Page 1 of Turn the Tide
Any Means Necessary
A Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters Novella
Katie Ru
Chapter 1
“I hate the mall,” Molly said.
“I know.” Cara’s voice was endlessly patient, as if she hadn’t heard this same complaint a dozen times in the past twenty minutes.
“What are all these people doing here?” Molly was honestly baffled as she looked around at the late-summer Saturday crowd. “Don’t they know about the internet?”
When her sister didn’t respond, Molly glanced over to see Cara’s wistful gaze fixed on a bookstore’s back-to-school textbooks display.
A nerve twitched under Molly’s eye. “Cara.”
Cara’s head whipped around to face front, her expression filled with sheepish guilt. She had always been hopeless at poker. “What?”
“You didn’t.”
Shooting Molly a sideways glance, Cara held out for a full two-and-a-half seconds before her shoulders sagged. “I didn’t know what else to do. She needed money and would’ve hit you up next. You need everything you have for the business.”
Molly clicked her molars shut before she could blurt out the first angry words that wanted to escape. Taking a few breaths, she tried to keep her voice calm—and was almost successful. “Jane is an adult. She needs to earn her own money, not scam her daughter into giving up her tuition.”
Cara flushed, and Molly felt a pang of regret for shaming her sister. Molly had been just as guilty of giving in to their mother’s machinations in the past, but this wasCara, who’d dreamed for years of becoming a teacher. If Jane kept taking the money she needed for college, Cara would eventually end up a sixty-year-old who’d spent her life working as a bounty hunter instead of doing what she loved.
“You know she would’ve just stolen it if I hadn’t given it to her.”
A rush of anger made Molly’s cheeks burn. “That’s her decision. You’re not responsible for the bad things she does.”
“It’s fine,” Cara said, setting her chin stubbornly. “I’ll just take next semester off. You need all the help you can find to get the business off the ground anyway.” She made a valiant attempt at a lighthearted smile. “I do your books, so don’t even try to tell me you’re not grabbing every job you can get. More available hands in the field will only help.”
Pushing back her rage at their mom’s selfishness, Molly tried to think of a tactful way to tell her sister that, as much as she loved her, Cara’s talents were much better used behind a desk. As far as paperwork and record keeping went, Cara was ruthlessly competent and organized. In the field, however, she was inept to a terrifying degree.
Before she could come up with a gentle way to turn down Cara’s offer of more hands-on help, a familiar figure caught Molly’s eye. “There’s Doreen.”
Cara snapped to attention, her gaze following Molly’s to the woman making her way to the toy store. “You sure? She looks completely different from the person in the surveillance videos.”
“I’m sure.” Doreen might be wearing thrift-store castoffs rather than her preferred couture suit and a brown wig over her blond hair, but the woman couldn’t hide the slightly stiff hitch in her right hip or her tendency to tip her head to the side when sizing up a mark. Pulling out her phone, Molly sent a group text.Spotted at toy store. Plan A is a go.
Cara must have finally noticed the same tells, because her breath caught as she watched Doreen enter the store. “Whoa. Thatisher. Good eye, Molly.”
As adrenaline fizzed through her, Molly gave her sister a fierce grin. She’d deal with their mess of a mother later. Right now, she had a skip to catch.
“Yell if you need backup,” Cara said, heading toward the escalator. The view from the second-level railing would let her keep eyes on the toy store.
With a wave to show she’d heard, Molly weaved between shoppers, trying to keep her expression more casual than predatory. It was difficult, though. They’d been chasing Doreen around Langston and Denver for weeks. Now that she was so close, Molly was determined to take the skip in. Doreen’s bail bond had been decent, which meant Molly could finally pay some bills with the bounty money…and start scraping together Cara’s replacement tuition.
Shoving those thoughts aside, she concentrated on finding Doreen. The toy store aisles were packed close together, and brightly colored displays blocked Molly’s view, forcing her to search down each aisle. The store was busy enough to make moving quickly impossible, so Molly wound around the kids and their parents, keeping her pace slow and pretending she was there to shop.
Her impatience pricked at her, though, reminding her of all the times she’d thought she’d had Doreen cornered, only to have the other woman slip the leash and disappear. This skip was slippery, and Molly didn’t want her torturous trip to the mall to be for nothing. As she rounded the aisle endcap, barely looking at the huge toy-car racetrack proudly displayed there, she slammed to an abrupt halt.
Doreen stood in front of the wall of LEGOs, her usually straight shoulders drooping and her chin dipped toward her chest. Every so often, Doreen would touch one of the castle sets before dropping her hand and heaving an audible, mournful sigh. An older woman, who was picking out a simple puzzle on the other side of the aisle, kept throwing curious glances in Doreen’s direction. Pretending to examine the toys at the far end of the aisle, Molly stayed alert, waiting for the right moment to grab Doreen. She didn’t want the white-haired grandma type to be injured if there was a scuffle—or a full-on wrestling match. Unfortunately, it appeared that the older woman was about to step into Doreen’s trap.
Don’t fall for it, Granny, Molly warned silently, but the woman was obviously not a mind reader. Molly mentally rolled her eyes as Doreen, like the scam artist she was, blew out the deepest, most heartrending sigh yet before wiping away a tear.
“Are you okay?” the white-haired woman asked, and it was Molly’s turn to sigh. Grandma had taken the bait.
