Hot Winter Nights
Page 57Furious, and also more than a little hurt, Molly turned to Archer. “How attached to him are you because I’m thinking of killing him.”
Archer looked pained. “This is on me, not him. I’m the one who actually insisted Lucas make sure you turned the elves down. When you didn’t, I kept him in place to make sure you stayed safe.”
She blinked a few times, but nope, she wasn’t sleeping or dreaming, or in fact having a nightmare. This was all real and it was happening. She stood up to leave, realized she was shaking, and sat back down just as Archer got a text.
“He’s in recovery, we can go see him now,” Archer said and they all paraded through the hospital, where they found Lucas in another cubicle.
He was awake, but just on the wrong side of green. She hardened her heart. “Are you okay?” She needed to know that he was before she killed him too.
He nodded.
Of course. Typical man. He’d say he was fine even if he had body parts literally falling off of him. “Lucas,” she breathed. “Are you sure?”
“Quit babying him,” Joe said. “He’s going to be fine.”
Lucas flipped his partner the bird without bothering to look at him. He never took his eyes off Molly. “You saved my ass,” he said, sounding just surprised enough to piss her off.
She narrowed her eyes and he smiled. It was a tired, pain-filled smile, but there was also so much more in those dark eyes that she felt her breath catch.
“You were amazing, Molly,” he said softly, reaching for her hand. “Kickass.”
She felt herself flush with pride, until she remembered and tugged her hand free when what she really wanted to do was stroke the hair from his forehead and lean in and kiss his pain away. “They had you spying on me,” she said, jabbing an accusatory finger behind her at Archer and Joe. “A fact you kept to yourself. And you,” she said to Joe. “I didn’t tell you about the case before tonight because I knew you’d take over and try to keep me out of it. And you and Archer tried to do exactly that.”
“Whoa,” came a female voice. “What?”
Everyone turned and found Elle and Sadie standing there.
Elle crossed her arms and looked at Archer.
Her man wasn’t showing much but there did seem to be the slightest twitch in his left eyelid. “What are you two doing here?”
“Making sure my friends are okay.” Elle came in and slid her arm around Molly, giving her a hug. Sadie flanked Molly’s other side.
Molly drew in a deep breath. She appreciated the backup, but all her cuts and bruises hurt, and so did her head. And her heart. That hurt most of all. She was mad at all three men, and more than anything, she was over having everyone think they had to constantly babysit her. Coddle her. She’d proven herself, dammit.
Lucas locked eyes on Molly. “Out,” he said in a soft but deadly voice.
She stopped breathing. She was angry, oh so angry, but he didn’t have a single reason to be mad at her, and she opened her mouth to blast him because no man spoke to her like that, not ever, and—
His hand caught hers. “Not you,” he said.
Oh. Well, then. She tried to pull free again just on principle, but he wasn’t having it this time. He held on, gentle enough to not hurt her, firm enough that she wasn’t going anywhere without making a scene.
And she 100 percent intended to make a scene, but it’d be nice not to have an audience for it, so she waited it out impatiently, listening to the rustling behind her indicating that people were leaving the small cubicle.
“We’ll be right outside if you need us,” Sadie told her.
Her throat tightened, but she didn’t take her eyes off Lucas. “Thanks,” she managed.
“Right outside,” Sadie repeated, and then Molly and Lucas were alone.
“Molly,” Lucas started. “I—”
“You lied to me.”
“No,” he said. “I omitted.”
“Same thing.”
“Not the same thing,” he said. “When Archer realized you were going to take this case regardless of what he’d told you, he asked me to keep you safe.”
“And you do everything Archer tells you to?”
He grimaced when she tugged free and took a step back.
“Molly—”
“Get the hell out,” she said and then looked at Joe, who’d also stuck his head back in. “You too.”
“I’ve got this,” Lucas said to the clearly reluctant men.
Archer ducked out.
Joe held Lucas’s gaze. “You sure, man?”
“Oh my God!” Molly yelled.
Joe skedaddled.
Lucas held out a hand for Molly, an unspoken request for her to come closer.
Instead she crossed her arms over her chest, which hurt her hand, not that she intended to admit any such thing.
“Molly.”
“You were asked to protect me, which you agreed to,” she said. “And then didn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t exactly like that.”
“Okay, then tell me, Lucas. What was it like exactly?” she asked.
“Archer tried to tell you that he didn’t want you to take this case.”
“Because he thought there was no case.”
“Because he’s booked up for two straight months,” Lucas said. “Whatever he thought of the case, he didn’t want to take it on because he didn’t have the ability to give it his all, and that’s his prerogative.”
“And yes,” he said quietly. “I agreed to try and dissuade you from taking the case in the first place. But then I met the elves and realized they were right and something was going on. And plus, you were onboard no matter what anyone said.”
“So that’s when Joe and Archer put you on the case with me,” she said. “I get that, misguided and stupid as that was. But you . . .” She shook her head, feeling her chest tighten as she realized the horrifying, pathetic truth. “You were working, and I thought we were . . .” She closed her eyes and turned away.
“Molly. We were.”
“We weren’t.” She was proud of one thing, that her voice remained even. No way was he going to know how much that hurt. “We were just coworkers, and you know what? That’s what we told everyone anyway, so it’s fine. We’re all on the same page now.”
“It’s more than work between us, Molly, and you know it.”
“Do I?” she asked.
“You love me.”
She stilled and then whipped back to face him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I heard you say it, back in that storage room.”
From the other side of the curtain came a sudden rush of barely there whispers like a bunch of kids in the back of church.
“She told him she loved him?”
“What the hell’s been going on when they were working?”
Molly whipped the curtain open and all the faces that had been up against it pulled back. Everyone bumped into each other and they shifted, trying to look very busy.