CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE ASHTON
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ASHTON
Avery was still in the office when I returned, finishing buttoning up a new shirt. He glanced to the bathroom, where Molly remained in the shower. I lifted my chin to Avery. “You have news?”
His eyes were carefully masked. “They got him. They’ll be arriving in thirty minutes and want to know where to put him?”
I heard the water turn off behind me. “Warehouse one—put him in the back office and keep the cell jammer on.”
“You think he’d call for help?”
I shook my head. “I no longer think I know anything.”
Molly was coming from behind me. I’d become so tuned in to her every motion, movement, emotion, that I could almost guess what she was thinking. That was until now. She had a glossed-over expression on her face, and she was shivering.
Avery indicated the two trays behind him. “I brought the espresso shots and your omelets. Your maté as well.” He frowned at seeing Molly step behind me. “Would you like a change of clothes? Blanket?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure.” She said it so distracted. “Thank you.”
Avery dipped his head, leaving. I knew he’d make sure the clothes he brought would be freshly warmed as well.
Molly stepped around me, walking to the tray, but she didn’t open it. She stared at it. “Where are we? You never answered me.” She continued watching the tray lid. “We’re not in the city, are we?”
“North. My family has a compound here. We’re safe, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
She snorted out a laugh before covering her mouth. “God, no. I mean, I should. I was freaking out until the impromptu and fully clothed shower, and almost make-out session.” She sighed, lifting her gaze to me. “But I’m not anymore.”
“About what almost happened—”
She dropped her gaze and waved her hand.
“No. I don’t care. I, just, I want Easter Lanes back in my name, and I want nothing to do with any of this.
No more bombs. No more people trying to break into my place—” She stopped.
“How did you get into my place? You said it was supposed to go off when I opened the door, but wouldn’t you have . ..” She trailed off, confused.
“I didn’t enter through your door.”
“How?”
“You live on the third floor. Your bedroom window was unlocked. I thought that was odd, but now I’m thinking that’s where he entered and exited. The bomb was placed on the inside of your door, so you wouldn’t have seen it.”
She closed her eyes, and I could see how she was bracing herself.
I didn’t like thinking about what thoughts were going through her head. “Have your espresso. Eat your omelet.”
She didn’t move. “Who is Avery to you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard him before I came in. You guys were talking about Worthing. He doesn’t sound like just a cook for you.”
“He is my chef, but he also oversees everything in this compound. Elijah is my right-hand man in the city. Avery is my right-hand man here, among other things. I have others, as you know, because of the new family changes, but those are my two main ones.”
She grunted, now lifting up the lid for her omelet. “So don’t mess with him, huh?”
A soft knock sounded at the door, and Avery opened it, bringing in a pile of clothing in one hand and a blanket in the other. His face was schooled, but I knew he’d overheard her. “Warm clothes for you, Molly, and a blanket as well. What chair are you thinking of using?”
She took the clothes and moaned. “Oh, goodness. These feel wonderful.” She moved for the bathroom.
Avery looked my way.
I motioned to the chair she’d been standing by, and he nodded before spreading the blanket out so she could sit down and pull the ends to cover her. When he was done, he passed me and said under his breath, “They’ll be here in twenty minutes now.”
I gave the briefest of nods as he left, and Molly returned, a fresh glow coloring her cheeks.
Whatever shock she’d been in earlier was gone.
She sat, a small smile on her face at the blanket, and dug into her omelet.
She tried the espresso, and another whole moan left her mouth.
“This is pure bliss. Oh, dear god. What coffee do you use for this? I need it for Easter Lanes. Forget alcohol. People will come in for this. Forget bowling! It’s the espresso shots. I can see it happening.”
I had to smile, just a little. She didn’t dwell. Whatever bad shit happened, she freaked, and now she was enjoying her espresso shot. “Wait till you try the omelet. Avery’s cooking is the best I’ve known.”
She shot me a little grin as I went to sit next to her. “You mean after Pedro, right?”
I laughed, just a little. “Yes. Of course, after Pedro.”
Her eyes were twinkling, but she was waiting for me to eat too.
I frowned but used my fork for a bite of my own omelet.
When she saw I did this, her eyes lit up, and she took her own bite of the food.
“Oh!” She fell back against her chair, her hands framing around her mouth, and her eyes were closed.
“This is delicious. You were right. Sorry, Pedro, but Avery’s omelet is on another level.
Though, maybe Pedro can do a mean omelet too. ”
She was remembering Pedro because of the impression he’d left on her. She’d never eaten the food, and I’d forgotten to give her the leftovers.
I was finding out a lot about Molly Easter, details I’d never considered before.
“You’re not eating.” She pointed at my plate while a third of hers was gone.
She gave me a closed and full-mouth smile, waving her fork in the air.
“It’s the little things, Ashton. The world might be imploding around you, but when you have an outstanding omelet to eat, you gotta eat the outstanding omelet. You may never get another like it.”
She was right, but that’s not what was surprising me. It was her. At every turn and twist, I was meeting a new side of Molly.
Outstanding omelets?
“Is that what you learned growing up in the foster system?”
She paused in midchew but blinked once and went back to eating again.
After swallowing, she reached for the rest of her espresso shot but just held it.
“Yeah. I mean, I guess. Some were okay, some were decent, but yeah. There were some where you just survived. Day by day, you know.” She was bobbing her head from left to right.
“The one nice thing about when you’re fighting to survive is that the feelings don’t creep up on you.
You don’t have time to feel ’em. It’s after, when you’re stable and secure, that’s when the feelings hit you sideways.
But yeah, in both worlds, you learned to live.
Small things. Small blessings. Sometimes those are the only things you got to make you smile, and you have to smile.
You always have to smile. You don’t, and you don’t want to be in the day, you know? ”
I did, but I also didn’t.
“Eat your omelet, Ashton.” She said it with a smile. “Then you can go and be the bad guy after.”
I did as she said. And she was right, though I already knew. Avery’s omelets were amazing.
When we were done, my phone beeped. They’d arrived.
Molly had been eyeing me. “You gotta go to work?”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
I glanced at her and raised an eyebrow in question.
She was finishing the last of her food and put the napkin on the tray before standing up. “You gotta go, you gotta go. Take me back to my tower.”
“You don’t want to know what he’s going to say?”
She was chewing her bottom lip before she shook her head, slowly. “No. I think in this case, I’m going to go take a nap and let you do what you do. But I will nag you after so you tell me everything he says. Consider this your warning.”
“You’re going to nap?”
She nodded. “Yep.” She was the one leading me to my office door. “Show me the way, Jeeves. If that omelet and espresso shot were any indication, I have a feeling my bed is a whole other form of heaven. I didn’t appreciate it before, but I will this time.”
Yes, indeed. Molly Easter was surprising me at every different corner.
I was finding that I liked it. A lot.
Molly went to take a nap, and I headed to be the bad guy.