Page 57 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
This is wrong.
This is dangerous.
So distracted by the voices in her head, she didn’t even feel Liam slip into the water. Didn’t notice the kayak tilt slightly with his weight until she turned and saw him already waist-deep with one hand on the bow.
“No!” She lunged forward to grab his arm, her fingers digging into his skin. “Please, Liam, don’t—”
He easily broke free of her hold and mouthed one word. “Rowan.”
And he was gone. Moving fast, his body disappeared into the murky green sludge of the swamp. The urge to jump in after him had herpartially rising from her seat, but common sense kicked in. She first needed to call for help.
Her fingers shook as she scrambled for her phone, quickly turning the volume down before tapping the screen.
Rowan answered on the first ring.
“Bruce is here.” She made sure to enunciate, so every whispered word was clear. “And Parker is here with Madison. They’re with Bruce at Emmett Watson’s place.”
Realizing he should keep his voice low, Rowan whispered back to her. “Parker and Madison? As in Claudia’s Parker and Madison?”
“Yes.”
In the background, she could hear so much action. There were shouts and the sound of chairs scraping. Cupping the phone’s speaker, she attempted to muffle the noise. Like the cranes before, Liam had vanished into the dark depths of the swamp, and a fear like she had never known had tears spilling from her eyes.
“Rowan, hurry,” she begged. “Liam went to confront them.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
Rowan hung up without saying goodbye, and the phone fell into her lap, its weight too heavy for her trembling hands. On the shore, Parker had taken Madison off his shoulders, and with Emmett, the two men watched as the little girl picked flowering weeds around their feet. Bruce had moved away from them, his attention continuing to zero in on where she sat. But then abruptly, his gaze moved on, creeping steadily along the trees until it looped to the shore.
“Alright, playtime’s over,” Bruce said loud enough that it almost sounded like he was standing beside her. “Let’s get this stuff loaded.”
Parker took Madison’s hand and led her back toward the shack. Emmett followed close behind.
But Bruce lingered for a second more, his gaze locked on where she sat frozen. It was like he was waiting for something, but when whatever it was didn’t show, he returned to the shack, shutting the door firmly behind him. The moment it latched, Liam broke from the trees.
He ran low and silent, making his way along the shore toward the shack. She nearly shouted when she saw him, both in relief that analligator hadn’t eaten him, and in absolute mind-numbing fury that he was being reckless enough to try this.
Rowan or whoever might come to the rescue had to be at least twenty minutes away since they would have to take the long way around by road instead of boat. There was no way they would arrive before Liam made his move.
She debated on what to do for a split second and ended up grabbing a paddle to shove the kayak away from the cypress that held it steady. Liam could handle himself. Sheknewhe could handle himself, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t help.
And if something happened to him or he was hurt, she would never forgive herself for sitting idly by when she could have stopped it. Paddling like crazy, she collided more than once with a tree or an exposed root that threatened to deflate the kayak then and there.
As she advanced through the swamp, Liam made his way from tree to bush, getting closer and closer to the shack. He had his gun drawn and ready, the sight causing her fear to grow tenfold.
“Wait for me,” she huffed, jabbing the paddle again and again into the water. “Make him wait for me.”
The wind was in her favor, pushing the kayak along when she hit a batch of open water. The strain on her biceps burned, and she was pretty sure her back teeth were going to crack with how hard she was grinding them, but the desperate need to get to Liam strangled her with determination even when all she wanted to do was scream.
Bruce and the others could be seen through the shack’s single window a few feet from the back door, right as Liam neared the structure. Placing his back against the wall, he gripped his gun with two hands, keeping just out of sight.
It didn’t make sense why she was crying by the time she reached the shore, watching helplessly as Liam charged through the door, gun raised and commanding voice ringing loudly through the air. It didn’t make sense why she was listening to the whispers on the wind that were telling her to run and save him, allowing the strange voices to fuel her fear.
There was no logic, only instinct, and it roared inside her. No one else could stop this. No one else couldsavehim, but her.
