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him, sorrow building in his chest. Dammit all, he’d tried to see both sides of this mess with their parents, but sometimes reason lost out to fury. Sometimes he could hate his parents for doing this to all of them. He wondered what his brother would say if he knew that.
    He glanced across the bar to where Molly stood, watching him with a wary gaze. He’d do as Patrick asked and steer clear of her, as well…as soon as she admitted that she was hiding a runaway somewhere on the premises.

Chapter Three
    M olly wanted to smash something, preferably over Daniel’s stubborn, hard head. Fortunately, he was gone…finally. And she was left with all sorts of contradictory emotions raging inside.
    She went into the kitchen and slammed a few pots and pans around, creating a satisfying cacophony of sound. When she was through, she looked up into Retta’s worried face.
    “You done now?” the cook asked.
    “For the moment,” Molly said, her expression sheepish as she faced the woman who’d worked for Jess for decades and served as a surrogate mother to her.
    “Daniel get under your skin?”
    “As if I’d let that man have any effect on me,” Molly said, then sighed at Retta’s disbelieving expression. “Okay, yes. He got under my skin, I’ll admitit. But only because he was being so pigheaded and arrogant. He came in here and accused me of hiding Kendra.”
    Retta grinned, clearly amused by her indignation. “Daniel wasn’t exactly wrong about that, you know. You are hiding the girl.”
    “Yes, but he didn’t know that, not for a fact,” she said, not willing to be swayed by logic. “As if he has any reason to distrust me. He’s the one who’s not trustworthy.”
    “Honey, Joe Sutton saw Kendra right here, and unless Daniel’s not as sharp as he once was, he saw her, too. He wasn’t lying about that,” Retta told her quietly. “He was already through the front door when you sent her flying through here and out the back door.”
    Molly frowned. “Are you saying I should have admitted that Kendra’s here and turned her over to him? I don’t know why she ran away, but I do know she’s scared about something and doesn’t want to go home.”
    “I’m just saying you can’t blame him for thinking you had her stowed away somewhere.”
    Because it was futile to continue arguing the point, Molly asked, “Where is Kendra, by the way?”
    “I sent her over to my place. Leslie Sue will keep her occupied till I give the word that it’s safe for her to come back. Want me to call over there now?”
    Molly nodded. “Make sure Leslie Sue comes back over here with her. If Kendra’s scared because of Daniel’s visit, she could take off. I need to talk to her. I have to get to the bottom of what drove her to run away from home in the first place. I told her she had a week, but it appears we’ve already run out of time.Daniel’s coming back, no question of that, and I need to prepare her for that, too. I can’t protect her if I don’t know the truth.”
    “You think she’ll tell you?”
    “No,” Molly admitted.
    “You could call her folks, tell ’em she’s safe,” Retta suggested.
    “I don’t know how to find them.”
    “You do know,” Retta corrected. “The name was plain as day on that poster Daniel was waving around.” She picked up a slip of paper from the counter. “I made a note of it right here. Got the phone number, too.”
    Molly hated it when anyone called her on an evasion. No one did it more often than Retta. She scowled at the woman who took pride in serving as her conscience. “I can’t betray Kendra like that.”
    “Well, honey, you’d better do something unless you want Daniel underfoot every time you turn around. The man’s not going to leave this alone, no matter how uncomfortable it makes either one of you. When it comes to those kids he looks out for, he’s like a pitbull. He doesn’t let go.”
    “I know that.”
    “Well, then.”
    “Fine. Call Kendra and get her back