Page 107 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
“Oh, that’s hilarious,” Michael shot back, sounding slightly winded as if he were jogging. “You’ve become what you hate the most.Me. Desperate to destroy anyone—even innocent people—who might threaten to harm the woman you love.”
“You don’t love Jamison.”
“I wasn’t talking about Jamison.”
Liam straightened, the manic smirk on his face blooming into a terrifying smile. “I know. But thanks for confirming.”
In the background, Madison’s scream pierced the line. “I want my mommy! Please let me have my mommy!”
The desperation in Madison’s voice resonated deep in Jamison, and she covered her mouth to hold back a sob. If she could crawl through the phone to get to her, she would.
And unfortunately, as Madison’s screaming continued, the growing sound carried through the closet door to those standing just beyond it.
“Is that him?” Evie burst into the small space to savagely manhandle the phone from Liam, who gave it up without much of a fight. “Is this the sick son of a bitch that came after my babies?”
Madison cried out again, a little further away this time, as if she were fleeing from Michael. “Madi?” Evie screamed, turning a deathly shade of white. “Madison!”
Appearing behind his wife, Samuel plucked the phone out of her hand. “Listen to me, Sinclair, because I’m only going to say this once.” He kept his tone even, that lethal calm of his saturating every word. “You came to our homes. You tried to take my wife. You tried to hurt my girls. All of which makes you a dead man walking, but I want you to understand one very important thing.”
Holden jerked his chin at Liam, gesturing for him to shut Samuel up, but Liam remained where he was, nodding in agreement as Samuel kept talking.
“I plan to teach you what it means to suffer. I plan to see your band of freaks suffer, and most of all, I plan to see your family suffer,” Samuel spat out. “Fairweathers excel at inflicting as much pain as possible, and I’ll not only play witness and construct your demise, but I will have your screams before we’re done. I will hear you beg. I will hear you beg for those you love, and then I’ll pull the trigger, anyway.”
Madison’s crying tapered off into whimpers, with Michael shushing her soothingly. “Madison, tell them you’re okay.”
“I’m okay.” Madison’s sniffles echoed around them. “Can I go see my mommy now?”
“Yeah, I think you’ve earned some time with her.”
There was more shuffling, with Madison’s laughter growing distant.
“I won’t ask you to show mercy to my family,” Michael said after a lengthy pause. “I’ve seen the way you treat your own and how much damage you can do, so why would I think you’d be capable of something so basically human as showing mercy to strangers.”
Samuel sneered at the phone. “I don’t know what the fuck you mean.”
“I do,” Liam said. “But I can’t figure out the Arkansas connection. Parker, maybe? He was a plant the whole time, or did you guys lure him after he and Claudia hooked up?”
“Put that big brain to work, Cohen, and figure it out,” Michael replied. “I’ll be waiting.”
The line went dead.
“What did he mean?” Jamison asked.
She didn’t get an answer. Will shoved his way inside, making the closet well and truly cramped. Her father had it remodeled while living at Haven House with her mother, needing the extra room for all his suits. But even with it being as large as it was, she had gone out of her way to fill it and regretted that fact when Holden backed into her wedding gown, nearly knocking it from where it hung.
“Are we right?” Will whispered to Liam.
Liam held a finger to his lips and nodded. The reply didn’t seem to be what his father wanted to hear if Jamison was judging his facial expression correctly.
Will gave a curt nod. “I’ll go get the jammer fired up so we can tell Anderson and Klausen.”
“Try to convince them not to speak to their teams until we say so.”
“They’re going to want a time frame,” Holden said. “You can’t just drop a bomb and expect them not to move on it.”
Liam thought for a minute. “Ask for an hour.”
Will left without another word, and they waited, expecting Liam to tell them what was happening. Or at least Jamison did. She was completely lost and didn’t understand what was going on.
