LITMIR.BIZ

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I think … I think someone must have paid them to.”

      In the quiet security of that small motel room, she counted their breaths, waiting for Dare to react. By small degrees, his muscles again bunched and flexed.

      But his hold remained gentle.

      When he spoke, he sounded matter-of-fact, as if he believed her without further explanation. “Who?”

      Molly squeezed her eyes shut, hating the reality of what her life had become. “That’s the conundrum, isn’t it? I have no idea who I can trust anymore.”

      His hand smoothed over her hair, then cupped the back of her skull. “Do you think you can go back to sleep now?”

      Not if she had to sleep alone. Hedging, she asked, “What time is it?”

      “Doesn’t matter, does it? We’re not on a schedule yet.”

      But she hated to further inconvenience him. He hadn’t been paid to come after her. He’d probably rescued her with the thought of dropping her on the other side of the border, someone else’s problem to deal with.

      Unfortunately, she had no one else right now. “Do you have a flight to catch?”

      Before he answered, he urged her back down in the bed. Her head sank into the soft pillow, and the clean sheets, though cheap and scratchy, smelled good. He stayed close as he all but tucked her in.

      She should have been alarmed, having a man bending over her, especially a man of Dare’s size and obvious strength.

      Instead, she felt more at ease than she had since being grabbed and stuffed into the back of an old van right in front of her own apartment building. She doubted the quaint community in southern Ohio would ever again feel boring to her.

      Dare smoothed the covers over her shoulders. “When I’m on a mission like this, I can’t make plans too far in advance. If anything had gone wrong, if I hadn’t been able to get Alani out of there so easily, or if she’d already been moved, then I’d still be tracking her.”

      “You wouldn’t have given up on finding her?”

      “Never.”

      The unwavering conviction in that one word reassured her. Alani was lucky to have someone like Dare caring for her. “How did you know where to look for her?”

      He moved to her side, and when Molly thought he’d leave the bed—leave her—he instead propped his back against the headboard. After stretching out his long legs, he said, “I’ve been in this business a long time.”

      “How long? You can’t be much older than me.”

      “Thirty-two, so I’ve been at it for more than ten years.”

      Fascinating. Molly folded a hand under her cheek and got comfortable. “You started young.”

      With a shrug, he said, “It suits me.”

      “Adrenaline junkie?” she guessed.

      “And a control freak—which means I really understand how you detested being so powerless. I’d have hated it, too.”

      But he wouldn’t have been so helpless against them. Somehow, Molly thought Dare would have found a way to not only escape, but to wipe the cretins out for good.

      He took her silence for interest, which was okay because she found him intriguing. And listening to him kept her from stewing over her own awful predicament.

      “I’m obsessive about details,” he told her. “That’s made me reliable enough to cultivate contacts everywhere, but Mexico is the easiest. For a fee, the coyotes can usually give me information I can’t uncover otherwise.”

      “Coyotes? You mean the people who smuggle illegal aliens into the country?”

      Dare nodded. “Yeah, but they’re also useful when you need help getting back out of Tijuana. It’s a sad fact that in many areas human trafficking isn’t that much of a secret, so plenty of people are usually in the loop about new acquisitions.”

      She thought of the young Caucasian girl who’d been held in the trailer with her. “Your friend Alani had very unique coloring.”

      He nodded. “That made it easier for others to remember her, but not that many got to see her. They were saving her for a big sale, I’m sure.”

      Wretched, horrible men, to plan such a thing for a young girl. She hated them, all of them.

      Now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness, Molly could make out Dare’s profile. She remembered that thunk right before he’d joined her in the bed. “You have a gun with you.”

      “On the nightstand,” he confirmed. “A Glock 9mm. Does it bother you?”

      She shook her head.

      When he said, “Good,” she realized that he could see her, too.

      “May I see it?”

      “You’ve already seen it.”

      “I mean … hold it.”

      He made a sound that could have passed for humor. “Hell, no.”

      Well. Molly didn’t know if she should be offended or not. Then she thought of those awful men…. “Have you ever shot anyone?”

      With no hesitation, Dare said, “Yes.”

      Her heart pumped hard. She licked her lips, drew a breath. “Did you … shoot the men who were guarding the trailer?”

      He looked at her again. After some consideration, he asked, “Why?”

      Her voice sounded more raw than she intended, but Molly was helpless to state things any differently. “They’re brutal beasts who take pleasure in hurting women.”

      “In hurting you,” he agreed with quiet sympathy.

      Her nose stuffed up. Her throat tightened. “They …”

      Oh, God, it was almost impossible to talk. Her voice kept breaking, going higher, weaker. But Dare didn’t prompt her, didn’t rush her. He just waited in supportive silence.

      “They wanted to make me cry. They wanted to make me beg.” She sniffed, drew a breath. “Just for sport.”

      Without a word, as if they knew each other well, he pulled her up against his chest and put his chin to the top of her head. After a few seconds, he said, “You know, Molly, if I could, I’d kill them for you again.”

      She jerked, then whispered in awe, “Again?”

      “Yeah.”

      Dizziness assailed her. “So you did kill them?”

      “Damn right.” He looked down at her. “They needed killing.”

      “Yes, they did.” The men were gone; they couldn’t hurt her, or anyone else, ever again. As the tension eased out of her, her heavy eyelids sank down, almost closing.

      Great relief came from the knowledge that they were gone forever.

      Dawn began to creep through the heavy drapes, and for the first time in days, Molly greeted it with hope. “Dare?”

      “Yeah?”

      She hugged him tight. “Thank you.”

      CHAPTER THREE

      WHILE SIPPING COFFEE and watching her sleep, Dare went over possible scenarios for the day. First on the agenda, he had to decide what to do with Ms. Molly Alexander.

      He couldn’t just dump her, because she shouldn’t be alone right now and didn’t seem to have anyone to go to. She refused the police, not that they could be of much help anyway. So, then … what to do with her?

      It wasn’t like he could keep her.

      He

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