Lori Foster - Men of Honour - Ready, Set, Jett / When You Dare / Trace of Fever / Savor the Danger / A Perfect Storm / What Chris Wants / Bare It All

“They’re upfront about everything. They have rules to follow, legal procedures to adhere to.” Someone might have gone through her things in an effort to discover her whereabouts. Had Bishop Alexander put someone up to that task? It seemed possible. “But I don’t.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

“The easiest way to catch people is to take them off guard. Whoever kidnapped you is a pro with connections. If they were involved in this—” he looked at a dumped dresser drawer “—they wouldn’t leave behind evidence.”

“Since my door wasn’t locked, anyone could have come in.”

Dare considered that. “Where do you keep your keys?”

“In the kitchen on a utility cabinet. I always leave my purse in there, too.” She started that way and Dare followed. The kitchen wasn’t in as bad shape as the bedroom. Her purse had been dumped on the table, and two drawers were emptied of paper and pens.

Molly looked around but didn’t find the keys anywhere. “They’re gone.”

“Anyone else have keys to your place?”

“My sister, and the landlord.”

Dare opened a few cabinets that held food and dishes, and drawers filled with silverware, pot holders and dishcloths. They were undisturbed.

That told him a lot. “Whoever went through here was looking for something specific. He wasn’t just trashing the place.”

Frowning, Molly went back into the living room and looked around, and then back into her bedroom. Dare could tell she was studying the carnage, trying to make sense of it.

She stared at her desk, rearranged some of the displaced papers. After a minute, she said, “Whoever was here went through my printed notes, and he left my computer on.”

Dare frowned. “Put the drive in the computer and see if your work is okay.”

“I was working on my book before I went outside and got grabbed. That’s the last file I had opened up.”

Standing over her, he waited as Molly organized her desk, replacing the keyboard and the mouse. She hadn’t yet put the flash drive back in before the movement brought the sleeping monitor flickering back to life. Rather than Molly’s current manuscript showing, her iCal popped up.

“That’s my calendar.” She stared at the screen. “It’s one of the programs I use most often, but I hadn’t put anything new in there for a while.”

“You didn’t have it open?”

She shook her head. “Not for … I don’t know, a few days at least.”

So, whoever had broken in had been searching her ap pointments. “Someone found it.”

“Seems so.”

Reaching around her for the mouse, Dare minimized the calendar on the screen, and behind it they found an Evite—an emailed invitation—that Molly had added to her calendar. Dare straightened and put his hands on her shoulders.

As Molly read the reminder, her shoulders tensed. “I was supposed to attend a book signing yesterday.” She twisted to see Dare. “I don’t have a current book release, but this was a special occasion to honor a local bookseller who’s retiring.”

Dare had no idea what to say to her.

She turned back to the screen. “Thank God I wasn’t the only author scheduled to be there. But I can’t imagine what everyone thought when I just didn’t show up.”

“I can’t imagine what your intruder thought, because I’m betting he was at the signing, looking for you.”

She stiffened. “That’s why the last Evite was still up on the screen.”

He rubbed her shoulders. “Whoever was here was looking for a clue to your whereabouts, but he didn’t have anything else to go on.”

“God,” she groaned. Elbow propped on the desk, she put her forehead in her hand. “I’ve probably missed a ton of promotional stuff.”

“Let’s don’t worry about that right now, okay?” Dare noticed that Molly’s other hand, resting on the desktop, was fisted, giving away her anger at being violated yet again. She understood the seriousness of this invasion and how determined someone was to find her again.

But true to her nature, she kept it together, reacting in a calm, sensible way that helped rather than hindered.

He urged her from the chair. “Let me.”

She vacated the seat without argument. “What are you going to do?”

“Just take a quick look to see when our guy was here, and any other places he might’ve gone on the computer.”

“You can do that?”

“I have some tech savvy, yeah.” Actually he had a lot more than the average person, but he didn’t consider himself a pro. “Trace is the real computer guy, but since you have a Mac, some things are pretty easy to find. Hopefully you haven’t changed your settings to delete your history each time the computer is used.”

“I didn’t. I wouldn’t even know how to do that.”

Her lack of knowledge amazed Dare. “You work on this computer.”

Shrugging, she dismissed that little fact. “I email, surf the Net for research and write. But believe me, no one would accuse me of being a computer geek.”

Eventually, Dare decided, he’d give her a basic education on how her computer worked and what it could do. Right now it just didn’t matter. “If we know everything that the guy looked at, we’ll have a better idea about what he wanted.”

“He wanted to know my schedule.”

“Yeah, but why?” Thinking aloud, Dare said, “He couldn’t have thought to snatch you out of a book signing, right? There would be other people, and the bookstore manager. So what was his plan?”

Wrapping her arms around herself, she shuddered. “You really think he wanted to kidnap me again?”

“Right now, I don’t know what to think.” It could be that Bishop was searching for her to get a handle on things and keep her kidnapping out of the news. But why trash her place?

Dare’s attention went from her to a tiny scrap of lace and silk showing from a bundle of clothes on the floor near the desk. He reached for the panties, but Molly beat him to it.

“Not funny, Dare.” She tossed them toward her bed. “I hate it that anyone touched my stuff. I ought to just burn everything and start over.”

“Hey.” Dare pulled her down to his lap. “It’s going to be okay. I promise.” Somehow he’d make it true.

Rather than debate that, Molly put a hand to his jaw and leaned forward to kiss him. She kept it brief, and still he felt burned. “It helps so much that you’re here with me. Thank you.”

Dare brought her back for a hotter, deeper kiss. It was a little more satisfying, but he didn’t let it get out of hand. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

A crooked grin tipped her soft lips. “Yeah, it’s a laugh a minute around me.”

“Molly,” he admonished. “Don’t do that. Don’t minimize the situation. I’m glad that I’m with you. Hell, there’s no way I wouldn’t be.”

As if she didn’t quite believe him, she lowered her gaze. “I know you miss Tai and Sargie.”

“True, but they adore Chris. He takes good care of them, and that includes playing with them and cuddling them.” Dare leaned down to catch her gaze. “Until recently, I was gone more than I was home.”

“And now your schedule is finally freed up, and here I am, dragging you away from home again.”

It was too soon for him to tell her how she mattered to him, too soon for him to even feel that way. “No one drags me anywhere, Molly.” He tipped up her chin. “I’m here because I want to be.”

For several seconds, they stared at each other—until Molly masked her reaction of disbelief with a long sigh.

Gazing around at her bedroom, she said, “While you snoop, is it okay if I start putting some of this stuff away?”

For now, Dare gave up on convincing her of his free participation. In the end, when he refused payment, she’d know the truth. “I don’t see why not.”