Page 5 of Turn the Tide
A woman’s yelling voice followed him out of the house. He turned and shouted something rude and then ducked as what appeared to be a wine bottle flew over his head and bounced a few times on the weedy lawn. Hall swore and stomped toward the SUV in the driveway. He backed quickly into the street, jerking the vehicle to a halt just inches from the side of a parked car, and then blasted forward, shooting off in the opposite direction.
Unable to believe her luck, Molly waited until he turned right at the end of the block before pulling her car away from the curb. She stayed as far back as possible without losing him as they made their way through the mostly empty residential streets, and she breathed a relieved sigh when he turned onto busy Baker Street. She merged into traffic behind him, grateful that his SUV was an easy-to-spot bright red.
When he turned into the parking lot of a liquor store, she made a humming sound. “Not sure more alcohol will help the home situation, buddy,” she muttered as she drove into the lot of the grocery store a few buildings down. Parking toward the back, she waited until Hall entered the liquor store before getting out of her car and hurrying across the lots. The sun beat down on her exposed head, and she twisted her braid into a low bun as she walked quickly toward the store. If she’d known she’d be making contact with a skip today, she would’ve secured her hair before she left the house. There was no sense giving Hall something to grab if it came down to a fight.
The buzz of adrenaline coursed through her, making her walk bouncier than usual as she reached the front of the liquor store. Her nerves were strung tighter than usual, but that made sense. Hall was far more dangerous than her usual skip. Despite that, there was no tremor in her hand as she reached for the door handle and pulled it open.
The rush of air-conditioned coolness brushed her overheated skin as she stepped inside. After the brightness of the summer sun, it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dimmer interior lights, and she stood just inside the door until her vision brightened.
The store was mostly empty and almost eerily quiet. Her boots didn’t make any noise as she walked across the worn industrial carpet, which ramped up her nerves even more. The man behind the counter didn’t look at her as she approached, keeping his gaze fixed on the worn paperback in his hands. He flipped the page, the sound loud in the hush.
As Molly glanced down each aisle, she remembered her toy-store search a few weeks back. Although the mall crowds had made it harder to chase Doreen, they’d also provided a sort of safety in numbers. If Doreen had gotten the upper hand, there was a much greater possibility of someone stepping in to help Molly out.
The light clank of glass bottles knocking against each other made her jump, and she immediately scolded herself. This was not the time to lose her nerve. She resumed her search, continuing to check aisles as she moved toward the back of the store.
No one else was there. She reached the last aisle, straightening her shoulders and spine in preparation. This was it. She hadn’t expected to be taking down Cameron Hall today, but this was a perfect setup. She took a moment and texted Norah, as well as two of the sheriff’s deputies she often dealt with. As she waited for responses, she lightly patted her pants pocket, feeling the weight of a pair of handcuffs. In a pinch, she could immobilize a skip while she waited for law enforcement to arrive, but Hall was a big, mean guy. She didn’t want to take any chances on him. If she was going to take this step and start bringing in the high-dollar—and more dangerous—skips, she knew she had to be smart about it. Otherwise, she could easily get hurt…or killed.
Blowing out a hard, silent breath, she started to step forward when the bells hanging on the front door jangled, the unexpected sound freezing her into place.Now, right before the takedown, someone was going to wander in? Clicking her teeth together, she glanced over her shoulder to see who’d just entered.
When she spotted the vaguely familiar face, she went still again. The guy was tall, and broad, and just generally enormous, with dark hair and eyes. The amused way he was looking at her, as if they shared an inside joke, made her cock her head and try to figure out where she’d seen him before. She pushed away the distraction and focused as she turned into the final aisle. Now wasn’t the time to try to puzzle out why the stranger looked familiar.
As soon as she moved around the endcap, Hall was right there, striding toward her, looking like a mountain of a man. Between Hall and the new guy, this liquor store seemed to attract only the most enormous men in Langston. She put on an innocent expression as he approached, and his gaze flicked over her appraisingly from her feet to the top of her head and back down again. There was a slight gleam of appreciation in his eyes, but his pace didn’t slow. Stepping to the side, Molly allowed him to pass, knowing she couldn’t give him any warning before pouncing, or he’d flick her off like an annoying flea.
As soon as he passed, she pivoted toward him, reaching for his arm with both hands and preparing to lift her knee to slam it into the side of his thigh, right in the spot where the peroneal nerve sat.
“Molly Pax!” a deep bass voice called, and she immediately dropped her arms and her knee.
Whoever that was, he was going to die.
Hall automatically glanced back at her, and she forced a smile and a slight shrug. His hard expression didn’t change, and she held back a shiver.
“Molly!” The guy who’d just walked into the store was hurrying toward her, his face alight, looking as if they were best friends.
“Wha—?” She didn’t even get the whole word out, much less the question, before he enveloped her in the biggest, tightest bear hug in the universe.
“Molly Pax, my favorite bounty hunter! What are you doing on this side of town? I thought you went to Booze World for your hard lemonades.” His arms tightened until she squeaked. She wasn’t just going to kill him; she was going to dismember him andthenkill him. Not only had he distracted her just as she was starting her takedown, but he’d completely outed her to the skip.
Prying her face away from the broad and admittedly nicely muscled chest, she glared up at him. “Let go of me, you oversize doofus! You have the wrong person. I don’t know you!”
Turning her head, she saw her denial hadn’t had any apparent effect on Cameron Hall. His whole body radiated fury as he stalked toward the checkout.
“Seriously, what are you doing?” she hissed, breaking out of his bear hug and charging after Hall. Now that he knew her name and what she looked like, this was her only chance to bring him in. Hall would never let her get close enough again. As apprehensive as she’d been about going after him, she wasn’t about to fail.
“How can you say that, Molly?” The handsome stranger obviously wasn’t about to quit. She briefly considered grabbing one of the bottles of Jim Beam from the display next to them and cracking him over the head. Maybe then he’d be quiet…at least until he regained consciousness.
“Stop it,” she hissed over her shoulder before running to catch up to Hall, who was just a couple steps away from the register. The clerk was ignoring all the commotion, still caught up in his book.
Glancing over his shoulder, Hall grimaced as he dropped the six-pack of beer and two bottles of wine he’d been holding. The bottles crashed to the floor as Hall spun around, reaching toward the back waistband of his jeans. Molly knew exactly what he was doing. He was going for his gun.
“Hey! You’re going to have to pay for those!” the cashier demanded, jerking up straight.
Molly leapt toward Hall in a last-ditch effort to save the situation, hoping to take him down before he started shooting, but she was plucked out of the air mid-tackle and hauled behind a display of vodka before she could reach him.
“I’m not paying for those,” Hall snarled. Although Molly couldn’t see what was happening, she heard the clerk whimper. “You’re payingme. Empty the till. Now! Move!”
Molly tried to move, to go help the cashier, but there were still two boa-constrictor-size arms wrapped around her middle.
“What in the freaking world are you doing, weirdo?” she whisper-yelled, elbowing the stranger in the midsection and taking grim pleasure in his grunt as she connected. “Let go!” His hold loosened, allowing her to wiggle free.
