A Girl in the Shadows

Chapter Eighteen

Ace looked over his shoulder anyway, despite my warning. I heard him laugh under his breath. I watched him lower his sunglasses.

"Tell you what, Talls. On the count of three we run like hell," he said.

"That seems like an awful plan."

"One—"

"Alright. I guess we're doing this."

"Three!" he said, taking off down the street with speed I knew I'd never match.

Cursing and holding my hood down the whole way, I ran as fast as my body allowed. I found Ace in line, already talking with two girls. Panting and frustrated, I walked over and nudged him as hard as I could.

"Damnit Ace!" I said.

"I can't believe you fell for that. Where's the car?"

I looked behind me. "Did we lose it? There's no way that's possible."

"There it is. Get back," he said, nodding towards the street.

I stepped behind him, which wasn't much use. The black and white car put on its turn signal and stopped at the curb, slightly behind us. A girl stepped off the sidewalk and got in. I sighed with relief. After the previous week's incident on Cove Street, students were on high alert. The car was there for a mere pickup: a free ride back to campus. I buried my face into the back of Ace's coat and clung on in an effort to catch my breath. Are you strong or are you weak? Get off him, fool. I backed off. We were almost to the front of the line anyway. I slipped the bouncer a ten and he let us in.

The Cove was nothing but typical. Underaged students sat talking far too loud around high-topped tables. The small dancing area in the middle of the room was occupied by half-naked girls and the tipsy boys pressing their shorts into the backsides of them. We found the only empty table, which was next to the bathroom. Ace ordered us our first round, and we sat in silence amongst the rest of the noise.

Hey, tell him. Tell him he's here for nothing and get it over with. A server placed four tall glasses of beer on the table. I asked for my drink of choice instead. The first glass was empty by the time I looked back over at Ace. His hand was motionless as he held the next glass. I said, tell him.

"Ace, I—"

"What?" he asked over the noise. I watched as he looked around the room in disapproval. "Why did you bring me here?"

"It was the closest one I could think of!" I said. "I need to tell you—"

"What?"

"I have to tell you something!" I paused as he took off the bandana covering the lower half of his face and laughed. "What is it now?"

"I can hear you. I just like watching you yell when I'm two feet away." The server placed my drink down. Ace ordered another round for himself as he put down the fourth empty glass. "Okay, Talls. What is it?"

"Molly is...uh—" Spit it out. I'm waiting. "Molly has been on the campus this entire time. She's in her dorm room in the hall next to Tristan's. I didn't think to look there. I'm terribly sorry to make you come all this way. I'm sure I can get through to her myself."

Again, he laughed. "You know I just walked five miles next to Kai, right?"

"And she told you everything?"

"Yeah. It's Kai. She couldn't keep a fucking secret if it killed her. You should know that by now."

Ace picked up glass number five, downed it in seconds, and moved on to glass number six. Midway through he paused, balled his fingers full of rings into a fish, and started hacking. My heartrate rose through the roof. My hands clung to the bottom of the gum-covered seat. Ace put his hand out and cleared his throat.