Scorched (2 page)

Tristan helped Jared to his feet. “Listen to what he said, pal. Raffe can make your life even more miserable.”

“Yeah, go ahead and make my day, punk,” Esposito said, channeling his inner Clint Eastwood.

“Fuck you!” Jared was still incensed. “Fuck both you!”

“Need a hand?” Tristan asked his partner.

“With him?” Raffe eyed his suspect derisively. “I’m good. Going out?”

“Gonna locate a person.”

“Good luck.”

Oak Hollow PD had less than ten personnel. In a town of less than two thousand people, where ninety percent of the population was mix-blood, the crime rate was quite low. Tristan was attracted to the low workload in Oak Hollow when he’d requested a transfer to his hometown. He also had an ulterior motive in moving back to Oak Hollow. He’d done it to annoy his father, who he had a tumultuous relationship with.

He started the car and lurched out onto the street, heading toward the edge of the town. The Foreman family had a house in a rundown neighborhood called Pine Creek Estate. Natalie Foreman—Molly’s mother—had been a single mother and worked as a seamstress. She’d fallen sick and succumbed to cancer, dying several years later, after Molly had run away to Hollywood. As far as Tristan knew, the house had been vacant ever since. He planned on checking on the house first to see if Molly was there. Then he was going to Sarah Dawn’s place. Sarah was Molly’s best friend in school. She was the only girl Molly had stuck with since grade school. He gambled that Sarah would know where Molly was staying in Oak Hollow.

Twenty minutes later, he coasted up to the Foremans’ old house.. He’d looked for Molly after the graduation to patch things up, but to his dismay, her mom told him that Molly had left for California.

The house was at the end of the block, and Tristan parked at the curb. The two houses next to it seemed to have been boarded up for a long time.

He wondered how long Molly had been back in town. What had made her come back to Oak Hollow? Hadn’t her career in Hollywood panned out?

He opened the crumbling white picket fence gate and proceeded to walk up to the front porch. The house looked as if it was ready to collapse. Rotten windowsill. Decaying gutters overflowing with years of debris. Peeling paint and an overgrown yard. Tristan cringed.

She shouldn’t live in this kind of place,
he thought. This house wasn’t habitable for dogs, let alone humans.

Tristan rang the bell and called out to her. A car was parked in the driveway with a California license plate, so he assumed Molly was here. “Ms. Foreman, this is a welfare check courtesy of Oak Hollow PD! Are you home?”

Nobody answered.

He called and rang the bell again. “Ms. Foreman, I can see you’re home. Won’t you come out and talk to me so I know you’re all right?”

Tristan could hear footsteps shuffling behind the door. The locks were opened, and the old door creaked on the rusty hinges.

The house seemed dark inside; Molly hadn’t bothered to turn on the light.

At first, Tristan thought she was going to get mad at him. But then he noticed she was trembling and on the verge of crying.

Without thinking, Tristan rushed in and pulled her into his arms. “Jesus, Molly, what happened? Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer. Small sobs raked her curvaceous body. She didn’t try to push him away like Tristan had feared. She needed the comfort. Tristan deepened his embrace. He hated to see her like this; he couldn’t stand to see a woman crying.

She had her black hair down her back. Even though messy, it was still soft to touch. Her pale skin had been tanned by the California sun. She used to be a skinny girl, but now her figure had filled out in all the right places. Out of nowhere, Tristan was aroused. He didn’t know why, but up close, her scent drove him insane. He wanted her more than ever.

At that moment, Tristan realized he was still in love with her. In fact, the feeling was stronger than before, as if part of him had just realized that he’d just found his soul mate. There was no mistake that this woman was meant for him–to be his mate.

He coaxed her to the sofa and had her sit. When he stared into those big, brown eyes of hers, Tristan almost couldn’t stop himself from kissing her. He recovered his senses at the last second. No, he didn’t want to ruin this opportunity to finally make up with her.

“Molly, tell me what happened?”

“I’m in trouble, Tristan.”

“Yes, I can see that.”

She wiped her tears with her hands.

Tristan got up and strode to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He wondered what kind of trouble she was in.
Is it debt? Mixed up with a dangerous crowd? Is she involved in drugs?

Molly’s dad had been in and out of prison over the years for dealing drugs. Her mom had divorced him after he snapped and beat her badly, going to prison for the attack. When he got out, he occasionally fucked up the household and stirred up problems for her mom. Growing up, the Foreman family had been juicy gossip to talk about over dinner. Tristan’s mom wasn’t impervious to the temptation of a delicious rumor. He remembered how his father admonished his mom not to talk gossip during dinner, and his mom had always scowled at him afterward.

He gave the water to Molly and sat next to her as she took only a sip. Her mascara had run over her cheeks from her tears. Tristan wiped it without thinking, but she didn’t seem to mind. For someone who hated him to the bone, she looked tame at the moment. Perhaps she was really rattled.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Tristan encouraged gently.

“It was my ex.” She lifted her gaze up to him. “My ex-boyfriend. He’s very controlling. I broke up with him six months ago, but he’s still harassing me. That’s why I went to the police department earlier, to report his harassment. He violated his restraining order again. And when I got home, I received a package. It’s…” She couldn’t finish her sentence and started weeping again.

“You got a package from him?” Tristan repeated. “What’s in it?”

Molly looked distraught.

Tristan decided to check it out for himself. He saw a half-open package by the kitchen counter. He approached the brown box with caution. The faint scent of blood drifted to his nose as he examined it. The corner of the package leaked red, viscous liquid. “What the hell?”

With his penknife, Tristan flicked the box open. A half-skinned animal was inside.

Judging from its shape, the unfortunate critter was a rabbit. Tristan cringed in disgust. No wondered Molly was freaked out. If this was meant to be intimidation, the jerk was succeeding.

Tristan closed the box without touching it to preserve the evidence. He’d send this to the forensics lab later.

First, he had to move Molly to a secure location.

He padded back into the living room. “Pack your bag. You can’t stay in this place until we arrest your ex-boyfriend.”

Chapter Three

Molly had been so deeply disturbed by her ex’s latest threat that she didn’t object when Tristan whisked her away from her childhood home. But when she found herself at Tristan’s place, she gradually started coming to her senses.

Wait a minute. How did this happen?
How could she agree to this? She’d escaped from one bully to another.

“You can sleep in the guest bedroom. My room is just next to you, so I can assure you, you’ll be safe. I sleep with a gun under my pillow and one eye open. The bathroom is just across the hall. You can find towels and essentials in the linen closet.”

She didn’t pay attention to what he was rambling on about. She wondered why Tristan was being nice to her.

“Is this a trick? It doesn’t make sense.”

She didn’t realize she’d mumbled it out loud until Tristan stared at her.

“What doesn’t make sense?” Tristan asked her.

Oops
. Molly shifted from foot to foot. Suddenly, she felt very self-conscious in front of him.

“Are you still scared?” Tristan reached a hand toward her forehead.

Molly dodged it without thinking. “Are you going to give me wet willies?” she asked with unmasked disdain.

“What? No!” Tristan looked scandalized. “Why would I do that?”

She gave him a reproachful look.

“Come on, that was years ago. Are you still holding a grudge?”

She avoided his stare and studied the floor. “You were mean to me.”

“Ah.” Tristan’s shoulders sagged. “I’m sorry for everything I did to you. I was a very stupid kid back then.”

Molly cut her eyes to him. It felt weird to see him apologizing like that. Tristan used to be the prince of the school; everybody worshipped the ground he walked on. Groveling like this didn’t suit him. No, not at all.

Tristan leaned forward, trapping her against the wall and placing a palm on each side of her head. “What do I have to do to earn your forgiveness?”

Molly started to feel uncomfortable. “Why are you being nice to me?”

“Is it a crime being a nice to someone?”

“Are you dying or something?”

He sighed hard. “If I am, will you forgive me?”

“What? You serious?”

“No. I was joking. I’m not dying. Jesus! I just want to help you. I don’t want to see you like this.”

“Why do you care? You hate me.”

“I don’t hate you, and I never have.”

“Then why did you bully me when we were growing up?”

“Look, I was a stupid kid. I’m a completely changed man now.”

Molly furrowed her brows. “How do I know you’re telling the truth? You tricked me one too many times.”

Tristan grabbed her face and kissed her hard.

Molly was so surprised that she froze as her head spun.

The world around her twirled.

His lips were so warm. Strangely, his grip brought her unexpected comfort, and the way he kissed her…

It wasn’t just a friendly kiss.

Or a kiss of hello.

It was a greedy, hot and lustful kiss. A forbidden lover’s kiss. Tongue and French and all. Perhaps it was the way her body reacted to the kiss that surprised her the most. She liked it. No, she loved it! Blood rushed into her head at a dizzying speed. Headiness made her almost drunk. Her heart raced. Her knees weakened. She would have collapsed if Tristan hadn’t held her tight.

He parted his lips. The irises of his eyes had turned a piercing red. Molly gasped. Tristan was a fire dragon—the most powerful kind among the dragon shifting residents of Oak Hollow. They said the
fyres
showed their red eyes when they were extremely agitated or in a fervent state of lust.

A slow smile spread over his striking face. “Molly, did you ever think that if a boy keeps teasing a girl, it means he likes her?”

He likes her?

No way. “
Tristan liked her
” could be found in the dictionary between
bullshit
and
not in a thousand years
. But Tristan couldn’t be lying right now. Not with those dragon eyes.

Molly didn’t know what to think or say in reply to his words.

Tristan released her. “I’m going back to your house to have that package processed by forensics. We don’t have one in Oak Hollow, so we need to ask the county sheriff’s office. When I get back, we’ll file charges against your ex. What’s his name?”

“David.” Molly swallowed hard. “David Castle.”

“That rabbit in the box, is it your pet?”

She shook her head. “I don’t have one, but ‘Rabbit’ was his pet name for me.”

“He called you ‘Rabbit’?”

“I know it sounds silly but—”

“And he sent you a half-skinned rabbit to scare you. How many times has he done this?”

“Sending me gross stuff? Just this once.”

“We’ll talk about this more later.”

Molly nodded.

Tristan’s luminous irises gradually reverted to normal. He had beautiful green eyes—they were stunning. “In the meantime, you should relax or take a nap. Lock the door and windows. Don’t answer to anyone but me.”

“Okay.”

“Good. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Tristan pecked her cheek. “I’m glad you came home, Molly. You don’t know how happy I am to see you again.”

She still felt like she was dreaming long after Tristan had gone. It was surreal. Tristan had become her savior when she needed help the most. He’d offered his home, his protection.

Instinctively, she touched her lips. His kiss still burned…

How did this happen? Was he really sorry for what he’d done in the past? What made him change? Now that she thought about it, she saw big differences in this Tristan compared to the boy-bully she remembered.

The young Tristan strutted like the world belonged to him. His eyes had always been full of mischief. His expression was smug, knowing he could get away with anything.

Now, this Tristan had somehow matured beyond his years. His eyes were the eyes of someone who’d been to hell and back. He’d grown even taller since his high school years with the posture of a battle-hardened soldier. He did mention to her while they were driving to his house that he’d done a stint in the Army. Molly wondered if he’d had a hard life. How did the prince of Oak Hollow with all his entitlements become a cannon-fodder grunt on a battlefield?

Molly meandered around his house and found Tristan lived a very simple lifestyle. His home was a 19th century old bungalow and well maintained. The place was sparsely furnished; there were boxes stacked in a room like he hadn’t finished unpacking since he’d moved in. She looked for any sign of a woman in the house, but it seemed that Tristan was single. It was quite strange considering he was a looker. Girls had always swarmed around Tristan when they were in school. His fan club just got bigger in high school due to his popularity. Rumor had it that he dated a different girl every week. Every time she saw Tristan, a gaggle of giggling girls had been flocking around him.

She paused and touched her lips. Yep. His kiss still burned…

She laughed weakly.
What am I doing? I’m acting like a love-crazed schoolgirl.
“Tristan” and “love-crazed” had never fit in the same sentence before
.
It was absurd for her to see Tristan in a new way. Had hell frozen over? Had pigs finally learned to fly?