The Devaney Brothers: Daniel

“Maybe the girl’s parents are no better than ours,” Patrick countered. “Have you considered for one second that she might be better off here with Molly?”

Daniel sighed heavily. “That’s not my decision to make, not without all the facts. And if we’re just going to go round and round in circles, I might as well get out of here. I’m probably wasting my breath, but I’ll ask anyway. Let me know if you see this Kendra Morrow, okay? Try to persuade Molly to get her to talk to me. And warn me if you hear that our brothers are planning to show up on Mom and Pop’s doorstep. I’m not sure Dad’s heart could take it. Do they know he’s had bypass surgery since they were here?”

“I told them,” Patrick said tightly. “I doubt they’re going to come to the front door and shout, ‘Surprise!’ Not that I’d blame them if they did. Turnabout’s fair play and all that. It couldn’t be any more of a shock than what Mom and Pop did to them, letting them come home from school to find an empty apartment.”

Daniel winced at the reminder. He didn’t like surprises any more than he thought his father’s health could tolerate them. “Give me a number. Let me contact them. When they’re ready, I’ll set up a meeting. That way you won’t have to be caught in the middle.”

Patrick scowled at the suggestion. “I’d say this is their call...and mine, for that matter, Daniel. After all these years and everything that happened, I’d say they have the right to set the time and place. You don’t get to control it, the way you like to control everything else in your life.”

Patrick set down his half-filled mug of beer, stood up, then leaned down to look Daniel directly in the eye. “While you’re at it, leave Molly alone. She’s a good woman and you’ve hurt her enough. If it were up to me, you’d pay through the nose for what you did to her, but she’s more generous than I am.”

“If I’d known about the miscarriage, I would have been there that night,” Daniel said, knowing that even that wouldn’t have been enough. “You didn’t call me.”

“Because you didn’t exactly step up to the plate when she told you she was pregnant,” Patrick reminded him, his accusatory gaze unrelenting. “You were the one responsible for putting her in the hospital in the first place. She didn’t want you there. And she doesn’t want you barging in here now. She sure as hell doesn’t deserve to have you harassing her with your suspicions. Either come back with a genuine apology for what you did back then and today, or stay the hell away from her.”

“I can’t do that, not while she’s hiding Kendra Morrow,” Daniel replied. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“That’s right—the rules,” Patrick said, his eyes filled with scorn. “If it’s written down in black-and-white, you know what you have to do. When it comes to anything else—our folks, Molly, a baby—you don’t have a clue.”

As Patrick left, Daniel stared after 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.

3

Molly 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 admit it. 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 pit bull. He doesn’t let go.”

“I know that.”

“Well, then.”

“Fine. Call Kendra and get her back over here,” Molly said. The prospect of trying to pin the girl down was only minimally more appealing than trying to throw Daniel off track day after day after day.

In the meantime, she went back to tend to her long-neglected customers. When she finished making her rounds, she found Alice Devaney sitting at the bar. Molly frowned at her best friend.

“I imagine your husband sent you over here to find out if his brother had turned me into a basket case,” she said.

“Patrick mentioned that Daniel had been here,” Alice admitted. “I figured out all on my own that it would probably be an uncomfortable meeting. Are you okay?”

“I survived the first round, but there will be more unless I give him what he wants,” Molly told her.

“Which is?”

“He wants me to turn over the runaway who’s been staying here.”

“I see. Are you sure you’re doing the girl any favors by hiding her?”

“Don’t you start on me, too. She’s better off here than she would be on the streets,” Molly said defensively.

“No doubt about it,” Alice agreed. “But maybe she’d be even better off at home.”

“Or not. How can I be sure?”

“Maybe this is one area where you can trust Daniel to know what’s right,” Alice suggested cautiously. “I know that goes against the grain with you, but he is the expert.”

“At rules and regulations, not human beings.”

Alice reached for her hand. “Molly, I’m sorry he hurt you so deeply, but it is his job to find and help runaways. From everything I’ve ever heard, he’s very good at it.”