LITMIR.BIZ

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I went over there.”

      “Then why didn’t you pick her up?” Daniel asked, surprised by the lapse from a cop who was usually quick to nab runaways for their own protection. He and Joe had handled more than their share of these cases together, and he respected the older man’s instincts.

      “Because I looked through the file earlier, and something’s not quite right. I thought you might want to have a chat with the girl, while I do some checking into why she ran away in the first place. You know as well as I do that sometimes these things aren’t as cut-and-dried as they seem at first glance. If I’d thought she was at risk, I’d have brought her in, but she’s not going anywhere. Molly will see to that. I didn’t see any point in uprooting her until I have all the facts.”

      This time Daniel’s sigh was even heavier. He and Molly got along like a couple of tomcats fighting for turf. Their relationship had been passionate and volatile for years, even before he’d let her down so damn badly. After what had happened the night she’d told him she was pregnant, the relationship had cooled to a degree that a glance between them could freeze meat. He regretted that, but he’d accepted it. He’d been a stubborn fool, and he didn’t deserve her forgiveness.

      Out of respect for her feelings, it had been a few years now since he’d set foot in that bar she’d inherited from her grandfather. He stayed away in part because Patrick tended to hang out at Jess’s, but mostly because he couldn’t bear the look of justifiable contempt in Molly’s eyes.

      “Can you take a run over there?” Joe pressed.

      Daniel hesitated for just an instant, but when it came to work, he always did what he had to do, no matter how delicate the situation or how uncomfortable it made him.

      “I’m on my way,” he promised, folding the fax into quarters and stuffing it into the pocket of his jacket. “I’ll check in with you later. You sure you don’t want me to bring her over, if it is Kendra? If she figures out we’re on to her, she could run again.”

      “Just alert Molly, in case she doesn’t know anyone’s looking for the girl. She’ll keep her safe enough.”

      “She has a thirteen-year-old working in a bar,” Daniel reminded him, an edge of sarcasm in his voice. It was just like Molly and her soft heart to take in a runaway kid and to hell with the consequences. Had she even once considered how desperate the parents might be or how many laws she might be breaking?

      Joe chuckled at his comment on Molly’s lack of judgment. “Loosen up. The kid’s serving chowder, spilling more of it than she’s serving, to tell the truth of it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. Something tells me it’s the best place she could be right now while we figure out what drove her to run away. The note she left didn’t tell us a damned thing. I don’t want to turn her back over to her parents and then find out there was some kind of abuse going on.”

      Daniel had his own opinion about this bending of the rules, but he bit his tongue. It was Joe’s call, at least until the court got involved. Then Daniel would have quite a lot to say about a woman who put a teenage runaway to work, no questions asked, without reporting her presence to the authorities.

      “The man you were talking to before, he was a cop,” Kendra told Molly, her face pale and her eyes filled with panic. “I can spot a cop a mile away.”

      “It was Joe Sutton and, yes, he is a detective, but he’s a good guy,” Molly reassured her. “He drives over every few weeks for my chowder. If he’d been here to look for you, he would have said something. Besides, he’s gone now, so obviously he didn’t recognize you.”

      “Maybe he forgot his handcuffs and had to go back for them,” Kendra said.

      “Sweetie, he wouldn’t handcuff you. You ran away. You’re not a criminal. You have nothing to fear from Joe.”

      The words were barely out of her mouth when the door opened and Daniel Devaney came striding in as if he’d arrived to conquer the world. In her opinion, Kendra had a lot more to worry about with Daniel than she ever would with Joe Sutton. Daniel was a rigid, by-the-book kind of guy when it came to situations like this. How he and his twin brother, Patrick, had come from the same gene pool was a total enigma to her.

      “Go in the back,” Molly ordered the teenager, maneuvering in an attempt to keep Kendra out of Daniel’s view. “And stay alert in case you need to get out of here in a hurry.”

      Kendra paled at the terse order. “What’s going on? Is that cop back?”

      “No. Just do whatever you have to do to stay out of sight. Tell Retta what I said. Tell her Daniel’s here. She’ll understand and she’ll help you. I’ll explain later,” Molly promised, giving the girl’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “Trust me. Everything’s going to be okay.”

      Kendra followed the direction of her gaze and spotted Daniel. “He’s a cop, too, isn’t he?” she said at once.

      “No, worse, in this instance. He’s with a social services agency.”

      Understanding and alarm immediately flared in Kendra’s eyes. “Then he’s here for me?”

      “More than likely.” She couldn’t imagine anything else that would have brought Daniel waltzing into her bar again, not after she’d made it clear that his presence here was unwelcome. “Just stay out of sight. I can handle Daniel Devaney.”

      When she was satisfied that Kendra was safely out of the bar, Molly strolled over to Daniel’s table, order pad in hand, a neutral expression firmly plastered on her face. She ignored the once-familiar jolt to her senses. She would play this cool for Kendra’s sake. If there hadn’t been so much at stake, Daniel could have starved to death before she’d have given him a second glance.

      “Fancy seeing you here,” she said. “I thought you preferred classier joints these days.”

      Daniel frowned at her. “I never said that.”

      “You never had to. Your disdain has always been evident.” And never more so than the night he’d declined to be a father to their child. Though he’d told her about his own father’s failings, she’d always believed that at least some of his reluctance had stemmed from an aversion to her choice to run her grandfather’s bar, rather than going off to some snooty college and pursuing some equally snooty career. Unlike his twin, Daniel was a snob in his fancy shirts with the monogrammed cuffs and his Italian leather loafers that were more suited to the streets of downtown Portland than the waterfront in Widow’s Cove. He was definitely no longer a small-town boy.

      He didn’t even flinch as her barb struck him. “Save the judgments. I didn’t come here to fight with you. Just bring me a cup of chowder, please.”

      Molly noted the order but didn’t budge. He was acting too blasted casual and innocent. Something besides chowder had brought Daniel into the bar. Given Joe Sutton’s recent departure, there was very little question in her mind that he was here because of Kendra.

      “In town to see your folks?”

      “No.”

      “If you’re looking for Patrick, he won’t be in till later,” she said casually, in an attempt to get him to show his hand.

      “I’m not looking for Patrick.”

      “Oh?” She sat down opposite him, sliding onto the booth’s bench until her knees brushed his. The little spark of awareness that shot through her was an unwelcome surprise, but she tried not to show it. She couldn’t control the sparks, but she could refuse to give him the satisfaction of seeing that his presence bothered her. Besides, there had been an answering spark of heat in his eyes. She could use that to her advantage, assuming she could manage to avoid choking on her own words. She had to try, though.

      “Then it’s my company you’ve come for? You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to hear that one more time.” She dropped her voice provocatively and made herself add, “What can I do for you, Daniel?

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