Reluctant Suspicion

by Finn, Scarlett

  ‘You want in?’ she asked. ‘There’s food in the oven for you. You didn’t have anything fresh in your cupboards that I could cook with, so we sent Marty out… that’s him.’ She pointed at the man diagonally opposite her. ‘He’s not very good at following a list. But I did the best I could.’

  ‘You cooked?’ Blake asked.

  ‘Mm hmm, earlier on,’ she said, and began to deal out the cards. ‘These guys were moaning about being hungry… I didn’t want them just ordering a pizza. There is nothing of nutritional value in a pizza, and they need their strength if they have to kick ass.’

  ‘Do they?’ Blake asked, resting his hands on the high backrest of her chair to glimpse her cards.

  ‘Hey!’ she said, pulling her cards to her chest. ‘That’s cheating!’

  ‘I’m not playing,’ he said.

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘But you’re getting a look at the stuff they are gambling to see.’

  She was right at that because the first thing he’d done, before checking her cards, was peer down her top. ‘Deal me in, then.’ Dragging out the chair beside hers, he sat and faced her profile, propping one foot on the side bar of her chair.

  ‘What’s the point,’ she huffed. ‘You’ve seen it all before.’

  Her candour made Blake’s eyebrows rise, and he was sure he heard the other men in the room groan through their panting. ‘How much wine has she had?’ Taking no chances, he swiped the glass and downed the last inch of liquid that what was left in the bottom.

  ‘Hey!’ she said, trying to snatch her now-empty glass away from him. ‘That’s mine!’

  He put the glass down, out of her reach. ‘You’ve had enough. I’m cutting you off.’

  ‘Aww,’ she said. ‘Don’t be a spoil sport, baby.’ Sliding across her chair, Molly laid her head on his shoulder and allowed her body to melt against his. ‘Get me buzzed and we’ll have lots of fun.’

  He shook his head and took hold of her shoulders to lift her away from him. ‘Right, you guys, game is over.’

  A collective groan went around the room, but it ceased when he cast a glare at all of the male occupants.

  ‘We were just getting started,’ she said. ‘We can play pool if you prefer. I’m not very good at that. So you have to let me put something else on. I only have two things to remove.’

  ‘Two?’ Blake said, taking in the fact that she was wearing her skirt and top from the previous night. ‘You’re not wearing any underwear?’

  Marty, seated opposite Blake, spurted alcohol from his mouth when he choked on the thought. ‘I couldn’t put it back on after my shower, it was dirty. I washed it in the sink, it’ll be dry for tomorrow,’ she said.

  ‘Shit,’ Blake murmured, letting his head fall into his hands.

  ‘Are you angry with me?’ she asked. Her hands found his knees and pushed their way upwards. ‘I thought you would like it.’

  ‘Ok, Molly,’ he said, and grabbed her wrists before her fingers could reach his groin area. ‘You have to stop, ok, babe? We have company.’

  ‘This is the way she talks to you when you’re alone?’ Jason said. Approaching the table, he sipped from his glass and dropped one hand to the back of a dining chair. ‘She is a fox, Blake. Honestly, what a sense of humour and hot… that doesn’t even cover it. I think I’m starting to get it.’

  ‘She’s drunk,’ Blake said.

  ‘She doesn’t look drunk,’ Jason said.

  ‘She doesn’t slur and fall all over the place. Her inhibitions go, and she says everything she is thinking. She’ll hate herself for this tomorrow.’

  ‘She’s only had two glasses,’ Jason said.

  Blake thanked his lucky stars that he had gotten home when he had. Three horny cops with a woman like Molly wouldn’t stay respectable for long. ‘She doesn’t drink,’ Blake said. ‘She’s drunk after one.’

  ‘Wow, cheap date,’ Marty said with a laugh, causing Blake to land another glare on him. Jason gawped at their colleague for being so idiotic.

  ‘I have to get her to bed,’ Blake said.

  ‘I hear you on that,’ Jason said.

  ‘To sleep,’ Blake said. ‘Shit, Williams wanted her in protective custody.’

  ‘Police cells with colour TV… I want to stay at your place,’ Molly chimed in. ‘Your couch is comfy.’

  ‘You slept on the couch?’ Blake said. ‘There are three bedrooms you could have chosen from upstairs.’

  ‘I wouldn’t venture up there without an invitation. That’s your personal space.’

  ‘Jesus, Mol, you’re allowed upstairs.’

  Her grin spread. ‘So I can stay?’

  ‘You can’t stay here,’ Blake said, tucking her hair behind her ear. ‘I can’t be with you all the time, and resources are thin. You’ll be safer in police protection.’

  ‘I don’t trust them,’ she said, and thrust her chair away from the table to bring herself to her feet. The abrupt move had her grabbing for Blake’s shoulder to steady herself, so she cleared her throat and took a moment to compose herself. ‘I’m going home.’

  ‘You can’t go home.’

  ‘Ashton’s is never closed,’ Molly said. ‘I have to open up.’

  Aware of the others in the room, Blake was reluctant to discuss his actions of the night, but she’d brought it up so he had no choice. ‘It is open.’

  ‘What?’ she gasped, and stumbled. Blake shot to his feet to grab her waist. ‘How?’

  ‘I was there this evening and we got everything organised. Mason and Vanessa are serving.’

  ‘How? Where?’

  ‘Upstairs,’ he said. ‘I made a few calls from the station to get the ball rolling.’

  ‘The function room? You opened the function suite?’

  ‘It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. We got stairs installed outside. They just wheeled them off the truck and bolted them to the wall. The place just needed a good clear out. We got a fresh delivery of alcohol and some new glasses, after that it was straight-forward. It just needed a damn good airing out.’

  ‘It’s gone,’ Molly said. ‘Everything from… my party?’

  He nodded. ‘I talked to Mason and Vanessa about it. They agreed that it was for the best. All of your presents were moved to the cellar, you can open them when you’re ready, if you want to.’

  ‘How could you!’ she screeched, and slapped at his chest to free herself from his steadying hold. ‘I told you not to go in there! I told you how important that was to me!’

  ‘What was more important?’ he argued back. ‘Getting the place open, or wallowing in the past? What would your dad have done?’

  ‘Don’t do that! Don’t bring him into this!’

  ‘You wanted his advice! This is what he would have told you to do!’

  Her shoulders slumped, and to hide the emerging dismay, she strode away from him, not stopping until she reached the windows.

  ‘What do you need?’ Jason asked. ‘Have you got her somewhere to stay?’

  Blake couldn’t take his eyes from her isolated figure, her arms moved around her waist in a private embrace, and he knew she was trying to quell the growing ache he’d caused her. Pain was the last thing that he wanted to be responsible for, but he knew he’d done the right thing, and a part of her would know that too.

  But there was no denying that he’d taken a huge part of her past from her, and he had done it without asking. In fairness, the notion of calling and checking had occurred to him, but he’d known that she would say no. If she had said no there would have been nothing he could have done. At least this way he didn’t go against her wishes, he just didn’t ask her what her wishes were.

  ‘Get out of here,’ Blake said.

  ‘If Williams wants her to—‘

  ‘Go, Keane,’ he said. ‘And take your friends with you.’

  Jason came so close that Blake could feel his body heat, but Molly was still all he saw. ‘Don’t do this, Blake,’ Jason mumbled. ‘She’s hot, but she’s a materia
l—’

  ‘I’ll see you later, Keane,’ Blake said, striding away from the concern and rationality that he didn’t want to hear now.

  Though Blake knew it was against Keane’s better judgement, his partner didn’t argue further. ‘You heard the man,’ Jason said to his cohorts.

  While the men scuffled around getting dressed, no one spoke. Brief silence came before footsteps, and eventually the three men made their departure.

  Silence filled the void around him and Molly, who was still standing a good ten feet away staring out of the window with her arms around herself.

  ‘Are you ok?’ he asked.

  ‘Is Mason’s place ok?’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘Other than a hell of a smell, it’s fine. The damage to your place wasn’t very extensive. They got to the fire quickly and it was relatively isolated. The building is still structurally sound.’

  ‘Good,’ she said. Spinning out of her own embrace, she began to march across the kitchen. ‘I’ll stay there until this is over.’

  He sidestepped into her path when she approached his position. ‘You can’t… I told you—‘

  ‘I can!’ she said. ‘You can’t tell me where to go and what to do!’

  ‘No, I can’t. But I can tell you what is best for your safety.’

  ‘I am my own responsibility.’

  ‘Fine. If you want to go to Mason’s, then go to Mason’s.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, skirting around him and continuing toward the exit.

  ‘But if she comes for you, she’ll get him first.’

  She stopped and he didn’t have to turn to know it, because her footsteps ceased. ‘You’re trying to scare me.’

  ‘I’m telling you the truth, Mol,’ he said. ‘She wants to hurt you. She’ll make you watch her torture him.’

  ‘Stop it,’ Molly said.

  ‘I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t tell you this. I’ve seen it too many times before. This isn’t your usual indiscriminate killer. This person wants to hurt you, and to do that she has hurt those around you.’

  Both of them turned to face each other at the same time. ‘That means everyone I have ever cared about is in danger.’

  Blake nodded. ‘She’s changed tack by burning the bar.’

  ‘You’re sure it was her?’ she asked.

  ‘We’re pretty sure.’

  ‘She could come for you too.’

  ‘Me?’ he said, surprised that Molly would make such a declaration.

  ‘Doesn’t make this place very safe for me either.’

  ‘Why would she come for me?’

  ‘She burned the bar when she thought we were all inside,’ Molly said.

  ‘You said you were at Mason’s.’

  ‘We were,’ she said. ‘But we had all been in the bar. We locked the door and went to his apartment through the cellar. There’s a few loose floorboards in his living room, the cellar overlaps his property at his front window. She wouldn’t have known that we left Ashton’s. She must be watching… me, the bar, the boys, I don’t know… But it means she might have seen us together.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘She could have seen me get into your car on the night we met, and she would have seen me coming home with Alex as well. She could have seen me get into your car the night we went to Jason’s or watched as you dropped me off that night. If she was there to start the fire, she could have stayed to view her work in action. In that case, she saw me leave with you.’

  ‘She’s watching,’ Blake said. ‘You’re right, she is.’

  ‘We… I… kissed you in that car.’

  ‘We can draw her out,’ Blake said. ‘This is brilliant… How can we do this?’

  His mind raced with a thousand thoughts after he asked the rhetorical question. If the murderess wanted to hurt Molly, she’d chosen to do it by attacking the things that Molly cared about. Making Choker believe that Molly cared about him more than anything, or anyone, else would cause the killer to seek him out. He would be the prize she aspired to snatch from Molly.

  ‘Come on,’ he said, taking hold of Molly’s hand to lead her to the exit she’d been aiming for anyway.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘I’m taking you out.’

  ‘Why? I don’t want to go out. I’m tired, I want to go home.’

  ‘Home is where I’m taking you,’ he said, sweeping his jacket up off the floor. ‘I have to show you off.’

  ‘Show me off to who? What for?’

  Taking her out and down the drive to his vehicle, the surge of adrenaline kept him going. ‘To Choker,’ he said, stuffing Molly into the truck. ‘I need her to want me as much as she’s going to believe you do.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  Trying again to fasten the clasp of the bracelet that matched her earrings, Molly clocked another failed attempt. Her mind wasn’t on the task she was trying to accomplish; it was on the task that Blake wanted to accomplish tonight, here, in her bar, using her to fashion himself as bait. Maybe the plan had a chance of working, it could be smart, but she wasn’t sure that she wanted it to succeed.

  Coming onto her premises through the function suite had been a revelation. The whole space had been transformed to be lively and welcoming, just as it was when her dad ran the establishment. Chills had enveloped her as she took in the sight of people once again smiling and enjoying themselves, but the eerie sense subsided when she realised just how much patrons were revelling in this once sealed-off environment. Blake was right, her dad would have opened this space to the public. But then her father would have berated her for keeping it under lock and key for so long.

  The bar and kitchen downstairs were still off limits, and for speed Blake had picked the lock of the office door from the function room side and granted her entrance to her residence. He’d bundled her into her bedroom under instruction to change into something, “date suitable”.

  So now she sat here, alone on her bed and dressed to the nines, trying to fasten her bracelet and thinking about what lay ahead in this night for them. Blake had outlined the plan to her in the car on the journey over here. The idea was simple enough, he planned to lure Choker out.

  It was dangerous, and the more Molly thought about it, the more she knew that she couldn’t go along with it. Resenting Blake for lying to her didn’t extend into any desire to see him harmed, certainly not physically, or fatally. If he wasn’t around, he’d never be able to make amends, and the more time she spent with him, the more she thought she might like to give him the chance to do just that. With her mind made up, Molly sprang to her feet and headed straight for the exit.

  ‘I can’t do this,’ she declared in the moment that she opened the bedroom door to see Blake leaning against the banister that ran the length of the hall. His ankles were crossed and his thumbs were hooked into his jeans.

  ‘You can’t do what?’ he asked. Before she could respond, he took the bracelet that still hung between her pinched fingers. ‘I might not be delicate, but I’m sure I can fasten a bracelet for you.’

  Taking hold of her wrist, he looped the jewellery around to link the catch into place. ‘That’s not what I meant.’

  ‘All done,’ he said, elevating her wrist to press a kiss against the white gold now dangling from her delicate wrist. ‘You look great, incredible… just right. Do you have a dress that doesn’t make you look like you belong in the pages of Vogue?’

  ‘Have you ever read Vogue?’ Molly asked, knowing that her wardrobe wasn’t equivalent to anything in Vogue’s pages.

  Sweeping her hair back from her shoulder, he skimmed his fingertips down the back of her arm to direct her hand into the crook of his elbow. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘But you don’t look like a centrefold.’

  ‘Hey!’ she said, and swotted him.

  ‘I meant it as a compliment! You have the figure for it, but you’re too… classy… untouchable. The women in those magazines are chosen because any man can look at them and say, “yeah she’d go for m
e.” No man can say that about you.’

  ‘Why? Do I look like a lesbian?’

  His laugh accompanied them into the function room. ‘No.’

  ‘Lock the office,’ she said. ‘Please, I don’t want anyone—‘

  ‘Sensible,’ Blake said, and locked the door behind them.

  Knowing that her home was secure gave her some reassurance, but more came when he linked their fingers and led her to a table on the edge of the dance floor. Already there was a bottle of champagne on ice and two flutes waiting for them. He must have phoned ahead and had Vanessa set this up for them, either that or he did it himself while she was getting changed. Either way, it showed great foresight, this was like date night.

  In a very gentlemanly gesture, he drew out her chair to seat her. ‘The booze is just for show, ok? You’ve had enough tonight.’

  Ordinarily she might argue, but she had other concerns. ‘Shouldn’t we be behind the bar?’ she asked.

  ‘No.’

  ‘But it’s getting busy.’

  ‘You’re not on duty. That’s not the point of tonight.’

  Swinging his chair closer to hers, he sat so close that their bodies were flush. As if that wasn’t enough, he proceeded to bury his face in her hair. A shiver went through her when he twined their fingers.

  ‘So what is the point?’ Molly asked, hanging onto her sanity by a thread.

  ‘We have to make her believe that we care… if she thinks that you care about me, then maybe she will focus on me as her next victim.’

  His compliments had made her forget her misgivings about what he was asking her to set him up for. ‘I can’t. I tried to tell you. I can’t do it, Blake.’

  ‘You can fake it for an hour, Mol, that’s all it will take.’

  ‘That’s not what I mean,’ she said, tipping her forehead to his. He brought her hand to his lips and began to cover her knuckles with feather light kisses. ‘I can’t put you in danger. If she hurt you—‘

  ‘It’s my job, babe,’ he said, continuing his exploration of her hand. ‘Let me protect you. Once she’s off the streets you’ll be safe again.’