Going Under

by Lauren Dane

  But Rosa wasn’t a pushover and what she wanted was to wash her hands of Chicago and try to pull her life together again in Seattle. She’d told Molly that seeing her husband in everything, every restaurant, their home, all that had been too much. Especially when she had to deal with so much crap for being a witch.

  Gage knocked at the door, poking his head in briefly, smiling when he caught sight of Rosa. “I just wanted to check in. Sorry to interrupt.”

  “Come in.” She kept Rosa’s hand as they turned. “Rosa, this is Gage Garrity. He’s the hunter here. Sort of like the head cop, though it’s so much more than that. Anyway.” She knew she blushed and it was so amateurish she was surprised at herself. She was usually better at schooling her emotions at work.

  Gage stepped in and took Rosa’s hand in both of his. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Molly speaks of you often. Welcome to Seattle and to Owen.” He inclined his head slightly.

  Rosa sent Molly a raised brow but grinned back Gage’s way. “Thank you. It’s nice to meet you too. Thank you for protecting Molly. Her mom and I appreciate it. It’s hard when she’s so far away.” Rosa looked him over in that way she had.

  “My mom will be here in a moment, she just needed to freshen up.” Faine had accompanied them back from the airport but he’d disappeared shortly after they returned to the office to run back to the hotel to get Rosa and her mother checked in.

  Not that she was disappointed to see Gage. Things had changed between them—deepened—in the week since that night in his apartment. More trust. She knew she could rely on him. And she was way past crush territory and well on the trip into falling in love.

  It was hard when the world was falling apart all around you to make excuses as to why you should deny your feelings when it was something good and important.

  So she didn’t.

  Her mother came in and her gaze went immediately to Gage.

  “Mom, this is Gage. Gage Garrity, this is my mother, Eliza Ryan.” She’d told her mom a little about Gage and her sort-of relationship with him. It was clear her mother knew it when she took him in carefully.

  “Nice to meet you, ma’am.” Gage shook her hand, smiling in his charming way. “Do we need to get their luggage anywhere?” he asked Molly.

  “Faine went to the hotel to get them checked in. When he gets back we’ll go meet with the real-estate agent. They already have several places to look at.”

  “I’ll go with you all. Faine has some other things I need him to do.”

  He did that from time to time. She knew because he wanted to be with her, even if the stubborn man wouldn’t say it out loud.

  “Oh my, we don’t need a guard. We can have the real-estate agent pick us up here and have her show us around. She can drop us back at the hotel. We know you have work to do.” Rosa looked back and forth between Molly and Gage.

  “If Molly is with you, you’ll need a guard.”

  Rosa and her mother both narrowed their gaze her way. “You said things were all right.”

  “She receives death threats on a weekly basis. She’s been flour bombed, shoved, had insults hurled at her and this building has been vandalized. We have every reason to believe they’re tracking her movements. So wherever she goes, one of us goes.”

  Molly widened her eyes and then narrowed them. The nerve!

  “There is nothing for you two to worry about. The guard thing is a backup but there’s no reason to think there’s any harm in going house hunting. I want to come along. Don’t forget I need to find a place to live as well.” She smiled, soldiering on, but when she got Gage alone there would be a reckoning.

  “Sounds to me like if you have twenty-four-hour bodyguards, there is something to worry about.” Her mother wasn’t having any avoidance of a subject she wanted to talk about.

  “My job has some dangers, yes. But going to look at houses is totally fine. We’ll have Gage with us because that’s what his job is. He decides such things. But I’m right here. Fine.”

  “Mr. Garrity, can you please enlighten us?” Her mother turned and every female eye in the room landed on him.

  Molly threw her hands up. “About what? He’s already told you everything.”

  “If you don’t, I have to.”

  He couldn’t have actually said that out loud!

  At that moment, if her mother and Rosa hadn’t been right there she would have thrown the stapler in her hand. His gaze went to it, knowing exactly that. But the butthead didn’t even flinch.

  “Your daughter is the public face of the clan. And more than that, of Others in general. That’s part of her job.”

  “And one I do rather well.”

  He nodded, solemn still. “Yes, she’s right about that. But the better she is at it, the more people in PURITY and Humans First focus all that hatred on her. That makes her a target. It’s my job to be sure that she’s protected as much as possible. I don’t think you or Mrs. Falco are at risk, but when Molly is with you, it’s best to be cautious and careful. For everyone’s sake.”

  “I’m rather unhappy that you haven’t shared the full extent of this with me.” Rosa sighed heavily.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to worry you. I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to tell you as well.”

  Gage got it then. She knew from the look that flashed across that criminally handsome face.

  Faine walked past and she waved. “Faine! I thought you were off doing something else. Perfect timing. We need to get over to the first house. Can you accompany us?”

  Gage narrowed his gaze at her for a moment and she shined him on, still beyond angry with him.

  Rosa and her mother stared at her, but her mother wore a little smirk so on top of the whole bit about how much danger she faced, now her mother knew there was something more than a budding romance between them.

  “Um.” Faine looked back and forth between Gage and Molly. “I have something I need to do. I was stopping by to tell you that.”

  Gage sent her a smirk and her grip on the stapler tightened so much the plastic may have groaned.

  “If you ladies are ready?” Gage indicated they all leave the office. When Molly passed him, he reached out to touch her but she flinched away, shooting him a look.

  She then sat in the backseat, in the middle, rather than up front with him and kept up a conversation that would wall him on the other side. He wanted to play some stupid game? He needed to be schooled, apparently, that he wasn’t the only one who could do that.

  Gage tapped into his patience. What he wanted to do was hustle her pretty ass off to the side and have it out. But her mothers were here and it was clear he’d already fucked up. So he’d bide his time.

  It was hard not to be impressed with what an icy bitch she could be when she put her mind to it. Her manners toward him were perfectly civil. But nothing more. He missed the way she smiled at him, warmth and a little mischief in her gaze.

  She turned on the charm with the real-estate agent, though. He was an Other, which she’d done on purpose, Gage would wager. He checked the guy out of course. He wasn’t going to let anyone near her or anyone she cared about without a thorough background check.

  They looked at houses but it wasn’t as if Molly’s phone stopped ringing. She had to excuse herself over and over and her mother frowned. Gage wanted them to know how hard Molly worked and that she wasn’t being rude.

  In the end, her mother ended up liking a waterfront condo in downtown so much she put in a bid on it. It was big enough for her parents to live there with her if they wanted, which made Gage like Eliza Ryan all the more. Rosa saw a few places she liked, but none that really knocked her socks off. But there was time and she could afford to be choosy.

  Molly smiled at her mother, spoke in her ear and then motioned to Gage to speak with her off to the side.

  “So now you want to talk to me?”

  “No, as it happens, I don’t. But I figured I’d give it a try rather than go around you and call Lark. But if you’d prefer
that, I’m happy to do so. This is about my mother’s safety and I’m not going to play games.”

  “I deserved that. What do you need?”

  “Is this defensible? Will she be safe here?”

  He’d gone into each place asking himself exactly that question. But it didn’t erase the warmth in his belly that she’d come to him, trusting him that way.

  “I’ve checked this building out in the past. It’s got a doorman, which is nice. These floors can only be accessed by a key. Her view is toward the water so there’s no one directly across from her who could do harm. The balcony is positioned out of the direct line of sight from any of her neighbors. I think it’s a good choice.”

  She nodded. “Thank you.” And turned, moving back to her mother, speaking in her ear again.

  Finally, four hours later, he took them to the hotel.

  “I’ve got some meetings I need to go to so I won’t be back until after nine or so. I’m sorry.”

  Her mother looked her over carefully. “Are you getting enough rest?”

  No. But he kept his mouth shut.

  “I’m working on it, Mom. But stuff keeps happening and I have to address it before PURITY does.”

  Eliza took a deep breath. “All right. I’ll be waiting up for you. We’re all going to have some tea when you get home.”

  Gage accompanied them to their room and checked it over before he turned and let them know it was safe. “The hotel is owned by Owen. Staffed by our people. You can’t get through the lobby unless you’re a guest or approved by a guest. Still, don’t open the door to anyone you don’t know.” He handed them both a business card. “My direct number is on there. Call that if you need anything. Don’t hesitate if something feels off.”

  Molly hugged them both and turned, striding past him to the elevator without a second glance.

  Once the elevator doors closed he turned to her. “Clearly you have something to say.”

  She pushed the button for the lobby. “Not here. Not now. I have to meet with city officials in twenty minutes and if I said all the things in my head right now, we’d both be unable to do that. Mainly because you’d be limping.”

  “Oh, you think so?”

  “Yes. And so do you. You moved over a little. Girl doesn’t have to be a hunter to notice things like that. Now back off and leave me alone. I have to get into the right head space for this meeting.”

  He shouldn’t have been amused. But he was. “You can’t avoid it forever.”

  She snorted and proceeded to ignore him quite pointedly for the next several hours as she went from meeting to meeting.

  He got plenty of his own work done, as guarding her meant a lot of waiting off to the side. At one point, she’d approached, handed him her tablet and gone back to work.

  He resisted the urge to read through her stuff, instead hopping online, answering email and dealing with anything that had cropped up since he’d left the office earlier that day.

  Once she’d finally finished up for the day it was impossible not to see how beat she was. It was one thing to be her bodyguard. But this was another level of protection and he needed to fix her.

  “I’m stopping for dinner.” He said this without looking her way. “Why don’t you call your mom to let her know you’ll be late? Maybe she’ll want to eat and we can bring something.”

  “I have food in my fridge.”

  “You won’t eat a meal. You’ll eat an apple and a breakfast bar and call it a dinner. You’ve been away from the office since before eleven. You haven’t eaten this whole time. I’m starving and I know you have to be.”

  “My mother is already here. Oh and I’ve got a spare too. Thanks to your lovely description of just how dangerous my job is earlier today, they’re both already going to be worried. I can’t be later than I already am. I’m sure Rosa has baked something already too. I’m fine.”

  “Look, I’m sorry about that. I didn’t mean to alarm them. I just wanted them to know how things were.”

  “Yes, you did. You even said so. I had planned to go over it bit by bit while they were here. You know, ease them into this world. But you just threw them into it without any context. That was shitty.”

  “They need to understand, Molly. It’s not fair of you to keep them in the dark.”

  “Fuck you. Fuck you. Oh and fuck you. How dare you think you get to decide any of this for me? Those two women are pretty much all I’ve got left. Rosa has lost everything. Her husband. Her daughter. Her job. With the exception of her son, her whole life. The last thing she needed was for you to dump all that on her. That wasn’t your choice to make. She’s barely holding on. This trip was about her getting some normalcy in her life. Finding a new place to live. Meeting witches in the clan. Finding a home. And you just stomped in with your fancy boots and pooped all over it.”

  He swallowed, hard, knowing she was right and in his zeal to let her family know how dangerous her job was, he’d mucked things up.

  “I just wanted them to know they had a reason to be proud of you.”

  She exhaled sharply. “You could have told them I’ve met television personalities and lawmakers. You didn’t need to say their daughter was being threatened day and night. It’s hard enough to be threatened day and night but it’s easier when my mother doesn’t know. That just adds more stress to my schedule and, in case it’s unclear, I have enough.”

  Her voice broke and he felt it, the trembling of those walls she had up. Wondered, not for the first time, just how much she had ferreted away. And what might happen when they fell away.

  “Goddamn it. Just let go. It’s killing you. All this stuff you push down inside. It has nowhere to go. One of these days—”

  She pounded the seat with a closed fist, her face in a tight expression. “Stop. Just stop. I can’t. Not right now.”

  “So when then? Huh?”

  “What is it with you? Do you want me to have a breakdown? Would that make you feel better? Why does it matter?”

  “Because you matter, Molly.” He hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but now that he had, he felt better. “Do you think I can’t see how hard you work to keep it all together?”

  “Then why are you trying to make me lose it?”

  He pulled off the road, into a small parking lot. Once he’d turned the engine off he turned to face her. “I’m not trying to make you lose it.” He brushed hair away from her face. “I’m telling you it’s safe to let it go with me.”

  “I keep telling you I can’t do this and you keep pushing.”

  “Because you’re about to crack and break apart. Baby, I want to catch you if you fall. I’m afraid it’s going to happen when I’m not there or when it’s a bad time.” He cupped her cheek and she leaned into him, closing her eyes. So much tenderness flooded him his eyes swam.

  “When is it a good time to lose your shit?”

  “When I’m here with you.” He leaned in and brushed his lips against her temple. “You have a lot of burdens to carry. All this grief. Not just yours, but everyone else’s. I can see how it weighs on you. Every time something happens you take it personally. You own it and want to fix it. But you have enough of your own grief inside. At some point, where do you put it all?”

  “I can’t take it when you’re nice to me.” She started to cry.

  He tried not to laugh, he was so alarmed for her, but she always made him smile, even when she was being stubborn or was on his nerves.

  “Do you want me to be mean?”

  “If I’m mad I’m not choking on my grief.”

  He pulled her close, as close as he could with the center console between them. “Let it go.”

  “I can’t! I have to go and deal with my mother and Rosa, both of whom don’t need me to be like this. Don’t you see?” She pushed him back and he allowed it. For the moment.

  “Let’s make a deal.”

  She snorted and then sighed. “Does this include being naked?”

  “Maybe, if you’re lucky. Let me
make you something to eat. Go and have some tea with your moms. And then come back. I’ll be waiting with something to eat and then we can talk.”

  She looked at him warily.

  “Please?”

  She sort of growled, which made him hard and he probably should have been embarrassed to be turned on by her when she was mad and upset, but his cock didn’t care about any of that. It knew what it liked and she sat right there, smelling really good and needing a cuddle.

  “All right. But that is not an invitation for you to poke at me until I lose my mind. I’m not going there just now. Got me?”

  He nodded, but didn’t agree exactly to every part of her statement. She raised a brow, but didn’t say anything else as he pulled back out onto the road and took her to the hotel.

  Chapter 20

  “SIT. Here’s a mug of tea.” Her mother said nothing more as she got settled. She’d gone to her room and managed to clean up her eye makeup so there wasn’t much of a trace that she’d been crying.

  She obeyed and Rosa came out, frowning. “You look pale.”

  “I’m just tired. I wanted to stop by because I said I would and I didn’t want you to worry. And because I’ve missed you both so much.”

  “Tell us about Gage.” Rosa arched a brow.

  “What about him?”

  “Oh really, Molly? Aren’t we past that?”

  She sighed and sipped her tea. “There’s not much to tell. You’ve seen him so you know he’s gorgeous and charming. Also bossy.”

  “You’re clearly involved. No one else would have spoken about your safety that way. And you’d have never allowed yourself to get so miffed by anyone else. Not in public anyway.” Rosa shrugged.

  “Yes, we’re involved. Sort of. He doesn’t make a deal of it in public. Not that he hides it either. Anyway. He’s the most vexing person I’ve ever met. Opinionated. Bossy. Utterly overprotective. We bicker pretty much incessantly.”

  Her mother laughed. “Oh well, that just means the sex is amazing and that you two are compatible. We know you, Molly, you don’t bicker with anyone but the people you love and trust most.”