More Than Memories (16 page)

“Mol.”

She knew he was asking her a question, if only her
mind would kick back into gear and work. She tried to kiss him again.

“Mol, you know I don’t want you having regrets.”

“Trent, I—” Didn’t he see how much she needed him?

“Mol, I can’t forget all the things you believed,
and I don’t think that’s changed, even if you don’t have your memory.”

“I’m past reason.”

“You won’t want this later. You’ll wish you waited
till you knew more.”

“So tell me.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m trying.”

That cleared her head a bit as she felt a sinking
feeling inside her. Finally, she knew she should feel guilty, but she didn’t.
“So I was making you wait.” She’d wondered many times if they’d been together
that way. Knowing they hadn’t been made her sad for some reason.

“It was important to you.”

“What about you, now?” she asked, wishing the past
didn’t have to matter so much. “You believe in things now that you didn’t when
I knew you, right?”

“It’s not just about what you used to believe. I
feel wrong about this.”

“Because I don’t remember?” she asked. Trent
didn’t have an answer and they were left listening to their breathing. Bev’s
mean words came back to Molly. Along with them were her doubts about herself.
She knew about now, and knew she hadn’t been taking the easy way through
things.

“So I wanted to wait before, and you’re saying we
need to wait now? Till we’re married, if we do?” Did she just talk about
marriage? She thought a question like that would surprise him, but he came
right back.

“I need to talk to you about that.” He creased his
brows and didn’t start explaining. The phone rang while she waited. And kept
ringing.

“Darn it.” He sighed. “It rang a while ago, too. I
asked Mark to call me back.”

“For what? Something new?”

“Your neighbor. And I want him to find out about
Kenneth Webb.”

Molly sighed, too, and stepped back. “Go call him
back.”

“I’ll be right back.” He headed downstairs and
heard her bedroom door shut.

Trent picked up and heard Mark say, “Hey, there
you are. Got your voicemail.”

“Have you got anything yet?”

“No, so far nothing’s turning up for that name.
There was a Justin Atwood in Vermont that died last year at the age of
seventy.”

“Keep trying then. I have a bad feeling about
him.” Trent paused, knowing he needed to be honest with his partner. “He’s had
a thing for Molly for a while now, despite her efforts to convince him she’s
not interested.”

“Is that where the bad feeling’s coming from?”

Trent saw that coming. “No, I’ve seen him watching
the house. I want to take every precaution. I could be wrong, but that’s better
than not checking and regretting it.”

“Alright. I’ll also get in contact with the
nearest precinct over there.”

“Thanks, Mark. There’s more.” He summarized what
they’d discovered through the divorce papers. Since he wanted Mark to check
into Kenneth as well, he spelled Kenneth’s name and gave the case number from
the paperwork.

“Good work,” Mark said. “We’ll get to the bottom
of this before you know it.”

Half an hour later, when she heard Trent knock on
her door, she didn’t answer. She wasn’t sure why, but she just lay on the bed,
waiting to see if he’d come in because she didn’t know if she wanted to see him
just then.

She glanced at the clock, realizing it was only
eleven in the morning and they had all day to spend together.

Trent opened the door. “You’re awake.”

She rolled onto her back and watched him come and
sit beside her.

“I talked to Mark. He’s going to see what he can
dig up.”

“You think Kenneth might be looking for me?”

He rubbed his eyes and looked out her window. “It
must have been his blood on the floor in the Ridge City house.”

That hadn’t crossed Molly’s mind yet, but it made
sense. “So he was looking for revenge and killed my parents.”

“Hey now.” Trent put a hand on her arm. She wasn’t
ready for him to touch her, and he could tell. He pulled his hand away. “We
can’t think like that. We can list it as a possibility, but we need evidence.
More leads. Proof. We need to find him.”

“Okay.” She sat up and rolled her neck to loosen
her muscles.

“Do you remember anyone at all that you’ve talked
to in the last four years who may be old enough to be your father?”

“A lot of men are old enough.”

“Mol, I mean anyone that didn’t have a reason to
talk to you. Not the mail man or your neighbor, but someone that came to the
house, maybe to sell something. Anything like that?”

She thought a minute, but no one came to mind. She
told him as much. “Do you think I’m not safe?”

His pause made her worry.

“Trent?”

“I don’t have real reason to think you’re in any
danger. We still don’t have proof that your parents’ accident was anything but
that.”

She flopped back down on her back, sending her
hair flying out around her head. “Seems like I’m finding things out, but I’m
not getting any closer to the truth. Now there’s so many things to worry
about.” Justin. Kenneth Webb. Her parents’ accident.

“It only feels like that,” he said. “But I agree,
I’m frustrated, too. I only wish I knew right now if you’d be safer here or
back in Oregon. I just don’t know.”

She stared at the ceiling while he thought things
through. At last he reached to her hand and held it softly. He said, “I’m sorry
about earlier. I imagine most guys wouldn’t turn you down.”

She closed her eyes over tears, not wanting to
admit even to herself that she was hurt. “I need you now. I need a friend, and
I need you in particular.” Her voice cracked.

“I’m here.” He lay down next to her, pulling her
against him.

“You won’t get weird?” When he promised he
wouldn’t, she added, “We can cool things, try to figure this out. We don’t have
to decide the future of the world right now.”

“Agreed. Don’t worry about anything between us.
We’ll get this case figured out soon, and we’ll get us figured out, too. But
there’s nothing to worry about, okay? I’m here for you and it’ll be okay.”

She loved him for saying that. In answer she
turned into him and nuzzled closer.

Trent stood outside Molly’s door the next
afternoon, tapped lightly, and said, “You sure like to hide in there.”

The door swung open and Molly stepped out in jean
shorts and a pretty orange shirt with little flowers embroidered on it. “Let’s
go out for lunch.”

She breezed by him, headed for the door, calling
back, “Are you ready?”

He yanked his hat off the counter and ran after
her. She’d started the car already when he stepped outside.

“Any preferences?” she asked as they took off.

“Is this a seafood run?”

She laughed – a loud laugh. “No, I wanted to get
out of that house.”

“Oh.” He paused, wondering just how hard it was on
her to return to the house she once shared with her parents. “Does Italian
sound good?”

“I know a good place,” she said, taking the next
turn. “I thought we could relax and stop talking about this mess.”

“Mess?” he asked. “The case?”

“Yeah, let’s talk about other stuff for a change.”
She pulled into the parking lot and they went inside. They were quiet while
being seated and looking over the menus.

She caught him gazing at her, then he caught her.
They spent more time glancing at each other than talking. Yes, the case seemed
like a complicated mess, and now it seemed to be getting in the way of them.
The new them. He wanted to move forward. Hell, he wanted to make love to her.
It’d taken all his strength the night before to not take her to bed.

They got drinks and ordered lunch. She seemed busy
people watching and losing herself in her private thoughts.

“So can we talk about us or is that part of the
mess?” He thought she could see what he was thinking about, and he should be
embarrassed, but he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“I ….” She fiddled with the straw in her drink
before looking up at him with those dark brown eyes. “I’m happy.”

Did that mean happy with the situation and didn’t
want it to change? Or happy they were making progress?

He didn’t know where to take that so he said, “I’m
happy, too.”

After lunch, he took her hand as they walked to
the car. He searched her eyes to see if she was returning his feelings, if she
could feel the huge void in his life that she filled.

“I’m going to run back in to the little girl’s
room.”

That girl sure had a habit of running right when
he wanted to say something, or hear something from her. She threw a grin over
her shoulder at him as
s
he
left him standing halfway to the car. She probably heard him laughing. Yeah,
that was his Molly alright.

Screeching tires out on the road reminded him that
he was in the parking lot. He turned and slowly started to the car, hearing
another squeal that sounded closer, and then he saw a streak from the corner of
his sight. A silver SUV ripped into the parking lot.

He swore and dodged down behind a van because the
speeding vehicle came right at him, fast. Just a second after he jumped back, a
shot startled him. Other people screamed as he pulled his gun. The SUV sped to
the other end of the parking lot.

“Trent!” Molly ran into him from behind as he
tried to see the SUV. “What just happened?”

“Get down!” Spinning to face her, he pulled her
close, listened for tires, and kept them both down. Her eyes saw his gun and
opened wide. He touched her lips with a finger, still listening. The vehicle,
he didn’t get a good look at it, turned and raced through the parking lot again,
coming back. He waited till it headed for the exit on the opposite side of the
lot before standing and trying to get a make.

“It’s alright, Mol, you’re safe. Just wanted to
make sure of that.” Molly’s fingers dug into his arm while other people ran
from the restaurant to investigate. He pulled his cell and dialed 911. After a
short explanation, he described the vehicle.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, not missing the way
she watched him with big eyes.

“Me? Are you?” She took him by the arms and ran
her hands over him, visually inspecting him too, despite the fact that he was
standing and appeared fine. “Did someone just try to shoot you?”

Trent was busy thinking but shook his head, which
wasn’t an answer but his way of telling her he didn’t know why that happened.
He picked up his hat as the saw a police car pull into the lot.

Later he sat in Molly’s living room with her
curled in his lap and his arms around her. They were both quiet. Thinking.
Wondering. He stroked her back to comfort her, bu
t
the event
had him shaken as well.

Finally, he said, “It could have been a random
shooting, someone getting a kick. Maybe they mistook me for someone else.” He
didn’t like making speculations without evidence. He’d talked it over with the
local police and they’d avoided making any assumptions as well.

“Or?” She lifted her head and met his eyes.

He didn’t like the
or
. “Or I have an enemy,
but I don’t think I’ve made anyone mad enough to want me dead.”

“Trent, don’t you think this could be connected?”
That had been one of his first thoughts, but it didn’t make sense that someone
after Molly would take a shot at him. “It could be, but then this would be the
first proof that something sinister is going on.”

“What about my family tearing out of Ridge City?”

“You’re right,” he said, exhaling. “I worded that
wrong.”

Molly sat up. “Alright, so what do we do?”

“I’ll call Mark, let him know. The police are
looking for the car I described. In the meantime we stay put.” He stood next to
her, pulled her close. His very first thought after he heard the shot was to
look for Molly. He couldn’t believe she ran right to him, putting herself in
danger. Trent didn’t know if he was mad at her for it or touched that she cared
that much.

When the phone rang, Molly ignored it, wanting to
linger in Trent’s strong and warm arms.

He nudged her about the third ring. “Could be
important.”

“Alright, alright.” She didn’t hurry to pull
herself away from him, and threw a glance back to see him watch her walk away.
After her hello, she got a start when Bev answered back. “Bev?”

“Yeah, your trip going good?”

No, it wasn’t, but why would she talk to Bev about
it? Bev didn’t give her the chance.

“Well, hope you’re having a fun time running
around with Trent because David’s not so good.”

“Is he sick?” she asked while thinking
you sick
little brat.

“Not sick, but tired of being second to you all
the time.”

Molly’s dread had been right on. Bev liked to
mettle, didn’t she? And hurt people. “I’m not sure I’m the person you should be
talking to.”

“I just thought I’d give you a heads up.
Especially since you caused all this.”

“Heads up about what?” Molly kept her irritated
sigh to herself and decided to play along. She surprised herself, impressed for
slanting her thinking into detective mode like Trent would do. He’d see an
opportunity here. With so many unanswered questions, she might as well listen
to Bev and see if she will get anything out of it.

“David lost a fiancé once. She drowned. And if
that’s not enough for him to deal with, now you’re taking Alicia away from him.
You think you have the right to walk back into town and pick up where you left
off. But not after you caused everyone so much pain.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Molly interjected, hurt and
unable to hide it.