Page 87 of The Dance

I drew in a breath, pretending to be hurt by her words. “I am not.”

“Are too.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck out her bottom lip.

Crouching down in front of her, I cupped her knee. “Look, Molls. I don’t know what Stacey is messaging you, but I know she cares about you. Just like I do. You’re too drunk to drive home, and if anything were to happen to you, it would devastate me.”

“Something already happened to me,” she mumbled.

Since I was already pissed from earlier when she’d told me she’d been raped, I was seeing red again. “Give me his info and I’ll take care of him.”

“He’s in jail.”

“Really?”

“Well, I think so. Could be out on bail, I guess. I don’t know. Don’t wanna know.”

Tears formed in her eyes, and I moved next to her on the couch and wrapped my arms around her. She rested her head on my shoulder.

“Let it out. It’s okay.”

Molly sobbed in my arms for a few minutes until there was a knock on the door.

“Yo, we need you, bro,” Conrad, who had come in to relieve Alex an hour ago, called from the other side.

“I’m going to text Stace, okay?” I said to Molly. She nodded as I stood. “If you need anything, I’m right out there.”

“Thank you.”

Closing the door behind me, I pulled my phone out of my pocket as I made my way to the bar area.

Me: Hey stranger. Molly showed up at The Wild Pony and she’s wasted. I can bring her home when I get off at 2 unless you can come get her.

It didn’t take long for her to reply:

Thank you. I’ll be there soon.

And I didn’t know why, but I was instantly nervous as hell.

28

Stacey

With everythingI had going on, Blake was the last person I thought I would get a text from. Before I opened his message, a million thoughts ran through my head as to why he was reaching out, but none were because Molly was drunk at The Wild Pony.

When I arrived home from practice, the apartment was empty. I called and texted her, but she never responded, and I was beginning to worry. I knew her phone was always on her. I’d called and talked to Eddie briefly because I didn’t know what to do. He suggested she might be at the movies and didn’t have her phone on, but Molly never went to the movies alone. Then I asked about Brody …

“Brody is still in jail, right?” I didn’t know what was happening with Sweethearts because I hadn’t talked to Eddie since he left my apartment to return to Dallas a few nights ago.

“No, he’s out on bail.”

“He’s … What?”

“Out on bail.”

“I heard you, but do you think he … he did something to her?” I began to pace in the living room.

“Like kidnap her?”

“I don’t know, Eddie!” I snapped. “But Molly is missing.”