LITMIR.BIZ

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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

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