Page 41 of Rufus

“He did,” Rufus confirmed before his mouth twisted. “Ironically, through the shield of a company, she owns an apartment in one of the buildings in London where my company is contracted to maintain security.” He scowled. “Which is possibly how, as my employees work on rotation at different locations, she came into contact with and then managed to bribe one of them into spying for her.”

Which Molly knew must be totally galling for Rufus to accept. The coldness of his expression certainly promised a quick retribution for whichever of his employees had betrayed him, his company, and the trust he had placed in them.

She eyed him curiously. “Was that all Linus said?”

The call seemed to have lasted far longer than the time it would have taken for Linus to simply relay Serena Jenkins’s address. A call Rufus had listened to more than he had added to, until he gave those last decisive instructions regarding his suspicion about one of Wynter Security’s employees.

“No,” Rufus bit out economically, but frustratingly added nothing further.

Instead, he picked up her jacket from the back of a chair and held it up for her to put on before opening the door and then standing back and waiting for her to precede him.

Which she did.

There was no point in her attempting to do anything else.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Rufus was totally aware of, but didn’t acknowledge, Molly casting glances in his direction from below her long lashes as she sat in the passenger seat beside him while he drove his SUV to the address Linus had given him. Having access to the security feeds in all the buildings they guarded, Linus had also confidently informed him that Serena Jenkins had entered her apartment on the sixth floor two hours ago and hadn’t left again since.

Rufus didn’t respond to Molly’s glances because he knew he had already done and said all that he could to show Molly he wanted to be with her. Just as he had assured her that none of this was her fault. That he was here for her, beside her, and that he would remain there.

He’d done all he could to reassure her of his support. Now it was up to Molly whether that gave her the courage she was going to need to get her through the ordeal of confronting Serena Jenkins.

Because, despite the outcome of today being set in stone—the arrest and incarceration of Serena—Rufus also accepted this meeting with the woman who had stolen his daughter was going to be a traumatic one. Not just for him, but for Molly too.

He was surprised—but at the same time not—when he saw his cousin Magnus casually leaning against the side of the apartment building as he and Molly approached after parking the car.

Magnus gave every appearance of scrolling through the feed on his cell phone, but Rufus knew him well enough to know that his cousin was always completely aware of his surroundings and the people in them. Magnus would have taken note of the SUV and Rufus’s presence behind the wheel, with Molly seated beside him, the moment it came into view. Just as Magnus knew they were now walking toward him.

His cousin was a big bear of a man, four inches over six feet tall, with a thick beard covering the lower half of his face. The bulge of muscles in his arms and chest wasn’t lessened in the least by the perfectly tailored dark suit he was wearing with a crisp white shirt and silver colored tie.

Rufus knew that Linus had to be the one responsible for contacting the eldest of his twin brothers, and as Magnus had been in Paris at the time, it had probably been at the same time he had initially texted Rufus very early this morning.

Magnus being the protective bugger that he was would have lost no time in traveling across the Channel so that he could be supportive and at Rufus’s side for whatever came next in this complicated situation.

Because they had all shared the devastation Rufus had suffered when he had lost Beth and Emily all those years ago.

Just as they had also felt the same absolute joy when Rufus was reunited with his daughter so many years later.

Those two events had tempered most of Rufus’s decisions in life, and all his cousins would know just how angry he was going to be now.

“Been using the company-owned jet again for personal travel?” Rufus drawled, his firm hold on Molly’s elbow to keep her at his side.

Magnus straightened and put away his phone so the two men could hug. “What else is it for?” He grinned unapologetically, looking at Rufus with the exact same green-and-turquoise-colored eyes as his own before the intensity of that narrowed gaze moved curiously to Molly.

Rufus put his arm protectively about her shoulders. “This is my Molly.” He ignored the sudden tension in her body to continue meeting his cousin’s gaze, knowing there would be a challenge in his.

Magnus’s brows rose at whatever he saw in Rufus’s eyes. “Wow, and to think it’s only been a couple of months since I was last in London.”

Rufus shrugged. “Molly, this big lug is my cousin Magnus. Magnus, this is?—”

“Your Molly,” his cousin drawled as he took her much smaller hand in his bear-sized paw.

“Exactly.” Rufus nodded, not quite sure whom he was challenging, Magnus or Molly, but he had no intention of retracting the claim.

Molly was his.

She might not have accepted that fact yet, but with time, he had every hope of wearing her resistance down until she did.

---