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  Still, she gave everything in that final sprint as Doreen reached for the door handle, shooting a triumphant smirk over her shoulder at Molly…just before someone shot from the side to tackle Doreen to the floor.

  Doreen gave a surprised shriek as she was taken down, and Molly slowed to a jog, her smile returning even as she sucked in air.

  “Nice…job…Charlie,” she told her sister, who grinned back at her fiercely. There was nothing Charlie loved as much as tackling a skip. Even though Charlie and Cara were twins, their personalities couldn’t be more different. Right now, Molly was grateful she had both of them on her side.

  “Didn’t I tell you she’d head for the food court?” Charlie asked triumphantly, turning her attention back to Doreen, who was squirming in her hold. Charlie latched on to Doreen’s right thumb and pulled her arm behind her back, and the woman in her grip went still.

  “You did, but I was still hoping I wouldn’t have to be covered in ketchup today.” Glancing down at her side, where some mysterious brown substance stained her shirt from the slide across the table, Molly sighed and then refocused on her sister. “Need any help?”

  “Nah, I’m good. Are the deputies on their way?”

  Cara jogged up, and Doreen immediately started pleading, an artful tear streaking down her cheek. “Please help me! These crazy women chased me down. They want to rob me!”

  Cara, being Cara, gave Doreen a sympathetic smile. “Sorry, but that’s not going to work on me. I was the one who did all the research.”

  With an annoyed-sounding grunt, Doreen dropped the act and went back to muttering invectives under her breath.

  Turning to her twin, Cara continued, “I let the deputies know. They said they’re three minutes out.”

  “Thanks.” Molly was about to ask if she’d also told Felicity when she spotted her youngest sister heading toward them.

  “How do you always know which way the skips are going to run?” Felicity asked Charlie as soon as she was within earshot. “I ended up with the boring, unused exit again and missed out on all the excitement. It’s like you’re psychic. I never get to tackle anyone.”

  Charlie just gave her a Cheshire-cat grin. “It’s a gift.”

  “If you want excitement,” Molly said, still catching her breath, “you’re welcome to be the one who does the chasing next time, Fifi. I’ll watch an exit instead. That seems like it’d be nice and peaceful.”

  Felicity shot her a glare at the hated nickname. “Seems like we need to up our morning workouts if a little jog through the mall leaves you so out of breath.”

  The rest of them groaned, especially Molly. At this point, with fatigue making her legs shake as adrenaline drained out of her, she couldn’t imagine even walking to the parking garage, much less enduring one of Felicity’s grueling training sessions. She sent a text to their other sister, Norah, asking her to pick them up at the south entrance. Norah was a genius with tech, but she was even more hopeless in the field than Cara was.

  “I almost had her,” Molly said as she returned her phone to her pocket. “If she hadn’t started throwing children in front of me…” She gave Doreen a chastising look, but the pinned woman just turned her head to the other side to avoid Molly’s gaze.

  “Yeah, I saw,” Felicity said. “Who was that guy who helped you?”

  Molly shrugged, glancing back toward the food court, but the giant, smiling stranger wasn’t anywhere to be seen. “Some random helpful dude, I guess. I thought he was a security guard, but he wasn’t wearing a uniform.”

  “Speaking of security,” Cara said in a low voice, tipping her head toward a wide-eyed man and woman in bright-yellow shirts hurrying toward them.

  “He definitely wasn’t security, then.” Molly straightened, pushing back all thoughts of the gorgeous stranger, and went to deal with the guards. Doreen might be in their custody, but the job wasn’t done yet. Still, Molly allowed herself a small grin.

  They’d done it. As slippery a skip as Doreen was, Molly and her sisters had tracked her down and captured her. They weren’t half-bad at this bounty-hunting gig.

  Chapter 2

  “Uh…Molly?” Norah’s eyes were wide as she stared at her laptop screen, and her voice was apprehensive enough that Warrant, their giant shaggy dog, lifted his head from where it had been resting on Molly’s foot.

  “Yes?” Molly prompted when Norah didn’t say anything but just continued to stare at whatever was on her screen in horror.

  “Are you absolutely sure this is a skip you want to chase?” Norah asked as she finally dragged her gaze from the computer and looked at Molly over the kitchen table.

  “Of course I don’t want to chase him. Just looking at his mug shot scares the snot out of me.” Leaning back in her chair, Molly tugged out the hair band holding her ponytail, releasing the heavy fall of dark hair to tumble down her back. She started twisting the straight, silky strands into a thick braid just to give her fingers something to do. “I don’t have much of a choice, though.”

  Norah just blinked at her, waiting for her to continue.

  “Cara gave her tuition money to Mom again.”

  Comprehension lit Norah’s eyes even as she winced. “Isn’t there any other option? What if we bring in more skips that aren’t quite so”—her gaze flickered to her laptop again, and she made a face—“bloodthirsty?”

  “Bloodthirsty?” Molly repeated, trying to sound amused even though she wanted to run to her bedroom and hide under the covers for the rest of the day. “Cameron Hall is not a pirate. He’s just a…”

  “Armed robber?” Norah filled in the blank with more snap than she usually had.

  “Yeah.” Giving up the attempt to lighten the mood, Molly slumped and played with the end of her braid. After a few seconds of mournful self-pity, she straightened. “There’s no other option. We’re still struggling to get enough jobs to pay the bills, and Cara needs that money soon, or she’ll have to skip a semester.” Molly worried that once Cara left school, even if it was only supposed to be temporary, she would never be able to go back. There’d always be another use for that tuition money, and Cara was too self-sacrificing to fight for her dream. It was up to Molly and her other sisters to make sure Cara’s future didn’t get trampled by everyone else—especially their mother.

  “It’ll be fine. This guy isn’t the brightest.”

  Norah clucked, and the sound made Molly grin, despite everything. Her little sister sounded so motherly sometimes. “Those are the most dangerous because they rely on brute force to get themselves out of situations.”

  Her smile fading, Molly firmed her resolve. It would be too easy to let Norah talk her out of going after Hall. After all, Norah was just echoing what Molly’s common sense had been warning her repeatedly for the past few weeks. This guy wasn’t one of her usual low-level, nonviolent skips. He’d been willing to point a loaded gun at someone in order to get what he wanted. It was reckless and probably stupid for her to go after such a dangerous skip, but she’d considered all the possible solutions, and this was the best one. The only problem was that it was also the most potentially deadly.

  Shaking off her own doubts that she was ready to take this step, Molly flattened her hands on the table and pushed to her feet, giving Norah a level look. “I’m doing this. Will you help me minimize the chance of my death and/or major injury?”

  As Molly knew she would, Norah didn’t even pause before nodding. “Of course I’ll help. I just want to go on the record and say this is a really bad idea, and I wish you weren’t doing it.”

  “Me too.” Molly sighed before moving to stand behind Norah. “Okay, what do I need to know about this guy?”

  “He has an ex-wife in Denver, an on-again, off-again girlfriend here in Langston, and a couple of friends—one in Thornton and one in Aurora. I just sent the addresses to your phone.”

  “At least he�
��s staying in the Denver area.” Molly didn’t want to involve any of her sisters, but she needed more eyes or she’d be doing surveillance for months. “See if Charlie or Felicity can take a couple of those. Tell them they’re just gathering information, though. If I hear about either of them trying to take this guy in by themselves, there’s going to be trouble.”

  Norah raised her eyebrows. “But we’re supposed to just sit back while you take this guy in instead?”

  “Yes. I’m the oldest, so I get to be hypocritical like that.” She patted her sister on the head when Norah frowned at her. “Which place looks the most likely?”

  Although Norah grumbled under her breath, she tapped the girlfriend’s address.

  “Perfect. That’s the closest.” Giving Norah a quick side hug, she said, “Thank you for researching.”

  As Molly crouched to give Warrant a belly rub, Norah crossed her arms. “I really don’t think you should go after this guy.”

  “Yeah, me neither, but sometimes life sucks that way.” Giving the dog a final pat, she straightened and headed for the door to the garage. “I promise I’ll keep you updated if anything exciting happens, but I’m sure I’m going to spend the day staring at an empty house.”

  Ignoring more unhappy rumblings from Norah, Molly grabbed her bag and slipped into the garage. As much as she loved her sister, it was a relief to be alone. It was much easier to ignore her brain’s warnings when Norah wasn’t adding to the chorus.

  The drive to Hall’s girlfriend’s place only took about ten minutes. The neighborhood was an older one, and the house was only slightly more run-down than its neighbors. The porch of the boxy two-story was leaning to one side, giving the whole place a lopsided feel. The tan paint had faded to a dirty beige, and the lawn was weedy and sunbaked.

  Molly passed the house and kept driving, making an effort not to slow down in front of it and alert anyone of her interest. There wasn’t a park or a playground nearby, somewhere she could linger without arousing suspicion, but there were a number of older cars parked along the side of the road. She circled the block and then parked a few houses down in a spot that gave her a good view of the front of the house. After taking down all the license plates of the vehicles parked around her, as well as the SUV sitting in the driveway, she settled in for a long, boring wait.

  Barely a minute passed before the front door swung open, and Molly snapped to attention. She was impressed by her timing. Usually, surveillance involved a whole lot of nothing, but she wasn’t going to complain about the excitement.

  Still, she blinked with amazement as Hall stomped out. “It’s the middle of the afternoon, my dude,” she muttered, her eyes fixed on her target. “You skipped out on a huge bail. You should be holed up somewhere, hiding out. What the heck are you doing?”

  A woman’s yelling voice followed him out of the house. He turned and shouted something rude and then ducked as what appeared to be a wine bottle flew over his head and bounced a few times on the weedy lawn. Hall swore and stomped toward the SUV in the driveway. He backed quickly into the street, jerking the vehicle to a halt just inches from the side of a parked car, and then blasted forward, shooting off in the opposite direction.

  Unable to believe her luck, Molly waited until he turned right at the end of the block before pulling her car away from the curb. She stayed as far back as possible without losing him as they made their way through the mostly empty residential streets, and she breathed a relieved sigh when he turned onto busy Baker Street. She merged into traffic behind him, grateful that his SUV was an easy-to-spot bright red.

  When he turned into the parking lot of a liquor store, she made a humming sound. “Not sure more alcohol will help the home situation, buddy,” she muttered as she drove into the lot of the grocery store a few buildings down. Parking toward the back, she waited until Hall entered the liquor store before getting out of her car and hurrying across the lots. The sun beat down on her exposed head, and she twisted her braid into a low bun as she walked quickly toward the store. If she’d known she’d be making contact with a skip today, she would’ve secured her hair before she left the house. There was no sense giving Hall something to grab if it came down to a fight.

  The buzz of adrenaline coursed through her, making her walk bouncier than usual as she reached the front of the liquor store. Her nerves were strung tighter than usual, but that made sense. Hall was far more dangerous than her usual skip. Despite that, there was no tremor in her hand as she reached for the door handle and pulled it open.

  The rush of air-conditioned coolness brushed her overheated skin as she stepped inside. After the brightness of the summer sun, it took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the dimmer interior lights, and she stood just inside the door until her vision brightened.

  The store was mostly empty and almost eerily quiet. Her boots didn’t make any noise as she walked across the worn industrial carpet, which ramped up her nerves even more. The man behind the counter didn’t look at her as she approached, keeping his gaze fixed on the worn paperback in his hands. He flipped the page, the sound loud in the hush.

  As Molly glanced down each aisle, she remembered her toy-store search a few weeks back. Although the mall crowds had made it harder to chase Doreen, they’d also provided a sort of safety in numbers. If Doreen had gotten the upper hand, there was a much greater possibility of someone stepping in to help Molly out.

  The light clank of glass bottles knocking against each other made her jump, and she immediately scolded herself. This was not the time to lose her nerve. She resumed her search, continuing to check aisles as she moved toward the back of the store.

  No one else was there. She reached the last aisle, straightening her shoulders and spine in preparation. This was it. She hadn’t expected to be taking down Cameron Hall today, but this was a perfect setup. She took a moment and texted Norah, as well as two of the sheriff’s deputies she often dealt with. As she waited for responses, she lightly patted her pants pocket, feeling the weight of a pair of handcuffs. In a pinch, she could immobilize a skip while she waited for law enforcement to arrive, but Hall was a big, mean guy. She didn’t want to take any chances on him. If she was going to take this step and start bringing in the high-dollar—and more dangerous—skips, she knew she had to be smart about it. Otherwise, she could easily get hurt…or killed.

  Blowing out a hard, silent breath, she started to step forward when the bells hanging on the front door jangled, the unexpected sound freezing her into place. Now, right before the takedown, someone was going to wander in? Clicking her teeth together, she glanced over her shoulder to see who’d just entered.

  When she spotted the vaguely familiar face, she went still again. The guy was tall, and broad, and just generally enormous, with dark hair and eyes. The amused way he was looking at her, as if they shared an inside joke, made her cock her head and try to figure out where she’d seen him before. She pushed away the distraction and focused as she turned into the final aisle. Now wasn’t the time to try to puzzle out why the stranger looked familiar.

  As soon as she moved around the endcap, Hall was right there, striding toward her, looking like a mountain of a man. Between Hall and the new guy, this liquor store seemed to attract only the most enormous men in Langston. She put on an innocent expression as he approached, and his gaze flicked over her appraisingly from her feet to the top of her head and back down again. There was a slight gleam of appreciation in his eyes, but his pace didn’t slow. Stepping to the side, Molly allowed him to pass, knowing she couldn’t give him any warning before pouncing, or he’d flick her off like an annoying flea.

  As soon as he passed, she pivoted toward him, reaching for his arm with both hands and preparing to lift her knee to slam it into the side of his thigh, right in the spot where the peroneal nerve sat.

  “Molly Pax!” a deep bass voice called, and she immediately dropped her arms and her knee.

 
Whoever that was, he was going to die.

  Hall automatically glanced back at her, and she forced a smile and a slight shrug. His hard expression didn’t change, and she held back a shiver.

  “Molly!” The guy who’d just walked into the store was hurrying toward her, his face alight, looking as if they were best friends.

  “Wha—?” She didn’t even get the whole word out, much less the question, before he enveloped her in the biggest, tightest bear hug in the universe.

  “Molly Pax, my favorite bounty hunter! What are you doing on this side of town? I thought you went to Booze World for your hard lemonades.” His arms tightened until she squeaked. She wasn’t just going to kill him; she was going to dismember him and then kill him. Not only had he distracted her just as she was starting her takedown, but he’d completely outed her to the skip.

  Prying her face away from the broad and admittedly nicely muscled chest, she glared up at him. “Let go of me, you oversize doofus! You have the wrong person. I don’t know you!”

  Turning her head, she saw her denial hadn’t had any apparent effect on Cameron Hall. His whole body radiated fury as he stalked toward the checkout.

  “Seriously, what are you doing?” she hissed, breaking out of his bear hug and charging after Hall. Now that he knew her name and what she looked like, this was her only chance to bring him in. Hall would never let her get close enough again. As apprehensive as she’d been about going after him, she wasn’t about to fail.

  “How can you say that, Molly?” The handsome stranger obviously wasn’t about to quit. She briefly considered grabbing one of the bottles of Jim Beam from the display next to them and cracking him over the head. Maybe then he’d be quiet…at least until he regained consciousness.