Page 190 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
“Jamison, love of my life and my future wife, who do you think you’re talking to?” Liam huffed as if truly offended. “It hurts my feelings that you would think I’m just going to let something like this go.”
“William, what did you do?”
“While everyone was distracted and arguing over who was in charge of what, Holden and I nabbed the journals we hadn’t read yet and made copies.”
Halting mid-unzipping of the wedding gown’s garment bag, she gasped. “Liam, if your dad found out—”
“My dad worked as the lookout while we got the job done.”
Her eyes slowly closed. “Because, of course, he did.”
“You sound like you’re mad.”
“I’m not mad. I’m just trying to figure out where to hide you when Homeland Security or the Department of Defense kicks down our door.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
She rolled her eyes and unzipped the garment bag fully. “Are you going to tell me what the journals say or not?”
“The first couple focus on his time in the service and how he met CeCe. He didn’t lie. They met in a coffee shop in Miami, and he fell hard for her. He also states how when he met Toby and Taylor, he knew right away what he was dealing with and began to extract CeCe from thesituation immediately. Missouri was a long shot, but he convinced her, and they moved.”
“But did she help Toby kill?”
“Yes and no. Toby mainly killed when Taylor pushed him. She liked to watch, acting as the puppet master controlling the monster in a way. The ritualism behind the later murders stemmed from her obsession with the massacre that took place at Haven. Toby told her about it when they were young, and she became absolutely fascinated. Michael wrote that Toby exhibited dissociative behaviors seen in all impulse killers, but that he felt Taylor was the push Toby needed to act on those impulses. Sinclair thought that if she hadn’t remained in his life, he would have never moved past the sexual sadism Taylor started him off on.”
“Michael told me she was obsessed with my mother’s death… but wait.” She dropped to sit cross-legged on the floor, trying to remember everything Michael had told her. The drugs made her memories hazy, and the frustration was nearly unbearable. “He said Toby developed those sadistic kinks before college.”
“He did. According to the journals, Toby and Taylor were tag-teaming young men and women in St. Thomas as far back as their teen years. But they didn’t kill anyone except Charlie Fairweather. Their other killing didn’t happen until Toby went to college and made friends. Marcus, Richard, and Eugene were just as we thought. Disgusting humans. But they weren’t into murder. Maiming, sure, but not murder. Taylor got jealous of Toby connecting with others, and when the three of them pointed out how fucked up she was, Taylor set out to prove a point and convinced Toby to kill an island girl while his friends were with him.”
“They were into it, weren’t they? They might not have participated before that, but after it happened, they wanted more?”
“Eugene Gilbert was the only one with real reservations, but once Taylor figured out his pressure point—female children—she helped, again in Michael’s words, feed his needs so he would stay loyal.”
Jamison laid a hand on her stomach, suddenly nauseous. “What will they do with Eugene now that he’s in custody?”
“Nothing. He’s dead.”
“How?”
“Heart attack.”
Wherever Bruce and Michael’s sister ran off to with her two boys, Jamison sincerely hoped they lived a long and peaceful life. Bryan Carroll’s body had been found on the bathroom floor of his hotel room. The official cause of death was heart failure.
“Fancy that,” she whispered, needing to lie down, and decided the bed was too far away, so she spread out on the carpeted floor of her closet. “Keep talking.”
“There’s so much to tell. What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about CeCe’s life with him.”
“They were happy, Jamison,” Liam said simply. “They lived a quiet life, both craving normalcy. Michael was still bouncing in and out of war zones, and CeCe came from a life with her brother and the world of Bryan Carroll. Oh, and we were kind of right on one thing. Michael and his sister worked for Carroll at one point. As a bargaining chip for CeCe, Michael did a few off-the-books jobs for him while Kristina functioned as the brains, covering Carroll’s digital footprints, which included erasing pictures of his daughter.”
“So that’s why Rowan couldn’t find any photos of Taylor.”
“Exactly. Kristina Scherer is one of the best, and Rowan is still pissed.”
“But why would they work for Carroll at all if Michael wanted to pull CeCe away from that world?”
“Because CeCe refused to cut contact with them. Toby was her brother. Taylor was her friend. When Charlie started using and staying out drunk all the time, Taylor and Bryan stepped in to take care of a young CeCe and Toby. You have to understand that CeCe didn’t have the usual upbringing, so hanging around a drug lord and his psycho daughter felt normal.”
