Page 66 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
Rowan’s expression sobered. “Speaking of family…”
He struggled with how to tell Ben the news. No one had delivered the full details to him regarding Parker, and Ben was going to be furious when he found out that his niece’s partner might be involved.
Then again, there wasn’t really a “might.”Parker was involved. There was no other explanation for why he’d been with Bruce.
Emmett Watson was clearly in bed with Zanmi, and the weapons cache inside the shack made that abundantly clear. The guy seemed like he would fit in perfectly with the cult crowd.
But they couldn’t afford to focus on that right now.
“We need to find Claudia,” Rowan said, pulling a stunned Ben away from the crowd after he relayed the information he knew. “Jamison said Madison was with Parker, but Claudia wasn’t.”
“Claudia is not involved with Zanmi.” Ben halted abruptly. “I know the Fairweathers are dysfunctional, but this? Even Claudia, during her bitchiest of days, would never get wrapped up in Zanmi’s bullshit.”
“What about Parker?”
Thinking for a minute, the steady sureness Ben held seconds ago disappeared. “I’ve only met the guy a few times. All I know is that my sister-in-law loves him, which isn’t saying much. Heather’s got a… unique personality, and that’s me being polite.”
“She’s horrid.”
Simone joined them, shivering in the crisp night air. Wrapping her arms around herself, she wrinkled her nose at the buzzing activity. The canine unit had arrived, and teams were preparing to search the swamp for Bruce. It was a waste of time in Rowan’s mind. A man like that would be long gone or so well hidden, local cops wouldn’t see anything even if they were standing right on top of him.
“Why are y’all talking about Heather?” she asked. “Did Damon show up with Emily and Claudia?”
“Not exactly.”
Rowan filled her in while Ben stayed silent. With every new detail, Simone’s horror grew over what she was hearing. “I don’t care forClaudia. I know she and Evie have struck up this odd acquaintance, but I haven’t quite decided how I feel about it. That said, she would never become one of those people. That’s just not who she is.”
“I hope not, and I plan to operate as if Claudia is in imminent danger and not an associate of the group. Klausen is chasing down Bruce, while Anderson leads the team going after Emmett and Parker, and, from my understanding, we’re all tackling this development the same way. The focus is to retrieve Madison and find Claudia,” Rowan replied before turning to Ben. “You need to talk to your brother.”
“There’s no service out here.” Ben frowned at an officer approaching, and the woman promptly turned and went the other way. “I know he’ll want to stay, but Liam needs to rest. I’ll call Trevor once we get him back to the house.”
Rowan agreed, not liking them exposed like this. “We all need to get back to the house and let Klausen and Anderson follow up on things here. I would stay, but honestly, there’s not much I can do, and I want to focus on tracking down Damon. He and Emily haven’t been in communication since before the raid.”
Over at the ambulance, Liam attempted to stand on shaky legs. With his good arm slung across Jamison’s shoulders, they tried to stumble their way over. Bernie followed with her hands out as if she could catch Liam if he fell. Dr. Cohen had disappeared into the chaos of the search, the best out of everyone to handle the feds and police.
“Do you have any idea where Damon might have gone?” Simone asked.
Rowan had a few places in mind, but he wanted to be sure before saying anything. “Damon would never try to hide somewhere he hadn’t been before. I’ll take a deep dive into his travel records to see what pops up.”
“That’s going to take forever,” Ben said, helping Jamison keep Liam upright when they reached them. “Damon travels constantly.”
“Passport. He wouldn’t ping it. He’d stay stateside,” Liam said, struggling to get the words out and have them make sense. “Stick to the dirt.Ground!Travel by car. Not air. Train. No ticket. No trace. Forty-eight.”
Ben glanced at Rowan. “Forty-eight states?”
“Yeah.” Rowan rolled his shoulders, easing the tension as he mentally organized the search. “Are we ready? They won’t find Bruce, and I can do more damage at home.”
Dr. Cohen came up behind them, leaving the group of cops disappearing into the forest. “Anderson says it’s a dead chase, but he’s following through just to confirm. I’m with Rowan. Let’s get back. We’ll monitor the situation from Haven.”
“Then let’s get the hell out of here,” Ben grumbled as he went over to relieve Jamison of Liam while Dr. Cohen braced his son’s injured arm.
Liam’s head started to dip as if he were falling asleep, but he caught himself in time, the usual sharp edge in his gaze returning for a nanosecond. “I don’t like this.”
If he was already becoming aware of his drugged state, that meant the Special-K gift from Holly had been a small dose. Then again, Rowan had learned Liam was too stubborn to let something as minor as a drugging get in his way.
“We have to find those fu…ck…ers,” Liam growled. “Why am I talking like this?”
“You’ll be okay in about two hours,” Dr. Cohen grunted as they turned Liam around. “A nice long nap is what you need. Then we can hunt the fuckers down.”
