CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR MOLLY
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
MOLLY
I was taking stock of my life. It felt appropriate to do that while I was in the slammer.
Except I wasn’t. I didn’t think.
We were in a building with cement walls, uncomfortable benches, and metal chairs.
No windows. I didn’t think we were at a police station, but there were police here.
Across from me at a metal table in the front lounge area was my new pen pal.
Ritalicious was fabulous. Her pink nails, eyelashes, and feathers were on point.
I now had a new obsession with feathers, faux feathers though.
Not real feathers. But also, she gave me the name of a gay bar that she promised had the best shows.
I was basking in the future excitement of attending Gary’s Hairy Heels and waiting for Jess to stop fighting with whatever cop came through the door. It’d not been easy when the first cops showed up at Glen’s apartment. Once they knew who Jess was, their attitude went south.
It was like that with each one who approached us, and now we were somewhere I didn’t know where, and I was hoping for that one phone call you always get promised.
Detective Worthing walked through the door.
The lady who was arguing with Jess shut up, and Jess groaned.
Not me. I perked up. Jake wasn’t that bad—or hadn’t been in the past. He went to a back office. There was a heated argument, and he came out three minutes later. He walked past the female detective, picked up Jess’s handcuffed wrists, and took the cuffs off.
He glanced at me, but I showed him they never put handcuffs on me.
He said something to the female before motioning to Jess and me. “Come on.”
Jess was unnaturally quiet and stiff. “What are you—”
He gave her a look. “I wouldn’t question my kindness right now.”
She shut up.
I jumped up, said goodbye to Ritalicious, and followed him.
My insides were feeling like I was at a disco.
I had a whole new purpose in life. I didn’t know when it happened, if it was when the gun was pointed at my head, when I was fighting him for it, when Jess helped, or after we kicked his ass?
Or maybe it was a combination of everything and all, but we’d gone to Easter Lanes to bowl with Kelly and Justin, and somehow I came out of this recent scare with a new outlook.
I saw things in a different light.
“Do you have everything with you?”
“They didn’t strip-search us, if that’s what you’re implying.”
His eyes were so cold, staring at Jess for a beat without blinking.
She frowned, a little.
So did I. For doing something nice, he was being abnormally chilly.
He led the way, taking us down a back stairway and opening the door to an empty street. He motioned to the left. “Down the block—you have vehicles waiting for you.”
Vehicles?
Jess took off at a brisk clip.
I moved past him, studying him from under my eyelids before choosing to leave without saying anything. I stepped down to the street, but it didn’t feel right. I turned. “Hey.”
He paused, starting to close the door. He didn’t say anything.
I motioned toward Jess and myself. “Thank you.”
He nodded, that cold look not thawing at all.
I started again for the vehicles.
“Hey.”
I stopped.
He nodded beyond me. “Be careful with him.”
Him? Ashton.
“He’s the reason for this?”
Jake didn’t answer right away. “No. You’re the reason for this.” He went inside after that.
Me? I didn’t understand.
But as I headed to where Jess was waiting at the end of the block, I glanced over my shoulder. He was gone. The door shut firmly behind him.
“You okay?” Jess asked once I got to her.
I nodded. “Yeah, just a weird feeling. That’s all. Also, I want to talk to you about something.”
She nodded beyond us to where two SUVs were waiting. “Okay, but heads up. They’re not happy.”
I almost laughed because at this point, that was the norm for Ashton and me.
She indicated the first one. “That’s me.”
That meant Ashton was in the second one.
As we approached, Elijah stepped out from the front passenger seat in the second vehicle, and another large man did the same from the first one. As if they’d rehearsed it, they both opened the back doors, and we separated. Jess looked back, mouthing, “Call me.”
I nodded, giving her a thumbs-up. She would be my bodyguard. Hell yeah.
I moved to Elijah and paused, grinning up at him. “Heya.”
His eyebrows flickered, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Heya back.”
“Molly,” Ashton groaned from inside the SUV.
I flashed Elijah a last smile before climbing in, and I beamed at whoever Ashton was to me now because I hadn’t the first clue anymore. “Do I have a day to tell you about.”
His face schooled into a mask. “I heard. Another gun in your face?”
I nodded. “I went a little nuts. The switch happened. And I got violent, super violent.”
He eyed me. “Did you like it?”
Did I?
If anyone else had asked me that question and looked at me with a seriousness like Ashton was, I would’ve laughed it off. I would’ve denied it and shoved that down inside of me, deep down. That was anyone else. Not Ashton.
And since it was Ashton, and since he seemed genuinely curious, I told the truth. “I don’t know.”
His head cocked to the side, like he wanted to look at me from a different angle, as if that would help him study me better.
Maybe it did this time because he said, softly, “There’s darkness in every one of us.
We have to do what we have to do to survive at times.
You’ve been in a few of those situations. ”
Maybe. This didn’t feel like that, though.
“Also.” He had me looking back at him. “I’m glad the switch happened. I’m glad you’re safe and alive.”
I smiled.
He smiled back.
It felt right. I sighed and relaxed back into the seat as the vehicle pulled into traffic. “So, my cousin is now missing.”
“No, he’s not.”
“He’s not?”
“He works for me. I’ve known where he was this whole time.”
“Where was he?”
“He’s staying at a safe house in case something happened, which just happened at his place. When he’s at Easter Lanes, my men are there.”
I flattened my mouth. “He closed Easter Lanes on Sunday. That’s not cool.”
“He closed Easter Lanes at my request. I was worried about retaliation.”
That made me pause. “Retaliation?”
He nodded, studying me.
“For what?”
“For business that’s none of your business.”
I glowered. “You saying that and half smiling when you say that isn’t helping, and it is my business since my father’s involved. Remember?”
His smile faded. He grew solemn instead. “It’s bad guy shit. I’d rather keep you out of it as much as possible.”
“Does it have to do with my father?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well, then you have a point.”
He reached out, taking my hand, and linked our fingers. “Tell me about your day.”
“I thought you already knew?”
“I’m finding I like to hear you say it anyways.”
That was ... a whole warm feeling pulsed through my chest, deep inside. “You’re not mad we left the house and went to Easter Lanes?”
“I’ve come to expect the unexpected from you, and also, I know what today is.”
Sunday night. The old Kelly-and-Justin bowling night.
“I wanted to bowl with my friends.”
“I’m sorry.”
My heart was melting with each new word he was saying. He was being kind and even a little gentle with me.
I looked down at our hands. His were big and strong, swallowing mine up, but they felt like a perfect fit. A lump formed in my throat at the sight, at the feeling sweeping through me. “We’re holding-hands friends now?”
“Who said we’re friends?”
But he was teasing. I shot him a look. “Detective Worthing got us out of there.”
“I know.”
“He said he did it because of me.”
His head inclined forward; he was studying me a little more intensely than normal. “What if I told you that he might have a thing for you? How would you feel about that?”
I looked down, playing with our fingers. My free hand tracing over his linked fingers. “I don’t know. Never liked cops, so that would make me feel odd. I guess.”
His attention was so heavy, but not in a bad way—in an uncomfortable way, because I was feeling he could see stuff in me that even I didn’t know was there.
“I have a mission, a new one in life.”
“What is it?”
“It hit me earlier, when I was waiting in the police place. It suddenly came to me. All this stuff happening to me, there’s gotta be a reason. Right?”
He didn’t respond. He was frowning.
I kept on. “And there’s issues between you and Jess. Right?”
His frown just deepened.
“So, like, in groups there are roles. Do you know what I’m talking about?”
“No idea.”
Right. That wouldn’t deter me. “Well. Okay. There are. There are roles. There’s the thinker.
There’s the doer. And then there’s the in-between people.
I’m the in-between person. You’re a doer.
Jess is a doer. Trace is the thinker. I mean, you’re a thinker, too, but you’re mostly a doer.
I kinda think that’s why you and Jess don’t get along.
You guys are both competing for the same role in the group.
But me and Trace. We don’t compete. No one else is our—well; you’re a thinker, but again. You’re more—”
“Doer. Yes.” He was watching me with a strange expression. “All this came to you when you were at the police station?”
I nodded, then shrugged and leaned back against the seat.
“I keep getting into situations where there are guns pointed at my head or bombs exploding my door. If this all had happened before you, I would’ve blamed my dad.
Shorty Easter. And yeah, there’s an argument that could be made that this is all because of my dad, but my cousin.
There was a dead guy at my cousin’s apartment. Who was the dead guy?”
“A guy that heard your cousin’s apartment was open, so he crashed there. The guy who killed him was the guy you beat up. He works for Nicolai Worthing, so we know Worthing is sending people after you. He sent a man after your cousin.”
“Wait. What? I thought you said there was a ceasefire.”
He lifted a hand and cupped the side of my face. His thumb rubbed over my face, so gentle, matching his tone. “I don’t think there was ever a ceasefire.”
“Oh.” And the lump kept growing in size.
His hand dropped to my hand, and he laced our fingers together. “I’m still interested in hearing about the roles in our group. It sounds interesting.”
Maybe I was wrong about it all. “It’s all because of my dad?”
“I think this particular bad string of luck, yes. It was kicked off by your dad, but Molly.” He leaned forward, inclining his head.
I lifted my head up to see how soft his eyes were watching me back.
“If you are saying that you’re an in-between, and you could help fix the issues between Jess and me, then I’m going to say that I don’t think another person could get better results than you.”
“Are you serious?” My throat swelled up. My heart began beating so fast.
He nodded. “I think your idea makes perfect sense. You’re the glue.”
“I’m like added sealant.”
“That too.” His lips quirked.
Right on. I was still in a good mood, and I didn’t want to think about the bad stuff that just happened, that seemed to always happen to me. “Can we do something fun tonight? Can we forget, for one night, about everything going on?”
I lifted my head, waiting for his answer.
He was looking so intensely at me. He nodded. “We can do that. What do you want to do?”
I shook my head. “The last time I really took a night off, I went to the hockey game, and then we went to Octavia. What about Katya? You own it, right? Can we go there and just, just be there?”
He leaned over, reaching up, and a finger traced a strand of my hair, tucking it behind my ear. A tingle followed in his trail. I found myself waiting, holding my breath, warmth spreading all over my body. The fuzzies were in a flurry.
“Yeah.” He said it so softly. “We can go to Katya.”
“And forget everything, for one night?” I leaned toward him.
Closer. So close.
He nodded, his forehead now almost resting on mine. “And forget everything, for one night.”
I held up my pinkie. “Promise?”
He flashed me a smile. My heart jumped in my chest. He linked his pinkie with mine, keeping them entwined. “Promise.” Sitting back, he pushed a button, relayed our new location, and sat back. He kept our pinkies linked so now we were doubly holding hands.
I scooted over, getting closer until my side was touching his.
He let go of our pinkies, putting his arm behind me, anchoring me more firmly against him.
I leaned in, resting my head to his chest.
I was kinda loving this.
That scared me.