Cara walked into the kitchen and stopped so abruptly that Norah bumped into her back.
“Why are you both…damp?”
“We took a shower.” Even though Molly was trying to act nonchalant, she knew her face was red.
“A shower?” Cara looked back and forth between them, a broad smile spreading across her face as Norah’s eyes widened. “Singular shower? Meaning you shared one? Meaning you’re finally doing it?”
“Doing it?” Molly’s lip curled even as John laughed. “Are you ten? What grown woman says that?”
Cara offered a fist to John. After a short pause, he tentatively bumped it. “Finally. I’m happy for you two. If you hurt my sister, I’ll cut you down the middle and make you wear your own entrails as a scarf.”
To his credit, he only blinked once before he gave Cara a serious nod. “Noted.” Sending a quick glance at Molly, the corner of his mouth quirked up as he added, “Sister.”
“Nope.” Molly tried to glare at him, but her usual eye lasers didn’t seem to be working. She felt too soppy inside to get up a good basilisk stare.
From John’s grin, she knew that he was well aware he’d pretty much obliterated her tough outer shell. “Sissy?”
“I’m going to veto that one,” Cara said dryly, leaning on the counter. “Congrats, you two. Now, time’s ticking if we want to crash that meeting.”
Norah was still studying them, and Molly felt a twinge of concern. “You good with this, Norah?”
“Of course. I mean, we all knew it would happen eventually.”
Molly huffed. “Everyone but me, apparently.”
Ignoring her, Norah continued. “I’m happy for you. You’re always so busy taking care of everyone else. It’s good that you have someone to take care of you.”
Molly wasn’t sure how she felt about the thought of John “taking care of” her. On one hand, it was an alluring temptation. On the other, it was terrifying. Deciding to deal with that later, since Cara was right about their deadline fast approaching, she cleared her throat. “Thanks, Norah. We’ll talk more about this later. Maybe. For now, let’s figure out the plan for tonight.”
“The warehouse looked dead, although that isn’t a guarantee no one was in there. Despite what some people think, I wasn’t dumb enough to go inside to check it out.” Cara gave Molly a pointed look before continuing more mildly. “Did you find anyone willing to be your backup?”
Molly shook her head glumly, holding up her phone to show a sad lack of return text messages. “No one responded except for Christian, and he just wanted me to know that he wouldn’t get within fifty feet of Sonny Zarver. Fifi and Charlie are chasing a solid lead, plus they’re a twelve-hour drive away, so they’re out.” She turned toward John. “How about you? Any luck?”
“Nope. Pretty much the same as you, although more people wanted to tell me that I’m an idiot.”
His words made her stomach roil with sudden guilt. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this.”
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, John pulled Molly into a side hug that was almost ridiculously comforting. “You’re not. I’m here of my own free will.”
When she didn’t respond, he gave her a gentle shake.
“Hey. Can you see anyone making me do anything I didn’t one hundred percent want to do?” he asked.
“No.” Despite that, she knew that she was the reason he’d been in danger—multiple times. Tonight would be the worst of them all. “But—”
“But nothing. I chose to be here, and I want to do this. You never asked. It’s all on me.”
Unable to come up with an effective counterargument and aware of the ticking clock, Molly let it go. It still ate at her, though, that John was in such danger because of her. She could’ve convinced him at the very beginning to leave her alone, and he would’ve listened. She’d enjoyed his company too much to send him away, however, enjoying that safe feeling having him with her created—and loving just having him around. She jolted at the last thought and then immediately banished the L-word from her mind. This wasn’t the time to be distracted.
“Fine,” she said. “Just…be careful tonight, okay?”
Pulling her in closer, he pressed a kiss on the top of her head. “Always. You too.”
Shivers—pleasurable ones—ran from the base of her skull to the bottom of her spine. Cara’s throat-clearing finally brought her out of her haze, and Molly dragged her gaze away from John’s. “Right. Okay. So one of us will go to the Langston address that Cara checked out this afternoon, and one will hit up the Denver location.” She looked at her sisters, seeing the apprehension Norah was trying to hide. “You’ll only be called in as backup if the world is ending, got it?”
Even as her sister nodded, John protested. “No.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you by yourself.”
She gave him a steady look. “Since all of our potential backup is fleeing at the mere mention of Sonny, we don’t really have any choice, do we?”
Although he didn’t look happy, he stopped protesting. “Fine, but I’m taking the Denver location.”
“Fine.” In fact, Molly was a little relieved that she wouldn’t have to deal with an unknown building in Denver. She rarely went, especially now that the city reminded her of her mom’s crime and the detectives who were after them.
Despite having gotten his condition accepted, John still looked unsettled. “You can take my car. I’ll borrow my buddy’s. He owes me one.”
Molly was tempted to argue, but she let it go, telling herself to pick her battles wisely. Besides, she loved John’s car. It smelled like him.
Norah placed a tablet on the table. “Now that the logistics are settled, let’s talk building plans.”
Although Molly was focused on her sister’s diagrams, a part of her was hyperaware that John Carmondy was sitting next to her and that they’d just had sex. The word made her frown, sounding too clinical for the incredible experience they’d had together. Made love. She immediately shoved the words into a dark box at the back of her mind. She wasn’t ready to figure out how deeply she’d fallen for John Carmondy.
After they’d gone over the layouts and set up plans that basically involved watching the buildings and calling the cops if Sonny showed up, Norah and Cara wished them luck before both slipping out of the kitchen, as if there’d been a prearranged signal to leave her alone with John. She moved to leave, but he caught her hand.
“I can’t discuss anything remotely deep right now,” she blurted out before he could say anything. “Nothing about feelings, either. Not now.”
Instead of arguing, he just gave her fingers a squeeze before letting go. “That’s fine. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here. Your bedroom’s my time-share, after all, and you have equal rights to my couch.”
Contrarily, him giving her space made her want to move in closer. “It is a fabulous couch.”
“All yours.” He gave her a sweet smile and then gestured toward the doorway. “Let’s go get Sonny.”
As they walked out, emotions swirled around in Molly’s chest, and she wished she’d just blurted out how she felt. At least then it would be out, and he’d know how she felt, just in case he…
She didn’t allow herself to finish that thought.
They reached his car, and he opened the driver’s door for her. Instead of getting in, she took two handfuls of his shirt and shoved him back against the car. As his eyes widened in surprise, she yanked him down and kissed him, putting everything she was feeling, everything that she couldn’t say—all her worry and affection and confusion and the love that she didn’t want to admit, even to herself—into the press of her lips on his. It all poured out of her in one bruising, incredible kiss.
One of his hands cupped the back of her skull, and the other wrapped around her back, pulling her even more tightly against him. Not only was he not pulling away from her almost-violent embrace, but he was fully participating. Soon, though, it grew too intense, and she had to pull away, knowing that if she didn’t, she’d never be able to leave him.
They were both breathing hard as they stared at each other.
“Do. Not. Die.” She gave him a little shake with each word.
“I won’t. I promise.”
“No getting hurt, either.” Reluctantly, she released her grip on his shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles her fists had made, using them as an excuse to touch his ridiculously hard chest.
“Not even a paper cut.” His dimple popped out for a moment, but then he quickly sobered. “Stay safe. I don’t want to lose you right after you finally stopped snarling at me.”
“I never snarled—” She broke off when she saw that mischievous dimple reappear. “Brat. Okay. I’m leaving. Stay safe. If you die, I’ll revive you in a satanic ceremony just so I can kill you again.”
“Molly Pax. Always has a plan, even a post-death one.”
“Good thing for you.” She forced herself to get in the car. “Otherwise you’d still be bumbling around planless, waiting for me to find your skips for you.”
His mock-offended gasp made her roll her eyes and press back a smile. As she drove away, she couldn’t keep herself from glancing in the rearview mirror, just to get one final look at John Carmondy.