Norah had just walked in the door when Cara’s phone beeped. As she checked the screen, her nose wrinkled, and Molly knew exactly who was calling. No one except Barney got that bad a reaction from Cara.
“I can’t wait until the month’s over and someone else has to take his calls,” she grumbled as she poked the screen with an angry finger.
John looked confused, so Molly explained, “Every month, we switch off whose phone gets the calls from our main business line. That way, no one has to give their cell number to clients or informants, and we only have to deal with the Barneys of the world every fifth month.”
“Pax Bail Recovery. How can I help you?” Cara asked in a syrupy-sweet voice that made Charlie snicker. When Cara’s gaze darted toward Molly, she immediately knew what Barney wanted, and she waved her hands, palms out, in a frantic effort to ward off the pass. From Cara’s wicked smile, Molly knew it was a futile effort. “She is available. One moment, please.”
When Cara tossed her the cell phone, Molly briefly considered dodging and letting it drop to the floor, but then she remembered that money was tight at the moment and they didn’t need to be buying more phones. With a silent sigh, she raised Cara’s cell to her ear.
“This is Molly.”
“Molly Pax, my favorite soon-to-be tenant.” Barney’s smarmy voice immediately shot Molly’s rage to maximum levels.
She fought to keep her voice level and slightly amused. “Haven’t you heard the old saying about not counting your chickens before they skip their next court appearance?”
“I’m just counting the chickens that have already skipped town.” The smugness in his tone didn’t lessen.
Molly briefly debated whether she should let him know that she knew his threat was basically empty—at least for the next four to six weeks—and decided to tell him. She didn’t want him to think that he had any power over them…at least not for another month. “Good luck finding a judge to go along with that. No one’s going to rule to forfeit her bail until she misses a hearing.”
He paused, and she wondered if he was taken aback by her calm comeback or if he was just plotting. “Maybe I’ll just have to push to get her preliminary hearing moved up. The public defender assigned to her is Nancy Lehry, who just happens to owe me a favor.”
It was Molly’s turn to fall silent as she squeezed her eyes closed, as if she could shut out the truth along with her vision. Her lungs squeezed with a fresh jolt of panic, and she fought through it, knowing she needed to keep a calm head.
“All the judges love Nancy. She could easily call in a favor to get her client’s hearing moved up.” He paused, his glee an almost tangible thing. “Wasn’t there some kerfuffle last time Nancy defended Jane? Hmm…let me think…”
Molly’s molars met with a click. Everyone in Langston knew what had happened five years ago. She breathed through her nose, trying to bring her anger down to concealable levels, while Barney made a sound that could only be called a chortle.
“Oh, that’s right! Jane and Nancy’s son-in-law had a thing, didn’t they? Things got messy. Nancy’s daughter dumped her husband, even though she was going through chemo at the time and had a bunch of little crotch fruit running around. It’s all coming back to me now.” Only the grossest of men could’ve taken such pleasure in recounting something so terrible and life-destroying. True to form, Barney sounded positively joyful as he clicked his tongue with false concern. “That has to be awkward for Jane, having a woman who hates her as her attorney.”
“I get it, Barney.” Molly’s voice came out with a gravelly edge, but it was the best she could do when her whole body ached to punch someone—either Barney or Jane, preferably. “What do you want?”
John made a wordless sound of protest, and she glanced away from him, only to find that all her sisters were staring at her as well. Molly didn’t think anyone breathed while Barney took his sweet time to answer.
“I thought you’d never ask,” he finally said, his voice sickeningly thick with satisfaction. “Just find Sonny and bring him back to jail, and I’ll convince Nancy to let bygones be bygones…until Jane’s preliminary hearing, at least.”
Bitter acid churned in Molly’s gut, but she knew she was trapped in a corner. Could Sonny Zarver be any worse than some of the sketchy skips they’d chased when the business was new, though? So much worse, a practical voice in her head warned, but she pushed it away. This had to be done. They’d get through it…hopefully. “If we do this, we get thirty percent, plus our usual expenses.”
Barney let out a yelp that sounded like she’d just kicked him in a delicate place. “Thirty percent? That’s twice the standard. I’m doing you a favor. You should just be happy you have a month to try to track down your felon of a mother.”
“Thirty percent.” She felt the muscles of her jaw lock into what Cara called her mule face. Her sisters knew when she got that look that Molly wasn’t about to give in. “Plus expenses.”
This time, he just made a pathetic bleat of a whine.
“If you want us to risk our lives by going after Sonny Zarver, then you’re going to pay us thirty percent.” She cringed at the gasps from her sisters when she said Sonny’s name, and she very carefully didn’t look at John. From the prickling feeling on her right cheek, he was shooting deadly eye lasers in her direction. She couldn’t blame him. It was crazy to accept the Zarver job. There just wasn’t any other choice if they wanted to keep their house—their only remaining connection to Victor Chavis, the twins’ dad and the only one of Jane’s husbands and boyfriends, besides Lono, who’d treated all the sisters like they were his children. The property had been in his family for four generations, and Molly hadn’t almost killed herself to pay off the mortgage just to lose their home to Barney Thompson now.
“Twenty,” Barney grumbled.
Clenching her jaw even tighter, she shook her head despite knowing he couldn’t see her. “Sonny beat his stepfather to death and then tried to do the same to his mother when she kicked him out. It was sheer luck that she managed to escape. Thirty plus expenses.”
“Pax…” John’s voice was a mere growl, and the sound shivered down her back and made her thighs tighten on air. Molly still didn’t dare look at him. Her sisters were shifting in their chairs with nerves, except for Norah, who’d gone perfectly still except for the too-quick rise and fall of her chest. Shoving down her concern for her sister, Molly concentrated on the sound of Barney’s huffing and puffing on the other end of the line instead.
“Fine.” Barney spat out the word. “Thirty percent—if you bring him in within a month. If you don’t, then I’ll yank your house out from under you so fast your head’ll spin.”
“We’ll get him.” Although her calm tone was back, Molly didn’t have any of the confidence she was projecting. How was she supposed to track and capture Sonny Zarver, of all people, within four weeks—all while they were searching for Jane and the necklace? It seemed impossible and hopeless, but she wasn’t about to let Barney in on that information. “Will you write up the contract or should we?”
“I’ll do it.” Of course he would. She made a mental note to read through the small print several times to check for tricks. She’d have Cara check, too. Her sister was a whiz with contracts.
“Okay. Text me when it’s ready. Bye.” Without waiting for him to continue the conversation, she ended the call. There was too much to do for her to waste any more time listening to Barney.
Tossing the phone back in Cara’s direction, Molly took a deep breath and met her sisters’ appalled expressions.
“Didn’t we just have this conversation?” John’s voice was low and rough, raising goose bumps on Molly’s arms for some reason she didn’t want to think about. “I thought we agreed that it’s suicide to chase after Zarver.”
“I don’t remember agreeing to that. You lectured, and I pretended to listen.” For some reason, it was a hundred times harder to meet John’s furious gaze than it had been to look at her sisters. The main reason for that was because she knew it was stupid to take the job. There just wasn’t any other option right now, not if they wanted to have time to track down Jane. When John made a sound low in his throat and started to say something else, she snapped her head toward him and glared. “It’s done. You don’t get a say.”
Although his glower was just as fierce as hers, he stayed quiet, and she was grateful for that small mercy. She didn’t want to hear—especially from John—how idiotic she was being. Turning toward her sisters, she hid a wince. Maybe it wouldn’t be from John, but she knew she was about to hear all about her poor life choices.
“Nancy Lehry is Mom’s public defender,” she blurted out before any of her sisters could say a word. “If I didn’t agree to track down Sonny, Barney was going to have her push to move up the preliminary hearing.”
“That would be bad,” Charlie said, and Molly gave her a look. Of course it would be bad. They all knew that would be bad. Apparently ignoring Molly’s silent duh, Charlie continued talking. “Fifi and I did the rounds. None of Mom’s friends have seen her—or will admit to seeing her, at least—since she was released.”
“So, if she’s not staying here, and she’s not at any of her usual crash spots…” Cara trailed off, but Molly didn’t need her to finish to make the logical leap. Jane had skipped town, just like Barney had said she would.
A thick silence settled over them. Molly glanced around their group, seeing worry in her sisters’ faces. Even John looked concerned under his stalwart poker face. The tension made her stomach twist, and she forced herself to think constructively. Wallowing in her anger and frustration and helplessness wouldn’t save their house.
She clapped her hands together once, breaking the brittle quiet. “Okay. I’m on Sonny duty. Norah and Cara, see if you can get a lead on where Mom might’ve gone. She had her car fixed, so she either sold it or is driving it—same with my car.” Her belly lurched again at the reminder that her beloved Prius was gone, but she pushed away the thought. There wasn’t time for moping, no matter how much she’d loved her car. “Give any information you find to Felicity and Charlie.” She looked at them. “You two are okay with chasing Mom down?”
Charlie scowled. “You can’t go after Sonny Zarver on your own.”
Before Molly could assure her sister that she’d be fine, John spoke. “She won’t. I’ll be with her.”
“You will?” Startled, Molly turned to stare at John, but he was still wearing his serious—and expressionless—face, so she couldn’t interpret what he was thinking.
“Yes.”
Despite her inability to read his expression, she studied him for several moments. Even though she had no idea why he’d inserted himself into their lives and was offering to assist her in running down a skip he’d tried very hard to keep her away from, help was help, and she wasn’t about to turn down his offer. “Okay,” she finally said, deciding to ponder his motivation later when their lives were back on track. “John’s with me, then. Are we all good?” She eyed her sisters, and they all made affirmative sounds or gestures. Only Cara looked torn, her lips pressed together as if she was holding back a torrent of words.
“Something wrong, Cara?” Molly asked.
“Should I drop out of school?” The words tumbled out too quickly, one on top of the other, as Cara refused to meet Molly’s gaze. “Just for this semester, I mean. We just started, and I know you could use more help with trying to find Mom and Sonny and all the other jobs we need to take to keep our heads above water. I shouldn’t be going to classes when all of you are working so hard to keep this house.”
“No.” Molly put as much force behind the word as she could. “You’ve already put off school too long, thanks to Mom taking your tuition money and you helping get the business going. You’re not dropping out. Mom’s not taking anything else away from us, not if I can help it.”
From the way Warrant slunk under the table and Cara’s eyes went wide, Molly realized that she must’ve looked and sounded rather ferocious. She took a breath to try to get her heart to stop pounding so hard.
“I mean it, Cara.” Although her voice was calmer, it was no less resolute, and she could see that her other sisters agreed with her. “No more delays. You just have three semesters left and then student teaching. If you get off track now because of Mom’s nonsense, you might never finish.”
“Molly’s right,” Charlie said as Felicity and Norah nodded in agreement. “You need to stick this out. Otherwise, you’re going to be eighty and still working as a bounty hunter and hating it just as much then as you do now.”
“I don’t hate it.” Despite her words, Cara’s tone was half-hearted, and Molly raised an eyebrow at her.
“You so hate it.”
“As long as I don’t have to tackle anyone, or get spit on, or sworn at, or hit on, or talk to mean people, then it’s fine.”
Charlie snorted a laugh. “That’s pretty much my usual day.”
“I like the research part,” Cara protested, even though she was halfway to laughing as well. “Especially if it’s just on the internet. Especially if it’s internet research while I’m sitting on the patio at the coffee shop, drinking a cappuccino with Warrant sleeping under the table.” Warrant shifted at the sound of his name before resettling flat on his side.
Norah gave a small smile. “That’s my favorite part, too.”
“Okay.” Molly blew up her cheeks like a balloon and let her breath out with an audible puff. When John made an amused sound, she inwardly cringed at how goofily unattractive the face she’d just made must’ve looked, and then she immediately scolded herself for worrying whether John found her attractive when their world was currently imploding. “Now that we know that Cara’s staying in school and everyone has their assignments, let’s get to work.”
Norah tentatively raised her hand.
Blinking at her sister, Molly resisted the urge to say something sarcastic and just said, “Yes?” instead.
“What about the jobs we were already working on before the…Mom thing happened?”
Molly grimaced. “Try to stay on them as much as possible, but finding Mom and getting her back here in time for her hearing are paramount. Sorry. It’s going to be really busy and will almost definitely suck for a while, but we’ll get through this.”
Her sisters made unenthusiastic grumbles of agreement—although whether they agreed that they’d get through it or that things would suck was unclear—and Molly stood, her gaze finding John. He’d been quiet and stoic through most of the meeting, and his serious manner set her off-balance. She was used to a joking and devilishly teasing John, not this giant, somber statue leaning against her dining room wall.
“Ready for this?” she asked him.
His mouth twitched at the corner, just a tiny movement but enough to make him seem more like the John Carmondy she knew. “If I say no, will that change anything?”
“Not really.”
“I figured.” This time, his smile was more of a grimace. “Let’s go find Zarver, then.”