"That's very possible. I still say you're out of your mind, but I'll also say that you're a good, caring person. And brave."

"Are you hitting on me?"

"Nope. Not into sloppy drunks."

"I'm buzzed, not drunk. And I haven't spilt anything. You're the sloppy one, Dr. Lasagna."

"That was done on your behalf."

Gertie smiled. "Uh-huh."

"Are you questioning that?"

"Maybe a little."

"She made you cry. You were crying in the back room because of the way a customer treated you. Actual tears."

"Did you see her treat me badly?"

"No. Holy crap, did you set me up?"

"Oh, no, no, no, no. She was horrible to me. I'm just saying that you didn't see the interaction and you didn't know me. Maybe all she did was get a little snippy. Maybe I was a crybaby. Maybe this was the third time I'd forgotten to bring her the butter she asked for and she'd reached a breaking point. Maybe I was crying because I'd broken up with my boyfriend and I lied to you because I was a pathological liar. All I'm saying is that on some level, you were happy to have an excuse to dump pasta on a customer."

"You know what, I completely agree with your psychoanalysis," said Charlene.

"Really? Because while I was saying it I thought it made me sound ungrateful."

"Oh, you definitely sounded ungrateful. But I agree with your assessment. I'm a crazy bitch who'll dump pasta on a customer who might be wrongfully accused, and you're a crazy bitch who'll walk the streets searching for a dangerous psychopath."

Gertie lifted her milkshake glass. "Here's to being two crazy bitches."

They clinked their glasses together.

"Can you imagine the sex we'd have?" asked Charlene.

Gertie laughed. "Crazy bitch sex? Is that safe? Shouldn't one partner be the sane one? I feel like you need a voice of reason or else you end up, I don't know, like, using habanero peppers as sex toys."

"I draw the line at candle wax."

"I draw the line at 'ouch.'"

"Yeah, we definitely wouldn't be compatible."

"At least we can be friends, though."

"We can definitely be friends," said Charlene.

"I don't think I should drive right now. So I was going to just sit on this stool for a while and talk to whomever is sitting next to me. Do you want to be that person?"

"Sure, why not?"

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

The other woman wasn't dead yet. Olivia could hear her breathing.

None of the other women in the cages had made any sounds since Olivia first woke up and found herself here. With no windows and no way to calculate the passage of time, Olivia couldn't be sure how long she'd been locked up, but she didn't think it had been a full day yet.