11. Jamison

The last time she saw Liam go this pale was when he left their apartment the day they ended things.

"Michael Sinclair." Placing his hands on her shoulders, he locked her in place. "You're sure?"

"You know I am."

Rick Klausen got ahold of himself and waved a hand in dismissal. Out of all the agents the Bureau had to offer, their family had been stuck with this asshole for the last two years. "She's mistaken, or it's someone pretending to be him."

"And if not?" Liam straightened, his hands sliding down her arms but not letting go. "A body was never found."

"That doesn't matter. There's undeniable proof that he was in that building when it exploded," Klausen said. "Exploded, Cohen. The lack of a body means nothing."

Jamison cut her eyes to her father, who was advancing on Klausen. He was furious, never handling being kept out of the loop very well. "Who the hell are you two talking about?"

"Michael Sinclair." Liam released his hold, and Jamison was sorry for it, but didn't let her disappointment show. "Domestic terrorist. The type that likes to blow things up to make his point."

"Liked," Klausen corrected. "The man died in Omaha two years ago."

Liam pulled his phone out and started to search for something. "Sinclair had a following similar to Toby's group." He angled the screen so she could see. "Is this him?"

The guy in the picture looked nothing like Michael. "No."

Tilting the screen, Liam showed Klausen, and then changed the image to another man. One she recognized immediately.

"That's him."

Klausen hissed, yanking out his own phone to type furiously. "This isn't good, Cohen. If Sinclair and Tobias Miller are working together —"

"We have a serious situation." Liam turned to her father. "Toby and Sinclair recruit in the same manner. A better world only if you do XYZ, just as I say. But where Toby's followers mainly only harass us and advocate for his innocence, Sinclair's people are much more dangerous."

"Like, how?" Jamison asked.

"Lethal." A grim line creased between Liam's brows. "They continue to kill in his name. Bombing small government buildings or businesses associated with certain overseas assets."

"And why the hell would they do that?" Samuel snapped, his gaze repeatedly returning to the parlor door. In their ups and downs regarding Zanmi, he never liked being too far away from Evie and the girls, even opting to work from home whenever he could.

"Sinclair entered the military when he turned eighteen and was recruited into special ops. From there, he spent the better part of a decade running missions," Liam explained. "Whatever happened on those missions had him coming home pissed."

"He wanted to dismantle the government from the inside out." Head down, Klausen continued to shoot off messages from his phone. "It started slowly, a threat here or there. He's charismatic and, as you said Ms. Fairweather, handsome. People flocked to him."

"Just like they do with Toby," her father concluded. "What does he use to draw them in?"

"A perfect world, as if there is such a thing," Klausen replied. "Sinclair started by planting people in elections, then bribing the ones already in office. Once satisfied with that, he went further. He was the head of an EOD team while in service and decided to use his skills to make an impact. The first building was a state office in Nevada. It blew in the middle of the day with a daycare inside, leaving two children dead. Sinclair released a statement afterward, classifying them as justifiable casualties. He got more precise from there on out, taking down six government buildings in total."

Listening to Klausen, Jamison didn't realize her shivering had returned until Liam's warm hand took hers. Their gazes locked, the weight of his scarcely contained anger staring down at her. She needed it. His concern helped ground her when all she wanted to do was dissolve into a puddle of tears on the floor.

A madman.

Micheal Sinclair was a madman and had come to their home to kidnap her.

"How is this guy a terrorist, and we've never heard of him?" Abe asked.

"Sinclair was stationed at Fort Leonard before getting out of the military, so he mainly hits spots in Kansas and Missouri." Liam released her hand with a squeeze and turned to address the room. "While that first strike killed two kids, he's been careful since, targeting specific government personnel."

"So basically, the government has been keeping it quiet," Samuel said with a sneer. "You guys seem to excel at covering things up."

"I didn't hear any complaints when we curbed the information coming out regarding your family," Klausen returned, surprisingly finding a backbone. "The public didn't need to know every dirty little Fairweather secret, did they?"

That had been a debate from the start. Jamison had argued that the more open they were with the public, the more sympathy they could garner. Then maybe Zanmi's numbers wouldn't continue to climb so high. Samuel and her father disagreed, thinking the world already knew more than it should.

"However, I'm willing to admit that I'm now glad for it. The less the public knows, the better. It helps us decipher the recent chatter as it comes down the line," Klausen conceded, nervously fiddling with his tie. "We thought it involved Evie, but obviously we were wrong."

"Evie?" Samuel charged the agent, who wisely hurried across the room. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

Rowan lunged forward to hold Samuel back, and while that was all well and good, it seemed no one thought to restrain her father. Jamison gasped as Klausen went flying up against a wall.

"Start talking," her father snarled as he pressed Klausen's face into Simone's new floral print wallpaper. "And I better not hear a single lie come out of your mouth."

"It wasn't solid information," Klausen sputtered, fighting the hold on him. "It was only talk. Something about building a perfect family, but they needed women, and kept referencing Evie as an example."

"Why was this withheld from us?" Samuel shouted, straining against Rowan's grip. "We had a fucking deal, Klausen."

Jamison blinked at her brother, surprised beyond anything. Yeah, Simone had told her of how her dad operated back in the day, but she would never have expected it of Samuel. To bribe a federal agent, one who could hardly stand to be in the same room as them, wasn't the smartest move.

Her father gave Klausen a violent shake. "What else?"

"Make him stop." Jamison tugged on Liam's arm to get his attention. "We don't need this."

Liam hesitated, obviously enjoying Klausen's current predicament. But then, Simone made a noise, and he reluctantly went over to pull the man free. "We're not going to get any information if our first reaction is to attack."

"Talk," Simone grunted through clenched, swollen lips. "Asshole."

"There were no exact threats against Evie." Klausen pushed off the wall once released and adjusted his pants that had slipped below his pronounced potbelly. "She was an example given on some of the message boards run by Toby's followers. They've changed their tune over the last few months, talking in a way that's even crazier than usual. More comments have been made regarding freeing Toby, and they have attempted to infiltrate the Bureau of Prisons at higher levels, thinking they can break him out."

While Klausen talked, the panic ballooning in Jamison's stomach pressed on her lungs. She tried to control it so as not to distract from what they were learning, but it was becoming almost impossible. Liam's gaze flicked to her, and sensing something was off, returned to her side casually, not drawing attention to her distress. They stood shoulder to shoulder as they always did, and the tightness eased until popping into nothing with the brush of the back of his hand against hers.

"Zanmi is not even remotely connected enough to try something like breaking Toby out of prison," Liam said, reading between the lines of what Klausen was saying.

"Membership has increased. Staggeringly. We're seeing more in the thousands where there were once hundreds." Klausen lowered his gaze to the floor. "And because of this, BOP has decided to have Miller transferred."

From the beginning, Liam and his dad had worked tirelessly to keep Toby in the Missouri State Penitentiary, far from Florida. "Where the hell are they sending him?"

Klausen wouldn't meet Liam's gaze. "Florence."

Liam's hand snatched hers again, squeezing it hard enough to make Jamison flinch. "Tobias Miller has done nothing to merit a transfer to Florence. What are you not telling us?"

Calmer than before, Samuel shrugged off Rowan's hold. "Are we talking about South Carolina?"

"Colorado," Jamison replied. She knew only a little information regarding ADX Florence, but what she did know left her feeling breathless again. "It's the most secure supermax prison in the country. But they don't put people like Toby there, do they?"

"They don't," Liam confirmed. "Florence was created for the worst of the worst."

"Forgive me for being so fucking ignorant," Samuel seethed. "But what is worse than being a serial killer?"

"Threats to national security," Liam told him. "Spies. Leaders of illegal organizations, like the mob or cartels. Men who have significant organized numbers at their back."

Klausen's phone rang. "Excuse me, I need to take this."

He left, and the room went eerily silent until Samuel spoke. "How bad, Liam?"

With his eyes roaming the ground as he worked through what they had learned, Liam approached Simone. "I need you to let them take you to the hospital now. Then I want you guys back here immediately. No detours." He turned to Abe. "There are members of the new Fairweather security team out front. Take two of them with you."

Abe nodded. "Got it."

Allowing Liam to help her stand, Simone laid a hand on his cheek. Annabeth stood as if she were going. "I can do it."

"Of course, you can." Rowan came over to help keep Simone upright. "So, let's do this."

Simone allowed him to lead her out with the twins trailing in their wake. As they went, Jamison gave her father a push. He'd gone quiet and now seemed torn as he watched Simone struggle.

"Go see them to the car."

Swiping a hand through his hair, he debated for a second. It was then she noticed his clothes. Joggers with a plain T-shirt and shoes that didn't match. He must have gotten the call and threw on the first thing within reach to fly here. "Don't discuss anything until I get back."

Once the parlor door closed behind him, Liam texted his own father. "Why does he always let his phone battery run out?" he muttered. "Dad analyzed Sinclair for Homeland a few years ago. His help would be great right about now if he'd only answer his damn phone."

Samuel headed for the door, and Jamison assumed he was going to check on Evie and the girls but was surprised when he locked the three of them in. "Tell me."

Giving up on calling his dad, Liam dropped into a wingback chair. "If they're transferring him to Florence, it means it's more than chatter. The heads of Zanmi already have money, which didn't prompt a transfer. That means they've acquired the next best thing. Power."

Samuel sat on the small settee across from him and leaned forward. "Sinclair would have this kind of power?"

"The man's resume covers more ground than most, and I'm talking highly skilled. Sinclair and his team were the best in the field," Liam said. "They followed him. His team, I mean. Loyal to the end, more than half remained at Sinclair's side to help him in his crusade."

"So, what you're telling me is that this guy is not one to fuck with, and now he's mixed in with Toby's people, and we don't know how that happened?"

"But it makes sense." Jamison joined them, volleying between wanting to sit close to Liam versus keeping her distance. "If he can convince men to tear down a country they were dedicated to serving, Toby's followers should be easy prey."

"Bending the narcissism and prejudices hardwired into society has always been the way Zanmi operates. They could have come on Sinclair's radar after Etienne's death as a flock of sheep needing a new wolf to lead."

Jamison could almost see her brother's brain churning through the information. "The three other guys might be doctors, and hide their involvement, but they're also ugly. Nothing like Toby." He turned his attention to her. "You said Sinclair is good looking?"

"Twice," Liam mumbled, his tired, unfocused gaze locked on the parlor windows. "She's said it twice now."

The comment caused a tiny spike of anger. "Well, you've seen him. I would have to be blind not to say he's attractive."

Liam stilled, his eyes snapping back to her. "Would you?"

She opened her mouth, but a loud banging on the door interrupted them. "Why is this locked?" Klausen shouted. "Open up."

Samuel rose to let him in. "I'm going to check on Evie and the girls, and my dad is helping Simone to the car," he told Klausen as the agent marched back into the room. "You will not discuss anything until we're both present."

"Fine," Klausen huffed as Samuel left. "It's not like I can go anywhere."

Rick Klausen disliked his current assignment about as much as he disliked her family. Jamison had often wondered if there was a Mrs. Klausen or if he was alone in the world because the man was never happy.

"I have a question." Her anger needed an outlet, and she didn't have the energy to start something with Liam over his shitty she said he was handsome observation. "When did the Bureau get into the habit of keeping important information, such as Toby's transfer to ADX, from fellow agents directly involved in their capture?"

"The Bureau doesn't do any such thing," Klausen replied, sneering at her sarcasm. "However, we do restrict what information the general public knows as your family is well aware."

"Then why did you block Liam?"

"Now isn't the time, Jamison." Liam was out of the chair, hedging closer. "We can discuss this later."

"No, he owes us an answer."

"I can assure you, Ms. Fairweather, that we did not keep the information from a fellow agent." Klausen continued to smirk at her. "Your ex-fiancé no longer works for the Bureau. He quit months ago."