Page 31 of Rufus

“You see?” She threw up her hands in exasperation. “No matter how I broach this, you’re going to be difficult.”

He huffed a derisive laugh. “Deliberately inciting an argument with me isn’t going to work either.”

“I’m not?—”

“Yes, you most certainly are.” Rufus now stood only inches away from Molly. Close enough he could breathe in her much more delicate perfume and see the shadows in her eyes. “Your mother came to the shelter this morning.” He made it a statement, not a question.

Molly recoiled as if he had struck her, even more color draining from her cheeks. “How did you— How could you possibly know that?”

“Because… Ah, Megan,” Rufus greeted the dark-haired young woman as she came through the doorway from the kennels. “Could you possibly take over here for a while, and keep Angus with you too, so that Molly and I can go up to her apartment and talk privately for a few minutes?”

“No problem.” Megan grinned as she made herself comfortable behind the desk. “Today has been just awesome. Busy, but awesome.”

“I’ll tell Mia,” Rufus promised. “Molly?” He held her gaze as he opened the door for her to precede him.

He could clearly see the indecision as to whether she should go with him warring inside her.

Because she had to know that if she refused, Rufus was capable of causing a scene in front of her coworker.

Just as she also had to know, from the things Rufus had already said, that he was going to ask her questions she obviously didn’t want to answer.

* * *

Molly had no idea what to do.

She had intended to leave behind a note to explain her sudden disappearance. In it, she had intended to explain at least some of what she knew about the past.

Then, when Rufus arrived at the shelter so unexpectedly a few minutes ago, she’d felt as if she had no choice but to verbally alienate him instead.

But from the determination in Rufus’s expression as he patiently waited for her to accompany him, she could see that her efforts so far hadn’t been successful.

Then she would have to try harder!

Except…

How did Rufus know that her mother was not only in England, but that she had also come to the animal shelter earlier to talk to Molly?

Talk?

Her mother hadn’t talked. She’d threatened.

“If you don’t do as I ask and leave here immediately—or worse, try to claim you know nothing about the situation that necessitated me coming here at all—I’ll make sure no one believes a word you have to say in your defense. Especially when it’s obvious to me that you deliberately chose to come here and work for Mia Kingston. That’s going to look very suspicious, don’t you think? Better for you if you cut your losses and simply leave. The sooner, the better. Otherwise, I swear I’ll make it so that Rufus Wynter and his daughter both have reason to hate you. Do you understand me?”

Of course, Molly understood. She wasn’t stupid.

It had been totally surreal to recognize the red-haired woman, dressed so impeccably and who had greeted her so confidently, as the same blonde-haired one who had been her mother for ten years.

One glance at the other woman’s expensive clothing and her obvious lack of apology for that or abandoning her own child, and Molly had refused, either mentally or verbally, to think of or address the other woman as anything at all during the conversation that followed.

Conversation?

Molly wouldn’t exactly call Serena Jenkins’s—as she now insisted on being called—demands as being any more of a conversation than her previous threats. No, they had been more of a monologue. The older woman certainly hadn’t wanted an answer from Molly, just her compliance.

In truth, once Molly’s initial shock had worn off, she hadn’t been able to think of a single thing she wanted to say to the other woman.

Except one.

She had asked to know Ronan’s whereabouts.

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