Page 44 of In Her Sights
Those eyelashes dropped for a long moment before they rose again. “Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know.” Her eyes narrowed. “Why would you do that?”
Before she could respond, he waved a hand, dismissing all future arguments with the same gesture that her mom—and Molly, despite her best efforts—used. Apparently, it was contagious. “Anyway, let’s get back to talking about Zach. If you’re not going to the cops with this, how are you going to shut him down? He most likely has your car—if he hasn’t sold it—and he’s telling everyone and their mother that you have the necklace. That’s not good, unless you enjoyed our late-night visit with Sanders and Cord.”
“I did not enjoy it one bit.” Molly paused, considering her words. “Okay, so maybe I enjoyed it a little when you slashed their tires.”
“Yeah.” His smile was just nostalgic enough to be amusing. “That was nice, wasn’t it?”
“Very satisfying.” When his eyebrows did that funny waggle thing that they did, she wanted to kick herself for using the word satisfying while talking with John, of all people. With a great effort, she brushed off her embarrassment and pulled herself out of the conversational rabbit hole. “Back to Zach, I texted Fifi and Charlie this morning, letting them know about him. Mom’s mess is their deal, and Sonny Zarver is mine. Sonny is what we need to concentrate on.” As soon as the words escaped, she realized how easily the we had slipped out, as if their team of two was an actual unbreakable thing now.
“Right.” John still sounded concerned. “Sonny. Just for curiosity’s sake, when’s your sergeant friend getting back? Any update?”
“No,” she answered gloomily. “Her kid must still be down with that mutant strain of chicken pox.”
“That’s too bad.”
“It really is.”
“Okay!” As they turned the corner just a few blocks from Dutch’s, John clapped his hands together once and then dusted them off, as if physically removing any trace of disappointment. “The sisters are handling Zach. We’ll get my car, bring Sonny in, and make it back to your house in time to meet Desmond to get your security system installed.”
“Just like that?” she asked dubiously.
“Hopefully, we’ll have time to fit some lunch in there, too.”
She blinked at him and then laughed, shaking her head slightly even as her chest warmed. “You’re nuts, but at least you’re optimistic.”
He gave her a crooked smile that said he accepted both those things as true before focusing on Dutch’s. She followed his gaze, and the sight of the bar sobered her. John’s car wasn’t the only one parked in the lot across the street, and there were two vehicles in the bar parking lot, but neither was a marked police car. In fact, the only sign that there’d been any incident the night before was a broken strand of yellow police tape hanging next to the entrance.
As John made a beeline for his car, Molly headed toward the back of the bar. Once he noticed she wasn’t following him, he changed course and jogged after her. In the daylight, the damaged portion of the building looked both worse and, at the same time, not as bad as it’d appeared the night before. Most of the back bathroom wall was missing, but the rest of the structure appeared sound—at least to her non-engineer eye.
On this side of the building, more of the police tape remained, but Molly ignored it as she picked her way through the scattered rubble that used to be a concrete-block wall.
“It felt worse than it looks,” John said, apparently reading her mind once again.
“Yeah. I think it was meant to be a distraction rather than to be destructive.” Crouching down, she examined the blackened base of the damaged wall. “Although the bar owner probably wouldn’t agree with me.”
“What wouldn’t I agree with?” a rough voice demanded, and Molly hurried to stand.
“That it could’ve been worse,” John said easily, although he shifted to put his body between her and the newcomer.
The woman scoffed, even as Molly straightened and stepped to the side, so that she could see the other person without John’s ridiculously enormous form in the way. When she finally got a good look, Molly recognized her as the bar owner, Yolanda.
“It’s bad enough.” She smoothed a flat hand over her reddish-blond hair. Her lips were drawn down tightly, emphasizing the wrinkles along her top lip and at the corners of her mouth. “Have to close down for a few days, which means that the two of you shouldn’t be here.”
“We were just picking up our car from the lot across the street and got curious,” Molly said, trying to borrow John’s look of wide-eyed innocence. “How’d this happen? Do you know?”
Yolanda’s eyes narrowed. “That black car’s yours?”
“Yes.” Molly kept her gaze from sliding over to meet John’s.
“You’re the bounty hunters, then?” From the way the woman practically vibrated with growing fury, Molly knew that keeping her mouth shut was the safest option. Even without confirmation, Yolanda waved an angry hand toward the hole in the bathroom wall. “This is your fault!”
Clearing his throat, John inched in front of Molly again. “Since we weren’t the ones who blew a hole in your bar, I’m thinking you’re blaming the wrong people.”
“You were the ones chasing Sonny! If you hadn’t showed up, he wouldn’t have had to run.”
Molly peered around John, not minding having a physical barrier between them, since Yolanda was basically trying to kill Molly with her eye lasers. “Was Sonny the one who did this?” She pointed at the charred hole.
