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She swings the door open, greeting me with a scowl on her face. “Tate.”
“In the flesh.” I raise my eyebrows, wiggling them at her.
Her face relaxes. “Don’t give me that look, or that sucker grin.”
I point at my face. “What? This?”
“Mmmhmm.”
“It draws in the ladies like flies to rotten fruit.”
“That’s because you ain’t hardly honey, darling.”
I step up and kiss her on the cheek. “Damn straight. No use fooling them into anything unrealistic.”
“Not when you’re known for raising hell.”
“Remind me to tell that to any chick who’s begging to stay the night. So, I heard you needed my services, sweet thing?”
“Something like that—”
I don’t wait for her to invite me in. I turn sideways and step in through the small opening until she’s forced to step back or be run over in her own living room. Or carried, if she lets me throw her over my shoulder. Molly takes two quick steps backward and the door slams behind me.
I continue into the rest of the spacious, brightly-decorated house. This time I look around the cheerful living room with pale yellow walls, and the eggshell hallways with discerning eyes. This place is massive. It’ll be a bitch to keep it secure with a one-man security detail, unless I can carve out one or two rooms where we can hunker down if there’s an emergency or some crisis situation I’m yet to find out about. After a second of perusing the place, I nix the idea and return to the living room. If Molly’s the only one in danger, she’ll be better off at the clubhouse.
“Hey. What the hell were you doing?”
I wince, and a shot of excitement travels up my spine. My little spitfire is back. As usual, our chemistry is strong enough to set each other off from opposite wings of this big house. “Checking the place out. What else?”
“Seriously Tate. No small talk or anything? You just charge through my place, just like that?”
“You’re the one in danger, doll. This security request is just about you right?”
“Probably,” she answers, avoiding my gaze.
“That’s clear as mud.”
“Well, it’s complicated.”
“Hmmm. Okay. Just know that I’m not leaving until you un-complicate it by telling me everything.”
“Shit. All right.” She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, looking a bit peeved already. Or is there more to what’s going on?
“By the way, after I’m done with you, you need to pack a bag. You’re staying with me. And while we’re on the topic, I hope you understand there’ll be hell to pay for not telling me this shit was going down before now. I shouldn’t have to hear about it from anyone else, let alone from a security service call through Silas’s old lady.”
“Yeah… well, sorry about that. Like I said, it’s complicated.”
I study her for a moment. Her brows are knitted together, and her eyes won’t stop darting all over the place. She’s agitated. Nervous. Cagey as hell. I don’t think I’ve seen her this anxious before. I want to set her at ease, but what’s more important is I need her to come to grips with one thing.
Now that I’m in the picture, I’m laying down the law.
What I say goes.
Especially if she’s in danger.
“Have a seat in here,” I tell her. “I need to take a better look around. Try to relax.”
“Yeah. Right. As if,” she answers, and follows me anyway, stubborn as always.
After checking each room on the main floor, I do a room-by-room sweep upstairs. She trails a few feet behind me with her arms crossed, but is silent as I assess the space. When I’m finished, I return to the main floor living room with her in tow. I help myself to a seat on the floral sofa and push away the throw cushions near me. She stands in the middle of the room, watching me as I stretch both my arms out over the back of the sofa, kicking up my boots on the wooden coffee table in front of me.
“Now you can tell me all about your troubles, doll.”
Molly’s purses her lips and sweeps her long raven black hair into a loose bun on the top of her head. Her pale blue eyes are gleaming. She’s pissed. “If I tell you I’ve had a change of heart about your firm’s decision to assign you to me, will you hightail your hot ass back to the clubhouse so I can get a redo with someone who’s not an asshole? Because that option is looking pretty damned good right now.”
