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“Neither.”
My shoulders fell. “Bummer.” I flashed a saucy grin up Jamie and held my hand out. “I still want it, though.”
“It won’t fit in your hand.” He was being vague on purpose, but I was on board with this game, so I decided to wait him out.
“My mouth?” I licked my lips slowly, smiling as heat flared in his eyes.
“No.”
I rolled my eyes. “Then maybe you want to tell me what it is, or better yet, show me?”
“Good idea.” Jamie took a step to the side, his smile shifting from heated to hesitant. He took another step and looked toward the door, pretending not to notice my curious stare.
“Is it a puppy or a kitten?”
“Not quite.”
“The suspense is killing me,” I whispered as my legs started to move nervously.
“You always were one for dramatics.”
The female voice was familiar as hell, the only one I knew better than my own, but I couldn’t believe it. I blinked at the sight of Molly standing in Jamie’s doorway. Her jeans were a little too big and she wore a t-shirt that highlighted her bony shoulders and sharp collarbone.
“Molly?” I said not believing the vision in front of me. The woman was tall and lanky like my sister. She had the same honey-brown eyes that I did, but her crowning glory, her long blond hair had become a deep, dark mahogany color. “Is it really you?”
She nodded slowly, a crooked, unsure smile on her face. “It’s me, in the flesh. Good to see you Madds.”
My feet were on the move at the sound of her voice, and I pulled her rail-thin body against mine, squeezing tight.
“Holy shit, Mols, it’s you. You’re here,” I whispered as tears stung my eyes and fell down my cheeks. “I’ve missed you, bitch.” I almost felt like my old self in that moment, like the six-year-old girl who was always happy to see her big sister. Except that this woman just looked like my big sister, a shell of the woman she was when she left for Nevada.
She let out a watery laugh. “I’ve missed you, too.” Her words were soft and quiet as she pulled out of my grasp, and I tried not to take it too personally.
I took a few steps back out of the way and waved her inside. “Come on in and tell me everything!”
Finally, Jameson spoke up. “I knew it was killing you, not being able to talk to her, so I reached out to Molly for you. She met me at the station, and now, here she is.”
I couldn’t stop my tears—stupid hormones—but I smiled anyway. I stared at Molly for a long time, still unable to believe this dark-haired waif was my sister.
“Did you come because you wanted to see me?”
She dropped down on the sofa, and I braced myself for her answer. Whatever it might be.
“Yes. Of course, Maddie. I’m sorry for not taking your calls, but I couldn’t risk it.” She held up her hand to stop the defense that was on the tip of my tongue. “Jameson explained things to me, and I’m sorry to make you worry for so long about me, but I had to be sure that no one found out where you were. That’s what they threatened before Rich got me out of there, Maddie. He may be dead, but the others aren’t.”
Rich. She called him Rich like they were friends, like they had some kind of intimate relationship. “He treated you all right? Rich?”
Molly nodded with a sad smile. “Yeah, he did.” She slammed her eyes shut as if reliving a moment. “He woke me up in the middle of the night, a hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t scream, and I thought, this is it, this is the night where I die and they find my body in the desert. But he got me out of that motel with another two girls, and we drove all night until we were up near Reno.”
“Why Reno?”
Molly shrugged. “I don’t know. He couldn’t get in touch with his handler. He was worried, so he gave us a wad of cash and stashed us in a hotel up there to wait for whatever came next. Later he came with new ID’s and told us he’d get back to us. He never did.”
I sighed and went to her, wrapping my arms around her again and when Molly leaned into my embrace, I sighed. I smiled. “It’s taking me time to get used to the idea that he was a good guy, but I’m sorry you lost a friend.”
“Thanks. Rich was a complicated man, but at the end of the day, he rescued me from hell, so I can’t hate him for anything else.”
This time, she hugged me .and I felt a little lighter because I had my sister back.
