JJ could sense Sonny’s rising irritation.
Ever since Molly refused to eat the food he brought, the man had been slowly unraveling. It was becoming increasingly evident that Sonny had feelings for Molly, and her wacky obsession with Baz would be their downfall.
Pushing Molly to see reason was her only hope. That or getting her to call Baz and tell him where they were so he could ride to the rescue. Otherwise, there was a good chance Sonny was going to pull out a pocketknife, shoot JJ full of tranquilizer, and cut her baby out of her belly. Never mind the fact they would both die. She seriously doubted Sonny cared.
“I think you should call Sebastian,” JJ told Molly, keeping her voice low.
Molly, once again the cheerful cheerleader, looked at her with big doe eyes. “You do?”
JJ had given this considerable thought while she waited for them to implement the next phase of their plan. Her only option was to convince Molly that Sebastian would be receptive to her call.
Here goes nothin’.
“I’m sure by now he thinks … he probably thinks I left town or somethin’. He’s probably upset. You could call him. Tell him that you want to talk to him. He’ll probably forget all about me.” God, she hoped it didn’t sound as crazy in Molly’s head as it did in hers. “It’s the only way he’ll know how you feel.”
Molly looked over at Sonny. “She thinks I should call Sebastian, too. He needs to hear my voice. I have to tell him how I feel about him.”
Sonny’s beady eyes narrowed into slits, his mouth forming a hard, thin line. “Not yet.”
“But when?” Molly demanded, walking away from JJ to get closer to Sonny.
JJ watched the pair, noticing how Sonny’s eyes softened when she approached. Yeah, the guy was totally in love with her. So why the hell was he helping her with this fucked up scheme to trap Baz? And that’s the only explanation JJ had come up with for why they had kidnapped her. Molly’s warped and twisted mind had conjured up a life with Baz and the peanut, and for her to have that, she had to eliminate JJ from the equation.
Of course, as with every other thought in Molly’s twisted mind, she couldn’t keep anything straight. JJ wasn’t sure whether Molly intended to kill her or if Molly was expecting her to quit her job and move. They’d talked about both.
It was the inclusion of the peanut that truly worried JJ. She wasn’t worried that Baz would want anything to do with Molly, but if Molly followed through with her threat to steal JJ’s baby… It wasn’t something JJ could think about without her blood running cold.
JJ pretended not to watch the pair, tilting her head down. She wanted them to believe she felt defeated, as though this was a no-win situation for her. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot. No, she didn’t know how she was going to get herself out of this just yet, but she damn sure wasn’t admitting defeat. As long as blood was pumping in her veins, she was going to fight.
Now she merely needed to get Molly to see reason.
Chapter Eight
11:20A.M.
To say things were awkward between himand Atticus would’ve been an understatement, but Slade was bound and determined to keep the peace. He worked with the guy, so it was the least he could do.
“Let’s check out this retail center,” Slade told Atticus as he pulled into the parking lot. “We can flash that sketch and see if anyone recognizes him.”
“Fine,” Atticus snapped as Slade parked in one of the many empty spots.
Or maybe he needed to handle this a different way. “Do we need to talk?”
Atticus’s eyebrows dipped low. “About what?”
“Whatever’s botherin’ you.”
“I’m not the one bothered.”
“Sure coulda fooled me,” Slade countered, grabbing his phone from the center console. “Shit.”
“What?”
“I had my phone on silent.” He’d flipped it when they were talking to one of the employees at the last shop they went to because Jennifer’s text messages were coming in fast and furious, causing his phone to chime. Because it was rude to try to talk to someone and have your phone go off every few seconds, he’d silenced it.
“Did we miss somethin’?”
Slade saw there were seven text messages, so he opened the app. He was relieved to see there weren’t any pressing ones. The most important was the one from Luca, which Atticus had already told him about. There were five from his ex-wife, which he didn’t bother to read. And the third was from Carson. Slade tapped on it to open it.
