Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 407(@300wpm)
I laughed, just a little. “Yes. Of course, after Pedro.”
Her eyes were twinkling, but she was waiting for me to eat too.
I frowned but used my fork for a bite of my own omelet. When she saw I did this, her eyes lit up, and she took her own bite of the food. “Oh!” She fell back against her chair, her hands framing around her mouth, and her eyes were closed. “This is delicious. You were right. Sorry, Pedro, but Avery’s omelet is on another level. Though, maybe Pedro can do a mean omelet too.”
She was remembering Pedro because of the impression he’d left on her. She’d never eaten the food, and I’d forgotten to give her the leftovers.
I was finding out a lot about Molly Easter, details I’d never considered before.
“You’re not eating.” She pointed at my plate while a third of hers was gone. She gave me a closed and full-mouth smile, waving her fork in the air. “It’s the little things, Ashton. The world might be imploding around you, but when you have an outstanding omelet to eat, you gotta eat the outstanding omelet. You may never get another like it.”
She was right, but that’s not what was surprising me. It was her. At every turn and twist, I was meeting a new side of Molly.
Outstanding omelets?
“Is that what you learned growing up in the foster system?”
She paused in midchew but blinked once and went back to eating again. After swallowing, she reached for the rest of her espresso shot but just held it. “Yeah. I mean, I guess. Some were okay, some were decent, but yeah. There were some where you just survived. Day by day, you know.” She was bobbing her head from left to right. “The one nice thing about when you’re fighting to survive is that the feelings don’t creep up on you. You don’t have time to feel ’em. It’s after, when you’re stable and secure, that’s when the feelings hit you sideways. But yeah, in both worlds, you learned to live. Small things. Small blessings. Sometimes those are the only things you got to make you smile, and you have to smile. You always have to smile. You don’t, and you don’t want to be in the day, you know?”
I did, but I also didn’t.
“Eat your omelet, Ashton.” She said it with a smile. “Then you can go and be the bad guy after.”
I did as she said. And she was right, though I already knew. Avery’s omelets were amazing.
When we were done, my phone beeped. They’d arrived.
Molly had been eyeing me. “You gotta go to work?”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
I glanced at her and raised an eyebrow in question.
She was finishing the last of her food and put the napkin on the tray before standing up. “You gotta go, you gotta go. Take me back to my tower.”
“You don’t want to know what he’s going to say?”
She was chewing her bottom lip before she shook her head, slowly. “No. I think in this case, I’m going to go take a nap and let you do what you do. But I will nag you after so you tell me everything he says. Consider this your warning.”
“You’re going to nap?”
She nodded. “Yep.” She was the one leading me to my office door. “Show me the way, Jeeves. If that omelet and espresso shot were any indication, I have a feeling my bed is a whole other form of heaven. I didn’t appreciate it before, but I will this time.”
Yes, indeed. Molly Easter was surprising me at every different corner.
I was finding that I liked it. A lot.
Molly went to take a nap, and I headed to be the bad guy.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
ASHTON
“Are you fucking kidding me?!” Detective Worthing growled as soon as I walked into the room.
I took note of him before responding. There were some bruises on his face. His jacket was torn in a couple places. Scuff marks on his jeans. His eyes were wild, and he was scowling. He was also zip-tied to a chair in four different places.
He had zero chance of escape.
“I see my men were thorough.”
He growled again, shaking the chair as he jerked around. “I’m going to kill you, Walden. The second I’m free—”
I walked to a table set up in the corner. We had all my toys here, but as I scanned them, a zing of disappointment went through me. I wasn’t looking forward to torturing him. Molly was right, what she’d said earlier. I was the one who liked to get my hands dirty. Torturing was my thing, but . . . it wasn’t today.
Why wasn’t it today?
I stepped to the side and swung my head his way.
It was then that Worthing realized his predicament, and who I was. He stilled, the wildness in his gaze diminishing. “I’m a cop.”