LITMIR.BIZ

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by asking, “You don’t think Adrian is handsome?”

      Distaste narrowed his eyes. “Now you’re just fucking with me.”

      The laugh surprised her; in the middle of so much turmoil, Dare could still do that for her.

      Grinning, she said, “Now, Dare. He’s not as tall as you, but he’s tall enough.” She pretended to examine Adrian. “He’s not as muscular as you, either, but he takes care of himself.”

      Red-faced and outraged, Adrian said, “I go to the gym every damn day!”

      “Blond hair,” Molly continued, “green eyes, a nice smile.” Why she teased Dare, she didn’t know. But with him looking so resentful over her past relationship, she couldn’t seem to help herself. “And when Adrian wants, he can be pretty charismatic.”

      “Yeah, I bet.” On to her, Dare took an aggrieved stance and flattened his mouth. “You finished now?”

      She tried to hide her smile. It seemed a million years ago that she had settled for steady dating, good looks, intelligence and a pleasant personality. But now she knew something about her own strengths. Now she knew that she could get through just about anything.

      Never again would a man of Adrian’s ilk be good enough for her. She deserved it all.

      She deserved … Dare.

      “Yes.” Now that she’d come to that conclusion, she felt more at peace than she had in a very long time. She patted Dare’s chest. “I’m done.”

      The look he gave her was long and intimate. He took her hand in his own and kissed her knuckles before he turned back to Adrian.

      Flummoxed, Molly stared at Dare’s profile. She sensed there was some significance behind that tender kiss, but she wasn’t sure of the meaning.

      Dare brought her back around with a stark statement. “She was kidnapped.”

      “What?” Adrian looked from Molly to Dare and back again. His gaze sharpened on the lingering bruises visible on her face and arms. “Dear God.”

      Judging Adrian’s reaction to that, Dare continued, saying, “Men grabbed her from right out front of this apartment.”

      He shook his head. “But why?”

      As Dare took a step closer, Adrian backed up a step.

      “They stuffed her into the back of a van, transported her across the damn country and then took her over the border into Tijuana.”

      “Tijuana?”

      The genuine, undiluted shock on Adrian’s face convinced Molly one hundred percent that he had nothing to do with her kidnapping. He was a snake, but he wasn’t a criminal of that caliber.

      “When I found her,” Dare told him, “she was chained to the wall of an airless hut, half-starved, drugged and abused.”

      Eyes bugging, Adrian struggled to lift his slackened jaw. “But that … that’s not possible. Not here.” He pointed at Molly. “Not her.”

      Dare advanced again, and Adrian ended up with his back to the wall. “Why not her?”

      “It doesn’t make any sense, that’s why. She’s not a politician’s daughter or a starlet or a wealthy heir.” His eyes bugged again. “Aren’t women taken across the border to sell as sex slaves or something?”

      “More often than you’d like to think.”

      Clearly baffled that anyone would take Molly for that purpose, Adrian shook his head. “You said you found her there.” His brows knit as he struggled to piece it all together. “What were you doing there? And what do you have to do with any of this?”

      “I got her out of there.” They were now almost chest to chest.

      “But … how?”

      “It’s what I do.”

      In a sudden turnaround, Adrian’s expression lightened and became shrewd. “Let me understand this. You rescue people … for compensation?”

      Crossing his arms over his chest and looking down his nose at Adrian, Dare said, “That’s how it usually works.”

      “No fucking way!” Adrian shoved against Dare, but didn’t budge him at all. “I see what this is now. You want me to pay her ransom, don’t you?” Rage distorted his better sense, and he pointed past Dare to Molly. “She dropped me. Did she tell you that?”

      “She mentioned it,” Dare said, very deadpan.

      “So I’m not responsible for her!”

      “Not at all.”

      Adrian continued to fume. “I don’t have that kind of money, and she knows it. If you thought to squeeze me for payment, well, then, you can damn well forget it.”

      A stillness filled the room as Dare expanded in fury, and Molly held her breath.

      Too stupid to sense his own peril, Adrian added, “What happens to her now is no concern of mine.”

      CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

      OH, GOD, THAT WAS LOW even for Adrian. Molly wanted to kill him. Again.

      She charged forward, but stumbled to a halt when Dare’s harsh, low voice sounded with the impact of an exploding bomb.

      “You think, even for one fucking second, that I would take your goddamned money?”

      Wow. Molly blinked at that lethal tone.

      Smashing up against Adrian, Dare looked more enraged than Molly had ever seen him.

      “You think I’d even let you be in her life?”

      “I …” Intimidated, belatedly realizing his error, Adrian tried to appeal to Molly for help.

      Still peeved, she silently mouthed the words Fuck. You.

      Shocked, Adrian returned his attention to Dare. “That’s fine,” he soothed. He turned his face to the side, trying to escape Dare’s deadly stare. “That … that’s what I was saying. That I don’t want to be in her life. I swear.”

      “Did you want out of it enough to coordinate this stunt?”

      “What? No!” Alarmed, he smashed farther back against the wall. “I own a bar, that’s all. Damn it, Molly, tell him that I’m not a kidnapper.”

      “I don’t know,” she hedged, examining a nail. “I didn’t know you were the type to weasel into my apartment, either, but here you are.” A thought occurred to her, and she looked up. “Did you have sex in my bed?”

      “No!”

      Unsatisfied, she narrowed her eyes. “But you would have?”

      “Well … yeah. Probably.”

      Still not giving Adrian any room to breathe, Dare asked Molly, “What do you want me to do with him?”

      Implicit in the question was that he’d pulverize Adrian if she wished it.

      Just to make Adrian squirm, she pretended to think about it. But she wasn’t a person who condoned unnecessary violence, and neither was Dare. Still, she appreciated his offer.

      “You can let him go.”

      Dare didn’t move. “You sure, honey?”

      He called her honey again. It thrilled her, but this was no time for celebration. Molly cleared her throat and her thundering emotions. “Yes, of course. Come on, Dare, we both know that you don’t hurt those smaller, weaker or dumber than you.”

      Dare stepped back, but he said, “For him, I’d make an exception.”

      Slumping against the wall, knees shaky, Adrian

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