TNT

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  Cap held up his hands. “I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be with her. I like her. I’m just saying watch your ass, because I can guarantee that this woman will be dragging you down the aisle in less than a month.”

  “Not a chance. We talked about this. I told her that we needed more time.”

  “Did you specify an amount?” Cap joked.

  “No, I don’t need to. When I’m ready, I’ll talk to her about it again.”

  “Right,” Coop snorted. “I’d like to be there for that conversation.”

  “Here’s your chance,” Cap grinned, nodding behind me.

  I turned around and smiled as Molly walked into the room. I didn’t even hesitate to hold open my arms for her. She walked right into them and wrapped herself around me. It was the best fucking feeling in the world. These guys were delusional if they thought something as simple as a conversation about a wedding would put me off.

  “Hey, baby,” I grinned.

  “Baby? I like it.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah, it has a nice ring to it.”

  “I thought so.”

  “Speaking of rings,” Coop interjected. “When will you be buying them?”

  “Coop,” I warned, not wanting him to start trouble.

  “Oh, I talked with Momma on the way over. She said the church is available at the end of the month. I told her to go ahead and book it.”

  “You what?” I asked, surprised that she actually did that, even though I shouldn’t have been.

  “What?” Coop said in mock surprise. “Man, I didn’t realize you were taking the plunge so soon. Who’s going to be your best man? Tell me it’s me. Storm will freak out if you ask him to go near a wedding.”

  “Uh-”

  “I already have my bridesmaid picked out. Jenny’s so excited, by the way. Oh, and I talked to the flower shop in town and they’re working on some different arrangements for us. And Momma took her dress to a woman she knows and they’re going to come up with some alterations. All I have to do is go down for a fitting. So, we should probably do that this weekend.”

  “That’s so awesome,” Cap said, clapping me on the shoulder.

  “Molly, I thought we talked about taking our time with this.”

  “Yeah, I totally get what you’re saying, but if we’re moving in together, there’s really no point in waiting. Plus, we haven’t been using protection, so we should probably hurry things along. I don’t want to be showing when I walk down the aisle.”

  “This is so great,” Coop grinned. “A wedding and a baby on the way. You are so lucky, man.”

  “Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Molly chirped. “I mean, I won’t know for a few more weeks.”

  I shook my head, a little shocked by all this, but what did I really expect. This was Molly at her finest. “Listen, I get that you want to speed this along, but can we just take a step back for a moment? I want a little time with you to myself before we take this really huge step.”

  “You mean, you don’t want to marry me?”

  “What?” My eyes widened and I glanced at the guys. Her eyes were filled with tears and she was on the verge of a major breakdown. “No, of course I want to marry you. I just…”

  “Have some jobs coming up,” Cap stepped in. He clapped his hand down on my shoulder and gave a squeeze. “Now that he and Coop have gone to the psychiatrist, I need to get them back out in the field. The other teams need a break.”

  “Oh, well that makes sense.”

  That seemed to appease her, but now I had to follow through on that damn psych eval so I could actually go out in the field. And based on the way Coop was staring at me, he didn’t find this whole thing so funny any more.

  “So, I’m going to make everyone a nice dinner tonight. Sort of as a thank you for having me,” Molly said with a smile. “I’ll just put my stuff away and then I’ll head to the kitchen to get started.”

  “Uh- I can’t make it,” Coop said quickly. “I have…issues…with food.”

  “Really?” I asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. “I didn’t know you had issues. You usually eat anything in sight.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me, but hell, he’d just thrown me under the bus. He could suck it.

  “You’re gonna love this,” Molly said to Coop. “And bring Becky and Kayla. I can’t wait to meet them.”

  She spun around and headed out of the room. “Hey! I didn’t tell you where to go!”

  She poked her head back in from the hallway with a smile. “Do you really think I don’t know where it is?”

  And then she was gone. Coop, Cap, and I stood there staring at the hallway completely dumbfounded. Molly had a way of bowling over people, but even with everything she just unloaded on me, I wouldn’t change a thing.

  “So, anyway,” Cap said, shaking his head. “About the trial, the jury found Rogers guilty on all counts. The judge ordered him to serve out his time at a maximum security prison. He’s being transferred to Waynesburg Supermax next week.”

  I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I was so fucking relieved. It was all over. Coop’s hand landed on my shoulder, squeezing hard. We had both been waiting for this to be over so that we could move on. Maybe that’s why it had taken us so long to go for the psych evals. Neither of us really knew how it would turn out if this guy was cut loose.

  “Thank God,” Coop sighed. “I’m going to let Becky know the good news.”

  “And then you’re going to go for that damn psych eval,” Cap shouted as he walked away. “So, how does it feel?”

  “You mean, to know that I’m not about to be labeled a murderer?” I asked sarcastically.

  “You know that would have never stuck. That guy’s going away now.”

  “Yeah,” I nodded, knowing that he was right.

  “Hang on,” Cap said, answering his phone. His gaze shot to mine and it didn’t look like he was happy about whatever he was hearing. “Alright, we’ll meet them at the elevator.”

  He hung up, but wouldn’t look at me. “What is it?”

  “Delaney’s parents are here.” He looked up, his eyes pained. “They want to talk to you.”

  I shook my head, not able to believe that he would do this to me. “Why the fuck would you tell them yes? Did you not hear all the shit I had to admit in court? Now you expect me to go talk to them?”

  “Look, get this over with. I’ll stay with you, but the longer you put it off, the harder it’s going to be. Besides, they need closure. They need to be able to move on. Let them lay their daughter to rest.”

  I followed him down to the elevator against my better judgement and awaited the anger that Delaney’s parents would throw my way. I would let them, too. I deserved whatever they had to say to me. The elevator doors opened and her parents stepped in. I stood in the back and did my best to not look at them right now. But when we stepped off and Cap led us to his office, I had no choice but to finally look at them. And I was shocked as hell that neither of them looked angry at me.

  “We wanted to come by and thank all of you for all you did to help catch Delaney’s killer. I know that you did it because Ms. Harding was involved, but we really appreciate it,” Robert said.

  “Robert, about what happened in court-”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Donna said quickly. “Tony, your relationship with Delaney was never any of our business. It was nice of you to make us think that you were in love with her, but honestly, we’re just relieved that this is over.”

  “I never wanted you to hear that stuff. Delaney was so great and I really liked her.”

  “It’s okay. I’m not going to lie, it was quite a surprise, but it’s better to know than to go on thinking that she was living a life that she wasn’t,” Donna continued. “But we don’t want you to feel guilty about anything. None of what happened was your fault, and Delaney certainly wouldn’t want you blaming yourself. And now we need to find a new way to move forward. We just came to sa
y goodbye and thank you for all your help.”

  I almost told them to call me if they needed to talk, but I held back. There was really nothing more I could do for them. If Delaney hadn’t died, I never would have met them. We were never supposed to be part of each other’s lives, and now we could all move on.”

  “See? I knew it would all work out,” Cap said as we watched them drive away.

  “You did, huh?”

  He shrugged. “It usually does work out.”

  Cap was always so confident after a crisis. He wasn’t so confident when we were on the side of the road delivering Maggie’s babies. “Shouldn’t you be at home right now?”

  “She’s got plenty of help surrounding her right now.”

  I nodded. “She kicked you out, didn’t she?”

  “Oh yeah, I’m not allowed back in the house unless I’m sleeping.”

  “Good, then you can join me for dinner.”

  I turned on my heel to walk away and smiled as he started to sputter behind me. He walked right into that one.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “Alright,” I whispered to Cap, Alec, Florrie, Reid, Storm, Jessica, Coop, Becky, Kayla, Susan, and Robert as we all gathered for dinner. “Here’s the thing, her cooking is terrible, but you’re all going to go out there and choke it down because I will not have her first night here seen as a failure.”

  “Why can’t you just man up and tell her the food sucks?” Alec asked.

  “Because she thinks her cooking is good. My plan was to ask Susan to give her some cooking lessons, but she jumped the gun and decided to cook this dinner for everyone. So, you’re going to go out there and fake it as best you can.”

  “What are we having?” Storm asked.

  “Meatloaf.”

  “No problem,” Cap smiled. “Load it with ketchup and you’re good.”

  I grimaced, because deep down I knew that no amount of ketchup would make this easier to swallow. “That’s a good idea.”

  “How about I just shoot her,” Florrie suggested.

  “You want to shoot her,” I said slowly, because that was the stupidest fucking thing I’d ever heard.

  “A well placed bullet would make the whole evening go a lot faster.”

  “By accomplishing what exactly?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe nothing, but at least we would all walk away without food poisoning. I’m willing to take one for the team.”

  I shook my head, because I couldn’t understand her reasoning of shooting someone to get out of dinner.

  “Not everything is solved with a gun, Florrie,” Cap chastised.

  “Hey, you have a problem, I gave a solution.”

  “Shooting her is not on the table,” I stressed. God, they were all a bunch of trigger-happy psychos.

  “Fine,” she rolled her eyes, “but don’t come crawling to me tomorrow when we’re all out of work because you couldn’t be man enough to do what needed to be done.”

  “Shooting her does not need to be done!”

  “Hey, I’m just saying-”

  “Well, stop saying,” I almost shouted. I glanced at the doorway and then back to everyone else, lowering my voice. “Look, I want her to feel welcome, not like she’s walking into some kind of assassin’s lair. Now, can we all agree to just eat the fucking dinner?”

  “Fine,” they grumbled. I took a deep breath and led the way into the dining room. I put on a big smile when Molly entered with pan after pan of meatloaf. She had really gone all out to cook for everyone. The meatloaf came in all different kinds of colors. Some were burnt, while others still looked juicy on the outside. And the potatoes…I was pretty sure no one was going to touch those. At least the vegetables couldn’t have been screwed up too bad.

  Susan looked at all the food and shot me a panicked look. “You know, I think we need a few bottles of wine to celebrate Molly moving in.”

  She quickly hurried out of the room as the others reluctantly took their seats. I could see the grimace forming on Coop’s face and kicked at him under the table.

  “Molly,” he said, putting a smile on his face, “this all looks amazing.”

  “Yeah, I…really like the…color,” Florrie agreed with a grimace. I shot her a glare and she put on a smile.

  “Thanks!” Molly chirped. “This was my first time making it, so I tried a few different recipes.”

  “Got any ketchup?” Cap asked.

  “Oh, the ketchup is already inside. I used up everything we had.”

  “What do you mean you used up all the ketchup?” Becky asked. “How much did you use?”

  “Well, I know a lot of people like ketchup with meatloaf, so I used a lot.”

  “In the meatloaf?” I asked.

  “Well, yeah. The recipe called for it, so I just used more.”

  Nervous looks were shared all around the table as we started dishing out the food. Some of the meatloaf was so hard that it thunked down on the plate, while others dished out pieces that crumbled as soon as you tried to take it out of the pan.

  Coop leaned over to whisper to me. “My meatloaf is burnt on the inside and soggy on the outside. How did she accomplish that?”

  “I don’t know. Just fucking eat it.”

  “It’s a shame we don’t have a dog we can feed this to.”

  “I’m pretty sure the dog wouldn’t eat it,” I whispered back.

  “Well, then I’m so glad you’re making us. You know, I’m pretty sure my girls are going to be more traumatized by eating this meal than what they’ve already been through.”

  I rolled my eyes at his dramatics and dug into my meatloaf. Mine was still raw on the inside. Either that or the ketchup had stained all the food permanently red. I was terrified.

  “I’d like to make a toast,” Molly said, raising her wine glass. “I want to thank all of you for being here with me tonight. You’ve really all made me feel so welcome, and I look forward to getting to know all of you. I’m so lucky to have Tony in my life, and now I’m going to have an even bigger family.”

  “To family,” Susan toasted.

  We all raised our glasses and took a drink before digging in.

  “I gotta say, I think we’re all a little surprised this is moving so fast,” Storm spoke up. “You know, especially after the way this all started out.”

  “What do you mean?” Molly asked.

  I shot Storm a look to shut the fuck up, but he didn’t see me. “Well, I mean, you were kind of psycho in the beginning,” he chuckled. “The way you were bringing Tony food and stalking him everywhere you went…I mean, we all fucked with him in any way we could.” Jessica elbowed him and he grimaced. “Ow, what the fuck was that for?”

  “How did you fuck with him?” Molly asked. I could see the wheels in her head turning, but she didn’t quite understand yet.

  “He just means that they all wanted us to be together,” I said, trying to glaze over that and hopefully end this before it got out of control. I took her hand in mine, hoping that I could keep her by my side, even though I had the feeling that this was not going to end well.

  “No, I’m talking about how we all purposely put you in the position to have to spend time with her.” He started laughing, “Like how I told her that you ran into a burning building to save me?”

  My eyes slipped closed and I felt Molly pull her hand from mine.

  “What else?” Molly asked.

  “That was it,” I hurried on, hoping to save this still.

  “No it wasn’t,” Storm continued, completely oblivious to what was happening, what he was causing. “Gus intimidated you into going home with her that night and Cap shoved her into our training session with Axel to fuck with you…God, that was great.”

  I turned to Molly, trying to figure out something to say to her to make this okay. She blinked back some tears and stared me down.

  “Is that true?”

  “Molly….”

  “Excuse me,” she said, pushing back her chair.

  I sighed
and threw down my napkin. “Thanks a lot, fucker.”

  Storm watched her run away and looked at me in confusion. “What did I say?”

  “You’re such a fucking idiot,” Cap said, standing up and storming away.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Molly

  I was such a fucking idiot. I ran to Tony’s suite and pulled out my suitcase. How could I have been so stupid? Of course, this was all my fault. I was the gullible one that made up all these things in my head, thinking that Tony was the one and we were going to be so happy. Gus warned me. He told me that I was moving too fast. He told me that I didn’t really know Tony, and now I saw how true that was. He never really wanted me here. He was mocking me with his friends behind my back for the past two weeks. And stupid me didn’t even see it.

  God, all those times that it felt like they were laughing at me, I had been right. They were smiling and carrying on, but I wasn’t in on the joke. I was the joke. And the sad part was, I had always been the joke. I was always the girl that was too gullible. I was always the girl that was too trusting of everyone around her. Because deep down, I felt that people were inherently good. What I didn’t realize was that all those times that I brushed off someone making fun of me, deep down, I think I knew that it wasn’t all fun and games. I was the laughing stock and hadn’t realized it.

  I brushed away the tears that were falling and started pulling out the clothes that I had just put away. What was I going to do now? I had just put in my notice that I was giving up my lease. I had until the end of the month to try and get my apartment back, but there was no guarantee that it would still be available. And what was I going to tell Momma? She was already planning the wedding! She had already made reservations and ordered the flowers. And stupid me had gone right along with it because I was a fucking idiot. Oh God, I had sex with him without protection. What if I was pregnant? I had really fucked up this time.

  The door flew open and Tony ran inside. His eyes immediately went to my suitcase and his eyes looked panicked, though I couldn’t understand why. This was the goal all along. He had even tried to break up with me last week and I just brushed him off, thinking that he was pushing me away because of what happened with Delaney.