Page 95 of Somebody's Watching Me
He let her lead, the heart in his chest bursting with pride as she bravely closed the distance between them and the water. With each step, a new sense of hope grew, until they were standing where the low waves lapped at the shore. The smile on his face matched hers, both of them a little out of breath and flushed from the rush.
“It’s too calm for it to be a serious storm.”
They stood holding hands while the other beachgoers departed, and he glanced down at her. “What do you mean?”
“If it were going to be bad, the gulf would be restless, and the waves higher,” she explained. “Those small little bumps in the water aren’t real waves.”
“Did your dad teach you that, too?”
She shook her head. “Selah surfs sometimes. I’ve heard he’s not good at it like Samuel and Liam, but he’s okay enough to give me some pointers when I added learning to surf to my list. Like what to watch for in the weather and how to use the different shifts in the wind to your advantage.”
He had yet to see this infamous list. A tally of all the things she wanted to experience. God help her if he ever got his hands on it. “You know, I surf and can keep up with Samuel. Sometimes when we’re both at the Houston offices and need to let loose after a shitty day, we would head down to the coast,” he said. “But that was before he got married. Now he doesn’t have time for it. The man cannot stand to be away from Evie and their girls.”
“Samuel is handling this whole thing with Zanmi better than I thought he would.”
Samuel wasn’t handling shit. And Rowan wasn’t taking the demands coming out of his mouth lightly. He counted Samuel as a friend. A good one. But what he wanted… money could only buy so much silence, and even then, there was no guarantee.
Yet standing here with a happy Annabeth, taking things to the extreme didn’t seem so far-fetched. She might not be under a direct threat, but getting caught in the crosshairs was a possibility, and Rowan couldn’t chance it. He couldn’t lose her.
As long as Toby was alive, the risk would remain. They would never stop.Zanmi. After reviewing all the data accumulated by the FBI, and analyzing everything Liam already knew, the hard truth was that these people were no longer in control of themselves.
At least the Bureau of Prisons agreed to place Toby in solitary until his transfer to ADX, with the only visitors allowed being either family—not happening—or his lawyer. But even with the move to ADX, it would never end.
Lying awake last night, Rowan made his decision after thinking the whole thing through. He would do as Samuel wanted and place the call to Killian. His brother would choose to become involved or not, but if he agreed, that would be it. Samuel would get what he wanted. The Fairweathers often skirted the law but were nothing compared to the McIntyres. His family’s reach and connections stretched deep into the underbelly of business, far into a world that not even Ben Fairweather would enter.
The gulf shot a stream of wind across the beach, and Rowan squinted against the sting of sand flying into his eyes. “Maybe you can be my new surfing buddy.”
“Let’s go in the water.” Annabeth’s toes curled in the sand. “Now. I want to go now.”
“Ma’am,” he drawled in a serious tone. “We are in our clothes.”
“So?” She bumped her hip against his thigh. “It’s not like you don’t own another set of black pants and a black T-shirt.”
She had a point. “But it’s cold.”
“So?”
“And we have to get back to the house.”
“So?”
They were grinning like two absolute idiots, and Rowan couldn’t ever recall feeling as he did now. Never in his life had he been so perfectly at peace. Even with all the shit happening, this moment would stay with him.
“Have it your way.”
Swooping down, he tossed her over his shoulder and stomped into the waves. Annabeth squealed and laughed hard enough to shake her entire body.
“Not too deep. I don’t want to drown.”
The water was cold as fuck, and he stopped when it reached mid-shin level on him. “Here you go.”
Sliding her down his body, he dropped her to stand. She whooped at the first touch of the icy salt water, holding his forearms as she danced and shivered in place.
“Maybe this wasn’t a great idea?”
He chuckled at her discomfort. “You think?”
“Don’t laugh! The water is freaking cold, and we don’t have any towels. When we get out that wind will freeze our wet parts.”
