Molly rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I know you told him lies. You told him I didn’t love him. He believed you.”
Oh, boy. “Why would I do that?”
“Because you were dating him when I met him. He was upset the night I met him at the bar. And when we made love, he got confused and called me Jessica.”
JJ hadn’t realized that. She doubted that was a good memory for Molly. Then again, they hadn’t had sex, so it was more of a delusion than anything.
“I was there for him when you weren’t,” Molly stated adamantly, her anger rising with each word. “Sebastian needed me, and you took that away from him. He didn’t have anyone else. He had me, though. He had me and our baby. I would’ve made him happy, but you lied to him. That’s why you’re here. I want to tell Sebastian how I feel. The truth this time. He loves me. I know he does. He just needs to hear it from me.”
JJ stared, uncertain what to say to that. It was all fun and games when the blonde girl was smiling. This girl, though … the one with the snarl on her lips … JJ wasn’t sure what she was capable of.
“You broke his heart,” Molly continued. “I was the one who put him back together. Everything was fine until you lied. He was falling in love with me. We were getting married.”
Yeah,no. JJ had heard about the shrine Molly had in her house. The photoshopped pictures of her and Baz. Molly had conjured up some crazy notion that they were living their happily ever after, yet she never clued Baz into those delusions.
“He thinks he loves you,” Molly said, “but that’s only because you won’t let me see him.”
JJ swallowed as Molly moved closer. “I didn’t keep you from him, Molly.”
“Yes, you did. You got pregnant to trap him. That’s how women like you do things. You lie and cheat to get what you want.”
Hello, pot. Meet kettle.Unfortunately, Molly happened to be both pot and kettle. And JJ got the feeling she was getting her first glimpse of another personality altogether. And yeah, she was well aware that wasn’t how schizophrenia worked, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t another underlying condition of her crazy.
“I’m not a liar,” JJ said, trying to ignore the cold sweat sliding down her spine. “I’ll prove it to you. I think maybe we should get to know each other.”
Molly crossed her arms over her chest. “Why?”
I don’t know, so maybe you won’t slice and dice me so you can have a man who can’t stand you?More rationally, because it would benefit JJ to appeal to this woman on a human level. She’d read that was what you were supposed to do. Appeal to your kidnapper. Make them see you as a person.
Rather than bore Molly with that, she said, “Because I think we can be friends if we talk.”
“About what?”
Since JJ wanted to keep the subject as far from Baz as possible, she decided to go for a safe topic.
“Why don’t we talk about what it was like when we were kids.”
A glimmer sparkled in Molly’s eyes. “Like about our parents?”
“Sure. If that’s what you want.”
JJ would’ve preferred to talk about pretty much anything else, but if this was what it took to get Molly on her side, she was willing to do it. Especially now that she knew Crazy Molly hadn’t yet made an appearance—only Manic Molly, who was likely a few levels below psychopath on her personality spectrum—but there was no doubt she was lurking in there, gearing up to pounce.
Here goes nothing.
***
Reese arrived at Baz’s house as Atticuswas parking at the curb, directly behind Charlie’s car.
He figured they had only a few minutes before the rest of the team arrived, which meant they needed to devise a plan. The last thing he wanted was anyone sitting around. That would only cause Baz to panic more than he already was, and truth be told, Reese couldn’t even imagine how the man was feeling. If he’d been in that situation, and Brantley was missing, he would be moving heaven and earth to find him.
“Hey,” Atticus greeted as they approached the house. “Tell me where to go, and I’m there.”
Before Reese could say anything, the front door opened and Brantley appeared. “Oh, good. You’re here,” he said to Atticus. “I need you and Slade to head over to Molly’s apartment.”
“Molly?” Atticus asked, clearly out of the loop.
Reese looked at Brantley and cocked an eyebrow. Evidently, he’d come to the same conclusion Reese had. Based on their interaction with the redhead at the diner, it seemed safe to assume that Molly Ryan was somehow involved. That or it was a really odd coincidence. Since Brantley didn’t believe in coincidence, Reese figured she was high on the list of potential suspects.
