Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rufus had been searching for two years, two fucking years , for any clue that might tell him how Emily could have survived the inferno that had killed her mother.

Learning Sarah Harper/Serena Jenkins had taken Emily before the accident even occurred had answered so many of those questions.

Rufus was determined to learn everything he could about all the events of the past, before he and the law ensured that evil bitch was thrown into the deepest, darkest hellhole from which he hoped she would never, ever be able to escape.

He'd thought the muscles in his chest were going to squeeze all the life out of him a few minutes ago when Molly admitted to being the one to care for baby Emily for those three missing months of his daughter's life.

All those hugs and kisses, the sleepless nights of caring for a very young baby that should have been Rufus and Beth's, had fallen onto the shoulders of a five-year-old girl who was still only a baby herself.

Serena Jenkins really was the monster Molly had described her as being.

But Rufus was determined, psychopath or not, deal or not, that Serena Jenkins would pay, and pay dearly, for her crimes.

He looked at Molly searchingly. The thought of her leaving caused a pain in his chest not unlike what he believed a sword thrust must feel like. A sharp and excruciating pain as the sword went in, followed by burning, unbearable agony.

If she'd left, he would have found her, damn it.

No matter how long it took, he would have found her.

And when he did, he would have spanked her delectable arse, hard , for even thinking of running away from this situation or him. He would have made love to her afterward, of course, but the spanking would definitely have come first.

In fact…

He glanced at the packed bag before he bit out grimly, "Later tonight, we're going to discuss my response to you thinking about leaving me."

She looked at him sharply. "Tonight?"

He nodded. "When I again spend the night in bed with you, either at this apartment or at my house," he stated. "I've just told you I'm falling in love with you. You didn't really think I was going to let you out of my sight again for the foreseeable future, did you?"

She swallowed. "I honestly thought you wouldn't want anything more to do with me now that you know the truth."

"Then you thought wrong. In fact, I am going to stick so close to you in future, it will be difficult for you to know where you end and I begin."

Molly looked at him with wide eyes. "You're starting to sound a little scary."

"Hate to break it to you, love, but to certain people, I can be very scary." Rufus gave a humorless grin before sobering. "But not to you. Never to you," he assured softly, knowing Molly had already suffered enough in her short life. "I do, however, have this lingering dread inside me still every time I think of you just disappearing into the night. That's going to need to be addressed before we share a bed together later."

Molly looked somewhat bewildered. "Addressed?"

He nodded. "You will be laid out across my thighs or the bottom of the bed while you take your punishment. But once your spanking is over, we can both forget you ever thought about leaving me."

She swallowed. "You're going to spank me?"

"Oh yeah," he confirmed with anticipation. "God knows I have all the empathy in the world for the trauma your mother has caused you, now and in the past, but?—"

"I asked you not to call her my mother!" Molly snapped fiercely, her eyes flashing a deep and dark blue. "She's a cold and ruthless bitch. I doubt I would ever have seen her again if she hadn't discovered where I was working."

His nostrils flared. "I can't even begin to relate to a woman as emotionally dead as the one you're describing." He would deal with the spy in his company accordingly once he had them in his clutches.

Molly huffed out a breath. "How do you think I feel, knowing she's my mother?"

Rufus bit back his frustration with the things he didn't yet know and couldn't talk about until he did. "I'll ask again: do you actually want to leave?"

She hung her head. "It's never been a question of what I want."

Rufus could see the abject misery in Molly's expression. "Then maybe it's time that it was? Time for you to stop running and instead make a stand for what you want? Rather than allowing those decisions to be made for you by the actions of a selfish woman who has demonstrated time and time again that she doesn't deserve a moment of your time or affection."

"I don't feel any affection for her."

"Then fight for who and what you do want, damn it!" he rasped. "As we're both very aware, I've been alive a lot longer than you have," he derided. "During that time, I've learned that if you want something badly enough, then there are times when you have to fight for it."

She gave a dismissive snort. "And some things, no matter how much you might want them, continue to remain as elusive as that mythical unicorn."

"This isn't elusive or mythical." Rufus's arms moved firmly about her waist as he deliberately pressed the evidence of his arousal against her. "Where you're concerned, I'm not going to be either of those things. If you want me, I'm yours." He lowered his head to take possession of her lips.

He put every bit of what he felt for Molly into the fierceness of that kiss. The hunger. The lingering desperation. The punishment.

And the love.

They were both breathing hard by the time he rested his forehead against hers. "This feels very real to me, Molly," he murmured.

She gave a shuddering sigh. "Unfortunately, what my mother did, and is possibly still doing, is also very real."

Rufus's frustration with this situation grew every time Molly lumped herself and how people might feel about her in with a woman who had obviously never felt any love or affection for anyone but herself.

So much had been revealed today, so many painful truths, but it had to be obvious to anyone, even those at the heart of this tragedy, that Molly was just another victim of Serena Jenkins's selfish actions. If they didn't, then Rufus would ensure they did.

He knew Molly, damn it. Intimately as well as emotionally. She simply wasn't capable of the same cruelties as Serena Jenkins.

"Molly, I—" The vibration of his cell phone, alerting him to another incoming call, interrupted him.

He saw by the caller ID that it was Linus calling him again.

Which, considering he had spoken to his cousin only a few minutes ago, meant that Linus must have found something more that he urgently needed Rufus to know.

He slowly released Molly. "I want your promise that you'll stay and see this through," he pressed before he would accept the call. "That no matter what else we learn today, you will remember the things I've said to you."

"I—"

"Promise me, Molly," he bit out.

Her gaze dropped from his. "Okay."

Rufus wished he could say more, but he really needed to take this call from Linus. "Yes?" he prompted his cousin briskly, but his gaze remained firmly fixed on Molly.

Because, as he'd already warned her, he would not be letting her out of his sight again for the foreseeable future.

* * *

From Rufus's increasing tension as he listened, Molly guessed that this call was also from his cousin.

Possibly with the address of where Serena Jenkins was staying?

If that was the case, would Rufus leave now to go to wherever that was?

Would he expect Molly to go with him?

Did Molly want to see Serena Jenkins again?

Three redundant questions, she realized, when Rufus had told her that he wasn't leaving her side for the foreseeable future. If he had the address of where Serena Jenkins was staying, then he would want to go straight there and expect Molly to go with him.

Molly, who was still half afraid to believe in the feelings Rufus said he had for her.

The other half wanted to sing and dance before throwing herself into his arms and telling him how completely and utterly in love with him she was.

How could she ever be otherwise when her lips still tingled from his kisses and her body ached with the arousal she always felt whenever they were together?

When even the thought of leaving him, of never seeing Rufus again, had been tearing her apart.

Rufus's behavior, since he learned the truth of who she was followed by his warning he wouldn't be letting her out of his sight again—along with the threat of a spanking for ever daring to think about leaving him at all—gave her hope that he really did feel some of that same deep emotion for her.

"I want you to check the background and friends and acquaintances of all the new employees we've taken on in the last two years," Rufus now barked into his cell phone. "But concentrate specifically on the ones who have worked at that particular building and Mia's animal shelter, and then look for any connection between one of them and either Sarah Harper or Serena Jenkins. Yes, we have a traitor in our midst. No, I want to deal with him or her myself." He abruptly ended the call before turning to Molly. "We need to leave."

She flinched. "Linus told you where Serena Jenkins is staying," she stated rather than questioned, already knowing that had to be the reason Linus had called.

"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.