Page 38 of Somebody's Watching Me
Liam picked Theo up and placed her on his hip. The move was so natural that Jamison found herself hugging Evie a little tighter.Seeing him doing things like that was what hurt the most. He’d been against having kids but was so obviously the ideal man to start a family with.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Theo’s silvery blond head nodded with approval. “Kill ‘em good.”
Unfazed by the littlest Fairweather’s bloodthirsty demand, Liam bopped her nose. “I will, but how about we go check on GiGi in the meantime? I need to talk to her, and I have a feeling she needs some of your hugs.” He held his free hand out to Harper. “Come on, Harper. You can help.”
Harper studied him. “Are you really going to kill them?”
“Not today.”
Slipping off the bed, Harper turned her sharp gaze on Jamison. The child’s reasoning skills were unparalleled, much like her father’s, and she could be scary sometimes. “Did you get a good look at them?”
Jamison nodded, putting on a brave face for the girls. “I did.”
“Don’t wait too long to give your statement,” Harper instructed, taking Liam’s hand. “You might forget an important detail.”
Harper idolized Liam, often playing detective and solving the gruesome murders of her toys. Evie encouraged her, thinking it was a good use of imagination, but Samuel was totally disturbed by his daughter’s morbid interests.
Leading the girls out, Liam shut the door so no one else would hear when the dam broke again in Evie’s presence. She didn’t need to be strong with her sister, and Jamison doubled over, holding her stomach as she cried.
Evie held her as Samuel crouched on the floor in front of them. “Dad should be here soon. He got in the air shortly after Rowan called Liam, and you’ve been out for three hours.”
“In and out breaths, Jamison,” Evie ordered. “Let it go, but don’t hyperventilate.”
“There are cops everywhere downstairs,” Samuel continued, knowing she would want to hear everything even in this state. “Annabeth has provided them with a few details, but Simone can’t give a statement because it’s hard for her to talk. She needs to go to the hospital but won’t until she knows you’re okay.”
“I’ll go-o down.” Dry heaves struck, and Jamison thought she really might pass out. “It was so awful. Simone was shaking on the ground like she was having a seizure.”
“We’ll let the doctors know so they can determine what you guys were given.” Evie rubbed her back. “You’re in the best shape out of the three of you.”
“He told them to give me a half dose.”
The tears slowed, her brain reminding her that hysteria would only wipe the information she’d gathered and replace it with something fantastical. Like balls of light with toes and clawed fingers. “But it made me hallucinate.”
“Did he say why only a half dose for you?” Samuel asked.
“Because he needed me to walk or,” she swallowed the vomit threatening to spew all over her brother, “for something else.”
It was for the “something else.” She wasn’t stupid enough to think Michael had kept her coherent just to walk to the car.
“Bruce. Ugly Denise.” Her face scrunched as she pulled the details together. “Denise is the one who hurt Simone. She’s dead, isn’t she? Something ripped out her throat.”
Jamison tried to recall Ugly Denise dead on the ground, but all her brain would show her was the white light. Frantically, she searched Samuel’s face. “Right? She’s dead?”
“There is a dead woman in the forest,” Samuel replied. “Someone mentioned a bear attack, but when has a bear ever been around here?”
“She had the Zanmi mark on her wrist.”
Samuel went still, his gaze shifting to Evie. “No one has said that yet.”
“I’m positive I saw it.”
Samuel rested a hand on Evie’s leg, almost as if he needed physical contact with his wife. “Klausen got here the same time we did. Maybe he might have an actual clue as to what happened.”
Chapter 10
“Give me a minute.”
