Page 12 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
“Because the man on that stand wasn’t my Toby.”
And with that, the monster returned. Hungry and desperate to inflict pain. “You’re right. That Toby is dead. You killed him.”
“And you killed CeCe.” Folding her hands in front of her on the table, Simone stared straight at Toby. “So, I guess that means we’re even.”
“Do you ever feel guilty?” Toby smirked. “Have you ever once thought that if you hadn’t thrown us away like garbage, none of this would have happened?”
“Every day,” Ben answered without hesitation. “Is that what you needed to hear?”
“I think so.” Toby released a long, trembling exhale. “Yes.”
“Tell us why, Toby.” Simone’s tone changed, coming off as if she were scolding a child who had misbehaved. “Why did you send those women to the house to hurt us?”
“If they came to the house, they wouldn’t have hurt you.” Toby grinned, the evil darkness fading. “Like Jamison said, they wanted to find pieces of my life. They miss me and—”
“Look at me,” Simone hissed, her demand shutting Toby right the hell up. She pulled the laptop closer, giving him a clear view of her facial bruising. “They beat me. They beat Annabeth. They tried to kidnap Jamison.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Toby paled, his bewilderment growing. He glanced back at the guards standing stoically behind him. “What the hell happened?”
“Why don’t you ask what they did to Evie?” Simone continued. “Why don’t you ask what those women did to her and her little girls? Ask what they did when they broke into their home with machetes. Did you know they wanted to cut the baby she was carrying out of her? Did you tell them to do it?”
Just as they had practiced, Simone’s voice rose with every question, higher and higher, until she sounded hysterical.
“Evie!” Toby tried to stand but didn’t get far, thanks to the restraints. “Let me see you, Evie!”
They waited, allowing him to scream himself into a frenzy. The guards had been warned not to interfere, and the four men appeared to be upholding their end of the deal.
“She’s not here,” Ben said, watching impassively while Toby thrashed like a maniac in his chair. “You will never see Evie again. She’s gone, Toby.”
Something broke inside Tobias Miller. His screams splintered into wails and incoherent pleas. If it were any other man, Rowan would have said they were witnessing someone’s soul shattering, but being that itwas Toby, it was indescribable. There was no soul to shatter, no heart to break. The person raging on the other side of the camera was barely human, and comparing his response to that of a normal person wasn’t possible.
“She suffered,” Simone said, pretending to battle tears. “Evie suffered just like you wanted.”
“No!” Toby screamed, heaving rough drags of air into his lungs. “She fucking promised not to hurt her.”
The entire room went still.
She.
Shepromised not to hurt her.
Dr. Cohen and Liam had quietly been tossing theories back and forth between them. Rowan had overheard a few, and all held a similar theme—a woman. Babies and families tended to fall into the female’s line of thinking, while males were merely the tools to acquire what they wanted.
Goosebumps skated down Rowan’s forearms, and he double-checked his system to ensure they were recording without issues. The Cohens would likely watch this footage on repeat for days.
“Here we go,” Liam whispered to the screen. “Give us something, you piece of shit.”
Already versed on how to continue if Toby revealed anything, Ben and Simone showed no outward reaction.
“Who?” Ben asked gently. “Who promised?”
Dropping his head to the prison table, Toby slammed his forehead repeatedly on the hard surface. The prison laptop he was using jostled from the impact, causing the video to flicker, but Rowan wasn’t worried. The feed would hold. His days of thinking Zanmi was a threat of the highest level to a home or business were gone. Thinking like that wasn’t good enough. Since the night the women came, he had begun implementing security measures capable of protecting a small country. Humans weren’t to be trusted. Outside flows of information were never permitted past his defenses. He had become paranoid, and he wasn’t about to stop until they took every last one of them out.
“No! No! No!” With every scream of denial, Toby slammed his face against the table. Red sprayed across the linoleum, and when he lifted his head again, blood trickled from his nose in a heavy flow, covering hismouth and teeth as he screamed. “Say you’re lying. She promised. Say you’re lying!”
Behind him, the dining room door opened, and Rowan didn’t need to turn to see who was silently slipping into the room. It had taken some pleading from Liam, but Samuel finally relented, agreeing to this scheme.
“Who promised?” Simone tried again, taking on a motherly tone. “Talk to us, boy. You know you can talk to us.”
