Razor Girl by Marianne Mancusi Page A

nice of them to ask, and she was tempted, seeing as they were the best company she’d had in years—even if she had a guilt complex around Chase—but she couldn’t forsake her mission. She had to find her father and help him, just as she’d promised. There was also the change going on inside her, which she didn’t want to mention. She had that fast-approaching expiration date. If she didn’t get down to the Magic Kingdom pronto, things weren’t going to get easier. “Thanks for the offer,” she said, “but I have to do this.”
    From the corner of her eye she noticed Chase scowling, his snarky good humor all but disappeared. Was he still mad at her? After all this time? Did he hate her for not showing up at the eleventh hour? For choosing her dad over him? Would he understand if she explained? Would it do either of them any good?
    No. Probably not. And in the long run, what did it really matter? What was done was done. She’d made her choice, couldn’t take it back. And she was leaving in the morning. Probably would never see him again. Which was best. Really. Even if the sight of him did make her heart ache a little, seeing how he’d grown. The closeness they’d once shared was now a gaping chasm of regret.
    Tank sighed. “Okay,” he said. “But at least stay the night. We’ll hook you up with some supplies.”
    Molly forced her thoughts back to the issue at hand. “Right,” she said. “I’d appreciate those. But I do need to head out first thing in the morning.” She wanted to be clear.
    “Big hurry to save the world, huh?” Chase asked.
    “Something like that.” Molly stared down at her feet. She wished there were one sentence she could say, one short speech that could make him and his brother understand who she was and what she’d become, but it just wasn’t going to happen. She was on her own until Florida.
    “So, it’s decided,” Tank announced, obviously wanting to change the subject. “Maybe if you’re lucky, Chase, chef extraordinaire, will cook you up some of his special five-star grub. Hope you like reconstituted beef stroganoff. It’s his specialty,” he added.
    Molly threw Tank a small smile. “Right now, I’m so hungry I could probably eat a zombie.”
    The big man took a step closer. He put his arm around Molly and said, “Hey, Chase, why don’t you make yourself useful and get some disinfectant for her hands?”
    Chase gave him a look, but skulked off to obey. Molly watched him go, trying not to notice how the taut leather of his pants perfectly molded to his backside. Stupid frustratedlibido, she thought. The sooner she got away from Chase Griffin, the better.
    She turned back to the children, who’d gone back to playing. Molly wondered why they seemed uninterested in her, but maybe they’d seen a lot of people come and go. Maybe they weren’t anxious to meet new people who were just going to die.
    “Why are they dressed like that?” she asked, needing to change the subject.
    Tank laughed and took his arm from around her shoulders, glancing off in the direction his brother went. “We gave up trying to dress them years ago,” he explained. “It was way too hard to convince them of the whole matching concept, and we eventually realized it didn’t make a difference anyway. No one’s gonna see them who’d care, right? So we just point them in the direction of the children’s department and tell them to go nuts. The older ones sometimes try to re create what they see in the fashion magazines up front, and the little ones try to mimic the older ones, but basically none of them have any fashion sense whatsoever. Hell, half of them would run around naked if we let ’em.”
    Molly laughed. “Little savages, huh?”
    “You said it, not me.” Tank grinned. He still had that easy smile he’d been known for in high school, a smile that made Molly feel comfortable and at home. Unlike Chase, who made her feel completely on edge. The sooner she got away from here, the