Page 127 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
“Liam—”
“No, dammit, listen!” Liam shouted. “My woman is not in that van. I feel it in my fucking bones. She’s not there. She’s in Arkansas, or she will be. I’m not wasting time on a lead someone else can chase while I ignore what my gut is screaming.”
Ben came around to see what was happening, glaring at Rowan as Simone crowded his other side.
“Okay,” Rowan spoke evenly so as not to scare Ben or Simone. “Tell me what you need.”
“Private airstrips,” Liam exhaled. “I want a full list of all the private airstrips in northern Arkansas, starting with those closest to Eureka Springs.”
“You’ll have it in ten minutes.”
He hung up, moving around Simone to sit with his laptop while he waited for the barrage of questions to hit.
Simone was first. “What will he have in ten minutes?”
Ben didn’t give him a chance to answer. “Is he going after the van?”
“Sweetheart, I want you to write this information down for me,” Rowan addressed Annabeth first. She needed something to do. A quietness had come over her, and he had to keep her focused. “Do you have something to write with?”
“Um, yes.” Annabeth snatched a scrap of paper and a pen from her purse with a small tremor in her hands. “What is it?”
Will swept into the room, cutting through cops and agents. “They’ve got the van in sight and are on approach. I’ll call Liam, and he can meet us.”
“Liam isn’t going after the van.” Rowan began pulling everything he could. Commercial, private, and even the airstrips hidden from the public. Long patches of grass that were kept maintained for a variety of reasons. “Annabeth, I’m going to give you the names of possible landing spots, and I need you to write them down for Liam.”
Will dropped into a chair across from him. “Talk, Rowan.”
“When Liam lost visual on the van, he was north of here.” Rowan cracked his knuckles as the list began to populate. There were so many possibilities. “Past the Florida-Alabama border and in a rural area with a private landing strip. It wasn’t much, but enough to land a small passenger plane.”
Will grumbled, working through his thoughts. “But then the van shows up west of where he’s searching.”
“Silver Wings Field,” Rowan told Annabeth. “Trigger Gap Airstrip. Circle Farms Airstrip.”
Annabeth wrote as fast as she could. “How long does it take to drive to Arkansas?”
Sparing a glance at the GPS in the corner of his screen, he noted Liam’s location. Hauling ass through the state of Alabama, he was already nearing Birmingham. “About nine hours.”
“Let me recall the jets to get him there.” Ben sat next to Will. “The plane can meet him at a halfway point.”
“That would eat up more time.” Rowan shook his head. “Taking a plane should be faster, but if we calculate how long it takes to recall the jets, fuel up, get the pilots in… we’d be wasting hours.”
Holden pushed through the crowd of agents. “Evie is in a room. She’s good. Albie’s good. Samuel’s calming down. Josie and the girls are with them. Izzy’s at the door with agents and Abe. Carter is being seen by a nurse. He’s coming around and shouting for Liam. He heard some of what went down before they knocked him out.”
Having been locked in with the Fairweathers these last few weeks, Holden had learned how important it was to get as much conciseinformation out in one go. “Evie and Samuel don’t know what’s happening. I told them that no one is in there seeing Albie because you guys wanted to give them a private moment with the girls and Josie.”
“Thank you, Holden.” Ben ran a hand through this hair, musing it even more. “So, which way do we go? North or west?”
“Eureka,” Will whispered. “Son of a bitch.”
“Lost Bridge Airstrip,” Rowan said to Annabeth before addressing Will. “Liam thinks she’s in Eureka Springs.”
“She could still be in the van.” Will puffed out an exhale. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. Rowan, you stay on Liam’s theory. Guide him as best you can until we get back. Ben and I will handle the van. Anderson has a damn army chasing it, but I’m going to have Klausen begin coordinating with the teams in the Arkansas area.”
With a plan in place, Will and Ben rushed out, leaving Simone and Bernie holding each other in their wake. “Come with me to meet my new grandson, Bernie?” Simone was trembling so hard she could barely get the question out. “I can say my tears are because I’m happy, but I’ll slip. I know I’ll slip up and say something.”
“Of course, I’ll come.” Bernie rubbed Simone’s shoulder, leading her through the maze of agents and police. “We’ll do this together.”
“Eigsti Field,” Rowan read off. “It’s not technically an airstrip, but a small plane could land there.”
