Page 43 of The Encounter
They stepped into the bathroom and made their best attempt at cleaning off their dresses.
“I don’t think this stain is coming out,” Maddie muttered as she dabbed the dark stain with a paper towel.
“Yeah, what a bunch of dicks. Why did they do that?”
“I don’t know.” Maddie sighed and washed the sticky alcohol from her arms and hands before leaning back against the wall. “I don’t know about you, but I suddenly feel exhausted.”
Kayla stood at the faucet washing her hands and nodded. “I do too.”
Maddie furrowed her eyebrows as Kayla swayed, and she did her best to grab her. She gripped her arm and walked her into Jace’s office before leading her to a chair. Kayla all but fell into it, and Maddie’s legs wobbled.
“What’s happening?” Maddie asked. Her fingers fumbled into her bra where her cell phone was stashed. She found Jace’s number and hit the call button before everything went black.
14
Jace poured another line of shots for a group of women having a bachelorette party. The crowds had been steady, which was great for business, but he would have rather have been with Maddie. It had been almost twenty minutes since she passed the bar with her ruined dress, and he hadn’t seen her since.
The crowds were thick, and he knew they were at capacity, so it wouldn’t have been surprising if she passed him without him noticing, but he suspected that if she had, she would have at least waved. He craned his neck to see the dance floor, but the wall-to-wall people made it nearly impossible to see anything.
Worry clawed its way up his neck. Why hadn’t she come back? After passing off the drink he mixed for the customer in front of him, he dug his cell phone out of his pocket. A missed call from Maddie sat on his screen from ten minutes earlier.
His head shot back up and he grabbed the walkie talkie from behind the counter.
“Robert, have the girls come back from my office yet?”
“No, not yet. I’m waiting for Reggie to cover me so I can go back there to check on them.”
Reggie’s voice came over the radio. “Sorry for the delay. I had to escort a drunk outside. I’m on my way.”
Jace looked over at Haley. Her eyes met his, and she immediately nodded.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, before letting himself out from behind the bar and pushing his way toward Robert. He got to him just as Reggie had.
Reggie stepped into place as Jace made his way down the hallway with Robert close behind. He pushed his office door open and his heart leapt into his throat. Kayla appeared to be passed out in a chair, while Maddie was sprawled out on the floor motionless, her cell phone lying next to her hand.
“Maddie?” He rushed over to her just as Robert rushed over to Kayla. “Oh my God.”
Her hair covered her face, and she appeared to be dead. Time felt as if it stood still when he reached forward and pressed two fingers to her neck to find a pulse.
The faint patter beneath his fingers had him breathing a sigh of relief.
“How’s Kayla?” he heard himself ask, while he looked over Maddie for any apparent signs of injury.
“Still breathing.” Robert spoke into his walkie talkie, “We need an ambulance for two women who appear to have been drugged.”
Jace’s head snapped up and looked at Robert. When Robert finished speaking to the rest of the security personnel and giving information on two men to find, Jace finally spoke.
“You think someone drugged them?”
Robert nodded. “Kayla may have been drunk, but Maddie wasn’t. When I let them pass, two men tried to follow. I stopped them, and they were pretty insistent. They were acting shady and eventually walked off. I notified the guys up front to get a plate on them if they left.”
“Did you know it when they came in here?”
“No. If I had, I would have punched those guys’ lights out right then. But this right here—” he gestured to Maddie and Kayla “—screams roofies.”
Jace moved to grab Maddie, but Robert put a hand on his arm.
“Boss, if she fell, she could have injured herself. It’s best not to move her until the paramedics get here.”
