Page 74 of Somebody's Watching Me
Flopping to her side, she wrinkled her nose at him. “You’re so mean.”
“The truth hurts.”
More than he would ever understand.
“Shouldn’t you be downstairs with your mom? Isn’t that why you’re here?” she asked. “Stop bothering me and go check on her.”
“I’m here to check on you too, butthead. And remind you to take it easy on Liam. He’s terrified that something could happen to you.”
“Somethingdidhappen to me.”
He went quiet. As the good son, the Fairweather dark nature she shared with Samuel and her father held no place in Selah. Perhaps it was because he was the oldest, or maybe because he was so much likeSimone.
But a flicker of it shone in his brown eyes. A spark of menacing disquiet that would only find peace once it sunk its teeth into an enemy.
“Samuel is about to lose his damn mind, and part of me is scared of what he’ll do if backed into a corner,” Selah said at last. “He can keep calm in front of Evie and the girls, but on the inside, he’s in full freak out mode.”
“That’s no surprise.”
“He’s been good about letting the feds handle things, but that was when Liam was feeding him information. With him out, these last couple of months have been hard, and Sammy is rea—“
Damn all the Fairweather men in existence.
Past, present, and future.
“You knew!” She yanked the pillow out from under his head to whack him with it. “You knew Liam quit!”
Selah held his arms up. “Why do you have to be so violent?”
Jamison fell back and smushed the pillow over her face to scream into it. “You all suck!”
Knowing she would forgive him in a minute, Selah curled in close, ready to gossip. “Speaking of sucking. What’s up with Annabeth and Rowan? Please tell me you were shocked because I was shocked. I knew they were friends, but I had no idea they werefriends.He’s not her type at all.”
“Rowan is everyone’s type.” She tossed the pillow aside. “You should see the way the women at work fight over him.”
“I’d believe it. When I came in, Liam and Rowan were setting up in the media room, and Annabeth was hovering in the doorway like she was in a trance. When I asked her what she was looking at, she got all defensive, and Rowan got all smiley.”
Ugh, she really wanted to help them get everything sorted, but her pride was keeping her upstairs. That and she was still embarrassed over what went down at breakfast.
“Can you believe I have to have him with me anytime I leave the house?” She would not smile. “Like all the time?”
“Yeah, so that look of like total happiness on your face right now? It doesn’t exactly give the impression that you’re upset about having to hang out with him constantly.” Selah squealed when she went on the attack again. “Stop hurting me! I’m just saying work on your facial expressions if you’re going to lie to him and yourself!”
She took a nap and woke up surprised. Naps were not her thing. They were for people who didn’t have stuff to do, and shealwayshad stuff to do.
Getting out of bed, she made it up nicely, creating a goal not to get back in it until late tonight. She felt stale, with an overall yucky feeling hanging on, and hopped into the shower for a quick sprinkle off. After finishing, she slathered on a face mask, and went to sit naked at her vanity to examine the fading marks on her upper chest.
Running fingers over each blue and yellow blemish, she was thankful they looked worse than they felt. The bite mark on her bottom lip was still present but already healing nicely, and she grazed her fingertips over the cut.
I’ll be seeing you.
“No, you won’t.”
It was time to learn more about Michael Sinclair.
A late afternoon breeze fluttered through the open balcony door, dancing with the sheer curtain panels. Simone must have snuck in while she was asleep and opened them to allow for some fresh air, but it made the room cold. Tossing on some leggings and a sweatshirt, she went to her desk, and powered up her laptop. Above everything else, research was her thing, and she was about to research the hell out of Michael Sinclair.
Unfortunately, every article she came across said the same thing with varying degrees of support or opposition. Some called him a visionary who fell off the path of greatness when he began engaging in domestic terrorism. Others claimed him to be nothing more than a mentally unstable veteran who developed a jaded outlook after coming home from his last tour of duty in 2019.
