Page 52

Molly nodded, frighteningly close to tears. The nearly instant vacuum she experienced in the lack of hope—irreparable shooting between blank spaces in her brain—had surprised her with its intensity. It felt like one thing for her not to expect much in the way of progress; it felt like another altogether for her doctor to feel the same.

Numb, Molly thanked Dr. Macmillan and exited to the hospital’s main lobby—only to find herself face-to-face with Elliot Reyes.

“Another kidnapping?” she asked. Some of the feeling returned to her limbs at the sight of a friendly face. “Also, how did you know I was here?”

“Aster might have mentioned you told him not to come. He’s putting on a fine show of pretending he’s not worried.”

“Aster would do nothing but sit there while they tell me nothing has changed.”

Eli’s head tilted almost imperceptibly. “Except that’s not what happened this time.”

“How? How can you possibly tell that?”

“You’re looking a little pale.” He looped an arm through hers, ever a fan of promenading. “Let’s get some lunch. My treat.”

“I’m not sure I’m feeling up to that, honestly,” Molly admitted, still shuffling through a lingering sense of loss.

Eli guided them out into the parking lot.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked. She glanced up at him. He looked genuinely concerned beneath all his swagger.

“I . . . don’t know.” How could she possibly explain this cold vacancy in her chest?

He unlooped their arms and swung around to face her. Hands on her shoulders, he gave her a soft squeeze before he spoke.

“I have the perfect solution,” he announced. “The Reyes Estate.”

She blinked at his expectant look. “I assume you mean to say that the Reyes Estate has food available for eating?”

“Beautiful deductive reasoning. Vaulted ceilings too. Shall we?” He offered his arm again. “Did you drive yourself?”

Molly shook her head. “Aster has the car. He dropped me off. I was just going to grab a ride share home,” she said as Eli guided her to his car.

“Ah, would you look at this,” he said. “A ride. Shall we share it?”

“Eli,” Molly began, eyes wide as she spun in a slow circle, taking in the property in front of her. “I realize we’ve probably had this conversation before, and you’re going to find my repeating it adorable. But—I know you’ve said you’re wealthy . . .” She couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Eli snorted, as undignified as she’d ever seen him. “With that setup, there’s nothing I can say without getting in trouble.”

“I don’t know what I expected. But it wasn’t this.” Molly didn’t possess the architectural vocabulary to describe what she was seeing. Several garages, rows of neat hedges, and a house at such a scale she suspected it required designated wings to orient oneself. In the distance, a tennis court. Probably a pool. Who was she kidding, there was absolutely a pool. Probably both an indoor and outdoor one. A cold plunge. A lap pool. A kiddie pool. Waterslides. The works.

It was a bit nauseating, such wealth.

“Aster’s family has a bigger place, both in the main house and the grounds. He used to spend a great deal of time reminding me of that,” Eli said with a wink. “The ambiance here is significantly better though. The ever-looming presence of the great Orion Bishop really lends a haunted house of horrors vibe to the whole place, whereas my dear old dad mostly lives at his Florida property and blessedly leaves me the fuck alone.”

“Aster’s dad?” There was a peculiarity to the fact of someone she’d never met, someone she couldn’t say she had any particular interest in meeting, being her father-in-law.

Aster didn’t talk much about his family, so following his lead in this instance hadn’t been a tremendous burden.

“A piece of work. With excellent taste, unfortunately. You haven’t lived until you’ve had a little blond asshole boasting to you about the quality of the imported Italian marble his daddy just bought for the foyer.”

“I assume Aster is the little blond asshole in this story?”

“Isn’t he always?”

Molly let out a laugh. It was nice, after the small gauntlet her emotions had run at the hospital.

“And your dad?” she asked.