CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN MOLLY
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
MOLLY
My phone started blowing up a block away.
Ashton calling.
I hit decline but texted:
I’m sorry. I overreacted. I’m with some of your staff, and I’ll tell you where we stop.
My phone buzzed.
Ashton: Where are you?
Ashton: The security monitors are showing me that you WALKED OUT ON YOUR OWN? Where are you going?
Ashton: Have them turn back.
Ashton calling.
I declined.
Amy frowned back at me. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I ...”
Ashton: Answer the goddamn phone or I will fire that worker you left with. I’m assuming she has no idea what she did, helping you.
Ashton: ANSWER YOUR PHONE
Ashton calling.
I declined.
Ashton: She’s fired. Want to keep pushing me?
Ashton: I won’t stop with her. I will find out who that driver is. I’ll find where he works, and I’ll get him fired too. Keep pushing me. I have no qualms about blowing up lives for your safety. Pialto and Sophie are next. Give me enough motivation. I could get them evicted by the end of the night.
Me: Stop! I’ll ask them to bring me back.
“God!” I hit dial, and as soon as he answered: “Don’t do that to them.”
“Where are you?” Now he was all calm. Now he was. Now, after he’d already issued all those threats.
“We’re—” I leaned forward. “Do you think we could turn back? I—”
Amy’s head twisted back to me, her frown deepening a little bit more. “Back?”
“I think I left my keys back there.”
She frowned at me, glancing to her boyfriend, who hit his turn signal. He was watching the traffic.
“I’m not hearing them saying yes fast enough,” Ashton growled from his end.
“Ashton.” I was mortified. At myself. At my behavior. At the situation.
“Ashton?” Amy squeaked, starting to pale. Her eyes widened. “As in Ashton Walden ?”
“Who’s Ashton Walden?” her boyfriend asked, but quickly jerked the car over because there was an opening. “Score. It’ll be a bit before we can get back, but—”
I looked up, seeing the diner’s sign. “No. Hold on. I see the sign a few blocks up. We’re going to a diner named Nancy’s. I’ll be there.”
“Be outside.”
I ended the call, shoving the phone back into my purse.
Amy was watching me. “Was that my boss, as in my boss over my boss over my boss? The guy who owns Katya?”
“Yes.”
She paled. “How do you know him? What was that about? Did you really forget your keys?”
“It was ... nothing.”
She didn’t look reassured. “That was nothing—I mean—it’ll be fine. When we get to Nancy’s, he’ll pick me up.”
“Uh ...” Nick spoke up, staring in the rearview mirror. “Guys? You seeing this too?”
Two sets of headlights were speeding behind us, and one SUV jerked around us, slamming on its brakes and swerving to block us in. The other did the same behind us. Nick hit the brakes. Amy screamed, reaching forward to stop from hitting the dashboard, but her seat belt held her in place.
Me, a part of me had started to dissociate because by now, how many life-and-death situations had I been in? But I was still thinking. I had to by now, so because of that, I twisted backward, seeing if I recognized the driver in the second car.
I didn’t. I had no idea who that was.
Ashton said he’d pick me up at Nancy’s, so that meant ...
Two guys got out from the first SUV. I didn’t know them either.
It was the sight of guns in their hands that had me yelling, “ Drive around them! ”
I shoved out before they did, not thinking, my heart in my mouth, and I ran into traffic.
So foolish—but I braced myself to get hit.
There were screeching sounds, horns being blasted.
I was being yelled at. A ping ping next to me, but ohmygodohmygodohmygod—I kept running, only looking over my shoulder once I hit the sidewalk.
Two of those guys were coming after me, but Nick and Amy—thank god —had driven off, speeding around them.
They were safe. They were safe. I had to keep telling myself that, but then one of those guys behind me raised his gun back up and I tensed, preparing to try my rendition of some Matrix -style bullet dodging, but already knowing I was screwed.
Then, suddenly, I heard from ahead of me, “ Police! Stop! ”
I screamed, looked, and saw two cops running toward me. Their guns were drawn.
I yelled, pointing behind me. “It’s them. I’m being chased.”
The one looked behind me, but yelled at me, “ Stop! Stop, right now. ”
Wha—but I looked. The guys were gone.
I heard screeching sounds again and looked over. Their SUVs were fishtailing around the corner, turning and racing in the opposite direction.
They were gone.
Oh, thank goodness.
“Miss.”
Shit. I forgot about these cops.
“Put your hands in the air.”
Fuck me.
“Get on your knees.”
I’d been foolish. Dumb.
“And link your fingers behind your head.”
The dumbest.
I needed to stop doing these things.