Page 39 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
Liam showed Samuel something on his phone. “Watson’s dad was ex-military. Emmett, though? Total recluse. Rowan dug through his last three years. The guy basically lives online. Dating apps, conspiracy forums, anime boards, even the server Zanmi uses for public announcements.”
The public server for Zanmi mainly consisted of Toby’s basic bio and a call to action to help free him. During the years when the public was obsessed with their new favorite serial killer, Rowan said it wasn’t uncommon to see close to eighty thousand unique users. These days, there were barely a hundred, with a few more who only trickled in when Zanmi did a press conference.
Samuel’s face darkened. “Do you think Watson is one of them?”
“No. He hasn’t even searched for Toby or Zanmi in over a year. When he did visit the forum, it was brief and more out of curiosity than anything else.”
Jamison stood off to the side, listening quietly. But before Liam could dive deeper, both men’s phones buzzed, and the distinct, high-pitched sound that followed alerted them that someone was at the gate.
“Who’s here?” Jamison leaned to see Liam’s screen. The security feed clicked on, showing a blacked-out luxury SUV. “Are we expecting anyone new?”
The SUV’s window lowered to reveal a stunning woman with cropped blonde hair. She wore enormous sunglasses, so it was hard to gauge her exact age when she tipped her head up to the camera.
“Open the gates, Rowan,” the woman ordered, her demand ringing loud and clear through Liam’s phones. “Or so help me, God, I will drive right through them.”
Chapter 9
The gates opened.
“This is a me problem.” Rowan’s voice boomed down the hall, each of his heavy, measured footsteps pounding closer. “I’ll handle it.”
They made it to the parlor door just in time to see Rowan shoot past. Annabeth wasn’t far behind, but instead of following him out onto the porch, she veered sharply, squeezing past Liam to get to the parlor’s large front windows.
Evie and the girls hustled in behind Annabeth, with Abe right on their heels.
“What the hell is happening?” Jamison stumbled toward the window to watch with everyone else. “Rowan sounded upset.”
The SUV pulled up fast, parking right beside Simone’s bright red sports car.
“All he said was, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me, then took off when the buzzer hit,” Annabeth said, hiding partially behind a curtain as she tried to see what was happening out front. “Could anyone tell who was driving?”
Being the tallest, Samuel and Liam had a clear view. Harper and Theo attempted to climb up their legs until the men each grabbed one of them to sit on their shoulders.
“If I didn’t know better,” Samuel said, adjusting Harper into position. “I’d say it lookslike—”
“Make a hole.” Their father stalked into the room with a mob of women trailing in his wake. “Is it who I think it is?”
Simone and Josie darted around him to get to the front of the window, practically pressing their noses to the glass.
“Who?” Izzy asked, bouncing on her toes. “Who does he think it is?”
Taylor’s slender shoulders shrugged as she tried to peek around Evie. “I have no idea.”
On the path, Rowan stood frozen, his fists clenched at his sides like he was preparing for a standoff. The driver’s door of the SUV opened, and Jamison let out a low whistle when a woman stepped out wearing a flawlessly tailored cream suit and four inch heels. Adjusting the jacket with practiced ease, the woman smoothed away imaginary wrinkles with the kind of detached elegance that only came from living far too many years in luxury.
“Hell,” her father growled. “It is her.”
“She’s purdy,” Theo said. “I likes hers shoes.”
“She’s not just pretty. She’s gorgeous,” Jamison agreed. The security feed hadn’t done the woman justice. She was older, close to her father’s age, but it didn’t matter. Even with the sunglasses covering most of her face, it was easy to tell she was beautiful. “Dad, who is she?”
“Hot damn, she does look good.” Josie nudged Simone with an elbow. “Bet me. How many surgeries do you think it’s taken to look like that this late in the game? I say seven.”
Simone clucked her tongue, but as the stunning woman started to walk up the front path, she pursed her lips like she was thinking. “Five,” she replied, placing a hand on the glass. “Yeah, I’m going to go with five. The second husband is a plastic surgeon, right?”
“Not when she married him, but I heard he became one later.” Josie reached blindly behind her to shove Samuel. “Go say hi to your aunt.”
“Yeah, that’s a hard no. And she’s not my aunt anymore,” Samuel said, moving out of the way so Izzy could get a better look. “She’s Rowan’s aunt. Let him deal with her.”
