“Thanks, man. How are you doing?”
“Fine.” Mark sighed. “I guess you’ve heard already.”
“Molly? Yeah, I heard.”
“I just wish I knew why she did it. I keep thinking it’s my fault.”
Scout placed his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “We’ll find her. We’ll get Molly back. I promise.”
“Why would we want to get her back?” Mark turned to go inside. Vanessa took Scout’s hand and they followed Mark out of the cold morning air.
Jimmy lay on the long dining room table, his head resting on a roll of royal blue fabric while Luis tended to his various injuries. Ginger’s pale face glanced up with worry set in her features. She held Jimmy’s hand. Scout checked off another slot on his matchmaking card.
Hunter spoke in hushed tones to his brother. The fear in Hunter’s eyes disturbed Scout almost as much as losing all his stuff. Maybe Hunter did care after all.
Jimmy slowly turned his head toward Scout and nodded. His face resembled a rotten prune. One eye was swollen shut. A white strip of tape bandaged his nose, but the shine in his good eye said everything. You can’t keep a guy like Jimmy down.
Scout nodded back.
Day broke gray and cold as Molly sat beside Chase in a truck driving away from Independents. She pressed her hand against the roof because of all the bouncing, fearing she might snap her neck if she got tossed any higher. Her sore butt complained from the squeaky springs in the bench seat and she worried her spine would be permanently crooked by the time they arrived at the place where Hunter was being kept.
“Are we almost there?” Molly asked after a series of bumps slammed her against the passenger window repeatedly.
Chase peered straight ahead through the cracked windshield and ignored her. It had been that way ever since they made their escape.
Kessie shot an evil glance at Molly; her white knuckles gripped the steering wheel. “We’ll get there soon enough. Maybe you could do something useful like find me a better road to follow. You live around here, right?”
Molly shrugged and looked away. “I stayed in town where I was needed.”
“That why you burned that house down?” Kessie asked. “That boy no longer needed you?”
The comment stung more than Molly wanted to admit. Was that really why Hunter broke up with her? He’d get a chance to explain soon enough, she thought. But part of her never wanted to know. She noticed a corner of Chase’s mouth curling.
“You think that’s funny?” she asked him. “Tell her to stop and say that to my face.”
Kessie slammed the brakes and everybody pitched forward, including Patrick, who was watching over Catherine in the truck bed. He pounded the top of the cab. “What the hell!”
Kessie pointed at Molly. “Look, bitch, I don’t know why Chase decided to bring you along, but he doesn’t have to tell me anything. If you want to stay pretty, you better keep your mouth shut. Or I will seriously rip out your tongue and leave it on the side of the road.”
Molly ignored Kessie’s threat and smiled at Chase. “Is she always like this?”
“Pretty much. I wouldn’t want to go up against her.”
“Hear that?” Kessie said.
“Oh, I hear it,” Molly replied. “Too bad, maybe he’d like to go up against me.”
“I knew it! Chase, this chick is trouble. She burnt down her boyfriend’s house and clubbed her town leader. She’s crazy in the head!”
Chase flipped his hand at the windshield. “Let’s keep moving. We have to hurry and meet Raven so we don’t lose our head start.”
“Who’s Raven?” Molly asked.
Kessie stomped on the gas. “She’s another chick that will kick your ass if you talk anymore of that trash.”
Molly braced herself for more bouncing and bruising as she tried to figure out her next move. Obviously Chase was in charge of wherever they were headed. She appreciated the fact that he busted her out of jail and the way he allowed Patrick to beat up Jimmy. Chase was a bad boy and he needed a bad girl like Molly, at least until she got bored. She’d have to wait until he kicked whatever illness made him so pale and sweaty.
Molly knew one thing: People around here better start giving her respect.
Kessie eventually stopped the truck in the middle of nowhere and they waited. Chase grew irritated after ten minutes of silence passed and instructed Kessie to go to the house. Kessie drove faster and faster with Chase constantly telling her to speed up. The trip was brutal.
Twenty minutes later, they pulled in next to another truck and a row of motorcycles at the rear of an old farmhouse. Chase reached a black leather glove across Molly, opened the door and shoved her out. Molly landed on the hard ground, jarring her back even worse. He stepped over her without a word.
Molly used the door for support, squirming to her feet, and brushed the dirt off her butt. “What’s your problem?”
Chase continued toward his destination. He threw the backdoor open with a bang. “Everyone outside now!”
Five boys tumbled out, drawing up to attention like they were in the military. Molly wondered why their eyes widened with fear. Chase was short and a little creepy, but hardly intimidating. Then she noticed Patrick leaning on his toes with his nostrils flaring. After the beating Jimmy received, Molly figured she’d be frightened to if she stood in that monster’s path.
While she found all of this entertaining, she was also starving. She realized she hadn’t eaten at all yesterday and hoped some food appeared soon or she would really get cranky.
“Where’s Raven?” Chase asked. “You were supposed to meet us on the road.”
Three boys pointed back to the house, the others stood there shivering without their coats. Two of them didn’t have shoes on; Molly smiled at how miserable and stupid they all looked.
Chase disappeared inside the house. The boys traded glances with each other and shrugged. They caught Patrick staring them down and dropped their gazes to the ground. Molly wondered if their shaking was related to the chilly temperature after all.
Chase reappeared. “Where are the hostages?”
They all turned toward the one kid who appeared to be the oldest, probably because he was the tallest. He performed a frantic search up and down the line for support. Finally, he resigned with a nervous eye-tick and stepped forward.
“They’re tied up in one of the bedrooms. We tied them up real good.”
“No, you didn’t. They’re gone. Didn’t you keep watch?”
The leader peeked back to four pairs of accusing eyes. He bowed his head. “We figured they couldn’t get out,” he mumbled.
Kessie inspected the motorcycles and then lifted the hood of the truck. “Somebody cut all the belts and hoses. They cut the wires on the motorcycles. They’re all useless.”
Patrick stalked over to survey the damage, and then kicked over a bike at one end of the line. The rest fell over like dominoes. “They fucking stole my bike!”
Molly finally understood what all the commotion was about. Hunter had escaped. Her feelings were torn between what she wanted. She wished she could have seen Hunter one more time, maybe find out what really went wrong with their relationship and why he acted like such an asshole. But she was also relieved he was gone, allowing her a clean break. Now she could start her new life without any distractions.
Patrick jumped into the leader’s face with spit flying as he yelled. “They jacked-up the truck and all the bikes! There’s no way we can get them running now! They even stole my bike and left me with this piece of shit!”
Molly recognized the bike, and smiled. Then she cursed herself, wishing she could get thoughts of Hunter out of her head.