Page 40 of Our Lips Are Sealed
“Yes sir, I’m texting you the hotel details,” a woman’s clipped voice replied. “They’re staying in the French Quarter.”
“Make a reservation at the same hotel for tonight under my name,” Samuel said, glaring at Liam while he spoke. “And book two rooms.”
Liam didn’t dare speak until he and Samuel had been on the road for a solid hour, spending his time texting his father and Hawkins. “It would have been faster to take the Aventador.”
“If I want your opinion, I’ll ask for it.” Samuel drove his SUV at a breakneck pace, defying numerous traffic laws as they headed west. “Have your badge ready in case we get pulled over.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
Besides, Liam didn’t even have his badge.
When Abe discovered the girls were gone, he called Liam during the interview because he couldn’t get a hold of Samuel, and there had been no time to grab anything. He had his gun and phone. That was it.
“When we find them, you’re going to explain to Evie how much I was against keeping the information about Hopper and the Miami murders from her.”
“It was for the best.”
“Was getting involved with Jamison for the best?”
“I didn’t touch her.”
Samuel’s eyes briefly slid from the road over to Liam. “At no point did I buy into that bullshit excuse you gave back at the house. You’re in this car because of her.”
They were traveling well over a hundred miles an hour, and Liam wasn’t about to risk pissing Samuel off further by lying. “I said I didn’t touch her, not that I didn’twantto touch her,” Liam said. “But wasn’t that the plan? Throw her in my face so I don’t ask too many questions?”
“Don’t look at me. That was all Simone’s idea,” Samuel replied, zooming past the Florida-Alabama border. “She’s the Machiavelli of the family and can even put my father to shame with her manipulations.”
“Well, it fucking worked.”
“And that is why you’re in this car. I want to talk to Evie alone, and you’re here to distract Jamison.”
Liam highly doubted Samuel would have talking on his mind when he finally found Evie. Every time Liam had been around them together, the pair came off as nothing but a volatile powder keg of sexual tension ready to explode.
“Jamison was pretty upset when she left the townhouse last night. I don’t think she’ll want to have anything to do with me.”
“And if she does?”
Liam didn’t answer.
Because he didn’t know.
Well, he did know, but he didn’t want to follow that line of thinking.
Not yet, at least.
“How did you recognize the psych evaluation questions?” he asked, looking for a different topic.
Confused, Samuel scowled at him. “What?”
“In the interview, I only managed to get two of them in before you caught on.”
“Josie forced me to talk to a psychologist after my mother died. She made my dad sit in on a few sessions, and the doctor went after him with the same type of questioning. Things went downhill from there.”
“Family therapy sessions are never fun, especially when it involves trauma.”
“Speaking from experience?” Samuel asked, knowing the question would hit Liam where it hurt the most. “Come on, Cohen. I showed you my cards, and now it’s time to show me yours. We’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”
“A quick internet search will tell you everything you want to know,” he replied, hollow from discussing the topic so much. Friends, colleagues, the whole damn world it seemed, wanted to hear the gory details since his father refused to discuss it publicly. “My dad went after the bad guys and, somewhere along the way, became their pin-up girl.”
