Page 14 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)

“ I s my mom okay?” Selah asked.

Keeping her face turned away, Josie squeezed her eyes shut because she didn’t know. She didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know anything.

“My mama?” Jamison’s small voice shook as she spoke. “My mama red. Okay? Hurt with owie.”

This…

This was a nightmare.

No.

This wasn’t a nightmare.

This was hell.

This was hell, and they were paying for their sins. The lies. The secrets. The hiding.

Yes, this was hell.

And they were going to have to claw their way out of it.

Taking a deep breath, she turned to Selah. “Your mom is okay. I’m going to call the hospital in a minute.”

“Will they answer?” Selah adjusted Jamison on his hip like it was second nature. “Cuz it’s late and all?”

It had to be two or three in the morning. Josie tried to read the analog clock on the nightstand, but everything blurred when she attempted to focus.

“Selah, I want you to go sit with CeCe for a minute,” Miranda said, entering the bedroom. “Everyone is in the gaming room.”

Selah was such a good kid. He left without arguing, the only sound as he departed being Jamison’s quiet pleas for her mama.

With a steady hand, Miranda closed the door. “We need to get them clean.”

Everyone had blood on them. A splatter here, a drop there. Evie was the worst, with caked shades of red covering her body. When Josie managed to trap Samuel alone and ensure he was holding on, she learned a few details and how Evie had crawled to her mother.

As Laura Jean died on the cold ballroom floor, her daughter had crawled to her screaming.

“It was so bad, Jos.” Samuel had broken then.

Without an audience, he had broken down completely as they hid in the bathroom.

He was a strong kid with thick skin and a smart mouth, but her brave boy fell apart when he told her everything that happened.

The tears came first, and then he couldn’t breathe, his skinny body shuddering as he tried to keep himself under control.

“Livy. Her head, Jos. Her head… it wasn’t where it was supposed to be. ”

He vomited as he went over it, and while embarrassed because he never liked to be seen as weak, he at least allowed her to help him clean up so he could get back to Evie. Pulling him away from the girl had been difficult, and Josie was smart enough not to keep him from her.

“Miranda, look at me.”

“I’m fine, Josie.” She wasn’t. Miranda was pale and ready to collapse, but she squared her shoulders and, just like her hard-headed son, refused to be seen as weak. “I think if we get them clean, then we might be able to see if we can wrangle them into resting.”

“We need to take Evie to the hospital.”

“Tomorrow.”

“Why tomorrow?”

Miranda lowered herself to sit on the edge of their bed, gripping its edge as if it could keep her steady. “If we take Evie to the hospital, we’ll have to take them all. Toby will panic if we leave him behind, and part of me thinks Samuel will, too. ”

Josie didn’t understand why that was an issue. “So, we take them all. We show up and drop the Fairweather name, and I guarantee you they’ll—”

“Take one look at us and then go immediately out and spread gossip.” Miranda shook her head. “I can’t let that happen yet.”

Dropping to kneel on the floor beside her, Josie forced Miranda to meet her gaze. “He can’t hide this. No matter how powerful you think Ben is, he can’t—he won’t—hide this. The whole town will know what’s happened before sunrise and the whole state by sunset.”

“I called Trevor.” Miranda pressed her lips together and inhaled deeply through her nose before continuing. “He already knew. I don’t know how, but he was on his way. The plane should land in two hours. He’s bringing Heather.”

It made sense. Someone would have to deal with everything. They were busy with the kids, and Ben…Ben was lost to them. It had to be Trevor, and things would get done with Heather coming. The woman was a vicious snake, but that might be what they needed.

“Charlie is alive.”

It was Josie’s turn to go pale. The very least the son of a bitch could have done was die.

She immediately winced at her crude thoughts. They didn’t need to wish death on anyone else tonight.

“He has several stab wounds, and some organs have been nicked,” Miranda continued. “But Ty said they’re pretty positive he’s going to survive.”

“Does Ben know?”

Thinking of Ben and Simone made her feel hollow, like her soul had shrunk a few inches. It was terror, pure and straight from the source, over realizing that one day she might know that pain. That one day, Miranda would be taken from her without warning.

“Ben is at the morgue with Ty.” Miranda’s grip on the bedspread tightened until her knuckles went white. “They’re identifying the bodies.”

Bodies?

They weren’t bodies.

They were their friends.

They were their family .

A chill rolled through her as reality sank in, and unable to stay still any longer, Josie stood. “Have we heard from Simone?”

“Abe is being prepped for surgery now.” A sob struck, and Miranda covered her mouth. “He’s so small, and they’re waiting for a pediatric surgeon to come and operate. The hospital is flying one in from Birmingham since there were none here who could do it.”

“Jesus.” Josie tipped her head up to the ceiling, blinking rapidly as if she could force her tears to stay back. “Annabeth?”

“With Simone.”

A knock sounded on the door, and Josie hurried over to open it.

They shouldn’t have left the children alone.

They didn’t keep staff at Parkland, choosing to close up half the manor home since they never used it.

The kids had likely become scared without an adult close by and had come looking for one of them.

Surprisingly, it was Samuel standing on the other side. “What’s the plan?”

Miranda gave him a small smile. “We were just discussing that I think everyone needs to clean up and try to rest.”

She didn’t say sleep. Miranda would never suggest something so ludicrous. None of them would be sleeping anytime soon.

“How’s Evie doing?” Josie asked him. “Is she talking yet?”

Samuel’s dark brows pinched together. “Not yet, but I think you’re right, Mom.

Evie should be wearing clothes without… that stuff on it.

” He adjusted his glasses as he thought for a moment.

“But we don’t have any clothes for girls here, and Jamison needs her pull-ups because she still has accidents at night. ”

Josie caught Miranda’s eye. “He’s right.”

“Toby is too big for my clothes. And we need toothbrushes for everyone,” Samuel went on. “Selah needs his special cereal for breakfast tomorrow because if he tries to eat the cereal here, he’ll get sick.”

A piercing scream shot down the hall, and the three of them bolted from the bedroom, running as fast as they could toward Samuel’s gaming room.

It wasn’t far, only a few doors down, but as they ran, it felt as if they would never get there.

Door after door rushed past, and Josie pushed herself, wanting to get there before Miranda or Samuel.

Charging into the room, they found Evie curled into a ball on the floor and crying.

Toby stood above her, pulling on her arm like he was trying to get her to sit up.

CeCe was shoving at her brother, trying to get him to stop while Selah attempted to talk to him, having set Jamison down, which in turn was causing her to scream.

“Stop!” Samuel roared, sliding to a halt as he blew into the room. He was on his knees next to Evie in a second, knocking Toby back and away from her. “If she wants to be on the floor, let her be on the floor!”

Toby snarled, his big body too much for CeCe to hold back. He went to push Samuel away, but Selah was there, blocking him from doing so.

“No, Toby.” Selah locked his hands on Toby’s shoulders. “Not today. Leave her alone.”

Toby fought him, but Miranda came up from behind. “Toby, we’re going to take showers and then brush our teeth. I think you should go first.”

“NO!” he screamed. “Evie needs me to hold her hand!”

Wedging herself between Toby and the children, Josie filled the boy’s line of vision. “You can hold her hand after you clean up.”

Toby glared at her with absolute hatred. “Samuel can go first. Or Selah. I’m not leaving Evie.”

How were they going to deal with this? Handling him would take an army, and then they needed all the things Samuel mentioned from the store. She could run to the 24-hour Walmart, but she didn’t want to leave Miranda alone for that long. Not with Toby in this state.

Then there was Evie. It was going to take at least two of them to get her clean. Miranda’s lack of strength had become noticeable over the last month, and Josie had been nagging her to call the doctor.

Off in the corner, Jamison continued to screech, her face going purple. “Let CeCe go first,” Selah said, picking Jamison up now that the adults were in the room. “You okay with that, Ce?”

CeCe’s head bobbed in agreement, and she touched her brother’s back. “I’m going to go first, Toby. You can sit next to Evie, but don’t make her get up if she doesn’t want to.”

Toby dropped to the ground in a huff and forced everyone aside to scoot his butt over to Evie crumpled on the floor. “Move,” he snapped at Samuel. “I’m sitting next to her.”

Samuel wouldn’t move at first, but finally gave up and went to Evie’s other side, sitting beside where her head rested. “Happy now, freak? ”

Josie's mouth opened to reprimand Samuel, but she quickly snapped it shut. If she did, it would only have led Toby to think he could get away with this behavior, and the less stress they had, the better.

The crying coming from Jamison continued, and it seemed to aggravate Evie. A trembling took over the girl’s body as she lay on the floor.

“It’s okay.” Samuel leaned down to whisper, gently stroking her hair. He shifted his long legs out before him, working Evie’s head up a little so it could be cushioned against his thigh. “Jamison is just tired and dirty.”