When You Dare - Lori Foster [106]
The door swung open and there was a sudden rush. Her sister squealed, and a loud thump sounded, followed by a curse.
Hurrying out of the bedroom, Molly shouted, “Natalie!” She flipped on a light—and froze.
Sure enough, she’d recognized her sister’s voice, even in a whisper. As if tossed there, Natalie sprawled in an easy chair, unhurt but stunned.
In the middle of the floor, Dare pinned down a man almost as big as him. He kept his gun barrel pressed hard against the stranger’s jaw.
With the lights on, Natalie saw the gun and screamed. “Oh, my God! What are you doing? Who are you?”
Dare didn’t take his gaze off his captive. With a nod of his head toward Molly, he said, “I’m with her.”
As her sister and the man glanced at her, Molly gave a loose finger wave.
Dare nudged the man. “Who are you?”
His mouth flattened. Nodding his head toward Natalie, he said, “I’m with her.” Dare frowned.
Natalie scrambled from the chair in what Molly recognized as “attack mode.”
“Wait.” Molly had no idea what was going on, or who the man on the floor might be, but she wouldn’t allow her sister to jump Dare.
She didn’t want her sister to get hurt.
“Everyone, just chill a second, please.”
“Easier said than done,” the man beneath Dare quipped.
The stranger kept his palms, at either side of his head, open and nonthreatening. But something about the way he stared back at Dare made Molly uneasy.
Dare didn’t move—which meant he didn’t hurt the guy, but neither did he let him up.
Molly pulled the blanket tighter. “Dare, this is my sister, Natalie.”
“Don’t hurt him,” Natalie warned. And then to Molly, “What’s going on here?”
“Dare is, um, protecting me. Nothing to worry about. He’s one of the good guys.”
Disbelief flashed over Natalie’s white face before she gathered her gumption. “Well, then, tell him to get off of Jett.” She looked ready to launch herself at Dare if he made the wrong move, so Molly moved closer to her.
If she had to, she’d tackle her sister. But hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, not with her naked beneath the blanket.
“Dare,” Molly ventured. He looked to be in a killing mood. “Really, she is my sister, I promise.”
“Sister, got it.” Indecision plain, Dare eased back just a little but kept his gun on the man.
“Jett Sutter.” The stranger lay there, not really discomfited by the attack. “I know. Sounds like jet-setter. My folks are regular comedians.” He tilted his head to see Molly. Eyes so dark they looked black took her measure. His long, sinful lashes might have seemed effeminate on another man, but not on him. “I’m glad to see you’re okay, Molly.”
Molly blinked. “You know me?”
“Only from what Natalie has told me, which was all flattering but didn’t include associates with guns.”
His good humor left Molly gaping. He was a handsome man, and even flat on his back with a gun in his face he managed to appear competent.
“How do you know my sister?”
He looked Molly over in the blanket and cocked a brow. “Ask Natalie.”
Natalie turned three shades of red. “Oh, Molly, there’s so much we have to talk about.” And then, as if she forgot the men, she wailed, “I was so worried about you. Where the hell have you been?”
Molly almost lost her blanket when Natalie jerked her into a tight bear hug. She wanted to soothe her sister, she really did. But with the men on the floor…the timing was definitely off.
“I’m okay, Natalie. Really.” Over her sister’s shoulder, Molly saw Dare eyeing Jett.
He said low, “You might want to stop looking at her like that.”
The man actually grinned. “Right. Sorry. It’s not lascivious, I swear. I was just noting the similarities between the two of them.”
“Sure you were.” Dare leaned into him a little more. “What are you two doing here?”
Jett put one hand behind his head, rested the other on his chest and looked to be getting comfortable. “We just returned from a trip. I told Natalie that Molly was probably back by now. It’s the middle of the night, so she didn’t want to call, but she couldn’t stand waiting until the morning to check on her. So…” He shrugged as if to