Page 10 of In Her Sights
Finally—finally—he spoke. “Save my number.”
“Sure.” Her quick agreement must’ve made him suspicious about her sincerity, because he tipped his head down and to the side slightly, as if to study her in the haughtiest way possible. John was such a weird mix of irreverent and arrogant. His mercurial personality kept her constantly off guard, as she never knew what his reaction would be. Her usual ability to come up with four different contingency plans on the spot often failed when she was dealing with John—although her trick with Warrant had worked rather splendidly. Leaning to the side to peer around his bulk, she looked at Cara, who still stood between John and the door. Catching her sister’s attention, Molly widened her eyes in a wordless plea.
Although she smirked slightly, Cara stepped up to help as she always did. “We appreciate you letting us know about Mom. Did you want some water or anything before you leave?”
No! Molly narrowed her eyes, shooting mental lasers and an abort mission! psychic warning that Cara either completely misinterpreted or ignored. By the tiny smile on her sister’s face, Molly was pretty sure it was the latter. Most of the time, Cara was as sweet as a soon-to-be kindergarten teacher should be, but her devilish streak popped out occasionally—usually at the worst possible times.
As he looked back and forth between Molly and Cara, John’s mouth flattened from irritation—or an attempt to hold back a smile. It irked Molly that she couldn’t read him like she could most people. “No, but thanks for offering.” His words felt pointed as he directed his gaze toward Molly, but she just shrugged. If he wanted her to give him refreshments, then he should show up at a decent hour—with a less cranky attitude.
“I’ll get the door for you, then.” Cara moved through the living room toward the front entry. After a final piercing look from John, which Molly met with a blandly polite smile of her own, he followed Cara to the door.
They stood quietly as the door closed behind him and Cara engaged the lock. Only after the low rumble of his car engine faded did someone speak.
“You’re so mean to him.” Of course it was Charlie. She usually couldn’t go more than a few minutes without saying something snarky. “It’s both hilarious and a little heartrending.”
“Heartrending?” Molly knew she was in danger of being sucked down into one of Charlie’s rabbit-hole conversations, but it was better than having to discuss the fact that their mom was in jail…again. “Don’t feel bad for Carmondy. If he couldn’t take it, he wouldn’t always be popping up wherever I happen to be. What’s heartrending is that I’ve gotten about two hours of sleep total.” Even though she’d been hoping to be able to go back to bed, the conversation with John ensured that she’d be too wound up to sleep anymore. “If we’re going to stay up, let’s go into the kitchen. I need some coffee.”
“Nope. No coffee. Water.” Hurrying to make it to the kitchen first, Felicity started filling water bottles, keeping her body between Molly and the coffee maker. “Just because Mom’s in jail again doesn’t mean that you all can skip today’s workout.”
The chorus of groans that followed was louder than when John had told them that Jane had been arrested.
“But Fifi…” Charlie started, only to go silent when Felicity whipped out her fiercest glare.
“You get thirty extra seconds in plank position, just for calling me that.” Thrusting a filled water bottle at Charlie, Felicity raked the others with a stern glance. “Anyone else want to whine?”
Molly really did, but she knew better. Although Felicity was normally easygoing, she took her role as family physical trainer seriously, transforming into a merciless drill sergeant for an hour or so every morning. As soon as they were done working out, she turned back into her normal sunny self as suddenly as if a switch had been flipped.
It wasn’t just fear of extra torture that kept Molly from complaining, though. “We need this if we’re going to be chasing down skips and wrestling them into submission.”
Tentatively, Norah lifted her hand. “Since I’m on research duty and won’t be chasing or…wrestling anyone if I can help it…may I be excused?”
“Me too,” Cara chimed in.
Felicity just glared silently at them until they both wilted and accepted the water bottles she held out. “Everyone benefits from exercise. I do this because I care about you. Tough love and all that. So go get changed and meet me on the back porch in five minutes. Don’t make me come find you and drag you out there.”
“It’s not tough love,” Charlie muttered, just loud enough for Molly to hear. “It’s mean love.”
Choking on laughter, Molly saw Felicity’s suspicious gaze turn toward her and quickly swallowed her amusement, regaining her straight face with an effort. “Let’s get this over with.”
As she hurried up to her bedroom to change into workout clothes, she felt a secret wave of relief. Although she didn’t admit it to her sisters, she was a tiny bit relieved that Felicity’s torture would keep her from thinking about anything except the pain in her lungs and muscles for the next hour. This way, stewing about her mom ending up in jail again—and John Carmondy’s front-row seat to their family’s dysfunction—would have to wait…at least for a little while.
* * *
Since Molly had been the last to finish their final sprint back to the house, she was stuck at the back of the line for the shower. By the time she was clean and dressed and walking back downstairs, the house was a lot quieter than it had been just a half hour earlier. Cara was the only one in the kitchen, sitting at the small table and talking on her cell phone, her open laptop perched on top of a stack of files.
Raising an eyebrow at Cara’s sour expression, Molly made a beeline over to the coffee maker. Finally, she thought as she poured herself a mugful, sneaking in a sip even before she added her usual sugar and creamer. Although she made a face at the bitter taste, it was worth it. She could almost feel her exhausted brain cells perking up as the caffeine hit her system.
“I’ll let her know,” Cara said into her phone, still looking annoyed. The pinched expression looked strange on her sweet, girl-next-door face, with her round dimpled cheeks, wide brown eyes, and mile-long dark lashes. “Her answer isn’t going to be any different than mine, though.”
When Cara ended the call with a dramatic poke of her finger a few moments later, Molly gave her an exaggerated double-eyebrow lift over her mug in silent question.
“Barney.” The way she said his name made it sound like it tasted bad. “One of his clients skipped, and he wants us to take the job. I’ve already told him no, but I promised I’d check with you.”
“Barney?” Molly didn’t even need to hear the details. Just knowing the name of the bail bond agent was enough. “No.”
Cara’s mouth curled up in a smug smile as she tapped out a text. From the satisfaction in her expression, she was taking great pleasure in turning Barney down. Molly didn’t blame her. Not only was Barney an amoral slug of a man who would frame his own grandma for murder if it earned him a buck, but he was also condescending enough to make Molly want to punch him in the face every time they met. Even even-keeled Cara, who found something good in almost everyone, couldn’t stand Barney.
Curiosity niggled at her, so she waited until Cara had finished her text before asking, “Who was his skip?”
