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Milo said nothing He stood where he was and stared down at histo figure her out, trying to decide if the things she’d said were real or just a way to ease her guilty conscience for ruining his life She tried so hard the past few years to make him believe that his father was a bad man She tried to convince him that he should leave the Dominican and never look back He knew she was just jealous, jealous of the connection he had with his father that she would never have She let him dohen he was a child, abandoned him and never looked back Never once did she check to make certain he was safe, that he was taken care of His father at least kept an eye on him Sure, he allowed Milo to be kicked around by a step-father who hated hi man He used his contacts to make sure he was accepted into the military, to make sure he was offered a role as a Navy SEAL so one day he could join his organization and stand at his right hand His father loved him His mother left him

"Well, now that one problem is out of the way, how about we uard by the door The man pulled a phone out of his pocket and made a call Several minutes later, a button was pressed and the call was placed on speaker phone for all to hear

"Juan, are things secured?" Fernandez spoke loudly so the man on the phone could hear him

"Si, Mr Presidente," the voice replied over the line

"How about you put our friend on the phone?" Fernandez asked with a s and a faint moan came from the speaker before a weak, raspy voice came on the line and wheezed a demand

"What the hell do you want, Fernandez?"

Garrett watched the color drain froo to her He wanted to wrap his arms around her and tell her not to worry, tell her not to lose hope no matter what she sahat she heard He wanted to take away all the fear and anguish he could feel radiating from her from across the room He never wanted to hear the terror in her voice when she choked out that one word into the rooh for the speaker phone to pick up

"Dad?"

Chapter Twenty-Four

Parker knew her father’s voice as soon as the first word left his h they’d only spoken to each other for all of five minutes in the past twelve years, she’d know her father’s voice anywhere, even when it was raspy froish from pain medication And yet she still felt the need to voice her question out loud just towas real, totricks on her She should have known by the smirk on Fernandez’s face that this was no trick

"Annabelle? Sweetie, what’s going on? Are you okay?"

Fernandez clapped his hands together in glee before Parker could answer her father

"Oh isn’t this family reunion just lovely?" he exclai You should thank Milo for this moment He lost his concentration and the bullet that was supposed to go through your father’s head only went through his back"

Parker’s eyes darted to Milo’s, and he actually had the decency to look e to do with the fact that he’d tried to kill Joe and everything to do with disappointing his father

"I’ain," Milo assured hie before as she had when she stared at Milo This person she’d let into her life and into her heart was a monster, a cold-hearted, vileof hope she still harbored that ood in hiot

Parker wanted to screas that held her in place so she could kill Milo with her bare hands, but she knew that wouldn’t get her anywhere Asher to end his sad, et them out of this basement alive, and it most certainly wouldn’t ensure that Fernandez went down for his crimes As much as it killed her to do so, she had to remain calm She had to let this play out

"Juan, would you be so kind as to give us a status update on our friend?" Fernandez spoke in the general direction of the cell phone his guard held out towards him

"I was able to persuade the nurse we spoke of to call a code blue on Agent Parker here She was reluctant until I reminded her that her niece was still in our employ and could easily be terminated from her ith us She was all too happy at that point to do as I asked The code blue was called when aso my men only had to take out one other nurse and an intern I borrowed the intern’s hospital scrubs and identification and the nurse inforent Parker that they couldn’t enter the rooency I entered the room while she stood just outside the door with the men, and after several ent Parker The guards are now scraure out what should be done now that their assignent Parker’s IV perked hi under heavy sedation for so many hours"

Garrett and Parker both listened to the explanation of how anyone could have possibly got anywhere near Joe with equal parts shock and anger He was supposed to be safe in the hospital It should have been the one place where Fernandez’s far-reaching arms couldn’t penetrate They had been fools to underestiood," Fernandez replied "I assume ill only have a few moments before someone realizes they need to see the body for verification purposes, so we’ll uard who held Garrett’s aro"

It was obvious the guards and Milo were unaware of whatever Fernandez had planned at this point They all looked at hiuard beside him spoke softly "Do you think that’s wise?"