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“Immediately.” His commanding officer nodded. “I need to know all the facts so I can decide how best to proceed.”
“All right.” Torus nodded stiffly. “I’ll get Molly—er, Ms. Byrne—and we’ll come to your office right away.”
“Thank you. I’ll see you soon.” And Sylvan’s head disappeared abruptly.
Torus sat back in his chair for a minute, frowning. He wished that his commanding officer hadn’t asked for Molly to come too—she’d already been through enough trauma and she didn’t need more.
Well, he would just take the blame and tell Commander Sylvan that none of this was her fault, Torus decided. If there were any punishment or punitive actions coming as a result of his actions, he would deal with them entirely by himself.
10
MOLLY
Molly hummed to herself as she disconnected from the call she’d just finished. It was mid-morning and she was finally beginning to feel semi-normal again.
True to her word, Lana had come to work early and called an impromptu meeting to explain everything to their coworkers. She must have done an excellent job because when Molly walked in, a bunch of them had come up to her and expressed their sympathy. A lot of them had similar stories of the human men they had dated being assholes or abusive jerks.
“That’s why I’d never go back—even if I could,” one girl confided to Molly. “I’ve never had a human man treat me half as good as my Beast Kindred husband.”
“I caught my husband cheating on me with five different women!” another one told Molly. “When I found out about it, he tried to gaslight me into thinking I was crazy! What a bastard!”
Molly nodded and sympathized, though she privately thought that none of the stories she was hearing were quite as bad as what Zach had put her through. The thing was though, the women in her department weren’t trying to shame her. They were kind and non-judgmental—unlike most of the other coworkers she’d had that were exposed to her videos, courtesy of her sadistic ex.
It made her feel good to know that they weren’t looking down on her. Well, most of them weren’t, anyway. Karen Geners had been the only one in the whole department who hadn’t come to commiserate with Molly or say how sorry she was that something so awful had happened to her. Instead, she gave Molly a narrow-eyed, tight-lipped stare before walking past the knot of women and straight to her own cubicle.
Karen’s reaction had been hurtful, but since she and Molly weren’t really friends anyway, Molly had decided just to ignore it. After all, you can’t win over everybody. At least the whole nasty incident was behind her now, she told herself. It was over and done with and she was never going to have to deal with her ex again.
“Ms. Byrne?” The deep, rumbling voice made her heart start to flutter immediately.
Molly looked up, knowing that her cheeks were getting pink but unable to help her intense reaction. Commander Torus was standing there, looming over her cubicle with a serious look on his face.
“Yes, Sir?” she asked, her voice coming out in a squeak.
“Forgive me, but you and I have some business to attend to,” he told her. Looking around the room, he caught Lana’s eye.
“Ms. T’rin, you’ll be in charge in my absence.”
“Yes, Sir!” Lana said quickly. “Er, how long do you think you’ll be gone?” she asked, casting a worried look at Molly.
“I don’t know.” He shook his head.
“Excuse me, Commander Torus!” Karen Geners said, standing up from her cubicle. “But I really think I’d be a better choice to lead the team while you’re gone. I know so much more about?—”
“I’ve already made my decision,” Commander Torus said firmly. “There’s no more to say on the matter.”
Karen Geners plopped back in her seat, a scowl on her pretty face. Molly would have shared a secret smile with Lana about it, only she was too worried about what was going on. Had her boss decided to fire her after all? Surely not—not after everything he had done for her yesterday. But what else could it be?
Molly didn’t know.
Her stomach was twisting itself into knots of anxiety as she rose from her chair and followed the big Kindred out into the hallway.
11
MOLLY
“Please tell me what this is about!” Molly couldn’t stop herself from asking the minute the sliding metal door whooshed shut behind them.
“I would if I could, but I’m afraid I don’t know much,” Commander Torus rumbled.
