first place. But most of all, they didn’t want anything to mess up one of the biggest scandals the Navy had ever been responsible for bringing to light.

  Luckily for everyone involved, the chaos the Dominican Republic was plunged into with the sudden knowledge of their President’s activities and the unclear line of succession since he was removed from his position as head of the country, negotiations were handled quickly and efficiently. The Dominican Republic wanted the “problem” removed from the country as fast as possible so they could begin to rebuild their crumbling government. Having the former head of their country right under everyone’s noses was just a reminder of the mistakes they made by turning a blind eye on his illegal activity. They agreed to allow Fernandez to be transported to the United States for a trial since they had more immediate stability issues that needed to be addressed.

  One week before the trial was scheduled to begin, Garrett was in a conference room with a representative from the Navy’s JAG office being prepped for testimony. Garrett was having a hard time concentrating since he knew today was the day Fernandez would be transported from the Dominican to a private corrections facility in California until the day before the trial. It was still hundreds of miles away from where he was, but having him on U.S. soil was enough to make Garrett feel murderous. An hour into the prep meeting and four ignored cell phone calls, the JAG officer finally excused himself to see who it was that kept calling.

  Several minutes later he returned to the room with a stunned look on his face.

  President Emilio Fernandez was dead. It came as a shock to the legal team, but not so much to the Navy SEALS who brought him down. They knew karma had a way of coming back to bite you in the ass.

  While awaiting transport at La Victoria, the largest prison in the Dominican Republic, Fernandez got what was coming to him. Word traveled fast, even in a third world country. Too many people knew what he did. Too many inmates, guards, and visitors wanted him to pay for what he’d done to their sisters, cousins, nieces…

  A riot broke out and chaos ensued. When the fighting was under control and the prisoners were all back in their cells, Fernandez’s holding area remained empty. His body was found within the hour. His head was no longer attached to his body, three of his fingers were sawed off with a crude instrument, and his testicles were stuffed down his own throat.

  No one mourned his death.

  The authorities turned a blind eye on the parties responsible.

  After a few chaotic hours and the rearrangement of testimonies, the trial went ahead as planned. All individuals accused of wrongdoing were found guilty and charged. It would be many years before any of them would see the light of day.

  Within fifteen minutes of leaving the courthouse, Garrett was handed back his military identification, weapon, and his cell phone. He immediately placed a call to Parker.

  After four rings a computerized message informed him that his call could not be completed as dialed because the number he was trying to reach was no longer in service.

  <> ~ <>

  Parker checked herself out of George Washington University Hospital six weeks after she got there with a promise to Olivia that she would call her as soon as she got settled. Parker conveniently didn’t tell her that she wouldn’t be going back to her condo in California, feeling like she didn’t need to divulge that type of information to her nurse.

  Her cell phone was confiscated by Agent Charles since it was property of the CIA, and she had no idea when or even if she’d resume her employment there. She programmed Olivia’s number into the new phone she ordered just to make the woman stop hounding her about it. As they said their goodbyes, Olivia raised an eyebrow and stared at Parker suspiciously, making her wonder if the woman knew Parker had no intention of ever calling it. Caring about someone, sharing secrets with them, relying on them, and letting them rely on you…it never seemed to work out very well for Parker. She decided then and there she would never make any more mistakes where friendship was concerned.

  As Parker’s plane touched down and she held onto the armrest with white knuckles, she remembered the flight into the Dominican. Garrett had tried to make her forget about her nerves by informing her they’d have to pretend to be husband and wife. The memory was bittersweet and made her chest ache.

  She refused to think any more about that now. Thinking about Garrett only made things worse. Parker winced as she pulled her small suitcase out from under her seat. The bullet wound in her side was healed, but any bit of movement made a dull ache form where the hole had been. She stood up, pressed her hand to her side, and followed the small handful of other passengers down the aisle. Parker tried to smile back at the pilot who stuck his head out of the cockpit to bid her goodbye on the way out the door of the small plane that had taken her on the second leg of her journey, but being in that place, knowing what she was about to face, made it impossible for her to even fake happiness.

  When she walked into the airport that morning and up to the counter to check-in, her palms started to sweat and grief began to overwhelm her. For the last few days, she did nothing but dream about sinking into her own bed in her own condo, turning off the lights, and ignoring the world around her for the.

  In a split-second decision she changed her flight plans.

  As she stepped out of the charter plane and made her way down the short set of stairs, she quickened her pace, trying to distance herself from the chipper words of airport security as they gave the same parting words to each and every flier.

  “Thank you for flying with us today! We hope you enjoy your stay in Manchester, Michigan!”

  <> ~ <>

  “I’m sorry, sir. No amount of yelling or harsh language is going to make me break the rules. Patient files are strictly confidential. Unless you are an immediate family member, I cannot give you the information you want.”

  Garrett had reached the end of his patience ten hours earlier when he kept getting the run-around about what hospital Parker was transported to after she left the Dominican. After seven phone calls and a poorly executed threat to beat the crap out of each and every person at CIA headquarters if they didn’t tell him what hospital Parker went to, Risner stepped in to help before Garrett got himself arrested.

  The most insane thing about the entire situation was that the entire time Garrett was locked away, unable to have any type of contact with Parker, she was closer than he ever imagined. Due to the high profile nature of the case, the trial was held in Washington, D.C., right around the corner from George Washington University Hospital.

  “As I’ve told you three fucking times already, she doesn’t have any family. I’m all she has. I need to find out where she is,” Garrett said angrily. “If you don’t tell me, I’m going to go up and down every single God damned hallway in this place and bang on every fucking door until I find her.”

  Garrett knew he was being an asshole. He heard the words as they left his mouth, but there was nothing he could do about it. He finally found out where Parker was, and now the Gestapo at the nurse’s station wouldn’t tell him what room she was in.

  Olivia stepped off the elevator in the middle of Garrett’s rant and walked over to her co-worker Rhonda in an attempt to help her out. They had to deal with angry family members from time to time; it was just part of the job. Olivia was always better at handling them than everyone else and the look of relief on Rhonda’s face as Olivia rounded the counter was evident.

  “Excuse me, sir? What seems to be t
he problem here?” Olivia asked as she removed her coat and clipped her ID badge to the front of her scrubs.

  “My name is Garrett McCarthy. I’m just trying to find out what room my girlfr…my frien…my….I just need to know where Annabelle Parker is,” Garrett stumbled.

  He felt like a fool. He didn’t even know what to call Parker. They’d been through so much together and everything changed between them in such a short time. They’d gone from best friends to lovers in the blink of an eye. He knew she loved him, but he had no idea if she still felt that way, if what she went through changed things, if his not being there for her these past two months changed everything. Garrett wouldn’t know anything until he saw her.

  “Rhonda, could you excuse us for a minute?” Olivia asked softly.

  Rhonda was more than happy to leave. Olivia watched her grab a clipboard and head to one of the patient rooms before turning to face Garrett.

  This was Parker’s mystery man. The one whose name she had called out in the middle of the night every single night. When Parker left the hospital two days prior, Olivia tried to get her to open up one last time and asked her about the man who haunted her dreams and caused her to wake up crying.

  Even through the quickly hidden pools of tears in Parker’s eyes and the wall that slammed down over her features, Olivia knew this man was special to Parker.

  “So you’re Garrett,” Olivia stated, looking him up and down. “Parker’s mentioned you.”

  Garrett let out a sigh of relief. At least he was finally getting somewhere.

  “She’s okay then? Where is she? Can I see her?”

  Olivia let out a small, forced laugh. “Slow down there, cowboy. I said she mentioned you. I didn’t say she wanted anything to do with you.”

  Olivia watched Garrett’s face fall and his shoulders slump in defeat. She felt a little bad about deceiving the guy and making him think Parker was still there. But she needed to make sure he was a good guy before saying anything. The look on Garrett’s face right now told her all she needed to know.

  “She didn’t really mention you. She cried out your name in her sleep. Every night,” Olivia told him.

  The anguish on Garrett’s face was heart-breaking.

  “I wanted to be here. It killed me not to be here,” Garrett replied sadly.

  “It killed her not having you here,” Olivia told him softly. “I’m not telling you this to make you feel worse; I just want you to know what state she’s in. Physically she’s doing well. She made a quick recovery considering the trauma she endured. But mentally, she’s struggling.”

  Garrett rested his palms on the counter and bowed his head.

  “I tried to be her friend. I did what I could to let her know I was there for her and she could talk to me, but I could never get through to her. Every day I watched her body get stronger while at the same time I watched her mind and her heart get weaker. I don’t know what happened to her, but I know it was bad. I know she feels insurmountable guilt about something and that it’s eating her alive. She was supposed to stay here for another week but she discharged herself two days ago.”

  Garrett’s head whipped up and he looked at Olivia questioningly.

  “Before you even ask, I have no idea where she went. She promised to call me when she got settled, but I haven’t heard from her yet.”

  Garrett closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and then reached across the counter to pull the nurse into a hug. He thanked her for being there for Parker when he couldn’t. He promised her he would take care of Parker even if she hated him now.

  With just one phone call to Brady as Garrett made his way down the elevator he was able to find out exactly where she was headed. Thankfully, his best friend always used the same passwords for everything. Brady was able to hack into her credit card information within seconds.

  <> ~ <>

  Parker should have been exhausted after the day she had: a one hour flight from D.C. to New Jersey, then a three-and-a-half hour flight from New Jersey to Manchester Township, and finally an hour drive in a rental car to the house. As she stood in the middle of the living room staring at the lounge chair in the corner, she didn’t feel exhausted. She just felt numb.

  Subconsciously she knew what she had been doing wasn’t healthy. She knew trying to bury the memories and the pain was only going to make things worse. Every ounce of grief, anger, guilt, and shock piled themselves on top of her day after day, hour after hour, until she felt like the weight would crush her. Week after week, sitting in the back of those post-traumatic stress groups, she heard the counselor instruct everyone that if they didn’t talk about what was wrong, if they didn’t face their fears and confront their demons, the nightmares would never go away.

  So now she stood alone in the house of her childhood facing the first nightmare. Almost everything in the house had changed since she’d last been there: new couch, new carpet, new paint on the walls, different appliances, and a big screen television mounted above the fireplace. The only thing that remained the same was the chair, her father’s favorite chair. It looked as if someone sat in it one more time it would crumble into a pile of rubble on the floor.

  The air smelled faintly of her father’s cologne and lemon furniture polish, the same smells she would always attribute to this house.

  Parker walked slowly over to her father’s chair and sat down. It seemed like a lifetime ago since she sat on her father’s lap and watched scary movies with him in this chair. Considering everything that happened in her life since she had left home, it almost was the span of an entire life.

  The guilt overwhelmed her when she thought of all the wasted years she spent being angry at her father. If she would have only been a bigger person and tried to contact him at some point maybe it would never have come to this, sitting in the empty house of her childhood, mourning a man she knew nothing about.

  Parker leaned back into the chair and let the well-worn fabric and soft cushions envelop her. She looked to her left and saw a framed photo of her mother from her wedding day―the same picture her father had hugged to his body and silently wept over for months after her mother had died. Parker reached over and lifted the eight by ten frame off of the end table to bring it closer. The action caused an envelope that was propped up against the frame to fall flat onto the table. Parker rested the frame in her lap and picked up the envelope. In her father’s small, block-lettered print was her name.

  Parker’s breath caught in her throat, and she blinked back tears as she ran her fingertips over her name. She quickly turned the envelope over and ripped it open.

  Dear Annabelle:

  If you’re here in the house and you’ve found this letter, I’m either dead or hell has frozen over. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess I’m dead.

  Parker laughed through her tears at her father’s blunt words.

  You know I’m not good with stuff like this, but you deserve answers. So I’m going to give them to you. I made so many mistakes where you were concerned. I look back at my behavior after the funeral, and I’m ashamed. When I realized what I’d done and that I needed to do everything I could to make you forgive me, there was a leak in the CIA and Fernandez found out I was the one who’d been handling the case to try and bring him down. The only thing I could think about was how to keep you safe. He knew I had a daughter and that we were estranged. I knew if I tried to contact you at all, Fernandez would know and he would turn his focus on you as a way to get to me. I depended on Fernandez believing I hated you so he could never use you that way. In my obsession to keep you safe, I truly believed coercing you to join the CIA would be the best option. It would give you the absolute best connections and Fernandez would know that if he did anything to harm you, a CIA agent and the daughter of the man in charge of his case, he would be the first person they would blame. The photos you were given of me all beat to hell? Those cuts and bruises were courtesy of Fernandez’s men, not the Capuano mob. We knew that showing you those pictures
and coming up with a story about me being in debt was the only way to make you believe I was truly in danger. I’m so sorry for all of the lies. I’m sorry for bringing you into a life you never wanted. I hope you know it was always, ALWAYS to protect you.

  I want you to know, I was never far away. I watched you grow into the amazing woman you are now from afar so it never endangered you. I was at your college graduation, I saw every photo you ever took, and I reviewed the notes from every mission you were involved with. You have made me so proud, Annabelle.

  When the notes came across my desk that you were assigned to the Fernandez case, I panicked. Never in a million years did I ever think you’d be put on the same case and led right to him. I suddenly realized that bringing you into the CIA never protected you at all. It only gave Fernandez more access to you and insider information on the CIA’s investigations.

  As soon as I found out, I demanded to get back on active duty and began putting all of my time into researching Fernandez. Just yesterday we uncovered information about Milo that made us believe he is still alive and working for Fernandez. I knew you were in the Dominican to find out what happened to Milo. I have to warn you. I refuse to let anything happen to you. My flight to the Dominican leaves in two hours so if this letter is in your hands right now, I won’t feel bad at all about dying so long as you’re safe.