Page 26 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
And damn it, it had been a good plan. The closet had a camera, yes, but like the bathrooms, it had a code that would provide her with two-minute intervals of blackout so she could change in private.
Liam had thought she was crazy, and she should have listened. Wedging themselves behind the clothes in case the camera came back on before they were finished, she quickly learned that the shoe cabinet they tried to use for balance wasn’t as sturdy as it looked.
“It was worth it,” she said, even though they hadn’t done anything. Just a little kissing and nothing more. “But Annabeth replaying the footage on repeat is getting old. How was I supposed to know the cameras have thermal and night vision?”
Rowan and Annabeth were suffering from the same lack of privacy as them and found the partial collapse of her closet and the reason behind it hilarious.
“Don’t forget the facial recognition software.” Liam grinned. Today really had been a good day, and seeing him happy was such a contrast to the cold and calculating man who had been prowling around Haven these last few weeks. “That’s going to be a huge help if Zanmi ever shows their asses here again.”
“We learned a bunch, didn’t we?”
His smile grew until it took over his entire face. “If Toby is telling the truth, which there’s a high probability that he’s not, but if he is, this whole woman being the driving force behind their baby plan coincides with a theory my dad and I have been stuck on.”
“Toby’s group has never really had a high regard for women, but you think they’re letting one run the show?”
He had her across the room and on the couch in another dizzying move. Flat on her back, she giggled when he laid on top of her. “William!” she whisper-shouted as he shooed away a cat who came over to investigate. “Everyone saw that!”
“And everyone has been lecturing me to rest, so I’m resting.” Dropping all his body weight on her, he shifted his hips slightly, rubbing a very erect body part against her thigh. “To answer your question, yes. I think a woman might be running the show. Sinclair would never care about a plan to have Fairweather babies, but a woman—a woman who is obsessed with Toby—might be. Especially if he’s led her to believe they had a relationship.”
“Then how does Michael work into all of this?” she asked, but remembered what Bernie said. “He worked for him! You’re thinking that if this Brandy person is real, and Sinclair gave up bombing to go private for someone, it would have to be for an individual who, like, I don’t know, works in the shadows.”
He chuckled at the description. “When you give Evie her Oscar for acting, make sure you give one to me and my dad. The whole Bryan Carroll thing checks all the boxes, but we had to be careful not to let on what we were thinking.” Tracing her lips with his finger, he groaned when she nipped at it playfully. “Anderson has two new guys I don’t know, and my trust… it’s not there. Not yet.”
“But you trust Anderson?”
The excitement in his eyes dimmed. “After my dad shot Mayhew, Anderson was the one who came in and took over. He protected my parents, so none of it touched them until it absolutely had to. He gave us time to heal, and I think my mom is doing as well as she is, partly because of how hard he fought to give her that peace. He also kept the whole media circus away.”
Laying a hand on his cheek, she tried to get him to smile again. “Anderson sounds like a good man, which makes me doubt he’s related to us, but if he is, then I guess we have more family.”
The joke worked, and he smiled down at her. “Because that’s something we needed. More family.”
We.
She loved hearing him include himself again. “So, what’s this dirty plan you were talking about?”
“I never said it was a dirty plan, but it’s definitely not background checks.” Shifting his hips again, he kissed the tip of her nose. “Thanks for helping Izzy stay organized, by the way. Not having enough people in our inner circle is hard.”
Izzy had an almost insurmountable task ahead of her. Fairweather Holdings employed thousands, and background checks were an absolute requirement for them to one day return to the offices. A simple one was already performed upon hiring, but now they needed to go deeper. Izzy was starting with anyone hired in the last year and working her way back from there.
However, the sheer volume of people was overwhelming.
“She’s not even close to finishing the first batch. I can keep her organized, but other than that, I feel useless.” She tipped her head back so he could trace her jawline with his lips. “We need more help.”
“We’ll have it when Carter gets here. The man is part bloodhound.”
Resisting the urge to wrap her legs around him, she tapped his shoulder. “Stop stalling and go over whatever plan you’ve concocted. What do I have to do?”
“That depends. Do you want to play the good cop or the bad cop?”
“I’ll be either, but only if handcuffs are involved.”
Chapter 7
July 5, 1999
“Is my mom okay?” Selah asked.
Keeping her face turned away, Josie squeezed her eyes shut because she didn’t know. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know anything.
