Page 78 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
“For once, this family’s inability to communicate like normal people worked to my advantage. No one told you. Not your dad, your brothers, Simone, the twins, and definitely not your sister. Evie was the most excited out of everyone.” He bit down on his bottom lip to suppress a smile. “And Tammy—”
“Not my Tammy.”
“Oh yeah. Tammy helped. Hillary did, too. The two of them got together and made a global spreadsheet of proposal locations.”
Jamison stared. “And you picked Paris.”
“I picked us.”
She pressed her lips to his, cradling the back of his head with one hand. “I love you.”
There it was. The hint of sadness in his eyes. It struck her like a knife because she knew exactly what was going on in his head. If she loved him, how could she have left? How could she have thrown them away and hidden what happened?
Pathetically enough, she didn’t have an answer. She hated herself and what she had done. Liam was the better man—the best man—for the forgiveness he’d shown, but she wasn’t so sureshe deserved it.
“When you two are finished making out, I’ve got something you need to see,” Rowan said, his war on the keyboard over. “Looks like we’re barking up the right tree after all.”
Chapter 17
The media room was packed again, everyone pressing in to see the screen. Rowan could toss the image up on the wall, but he suspected it might be too much for Simone. She sat to his left—Annabeth to his right—their hands intertwined across his lap.
“This picture of Bryan Carroll was taken at a casino in San Juan,” Agent Anderson began. He had provided the Bureau’s file on Carroll, including the photos. It wasn’t exactly protocol, but Rowan hadn’t questioned it, and Anderson hadn’t offered an explanation. “The men around him are his guards. And the young woman behind him—”
“CeCe,” Annabeth breathed. “That’s CeCe.”
The footage was grainy and dated, and the FBI had tried to clear it up, but they didn’t have his tools. Slowly, the image came more into focus and showed Bryan Carroll in a tailored suit and, with a smug grin, leading a procession through the casino’s glittering maze of slot machines. The crowd parted in their path, the photographs following the party as they exited the building. CeCe walked a few paces behind, no older than sixteen, her dress flashy, her smile bright.
“Since when do they allow kids into casinos?” Ben snapped.
“Carroll does what he wants,” Will said flatly. “That photo was taken during the peak of his operations. No one would have dared stop him.”
“Can you zoom in on the woman next to CeCe?” Bernie leaned forward, her hand resting on Simone’s shoulder for balance. “She has to be Brandy Carroll.”
A big, burly guard blocked the second young woman, and nothing but a slender arm could be seen in the front view. The next photo showed the group from behind as they were leaving, which was much of the same. All they could see was a sliver of the girl’s dress and the sweep of her long hair.
“Can we get this in color?” Liam asked. He already had the print pinned to the board in the corner, where he and Jamison stood studying it. “The time stamp’s missing. Is this before or after Charlie died? If CeCe’s with Bryan here, where is Toby? College?”
“Makes sense,” Will said, joining his son at the board. “Toby heads for college and leaves CeCe in the care of his girlfriend’s family. Who also happens to be cartel royalty.”
“Yeah, that tracks,” Jamison sighed. “CeCe never caught a break, trading one psychopath for another. Poor thing went from Charlie to Toby to this guy.”
“My brother wasn’t a psychopath.”
Silence fell, and everyone turned to Ben. He never defended Charlie Fairweather. Ever. As far as Rowan knew, the brothers weren’t close growing up or as adults, learning to hate one another more and more until their lives exploded into devastation.
“Charlie was a narcissist. He used people,” Ben continued. “But Toby got his twisted mind from our father, not Charlie.”
“Charlie loved his children,” Simone said, her eyes still on the photo. “He loved Rebecca. He loved Vivian in his own way.” She let go of Annabeth’s hand to reach for Ben’s. “We might have been kidding ourselves, but both Benjamin and I believe that when they first went to that island, Charlie probably tried to give the kids a good life.”
“You would be correct, Simone.” Will nodded over his shoulder at Anderson. “Tell them.”
Anderson pulled a file from his bag. “We went digging into Brandy Carroll’s school records, and while no one currently at the school was there during the years she and the Fairweather children attended, they were able to put us in touch with a teacher who taught all three of them in a science class.” Anderson handed the file to Liam. “The teacher wasn’t much help, but did say how involved Charlie was with Toby and CeCe. He was at every school event and every award ceremony, never missing any of it until Toby reached the high school years.”
Simone’s eyes dropped from the screen to her lap, tears welling. “Thank you, Agent Anderson. I needed that.”
“Was the teacher able to identify this Brandy person?” Taylor stood off to the side with her arms crossed and head tilted as she studied the photo of CeCe with everyone else. “Could she give you any idea of what she looks like?”
Rowan hadn’t volunteered information to Taylor about their investigation, leaving that completely at Ben’s discretion. But if asked, he wouldn’t lie and say he cared for her having access to certain details, like the connection between Brandy Carroll to Toby.
