by Lori Foster
“What do we do now?” Molly asked.
“I want to hear about that note, but you’re pushing it today. The long trip was enough, but then to find this mess… You need to eat something, drink—”
“Dare, I’m okay,” she complained with a short laugh. “And I’m not hungry.”
He stopped with her in the kitchen. Smoothing back her hair, he studied her face. She looked pale, stressed and beautiful. “All right.” He couldn’t keep smothering her. She was too independent for that. “I’m not really hungry, either. But we might as well sit down to talk.”
She looked around at the remaining mess. “I still have so much to do.”
“We’ll get to it.” He cleared a chair and a spot on the table, then urged her to sit. “Take a few breaths, honey.”
She did a double take at the endearment. “I really am okay, you know.”
“I never doubted it.” Her inner strength never ceased to amaze him. She took one blow after another, but always rallied. It was that, as much as anything, that set her apart. “Just humor me.”
After ensuring that the carafe wasn’t broken, Dare started the coffee prep. He’d noticed where she kept things earlier when he’d checked the kitchen. “While I get this ready, why don’t you explain the gist of that note?”
She put her head in her hands. Voice muffled, she said, “It has to do with a book. The one that was so criticized.” She raised her face. “You remember what you read in the most scathing comments?”
Dare thought for a second. As he measured coffee into the basket, he recalled the dominant complaint. “You redeemed a character, right?”
Molly nodded. “In the beginning, he did some pretty awful things, mostly out of misguided emotion. He’d had a rough life, and because of that his outlook on certain things was skewed.”
“What kind of awful things?”
“He was a thief, a liar. Those sorts of things. He stole cars, credit cards. Definitely crossed the line. But while he was capable of it, he never really hurt anyone physically. Later in the book he realized his mistakes, tried to atone and the lead characters forgave him.”
The idea of forgiveness intrigued Dare—maybe because he, himself, wasn’t a very forgiving person. Cross him, and he never forgot, and he sure as hell stopped trusting. “Some readers felt duped.”
She gave one short nod. “I guess everyone doesn’t buy into second chances the way that I do.” As if she had a growing headache, Molly rubbed her temples. “I wouldn’t even make the connection, but one reader in particular sent me plenty of emails detailing different, sort-of-threatening scenarios about what it would take to push me past the point of forgiveness. She would always end the setup by asking if I’d still be forgiving if that happened to me.”
“The hell you say.” Dare took the seat beside her. “You didn’t tell me any of this.”
She dismissed that with a look. “It was bad enough that you saw those reviews. And honestly, until now, I really didn’t think that much of it. Over the years, I’ve gotten plenty of scathing letters from readers. It’s part and parcel with the job.”
“Give me an example.”
Keeping her attention on the tabletop, she thought back. “I once had this secondary character who was a father.”
Dare could feel her tension with the topic, and he hated it—but he needed details.
“After the character’s wife died, he emotionally bailed on his kids. He wasn’t there for them at all, didn’t see them through the tough times or encourage them.”
Had she drawn comparisons with her own father? From what she’d told him, he’d sure as hell neglected his daughters, especially when they needed him most: after their mother had died.
Molly folded her hands together. “He supported them financially, but that was it. I didn’t paint him as a total jerk, but neither was his self-absorbed pity written off as acceptable.”
“And?”
“A male reader was so outraged by my lack of understanding for what the character had gone through, he threatened my life.” Irritation growing, she added, “As if there’s ever any excuse for not taking care of your kids.”
“No, there’s not.” Cautious of her mood, Dare asked, “How’d he threaten you?”
“He wrote me a bunch of letters—twenty or more. All of them were angry, some more insane than the others, but his overall theme was that I needed to be shown what it was to feel real loss before I judged anyone else on their own reactions.” She made a rude sound. “I didn’t tell him that I had lost my mother, so I knew what it felt like to lose a loved one.”
“Good.” To Dare’s mind, it would never be smart to share too much of her private life with her readers. “Anything come of his threats?”
She waved it off. “Not really. I shared the letters with the local police, and they contacted a forensics team. There was some checking done. Other than telling me that the guy was back on his meds, they couldn’t say much because it would have infringed on his rights.”
Dare scowled. “Fucked-up logic, if you ask me.”
“It doesn’t matter. I never heard from him after that.” Restless, she tapped her fingertips on the tabletop. “Then there was the guy who came to every local signing, and he’d buy the same book over and over again. I don’t mean two or three copies, but like…dozens of them. I think in the end he must’ve owned forty or more copies of one title. It was downright creepy.”
Deadpan, Dare said, “He must’ve really liked the book.”
She rolled her eyes. “I finally told him that he had to stop. It was so awkward. For both of us.”
“I can imagine.” Dare took her hand. “How’d he react to that?”
“He got all flustered and stuff. I think he almost cried. But he didn’t show up at any more signings, and as far as I know, he’s never written me since then.”
“As far as you know?”
“A lot of readers send anonymous letters. They don’t sign a name or share an address.” Her lips quirked. “Especially the angry ones.”
“You say this stuff happens all the time?”
She lifted a shoulder in a halfhearted shrug. “I’ve gotten immune to it. I mean, I hate upsetting readers, but it’s just part of the business. What one reader loves another hates.” Her breath released in a sigh. “When that one reader kept telling me that no one would be that forgiving, I just ignored her at first.”
“Her?” Dare cocked a brow. “Do you know that it was a woman?”
“Well…” Molly frowned. “Not really, no. Her letters have all been unsigned and unaddressed, too. It’s just that most of my readers are women.”
“But not all?”
She made a face at him. “Both of the readers I already told you about were guys.”
“So let’s don’t make any assumptions, then.” The coffee machine hissed to a finish, and Dare got up to find the mugs.
Molly went to a different cabinet to retrieve powdered creamer. “I don’t even want to open my refrigerator. I’m afraid what I might find in there.”
Struck by that, Dare looked at her, then went to the fridge.
“I was kidding.”
“Might as well find out if we have anything growing.” He opened the door, but it wasn’t bad at all. “I think your lunchmeat is long gone, and I wouldn’t touch the milk or creamer. But everything else should be okay.” He closed the door again. “You keep a neat refrigerator. No leftovers.”
“Thank God.” She doctored her coffee and went back to the table. “Since it’s just me, I don’t cook much, which means there’s seldom anything left to store.”
Dare opened a few cabinets but didn’t find any snacks.
Apologetic, Molly said, “I’d offer you a cookie or something, but I have no idea what I have anymore.”
“Don’t worry about it. We’ll order in dinner and if necessary shop tomorrow.”
Stirring her coffee with a spoon, Molly avoided eye contact. “How long will we be here?”
“A conflict?”
Dare shrugged. “Maybe someone who you’re angry at, who you won’t forgive?”
Gazes locking, the same thought occurring to them both, they said in unison, “Adrian.”
Why the hell hadn’t he thought of that sooner? Would her ex have been dumb enough to trash her apartment? Could he have known that Molly was missing?
Could he have arranged her abduction?
Molly scoffed. “No way. I mean, I can’t believe it. Not Adrian. He isn’t the type to—”
A key sounded in the lock on the front door.
Stunned, they both stared in that direction.
Stumped, Molly asked, “Who—?”
“Quiet.” Grabbing her, Dare dragged her down to the floor and behind the kitchen wall, turning off the lights as he went.
Molly’s eyes widened when she noticed the gun already in his hand.
“This can’t be happening,” she whispered.
Dare pressed her back to the wall. “Stay. Put. And damn it, Molly, this time I mean it.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MOLLY SWALLOWED HARD as Dare slipped out of the room. Her heart thundered and her flushed skin felt too tight as she waited for a horrible conflict.
The door opened. Male chuckling. The rustle of people coming into the apartment. Female giggling and…smooching.
Her brows knit together. Something about that masculine laugh sounded familiar.
Dare would be so angry at her if she moved, but…she couldn’t stop herself.
She peeked around the corner just in time to see Adrian practically fall into the apartment with a very pretty woman. They were all over each other.
In her apartment.
Furious, Molly pushed up to her feet almost at the same time that Dare stepped out from behind the couch, the gun aimed at the two intruders.
Oblivious to the danger, Adrian shut the door one-handed, then groaned and grabbed the woman’s behind. Shadows enveloped them as they wrapped around each other, fondling, kissing, moving against the wall to grind a little, then stumbling free again.
Amplified by all she’d endured lately, rage boiled inside Molly, threatening to combust. But she stayed put.
She could see Dare’s confusion in his stance. He didn’t lower the gun, but he did flip on the light.
In an instant, the woman screeched and Adrian jerked around. They both went white.
“Let me guess,” Dare said. “Adrian?”
Her idiot ex-fiancé stammered and slumped back to the wall, using it for support. The woman clung to him, horrified, uncertain.
They both looked lit. Drunk or high. Maybe both.
Molly cleared her throat. “Dare?”
Without looking back at her, he said, “Yeah?”
“It’s safe enough for me, right?”
He didn’t answer right away. “Just a second.”
Adrian quailed in fear when Dare strode over to him. Dare held out his hand and said, “Keys.”
Adrian handed them over with shaking alacrity.
After pocketing them, Dare frisked Adrian by roughly running his hands over his back, seat, legs and arms. It was unnecessary, Molly was sure, but she didn’t stop Dare.
Finding nothing, Dare pushed her ex into a chair.
Molly stepped out of the kitchen. “What are you doing here, Adrian?”
Finally seeing her, Adrian shot to his feet. “Molly, thank God!”
Dare shoved him back in the chair so hard it almost overturned. “Sit.”
Alarmed, Adrian looked toward her for help, and seeing her calm and collected helped him to calm down, too. As his panic receded, his surroundings sank in, and he noticed the state of the apartment. “Good God, Molly. What did you do?”
Dare said to him, “Just shut up.” He turned to the woman, giving her a once-over.
Adrian’s latest conquest wore very little, just a scanty, very tight black dress that showed a yard of cleavage and mile-high legs in open-toed heels. Tumbled bleach-blond hair and painted lips gave her the look of a starlet wannabe.
Dare moved toward her.
And Molly snapped, “Dare!”
He hesitated but didn’t take his gaze off the woman. “What?”
Heat crawled up her neck. Talk about awkward.
But damn it, she didn’t care. Molly filled her lungs with righteous umbrage. “I do not want your hands on her.”
A heavy pause settled over the room. Dare slanted a fleeting look her way. “Because?”
Because… If he ran his hands over that overblown, on-display body, Molly would… Well, she didn’t know what she’d do. Her jaw hurt from all the teeth-clenching she’d done lately. “I wouldn’t like it.”
He glanced toward her, and Molly saw the faintest sign of humor in his expression. “What she’s wearing is so tight, I can’t see how she’d be hiding a weapon anyway.”
“Well…good.” God, she felt ridiculous.
Dare held out a hand to the woman. “Give me your purse.”
She handed it over.
Dare stepped away from them both. “Well, Molly?” He reached out a hand to her. “I’m just dying for an introduction.”
Yeah, she could imagine. But it was sort of embarrassing for Dare to meet her creep of an ex under these circumstances.
Joining Dare in his stance before the intruders, Molly crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “What are you doing here, Adrian?”
He opened his mouth, glanced at the blonde and snapped it shut again.
Very blasé, Dare asked Molly, “Want me to beat it out of him?”
“I’m thinking about it,” Molly said, and she prayed Dare was just joking.
Adrian couldn’t make that assumption. “You haven’t been here.”
“It’d be hard for me not to notice where I have or haven’t been, Adrian. What does that have to do with anything?”
He shook his head, keeping a watchful eye on Dare as if he expected him to attack at any minute.
Dare did make a rather imposing figure with his height, his muscle and that not-too-happy expression on his face. Not to mention the gun still in his hands.
For her part, the blonde stood there with her mouth shut tight.
Adrian licked his lips. “You sort of…disappeared.”
“How do you know she wasn’t here?” Dare asked.
“Her sister has been driving everyone insane, looking for her.” And then to Molly, “But no one knew where you were, and when you didn’t answer your calls, even on your cell, I thought maybe you had…abandoned the place.”
“And you thought…what?” Molly couldn’t fathom his reason for being in her apartment. “That you’d just move in?”
“No, of course not. I have my own place.” He looked at the blonde, sat forward and appealed to Molly. “You know how private I am with my place.”
“Private?”
“Yeah, I don’t…” He glanced at the blonde again, and now she looked back, her brows starting to bunch together. “I like to keep my personal life freed up.”
“You’re not making any sense,” Dare told him. “Just spit it out, will you?”
Showing some backbone, Adrian glared at him. “It’s never good policy to take a one-night stand into your home. Everyone knows that.”
The blonde said, “One-night stand?”
Molly’s brain froze up at that awful thought. “You were coming here to have sex? In my apartment?” Her stomach recoiled and she yelled, “In my bed?”
With a shrug, Adrian said, “Yeah.”
Molly launched herself at him, but Dare caught her with an arm around her waist. Adrian scrambled out of the chair and got behind it.
“You son of a bitch!”
Dare chuckled.
That infuriated Molly enough that she brought her elbow back hard into Dare’s ribs. He stopped laughing but didn’t loosen his hold on her. “Settle down.”
“I will, after I kill him.”
Truly alarmed again, Adrian excused his behavior by saying, “I thought you were gone!”
“And you thought I’d never come back, you jackass? Is that it?” She redoubled her effort to get to him, which only caused Dare to lift her off her feet. “Are you the one responsible for this? Are you?”
“Easy,” Dare cautioned.
His hold wasn’t painful, but Molly knew she only looked foolish flailing around, trying to free herself when that wouldn’t happen.
She couldn’t really imagine Adrian orchestrating a kidnapping and transport over the border, but at the moment, she wanted it to be him. “Put me down,” she told Dare.
He did, immediately. But he kept his arm around her and even gave her a warning squeeze.
Breathing hard, Molly said to Dare, “Do your thing, whatever it is, because I want him out of here, the sooner the better.”
Dare released her and stepped in front of her to speak to Adrian. “You felt comfortable coming into her home, assuming she wouldn’t be back to catch you at it. Why?”
“Molly never leaves without telling her sister. Since Natalie didn’t know anything about it, I assumed she’d gone off to find herself or something. I called her cell but didn’t get an answer.” He shrugged. “If she was here, she would have picked up.”
Dare crossed his arms. “How’d you get in?”
“The first night I dropped by, the door was unlocked.”
Incredulous, Molly peered around Dare and repeated, “The first time?”
Dare moved to block her again. “Go on.”
Uncertain, it took Adrian a few seconds to find his voice. “I found her keys in the kitchen, and, like any good friend, I locked her door.”
“And kept the keys so you could get back in?”
“I…ah…”
“Look,” the blonde suddenly said. “I have nothing to do with whatever’s going on here. I only met the jerk tonight.”
Adrian’s mood went from scared to belligerent. “Shut up, Sally.”