“Are you a smart girl, Sally?”
She cast a quick glance at Molly, but Molly knew better than to interfere.
Seeing no help forthcoming, Sally stared up at Dare. “I like to think so.”
“Good.” Now Dare smiled, but it wasn’t with humor.
In fact, to Molly, it looked outright threatening. Poor Sally. She could only imagine what the girl felt.
“You were never here, Sally. This never happened.” Dare’s eyes narrowed the smallest bit. “You got that?”
Her blond curls bobbed with her fast but uncertain nod. “Absolutely. I went straight from the club to home.”
After a long, assessing look, Dare must have believed her, because he stepped out of her way and even opened the door for her.
Sulking, Adrian watched her leave. When the door shut, he let out a pent-up breath and turned back to Molly. “So.” He tried to brazen it out. “What now?”
“Now you answer some questions.” Dare’s quiet tone did nothing to lessen the implied menace. “And unless I’m satisfied that your biggest transgression is trespassing, I just might take you apart.”
“You’re threatening me?”
Surely that was a redundant question, Molly thought. Adrian wasn’t stupid.
“I’m explaining things to you,” Dare said, “so there won’t be any confusion.”
“Well, your explanation doesn’t help.” A touch of panic raised the octave of Adrian’s complaint. “I still don’t have any idea what the hell is going on.”
Molly took great pleasure in stepping around Dare and confronting Adrian close up. “You want to know why I wasn’t here, Adrian?”
“Uh … yes? I suppose that’s as good a start as any.”
He didn’t sound very sure of himself. But then, he never did. The stark differences between him and Dare were too many to count. Dare stood there, ready to do whatever was necessary to help her get her life straightened out. He had walked into danger for her without hesitation and without fear. All Adrian wanted was a quick escape from possible harm.
One man was a hero, the other a coward.
Shaking her head, Molly pondered aloud, “What did I ever see in you, Adrian?”
Dare snorted. “I was just wondering the same thing.”
That insulted Adrian. “I’m a hell of a good catch!”
“No.” Molly shook her head. “You were just … handy. A convenient companion. Handsome, yes. Educated. But now … now I can’t believe that I was ever so dumb, or so desperate.”
Dare frowned down at her. “You were desperate?”
She couldn’t explain to Dare. Not here, not now. He was so independent, so capable and secure in his ability, he would never understand a woman’s need to find the right man, to secure her future happiness, to have babies and a family and love everlasting.
Molly knew that she’d always wanted more than Adrian. Not better looking or richer, but someone with real honor, someone faithful and brave and … everything that was Dare.
But in thirty years, she hadn’t met that person. She’d met others like Adrian. Some better-looking but not as settled. Some kinder but without means of support. She sighed.
Dare watched her, so she hedged 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
