Molly nodded and stepped inside her door. She picked up his jacket and held it out to him, wary, as if she didn’t know what to expect.
Derek didn’t blame her. He couldn’t run more hot and cold if he tried.
He took the blazer from her. “Just get some rest. It’s been a crazy day for all of us.”
He waited until she closed the door—without a word—then turned and walked back to his car.
Damn it.
It’s been a crazy day for all of us.
Molly turned on the shower water to let it warm up. She slipped her lab coat off as well as her other clothes, all of which smelled like smoke, and just threw them in the bathtub so they wouldn’t contaminate her clothes in the hamper.
She glanced briefly in the mirror before stepping into her walk-in shower. Yeah, she did have some plaster in her hair.
But let’s face it, Derek could’ve had giant pieces of cement or paint or a dozen more building substances covering his entire head and Molly would’ve kept kissing him.
That was the difference between them.
Derek Waterman was out of her league and she needed to remember that. He was glad she was alive and had kissed her. But tomorrow they’d be back to their same old routine: him acting as if nothing had ever happened between them and her acting like a complete nincompoop around him.
As Molly washed the mess from the explosion off her body and out of her hair, she decided it was time to stop the silly way she’d been acting around him all this time. She was a strong, intelligent woman. She needed to act that way.
She completely ignored that she had made that promise to herself multiple times before. This time she was going to do it.
Plus, she had other things to worry about besides Derek Waterman and his kisses. She got out of the shower and dried off, slipping on a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt, rebraiding her hair.
The explosion in the lab. She rubbed a hand over her face as she walked downstairs to get something to eat. Even if the explosion wasn’t her fault, the workload resulting from it would be enormous. Sorting through which evidence was completely destroyed, or whether any of it could be salvaged, would be a daunting task.
Without a doubt many Omega cases would be ruined because of what had happened tonight. Crimes would go unsolved, some criminals unpunished. It was frustrating to consider.
Molly made herself a sandwich, poured herself a glass of milk and forced herself to finish both even though she didn’t want to. She was going to need her strength for tomorrow and a full stomach would help her get rest now.
All of the findings for past cases had been backed up on a server in a different building, just in case of a situation like what had happened tonight. But current cases... They would have to be sorted through individually. And almost all findings would now be ineligible in court because they had been contaminated.
Worst of all, a young man—a promising young life—had perished.
Molly got up and put her dishes in the sink and stood there for just a moment, head hanging low. How she hoped they could prove this wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know how she was going to live with herself otherwise.
For the first time Molly wished she was a drinker. That she had some sort of hard liquor in the house that she could use to help alleviate all these thoughts in her head just for tonight. Be drunk and just not care.
And maybe, just maybe, she would go show up at Derek’s house drunk. And they could have sex again. Turnabout was fair play, after all.
Who was she kidding? Like she’d ever have the guts. She’d be thrilled if she could just talk to him like a normal person tomorrow when he came to pick her up. Which was just a few hours from now. She should get some sleep because she was obviously slap happy, thinking about drinking and having sex with Derek.
She went back into her bathroom to brush her teeth and took another look at herself in the mirror. No plaster in her hair, it was all tidy in its braid. Would Derek mention their kiss when he saw her tomorrow or pretend like it never happened? Again. She was interested to find out.
Crossing into her bedroom, she stopped as she realized the door leading to her small balcony was cracked open. Molly racked her brain. Had she opened it when she first got home? Had it been open when she got into the shower earlier? It was a nice night and now that she wasn’t in shock she wasn’t feeling so cold. But she still didn’t sleep with doors open.
As she crossed to shut it, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and gasped. Someone was in the room with her.
She opened her mouth to scream when the arm of a different, second person came around her head and covered her mouth roughly.
“She saw you. Get the drug. Hurry up,” one voice whispered to the other.
Molly began to struggle as hard as she could, throwing her weight back and twisting in the arms that held her. The hand squeezed harder on her face and jerked her head to the side, exposing her neck.
She felt a sharp prick in her neck as the second man injected her with something.
Molly fought to keep her head, to not panic. Whatever they had injected her with would only work faster if she was flailing around. She couldn’t fight them both anyway.
She let her body go slack.
“That was fast. Is that how it works?” the second man asked the first.
“How the hell should I know? Let’s get her to the car. The plane will be waiting for us.” Voice number one.
Plane? Oh God, where were they taking her? Molly struggled to focus over the effect of the drug they’d given her. One man grabbed her feet and the other carried her torso as they took her downstairs, then out the back through her sliding glass door. Molly tried to make her body respond once they got outside. If she was going to try to flee, now would be the best time.
But she couldn’t make her body respond as they threw her in the backseat of their car parked right outside her gate. She watched her row of condos get smaller from the window.
She wasn’t sure how long the car had been moving, and she definitely had no idea which direction they’d been going when it stopped again. But she could see an airplane hangar and small runway. Not the Denver airport, a much smaller regional one.
Through the fog of her mind Molly figured out that this was her only chance. Once they had her on a plane she’d have no opportunity to escape. The movement would send the drug faster through her bloodstream, but she couldn’t wait. And even in the haze she could imagine the terrible things they would do to her.
The men were arguing in the front seat, about something she couldn’t begin to understand, obviously not thinking her a threat of any kind. Using all her focus, she opened the door of the car and poured herself through the opening.
She tried to stand upright to run, but the world was spinning too rapidly. In a sort of three-limbed crawl-run she moved as rapidly as she could toward the tree line surrounding the airstrip.
She couldn’t hear anything but her own breathing, sobs coming from her chest as she tried to force her body to move faster. Her vision blurred as the drug took greater affect.
For just a moment she was sure she was going to make it. Then a hand grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around and sending her sprawling to the ground. She felt the pin prick again, this time in her arm.
“You’re tricky.” It was the first man. The one she had seen in her apartment. “But that should do it.”
The