I hadn’t counted on how brutal it’d be to walk away after learning every inch of her body. I hadn’t expected her to dismiss me. To end us with surgical precision. And maybe it was because she hadn’t felt the same way. No one ever did.
I sat at the bar, nursing a Jack and Coke. Going to bed sounded worse. Cold. Empty.
A large, tattooed hand squeezed my shoulder as Fuse moved to sit beside me. “Haven’t seen you here lately. Where’ve you been?”
“Around,” I muttered.
“Does the reason you’re here have anything to do with the fact that Merrick’s back?” Fuse asked, a knowing gleam in his eye.
I furrowed my brows in fake confusion. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve spent a lot of time with Merci lately.” His simple statement came out as an observation, not a judgment or accusation.
“Have I?” I shrugged.
Fuse narrowed his eyes. “You have.”
I sipped my drink. “We’re just friends.”
Fuse shook his head. “Merrick might be oblivious, but I see it. You’re falling for her. But you can’t. It’s against the code. If Merrick finds out, you’ll be ‘out bad,’ or worse.”
I scrubbed my beard. “I know,” I said quietly, my throat tight andmy chest aching. “No one’ll find out. It’s already over. We got it out of our system.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“Do I have a choice? She says it’s over. So, it’s over.”
My phone rang before Fuse could respond. Jessa’s name flashed across the screen. My stomach dropped. She’d never called me, only texted, and it was late.
“Jessa?”
My sister sobbed into the phone. “Can you come pick me up?”
My adrenaline spiked. “Where are you? What’s wrong?”
Between choked breaths and tearful sniffles, Jessa tried to explain. “My friends ran when the party got raided. The police are gone, but I’m out of money for an Uber. I’m alone, and even if I wasn’t, it’s too far to walk home.”
“Send me your location.”
I showed Fuse the pin.
“That’s an abandoned-warehouse-turned-nightclub. Popular with the younger crowd for getting drunk and taking Molly.”
“She’s not even old enough to drink,” I growled. I grabbed the spare helmet from behind the bar.
“It’s not the kind of place that checks IDs,” Fuse said as he followed me to our bikes. “If it’s the place I’m thinking of, it’s known for date rapes and ODs.”
Fucking great.
Fuse followed me on his Street Glide into the dark night. Broken glass glittered under our bikes’ headlights as we pulled up. Jessa was tucked into a doorway, hidden in the shadows, when we arrived. She looked small, with her arms wrapped around herself and her shoulders hunched.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” I barked. My voice echoed off the crumbling brick walls that surrounded us in the desolate, industrial area. “What made you thinkthiswas a place you should be?”
Jessa flinched like I’d slapped her, thenstraightened with the steel I’d come to expect. Her eyes shone with tears in the dim glow of my headlights. “I didn’t know, OK? My friends said it was just a party.” Her voice shook. “I didn’t realize how bad an area it was until we got here.”
My chest tightened, fury boiling over because she didn’t have a parent to make sure she didn’t end up in a shady part of town in the middle of the night. “You could have ended up in a body bag. Or worse. Do you have any idea what happens to girls on this side of town?”
“You think I don’t realize that now?” she snapped. “I made a mistake. You’re right. I’m wrong. Congratu-fucking-lations. I just wanted to have some fun and?—”
