Sealed with a Kiss

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

MOLLY THOUGHT she’d gotten used to being around a teenager, but every time she was in Jessie’s room, it was an otherworldly experience. The walls were papered with white-and-black swirls and hot-pink stickered decals for color. There was a corkboard with photos of her friends and framed posters of bands and movies. A mirror sat on the desk surrounded by more makeup than even Edna had used in her lifetime and her iPod blasted from the corner of her room. And Jessie lay on her bed, facing the wall.

She hadn’t even realized she had a visitor.

Molly chose the chair by the desk so as not to invade the teenager’s personal space by sitting on the bed, and pulled it over to the edge of the mattress. She made herself comfortable, drew a deep breath and tapped Jessie on the shoulder.

“Ack!” The teen yelped and rolled over to face Molly. “Geez, I didn’t even hear you come in.”

“I’m not surprised. Can I lower it?” Molly gestured to the iPod speakers.

Jessie nodded. “I guess. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to talk about Seth.”

“What makes you think I’m going to ask you about him?” She wasn’t a psychologist any more than Hunter was but she wasn’t above trying some reverse psychology, either.

Jessie wiggled back against the pillows and sat up higher, wrapping her arms around her waist. “Then what are you doing here?”

“Your best friend’s missing. I’m sure you’re worried and I wanted to check on you, that’s all. It’s something sisters do for each other, like sharing clothes.” Molly drew a deep breath. “I thought we’d reached that point. Or am I wrong?”

Jessie shook her head. “I kind of like you now.”

Molly warmed at Jessie’s words. “You have no idea how much that means to me.”

“I think I do. I met your mother, remember?”

Despite herself, Molly laughed. “So how are you?”

Jessie leaned her chin on a bent knee. “Worried. Scared.”

“Let me ask you this. You’re Seth’s best friend. You have to know more than you’re letting on. So just tell me one thing. Is he somewhere safe?”

Jessie nodded slowly.

“Well, that’s good.”

“Now let me ask you something.”

“Go for it,” Molly said.

“If you knew something that could hurt someone you loved but could help someone else you also loved, would you tell and hurt the one person but help the other?” Jessie stared at Molly through solemn eyes.

“That was the most convoluted question I’ve ever heard, but I think I understand.”

“You do?” Jessie blinked back tears.

Molly leaned toward her sister. “You know something and if you tell me, you’re going to betray your best friend’s confidence.”

“It’s worse than that. If I tell you, Seth could really get hurt.” The teenager bit her bottom lip. “But if I don’t tell you, someone else could get hurt. How much do you trust Hunter?”

Molly shook her head. “This wasn’t just a teenage change of subjects. I’m confused. You need to tell me, Jess. Everything. If you don’t, Seth’s out there alone and nobody can help him.”

“I didn’t think of it that way. So I can tell you and not feel bad because it’s in his best interests?” Jessie pulled a pillow onto her lap and hugged it.

“Listen, there was something I didn’t tell Hunter and I should have and he blew up at me. It took a while for him to forgive me.” And sometimes she caught Hunter looking at her in a way that led Molly to believe he still didn’t quite trust her completely.

Jessie scrunched her nose in thought. “And you’re sorry you didn’t tell him?”

Molly nodded. “I am.”

“What if I tell you, and Seth never forgives me?”

Good question, Molly thought. “It’s a risk you’d be taking. But you’re doing it because you care about him. I didn’t tell Hunter because I didn’t trust him enough. I was wrong. You wouldn’t be.”

“Why are you so nice to me?” Jessie asked out of the blue.

“Because I like pint-size brats?” Molly shook her head and smiled. “No, seriously. Because you’re family. And I’ve never had a family before.” Molly shrugged, suddenly feeling self-conscious in front of her half sister. “I just want you to like and trust me.”

“No shit?” Jessie scurried to her knees. “You really care what I think of you?”

Suddenly, when Molly looked at her half sister, she saw herself, insecurities, fears and all. No wonder Jessie had acted out when she first arrived. For all that Molly thought she’d understood Jessie’s feelings, she realized that she’d had no clue. But now, not only did she get Jessie, Molly liked her. A lot.

“Talk to me, Jess.”

“Do you promise you won’t repeat it unless I say it’s okay?”

Eyes wide, Jessie took a deep breath and said, “Seth said he killed his father by accident. He was just protecting his mom and he counted on Hunter getting Dad off, and then we heard Hunter say it’s going to be tough, and the hearing got moved up and Seth must have panicked and run away.” She expelled the words on a rush of air.

Molly tried but couldn’t swallow. “Say that again? No, wait, do not repeat it. Not at all.” She held up a hand and tried to catch her breath. “I need a minute to take this in. I really do.” She dragged in a long gulp of air.

Seth killed his father? Oh. My. God. “We have to talk to Hunter. Not just for Dad’s sake, but for Seth’s.” She didn’t question her words as they tumbled out of her mouth.

“No!” Jessie waved her hands frantically in the air. “You can’t tell him. You can’t tell anybody.” She grabbed on to Molly’s arm and squeezed her tightly. “Promise me?”

Molly couldn’t make such a promise without betraying everything she believed in. But she had promised Jessie she wouldn’t reveal her secret without permission. Molly bit down on her bottom lip. What would her father do? Molly wondered.

The general, if he knew the truth, would no doubt take the blame if it meant protecting Seth. As honest as Frank was, he’d put his family first. That was his code of ethics. In her heart, Molly understood it.

But everything inside her shouted for her to run screaming the truth to everyone in the house. Justice demanded it. Honesty demanded it.

Hunter would demand it, Molly thought.

Her gaze fell to Jessie’s hand, still gripping Molly’s arm. Slowly, she raised her stare, focusing on Jessie’s tear-stained face. The face of the young girl who’d finally turned to Molly with the ultimate trust and faith.

Loyalty to someone in her family or honesty and trust in Hunter. Once again, Molly was faced with the most difficult decision of her life, except that this time she knew what she had to do. And doing it would probably destroy the family that meant everything to her and the life she’d worked so hard to build.

“You won’t tell?” Jessie asked.

Molly sighed. “I won’t tell,” she said, meeting her sister’s gaze and lying to her face.

HUNTER RUBBED a hand across his eyes and let out a yawn. He was exhausted but he knew the worst wasn’t over yet. He stretched out in the chair by the desk in his borrowed office/bedroom and made a list of things to do, starting with requesting a postponement on the hearing. Nobody in this house was up to dealing with the general’s life-or-death situation while Seth was missing. He picked up the phone and called his office, telling them to get the papers together ASAP.

“This family can’t catch a break,” he muttered after he hung up.

“Breaks are for sissies,” Ollie squawked.

Hunter jerked toward the birdcage in the corner. “I forgot you were even here.”

“Live here, live here,” the macaw said.

A knock sounded on the door and Molly stepped inside. One look at her pale face and Hunter knew something was wrong. “What is it?” he asked.

She gripped the door handle behind her, leaning against the wall for support. “I’m going to be sick.”

He rose and walked to her. Clasping her hand, he led her to the couch. “Talk to me.”

She drew in a shaky breath. “If I do, I’m going to betray Jessie’s confidence and destroy not only what little progress we’ve made in our relationship but probably any hope for any future relations, forget any sisterly bond.”

Hunter exhaled hard. Just the fact that Molly was revealing that she had something to tell was progress. Last time she’d just remained silent, choosing not to trust him at all. But he couldn’t indulge his emotional elation at the moment. Instead he focused on the situation.

He squeezed Molly’s hand. “What happens if you keep her secret?”

“Complete devastation.” She hung her head and her soft hair fell forward, covering her face. “God, what a mess.”

“I can’t tell you what to do but I’m glad you came right to me instead of keeping it all bottled up inside.” He brushed her hair back from her face. “Where is Seth?” he asked, certain that was the information she possessed.

She treated him to a slight smile that warmed him straight to his toes.

“I don’t know where Seth is.”

He remained silent, hoping she’d tell him on her own.

“Seth killed Paul Markham. Jessie said it was an accident, but when the hearing got moved up, he panicked and must have run away.” Her words came out in a rush, as if she’d change her mind if she said it slowly.

Hunter didn’t need time to process the news. He took it in all at once. “Jesus. The kid killed his own father?”

Molly nodded, her expression a mixture of sadness, concern and devastation over what she had to view as her betrayal of Jessie’s trust.

He tightened his grip on her hand. “You had no choice but to tell me.”

“Tell that to Jessie.”

“Don’t bother. I heard it myself,” Jessie said from the doorway.

Molly shook her head. Her dejected, stricken look said everything she must be feeling. “Jessie, I had no choice.”

“But I did. I had a choice and I confided in you. I’m an idiot for trusting you,” Jessie said. “You’re such a liar.”

“Hey, that’s uncalled for.” Hunter stepped up to Molly’s defense. “This is a complicated situation-”

“Don’t bother defending me. Jessie has every right to be hurt and angry.” Molly rose to her feet.

Hunter wished he could take away her pain, but he knew she had no choice but to face Jessie’s hurt and anger, and deal with it. With a sharp incline of his head, he resigned himself to staying silent. For now.

“So that whole story about you regretting not telling Hunter something was bull, right? You just wanted to get me to tell you my secrets.” Jessie folded her arms over her chest and glared at Molly.

“No, that story was true. Every last word. You had to tell me the truth. You couldn’t possibly mean to let Dad go to jail for a murder he didn’t commit,” Molly said softly.

The teenager shook her head. “But Seth can’t go to jail, either.” Her voice breaking, she lowered herself to the floor, her back against the wall.

Hunter decided this was his time to step in. “He won’t. Not if I have anything to do with it, but in order for me to protect him, I need to know where he is. I have to hear the story from him and decide how to proceed.”

He stepped closer to Jessie and knelt down beside her. “You’re too young to carry such a huge secret. You know it. That’s why you confided in Molly, because you had to tell someone you trusted. And she couldn’t keep such a huge secret to herself either because she loves you and Seth and your father. Can you understand what I’m saying without being insulted?” he asked.

Jessie nodded without meeting his gaze. “That doesn’t mean I’m not still upset.”

Hunter tried not to laugh, understanding the kid’s need to have the last word over her sister. “Now do you think you can tell me where Seth went?”

“The church near Dad’s office,” Jessie mumbled into her knees, but Hunter heard her anyway.

“Thank you.” He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Telling us everything was very brave.”

He glanced over at Molly, who watched him with big eyes. He slowly rose from his crouched position and winked at her, trying to convey without words that everything would be okay.

He only hoped he could follow through on his unspoken promise.

THEY TOLD FRANK and Sonya that they knew where Seth had gone, but Hunter insisted on going alone to speak to Seth and bring him home. Molly figured he wanted to approach Seth as both a friend and as an attorney who could help him, so he would no longer be living in a state of guilt and panic. Nobody mentioned Seth’s role in Paul’s murder yet. It was his story to tell.

Molly was antsy, but agreed to stay behind. After all, if Sonya could wait for her son to be brought home, Molly could do no less.

She was determined to be a good girl and stay with her family right up until the moment Hunter opened the front door, Molly’s car keys in hand. Her mother strode into the house uninvited, dressed like a soap opera diva in a red dress and red high-heeled shoes with diamond earrings dangling from beneath her big hair.

“Does anyone in this family have any manners?” Francie asked the group gathered in the family room. “I’ve called and left messages on the answering machine. I’ve even spoken to Frank’s mother, and asked her to have Molly call me back. And have I heard from any of you?” She waved her arm in the air and a stack of gold bracelets clicked together.

Frank walked around to where Francie stood. “I’d venture a guess that everyone here is preoccupied with more important things at the moment.”

“Molly, please tell me you never got my messages.” Francie turned her back on Molly’s father, ignoring his comment.

Molly was not ready to cope with her mother’s senseless emotional outbursts in light of the serious events happening within the family. “I got them. I just haven’t had time to deal with you.”

Francie stepped toward her, undeterred. “Well, it’s a good thing I decided to come here and talk to you or who knows when you’d have gotten back to me.”

From the corner of her gaze, Molly caught sight of Hunter inching through the front door. “Actually, now’s not a good time. I was just on my way out with Hunter.” She slipped behind her mother and came up beside him.

“Hey, how come she gets to go?” Jessie asked, obviously feeling left out since Seth was her best friend.

Molly shot her sister an apologetic glance and gestured behind her mother’s back as an explanation. Jessie might be furious with Molly at the moment, but even she had to understand that Molly couldn’t possibly deal with the pampered princess right now.

“You. Owe. Me.” Jessie spoke through clenched teeth.

Molly blew her half sister a kiss and darted out the door before Francie could come up with an excuse to keep Molly behind.

HUNTER DROVE to the church, following Molly’s directions. Though he wished she’d deal with her mother, he was actually glad she’d come along. The sudden revelation of Seth’s guilt caused all sorts of complicated emotions to rise to the surface and he could use a sounding board.

He wrapped an arm around the back of the passenger seat. “Mind if we talk?” he asked.

She shook her head. “As long as it’s not about how I avoided my mother, I’d appreciate the distraction.”

“It’s about me.”

“Then you have my undivided attention.”

Keeping his gaze on the road, he pulled his thoughts together. “When I agreed to take this case, I wasn’t emotionally involved. I mean, I was emotionally involved with you no matter how much I tried to deny it, but for the rest of the family, I was just the lawyer trying to free the general.”

Molly shifted in her seat. “Okay…” She was obviously confused.

“But the longer I stayed in your father’s house, the more I came to like and care about everyone. Including you.”

He cast a sidelong glance and caught Molly running her tongue over her glossy bottom lip. He couldn’t help but linger on her damp mouth before forcing his gaze back to the road.

He cleared his throat. “Anyway, I’m no longer the dispassionate lawyer representing a client. It’s not affecting my judgment or my ability to do my best, but it has become a disturbing fact.”

“Hunter, I’m glad you’re opening up to me, but I’m really lost,” Molly said softly. “I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make or what’s bothering you-and something obviously is.”

He smiled grimly. “Yeah, something’s bothering me.” And it wasn’t being in love with her, although that still hadn’t been dealt with at all. “Finding out that Seth killed his father was…is…a huge thing for me. The kid confronted his father on his mother’s behalf. He committed a crime, a sin, to protect his mom.”

Molly’s hand came to rest on Hunter’s thigh, and though she meant it to be comforting, his body grew aroused anyway.

“Go on,” she said, obviously unaware of his physical discomfort.

He was glad because his need to talk about his past was stronger than his desire-a huge realization for a man who never let himself even think about his days with his parents.

He gripped the wheel hard between both hands. “My childhood sucked. My father was always drunk and my mother enabled his drinking because she wasn’t much better. The house was filled with clutter-empty beer cans and bottles, half-eaten pizza in delivery boxes. Kind of like the scene you walked in on when you found me,” he admitted.

Before he could continue, Molly gestured to the large building in front of them and he pulled in to the church lot and turned off the engine. But he couldn’t turn off the memories inside him. Now that he’d begun to talk, he couldn’t seem to stop.

And he knew if he was going to help Seth, he had to finish this. Now.

“After you left that day, I looked around and saw the place through your eyes. I saw the squalor in which my parents lived and I was disgusted.” He exhaled long and hard. “Anyway, their money went on booze and cheap food, not on me. By the time child services found out they’d turned from alcohol to drugs and took me away for good, they’d beaten any sense of self-worth out of me.”

“Hunter-”

“Let me finish,” he said gruffly. “Through the years, I made some really bad, really stupid choices. The one smart decision I made, helping Lacey, landed me in juvy thanks to her bastard uncle. But in a way, he did me a favor because I was forced into a scared-straight program with real-life convicts, and I caught a glimpse of where my future might lie if I didn’t get my act together immediately.” Hunter closed his eyes and recalled the clanging sound of the prison bars shutting behind him, something the program made sure the kids heard loud and clear.

He forced his eyelids open. “All this is a long way of me saying, if I had done something like what Seth did-and believe me, but for the grace of God, I didn’t-there wouldn’t have been anybody who cared enough to bail me out.”

“I am so sorry.” A tear fell from Molly’s eyes.

He pretended not to notice. He didn’t want her feeling sorry for him. Not at this point in his life. “It’s just that being so close to Seth and his family has made me realize, maybe for the first time, how lucky I am that the mistakes I made didn’t destroy me.”

“It wasn’t luck,” Molly said as she leaned closer, her knee wedged behind the gearshift in the center console. “It was you who kept yourself together, when someone with less strength would have fallen apart or taken the wrong path. Give yourself the credit you deserve.” She planted a kiss on his cheek.

He shook his head, warmed by her compassion and support and more afraid than ever that when this was over, he’d lose the only woman he’d ever loved. “I still say there was an element of luck involved. But Seth does have people on his side and we have to go get him and convince him we can fix this somehow.”

Molly moved back to her own side of the car. “You’re right about that. And he doesn’t just have family and friends who care, he has the best damn criminal attorney ever on his side.”

Hunter met her gaze and laughed at her fierce determination. “So let’s go bring him home.”

HOURS LATER, Seth was home safely, surrounded by his family, telling his painful tale. As for Hunter, he was still in shock about the turn of events. He’d never considered Seth as a suspect and his heart broke for the boy now. Although he was happy for Molly because Frank would finally be free, Hunter was determined to see Seth through the legal process. He’d do everything in his power to secure a deal and ensure a solid future for the teen.

With Molly by his side, Hunter had found Seth in the back of the church in a pew. Apparently he’d been to confession and the priest had heard and given absolution. After counseling the boy to return home, the priest had allowed him to sit and think. Hunter had settled into a seat beside Seth, put an arm around his shoulders and talked, echoing the father’s sentiments and urging him to return home.

But he’d also opened up to the boy in a way he’d never done before, except earlier, to Molly. Hunter had talked about his life, his mistakes, the turnaround he’d made and the things Seth had in his own life that Hunter had never had. Family could turn Seth’s life around if he let it, he’d promised.

What Hunter didn’t tell Seth was how bad things could be if Hunter didn’t get the teen off. Hunter had been through juvy but he’d already been toughened by the system. Seth, with his softer lifestyle, wouldn’t survive that kind of punishment. And considering the kind of abuser his father had been, Seth shouldn’t have to. Hunter would make it his mission to see justice done in Seth’s case.

Still, Hunter had been careful. He never promised Seth no punishment or repercussions. In fact, Hunter had assured the boy he’d pay for this mistake for the rest of his life, in the one place that it counted. In his heart. But Hunter had also explained that eventually Seth would grow stronger and overcome the pain, heartache and guilt. And he’d do it all with his family’s support and forgiveness.

Seth found proof of Hunter’s words here at home. After the shock and the disbelief of Seth’s confession subsided, both families not only forgave him but rallied around him in a show of support.

Hunter had work ahead of him on Seth’s behalf. The first order of business would be to deal with the district attorney prior to Seth’s confession. Once Seth officially confessed, the charges against the general would be dismissed. Seth would be arraigned and with any luck, a deal could be reached on the teenager’s behalf. Of course, Sonya, Seth and the general would have to testify to Paul Markham’s abuse, but Hunter doubted that would be an issue.

And once the deal was cut, Hunter could wrap things up long-distance. He’d come here determined to win Molly’s father’s case and free himself from her at the same time. He’d been so sure he could get her out of his system and then be the one to walk away. He didn’t miss the irony. He was walking away but it wasn’t part of any agenda or desire for revenge.

He was leaving Molly because she’d given him no choice. And he felt absolutely no satisfaction in moving on.