Brady didn’t know what to make of that and had decided he wouldn’t try. Not until Sloane called him. Not until she told him what she wanted. Let her spell it out.

Just like she had last night.

“I’m going to take these to the bar tonight and see if Santana has any insights,” Dixon said, unaware that Brady wasn’t thinking about tampons. “I don’t want to be the typical man who tries to give out crappy products.”

Brady chuckled. “Doing God’s work.”

Dixon remained focused on his future task, and Brady decided to burn off some of his anxious energy by going for a run. He threw on his shorts and tennis shoes, grabbed a bottle of water, and was just about to leave his phone on the counter when a call started to come through.

It was Sloane.

Calling him.

Brady stood up straighter. Welp. I guess this is it.

He answered the phone, ready to hear exactly how Sloane was feeling. But it wasn’t her voice that came through.

“Hi, Brady? This is Emma.”

That threw him. “Hey? What’s, uh, going on?” Was Sloane getting her best friend to end their arrangement for her?

There was hesitation on the other side of the call. Then Brady heard Sloane in the background. He couldn’t tell what she was saying, but Emma’s next words came through the line crystal clear.

Though that sure as shit didn’t stop them from being confusing as all get-out.

“Well, Brady, your girlfriend and I did something really bad.”

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Nineteen

The Drinking Spot was housed in an older building on a sloped lot. That meant that, while the entire building was one story, half of it was raised up on a brick foundation. According to Santana, while inside the bar didn’t feel off at all, looking at the back from the outside gave the appearance of it being lopsided. The back parking lot was butted up to the loading bay and the back door. They weren’t elevated, but two of the three windows that dotted the wall were higher off the ground than the rest. Maybe seven or eight feet off the asphalt, following the incline of the oddly sloped building.

It was under the last window, the one closest to the corner, that Emma Castings was standing. And it was in that window that Sloane De Carlo was stuck.

“What. The. Hell.”

Brady pulled his truck up to the left of the women and kept the engine running. He jumped out and hesitated a second to really take in the scene.