by Lori Foster
“You shut up!” Flouncing, she went to Adrian and poked him hard in the chest. “You’re a miserable liar. You misrepresented yourself.”
His lip curled. “Yeah, like you were all that discerning anyway?”
Fuming, Sally drew back and slapped him hard enough to unbalance him.
He stumbled, regained his balance and, with a feral growl, reached for Sally.
Before he could touch her, Dare caught his wrist. With only a simple shake of his head, Dare reined him in.
Satisfied, Sally gave her attention back to Molly. “So, can I have my purse? I’d like to get out of here.”
Molly handed it over to her. “I’m sorry about this.”
Dare gave her an incredulous look.
Molly ignored him. It wasn’t Sally’s fault that Adrian had duped her into a possible criminal act. “Do you need to call a cab?”
Sally put her nose in the air. “I have my cell phone with me.”
Fretting, Molly said, “It’s not really all that safe out front.”
But the woman didn’t agree. “It’s not all that safe in here, either, so I’ll take my chances.” After another scathing look at Adrian, who smiled sickly in return, she headed for the door.
Dare stepped in front of her. She stopped short of plowing into his chest and, very slowly, put her head back to look up at him.
Dare didn’t smile. “Are you a smart girl, Sally?”
She cast a quick glance at Molly, but Molly knew better than to interfere.
Seeing no help forthcoming, Sally stared up at Dare. “I like to think so.”
“Good.” Now Dare smiled, but it wasn’t with humor.
In fact, to Molly, it looked outright threatening. Poor Sally. She could only imagine what the girl felt.
“You were never here, Sally. This never happened.” Dare’s eyes narrowed the smallest bit. “You got that?”
Her blond curls bobbed with her fast but uncertain nod. “Absolutely. I went straight from the club to home.”
After a long, assessing look, Dare must have believed her, because he stepped out of her way and even opened the door for her.
Sulking, Adrian watched her leave. When the door shut, he let out a pent-up breath and turned back to Molly. “So.” He tried to brazen it out. “What now?”
“Now you answer some questions.” Dare’s quiet tone did nothing to lessen the implied menace. “And unless I’m satisfied that your biggest transgression is trespassing, I just might take you apart.”
“You’re threatening me?”
Surely that was a redundant question, Molly thought. Adrian wasn’t stupid.
“I’m explaining things to you,” Dare said, “so there won’t be any confusion.”
“Well, your explanation doesn’t help.” A touch of panic raised the octave of Adrian’s complaint. “I still don’t have any idea what the hell is going on.”
Molly took great pleasure in stepping around Dare and confronting Adrian close up. “You want to know why I wasn’t here, Adrian?”
“Uh…yes? I suppose that’s as good a start as any.”
He didn’t sound very sure of himself. But then, he never did. The stark differences between him and Dare were too many to count. Dare stood there, ready to do whatever was necessary to help her get her life straightened out. He had walked into danger for her without hesitation and without fear. All Adrian wanted was a quick escape from possible harm.
One man was a hero, the other a coward.
Shaking her head, Molly pondered aloud, “What did I ever see in you, Adrian?”
Dare snorted. “I was just wondering the same thing.”
That insulted Adrian. “I’m a hell of a good catch!”
“No.” Molly shook her head. “You were just…handy. A convenient companion. Handsome, yes. Educated. But now…now I can’t believe that I was ever so dumb, or so desperate.”
Dare frowned down at her. “You were desperate?”
She couldn’t explain to Dare. Not here, not now. He was so independent, so capable and secure in his ability, he would never understand a woman’s need to find the right man, to secure her future happiness, to have babies and a family and love everlasting.
Molly knew that she’d always wanted more than Adrian. Not better looking or richer, but someone with real honor, someone faithful and brave and…everything that was Dare.
But in thirty years, she hadn’t met that person. She’d met others like Adrian. Some better-looking but not as settled. Some kinder but without means of support. She sighed.
Dare watched her, so she hedged by asking, “You don’t think Adrian is handsome?”
Distaste narrowed his eyes. “Now you’re just fucking with me.”
The laugh surprised her; in the middle of so much turmoil, Dare could still do that for her.
Grinning, she said, “Now, Dare. He’s not as tall as you, but he’s tall enough.” She pretended to examine Adrian. “He’s not as muscular as you, either, but he takes care of himself.”
Red-faced and outraged, Adrian said, “I go to the gym every damn day!”
“Blond hair,” Molly continued, “green eyes, a nice smile.” Why she teased Dare, she didn’t know. But with him looking so resentful over her past relationship, she couldn’t seem to help herself. “And when Adrian wants, he can be pretty charismatic.”
“Yeah, I bet.” On to her, Dare took an aggrieved stance and flattened his mouth. “You finished now?”
She tried to hide her smile. It seemed a million years ago that she had settled for steady dating, good looks, intelligence and a pleasant personality. But now she knew something about her own strengths. Now she knew that she could get through just about anything.
Never again would a man of Adrian’s ilk be good enough for her. She deserved it all.
She deserved… Dare.
“Yes.” Now that she’d come to that conclusion, she felt more at peace than she had in a very long time. She patted Dare’s chest. “I’m done.”
The look he gave her was long and intimate. He took her hand in his own and kissed her knuckles before he turned back to Adrian.
Flummoxed, Molly stared at Dare’s profile. She sensed there was some significance behind that tender kiss, but she wasn’t sure of the meaning.
Dare brought her back around with a stark statement. “She was kidnapped.”
“What?” Adrian looked from Molly to Dare and back again. His gaze sharpened on the lingering bruises visible on her face and arms. “Dear God.”
Judging Adrian’s reaction to that, Dare continued, saying, “Men grabbed her from right out front of this apartment.”
He shook his head. “But why?”
As Dare took a step closer, Adrian backed up a step.
“They stuffed her into the back of a van, transported her across the damn country and then took her over the border into Tijuana.”
“Tijuana?”
The genuine, undiluted shock on Adrian’s face convinced Molly one hundred percent that he had nothing to do with her kidnapping. He was a snake, but he wasn’t a criminal of that caliber.
“When I found her,” Dare told him, “she was chained to the wall of an airless hut, half-starved, drugged and abused.”
Eyes bugging, Adrian struggled to lift his slackened jaw. “But that…that’s not possible. Not here.” He pointed at Molly. “Not her.”
Dare advanced again, and Adrian ended up with his back to the wall. “Why not her?”
“It doesn’t make any sense, that’s why. She’s not a politician’s daughter or a starlet or a wealthy heir.” His eyes bugged again. “Aren’t women taken across the border to sell as sex slaves or something?”
“More often than you’d like to think.”
Clearly baffled that anyone would take Molly for that purpose, Adrian shook his head. “You said you found her there.” His brows knit as he struggled to piece it all together. “What were you doing there? And what do you have to do with any of this?”
“But…how?”
“It’s what I do.”
In a sudden turnaround, Adrian’s expression lightened and became shrewd. “Let me understand this. You rescue people…for compensation?”
Crossing his arms over his chest and looking down his nose at Adrian, Dare said, “That’s how it usually works.”
“No fucking way!” Adrian shoved against Dare, but didn’t budge him at all. “I see what this is now. You want me to pay her ransom, don’t you?” Rage distorted his better sense, and he pointed past Dare to Molly. “She dropped me. Did she tell you that?”
“She mentioned it,” Dare said, very deadpan.
“So I’m not responsible for her!”
“Not at all.”
Adrian continued to fume. “I don’t have that kind of money, and she knows it. If you thought to squeeze me for payment, well, then, you can damn well forget it.”
A stillness filled the room as Dare expanded in fury, and Molly held her breath.
Too stupid to sense his own peril, Adrian added, “What happens to her now is no concern of mine.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
OH, GOD, THAT WAS LOW even for Adrian. Molly wanted to kill him. Again.
She charged forward, but stumbled to a halt when Dare’s harsh, low voice sounded with the impact of an exploding bomb.
“You think, even for one fucking second, that I would take your goddamned money?”
Wow. Molly blinked at that lethal tone.
Smashing up against Adrian, Dare looked more enraged than Molly had ever seen him.
“You think I’d even let you be in her life?”
“I…” Intimidated, belatedly realizing his error, Adrian tried to appeal to Molly for help.
Still peeved, she silently mouthed the words Fuck. You.
Shocked, Adrian returned his attention to Dare. “That’s fine,” he soothed. He turned his face to the side, trying to escape Dare’s deadly stare. “That…that’s what I was saying. That I don’t want to be in her life. I swear.”
“Did you want out of it enough to coordinate this stunt?”
“What? No!” Alarmed, he smashed farther back against the wall. “I own a bar, that’s all. Damn it, Molly, tell him that I’m not a kidnapper.”
“I don’t know,” she hedged, examining a nail. “I didn’t know you were the type to weasel into my apartment, either, but here you are.” A thought occurred to her, and she looked up. “Did you have sex in my bed?”
“No!”
Unsatisfied, she narrowed her eyes. “But you would have?”
“Well…yeah. Probably.”
Still not giving Adrian any room to breathe, Dare asked Molly, “What do you want me to do with him?”
Implicit in the question was that he’d pulverize Adrian if she wished it.
Just to make Adrian squirm, she pretended to think about it. But she wasn’t a person who condoned unnecessary violence, and neither was Dare. Still, she appreciated his offer.
“You can let him go.”
Dare didn’t move. “You sure, honey?”
He called her honey again. It thrilled her, but this was no time for celebration. Molly cleared her throat and her thundering emotions. “Yes, of course. Come on, Dare, we both know that you don’t hurt those smaller, weaker or dumber than you.”
Dare stepped back, but he said, “For him, I’d make an exception.”
Slumping against the wall, knees shaky, Adrian struggled to gather himself. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean… It’s just that I don’t have that kind of money….”
“You’re broke, I know.” Dare shook his head in disgust. “Now shut up.”
“He’s broke?”
It was almost comical, how quickly Adrian nodded agreement. “The business is struggling. Financially, I’m in over my head. I definitely don’t have the kind of funds it’d take to set up a kidnapping this elaborate. I swear I don’t.”
Molly took a seat on the couch, not really surprised by that news. Adrian spent well out of his means—that was one reason he’d wanted her to buy him things. “When you first came here, Adrian, how did my apartment look?”
“Like it always looks.” Keeping an eye on Dare, he inched over to a chair and dropped into it.
“It wasn’t trashed like this?”
“No.” He looked around again. “You didn’t do it?”
So dense. “Now, why would I destroy my own apartment?”
“I have no idea.” Shoulders slumping, he ran a hand through his blond hair. After a moment, his gaze lifted to Molly. Chagrined, he asked softly, “You’re okay?”
His concern was too little, too late, to be anything but disingenuous. “I’ll survive, yes.”
He continued to search her face. “Why the hell did this happen?”
“That’s what we’re still trying to find out.” She appreciated it that Dare stood beside her but didn’t insist on taking the lead. As much as he openly disliked Adrian, he let her do the talking.
She knew that if she needed him to, he’d take over for her. But he trusted her to handle this, and that meant a lot. Molly leaned forward, her elbows on her knees, to give Adrian a direct look. “Until I know who set up this whole thing, I won’t be safe.”
That lifted his frown into high-browed surprise. “You mean it could happen again?” He glanced over at Dare. “That’s why he’s still with you?”
Molly wasn’t sure how to answer that, but then, she didn’t need to.
“Why I’m here is none of your damn business,” Dare told him. “Just know that I will find the one responsible, so if you know anything, anything at all, you’d be smart to say so right now.”
To placate Dare, Adrian held up both hands. “I think I’ve already proven that I value my own hide too much to lie.” He smiled with self-mockery. “In all honesty, I wish I could help. Molly and I had our differences, but I never wanted to see her hurt.” And then to Molly, “I hope you know that.”
“You only wanted my money.”
Annoyance distorted his concern, and he shot back, “You had more than enough to spend! But no, you were too tight-fisted for a measly gift.”
Dare shifted, giving Adrian pause. He said quickly, “No offense intended.”
Bearing no expression at all, Dare warned, “Don’t insult her again.”
Molly patted Dare’s arm. In this, she didn’t need his defense.
“Look,” Adrian said, “all I know is that Natalie called me to ask where you were.”
“Why would she call you?” That made no sense to Molly.
“Hell if I know. I told her that we weren’t together anymore and she said she already knew that, but she’d gotten an odd email about an extended trip you were taking, and she hoped I could tell her something about it. She said she’d called Kathi, and Kathi didn’t know where you were, either.”
So Kathi had known she was missing? Dare said he’d talked to her father. Did that mean that Kathi hadn’t mentioned it to him? Maybe because she thought nothing of it, but maybe…her dad had already known.
Was he capable of doing this to her? She was sad to have to admit to the truth: her father was capable of just about anything. She wasn’t yet convinced that he’d done this, but neither would she rule out his involvement.
Molly sat back in the couch, thinking of all the odd angles. “So, since I was missing, you decided to just come to my apartment and pretend it was your own?”
Adrian had the good grace to show shame. “At first, I was only curious. It’s not like you to take off without telling your sister.” To Dare, he said, “They’re really close.”
Dare just bored holes in him with his dark stare.
Adrian looked away uneasily. “Anyway, I guess I pictured you making up the trip story for your sister, while you were here, wallowing in misery, maybe…missing me?” He tried a sickly, unsure smile. “I was sort of hoping that we might have a chanc
e to get back together.”
Putting a hand on Dare to restrain him—just in case— Molly gritted out, “Are you out of your mind?” Before he could answer, she held up a hand, silencing him. “If you were the last man on earth, I would embrace celibacy with gusto.”
Adrian scowled at the insult.
And Dare emphasized, “Won’t ever happen, so don’t even think about it.”
He accepted that as the warning Dare meant it to be. “Fine, but I figured if you were here and just not up to visiting with your sister, it couldn’t hurt for me to try. When I came by, your landlord grabbed me because your mail had stacked up. I guess she didn’t know we’d split, and she wanted me to bring it in.”
“Other than telling Natalie, I didn’t advertise our breakup.” To Molly’s mind, her personal life wasn’t anyone’s business.
“Right.” Adrian continued to glance at Dare. “Anyway, she didn’t think anything of me being here.”
“Since you let yourself in, she must’ve assumed you still had a key.”
Adrian shrugged. “Probably.”
Dare spoke up. “Have you talked with Bishop?”
“Not since Molly and I split, no.”
“Good. Don’t.”
“Do you know him?” He looked from Dare to Molly again, as if he wasn’t sure who would answer him.
“I met him.” Dare couldn’t hide his distaste. “I told him exactly what I’m going to tell you.”
Cautious now, Adrian said, “And that is?”
“Keep your mouth shut.” Dare went to him and took him by the arm, pulled him to his feet and started him toward the door. “Don’t mention this little meet and greet to anyone. Far as you know, Molly is still missing. You got that?”
“Yeah, sure.” He looked back at Molly. “If there’s some way I can help—”
Molly followed Dare. “You can stay away from my apartment for starters.”
“Right.” When Dare released him, he started to turn toward Molly.
Dare didn’t give him the chance. He opened the door and shoved Adrian out to the hall.
“Wait! What do I tell her sister if she calls me again?”
“You have nothing to tell, right?”
The clear warning hit the mark. “Well…yeah, I know.” Still Adrian waffled. “But—”
