THE BOOTH SEATS WE squeezed ourselves into smeared sticky...who knew what all over my hands. I rubbed my palms down the legs of my jeans while searching the dark club for Hill. He’d sent me a text hours ago for me to go to my post at 131^st and Chestnut at 9:45. It was 9:38 now.

Paige leaned in to me to shout, “Interesting place, huh?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Great.”

The strobe lights spun across her face and hair at a dizzying speed. She looked otherworldly. While sitting next to her, I could almost forget where I was.

Her gaze aimed down at my bouncing knees. “Nervous?”

I shook my head and forced myself to chill. No need to start flipping out. I had chosen Paige over Rose and the rest of my family. But how could I not? It’d been one, maybe two months ago since some girl was kidnapped right outside the door of the Underground Hill in front of a crowd of club-goers. Between that and the rumors about the stash of roofies hidden in the back, Paige was definitely not coming here without me. I didn’t tell her any of that, though, because her friends were already here somewhere.

Maybe Hill managed this place from far, far away, which might’ve explained why it smelled faintly of come and piss mixed with sweat pouring from the crammed dance floor. I hoped he wouldn’t put in an appearance, spot me, and say anything revealing in front of Paige.

The bass of the techno music thumped inside my chest to the same tempo as the colored lights overhead. Paige eyed the dance floor, but I couldn’t tell if she’d rather be on it or not. I didn’t care if she did, but no way would I join her. Especially to the same shitty robotic rhythm over and over. Boring as hell. Where was James Hetfield pre-2000s when you needed him?

Time to go to the bar and drown this noise out.

“Want something to drink?” I yelled.

“Water,” she yelled back.

I gave her a long, disapproving look just to see her smile then slid out of the booth, watching where I put my hands. I made my way around the writhing bodies on the dance floor to the other side of the club. A trail of hotties panted after me, but I kept an eye on Paige over my shoulder in case some pervert sat next to her.

The red, white, and blue-haired bartender tipped her chin up in my direction.

“Two beers,” I shouted.

Her eyes widened the longer she stared. Her tongue poked out to wet her lips.

Not happening, sugar.

She must’ve seen the rejection in my face, because her desperation meter shifted into overdrive. As she turned, her hips swayed a little too much for anyone who wasn’t in an earthquake. When she faced me again with two sweaty beers, she’d adjusted her cleavage so I could have a free show down the front of her skimpy shirt.

She could have been flashing a blind toad for all the good that did. I just wasn’t interested.

I paid the lady and waded back to Paige. But not before I spotted a familiar bald head bobbing through the back door.

Shit.

Instead of making sure it really was Hill, I shoved my way to the booth in the dark corner. Time to grab Paige and sneak out before he spotted me.

But two girls sat opposite Paige, which meant I would have to think of an excuse to tear her away from her friends.

Double shit.

I slid into the booth next to Paige and shouted, “The bartender said the police are outside.”

“Really? Why?” She half stood to peer over the back of the booth then plopped down again. “Are you sure?”

“That’s what she said. I think we should go.” I lifted my eyebrows, hoping she would catch my drift. Me, underage, with my fake ID in my wallet and two beers in my hands.

“I wanted water,” she yelled.

“They didn’t have any,” I said with a wink. “But really, we should go.”

She slid one of the bottles across the tabletop to a girl with chunks of black hair hanging over one side of her head. Both she and the curvy redhead beside her stared open-mouthed at the two of us. While they filled their ogling quota for the day, I snagged the other beer.

So I guessed we were staying. Maybe Hill wouldn’t notice.

“Hey, you’re underage,” Paige said, then her gaze dipped down to my guzzling throat. The swirling lights intensified the blush in her cheeks. She wiggled in her seat, and I could guess what she was thinking. But we didn’t have time for me to join in on those naughty thoughts.

The girl with black hair finally snapped her mouth shut and cocked her head at me. “This must be Sam.”

“This is Charlotte and Nicole,” Paige said, pointing at the girls. “They’re interns with me.”

“Nice to meet you.” The one called Charlotte reached a tattooed arm across the table to shake my hand. For someone who looked like she could blow away in the wind, she sure had a bone-crushing handshake.

“You too,” I said.

“Samwell?” the redhead, Nicole, asked.

“Just...Sam,” I said with a wary look toward Paige.

She grinned and lifted my beer to her mouth. When she finished her long drink, she licked the droplets from the rim and rolled her lips together. My dick instantly responded. I forced back a groan at the torture of sitting next to her. Was she doing this on purpose to drive me insane? Because it was working.

The girls chitchatted, but I couldn’t focus on much of anything but the roar of need inside my blood and the swell in my jeans. I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat.

It wasn’t until Nicole peered underneath the table that I snapped out of it. Was she checking out my raging hard-on?

“My curiosity was piqued.” She smiled sheepishly. “I needed to see if you have hobbit feet.”

“Uh, no.”

“He’s not a hobbit,” Paige said and patted my shoulder. “His nickname is SamRam, for some reason, but not even his older brother will tell me why that is.”

“That’s a national secret,” I said. “I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”

“I once knew a boy who I swore was a turtle or a dinosaur. I couldn’t decide.” Nicole blinked her bright green eyes in my direction. “I’d like to braid your hair.”

“Uh...” I looked at Paige for some kind of compass in the redhead’s land of crazy, but she just shrugged. “Maybe later. Let’s blow this joint. We can go to my place or somewhere less...” Dangerous? Soul-corrupting? Bursting with a man who could rat me out in front of my girl?

Charlotte played with the label on the beer bottle in front of her. “Less heroin-ish?”

My heart stuttered. I looked at her sharply. “What?”

“Pretty sure I saw two girls snorting up in the bathroom.” She shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Maybe that’s why the cops are outside.”

Paige screwed up her face in disgust. “Okay, yeah, we’re leaving.”

“So soon?” a deep voice asked.

I turned to see a man I’d never seen before standing by our table. He had a muscular build and a square jaw that reminded me of Superman. His gaze kept straying to Nicole across from me, whose hair formed a curtain around the severe blush on her face.

“William!” Charlotte said, batting purple eyelashes at him. She shared a secret smile with Paige. “Fancy meeting you here. Whatever made you decide to come?”

He looked around with barely reserved contempt. “Honestly? This isn’t really my scene.”

“Which is why we were just leaving.” I tried to scoot out of the booth, but his width blocked me.

He didn’t seem to notice, though, because his attention had once again landed on Nicole. “Hi, Nicole.”

She curled in on herself like a roly poly so that her hair completely covered her face.

“Use your talking words, Nicole,” Charlotte hissed.

“Um, Charlotte,” Paige began, “why don’t you go get Nicole something to drink? Her sore throat must be getting to her.”

“Money, honey,” Charlotte said to Nicole.

Nicole worked a hand loose from the edge of the table and placed it palm up, empty.

“I already bought you a strawberry daiquiri with an umbrella.” Charlotte nodded at the empty glass in front of her then shook her head at the ceiling. “Fine. Scoot.”

Nicole rose from the booth, avoiding all eye contact with William, but then tripped on the floor or the air or something. William caught her elbow. When she steadied herself, she finally looked up at him.

Paige gripped my thigh, stirring my dick, and leaned forward with an enormous smile on her face to watch them. Was this some kind of match-making thing happening here?

Charlotte stood from the booth, her smile sliding into twisted pain.

“I can go, Charlotte,” Paige announced, frowning at her friend.

“I got it.” She held up a hand and hobbled off.

“Are you all right?” William asked Nicole.

“It’s my socks,” Nicole said.

William frowned and looked at the socks in question. I did, too, out of curiosity. Below her knee-length black skirt, she wore stars and cats with laser beams shooting out of their eyes. This redhead was a trip.

“I like your socks,” William said with a genuine smile.

Paige squeezed my thigh then took her hand away and sat back, a satisfied grin on her face. My whole body burned for her touch once again, but I settled on entwining our fingers on the seat between us.

She looked at me, her mouth opened slightly, her gaze drifting from my eyes to my lips and back again. I traced her fingers with mine while I rubbed a slow circle into her thumb. The turbo charges from the skin-to-skin contact were enough to drive me mad.

“Are there police cars outside, William?” Paige asked without breaking my gaze. Her chest heaved with an uneven breath.

Something had changed between us, a physical connection that wasn’t just about fucking. I saw it in the new way she looked at me, at the way she stroked my fingers back. It was like a promise she intended to keep, but for some reason, I thought the promise was more for her. A promise to herself. Sweet Jesus, she’d spun me about until I made no fucking sense, but I was okay with it. More than okay.

Tonight, she was laughing again after two weeks of...not silence exactly, but not my usual Paige. My Paige. The sound of that inside my head fueled me with enough balls to conquer the whole fucking world. I wanted her to be mine. I wanted that more than anything.

“I didn’t see any cops,” William said as he and Nicole settled themselves across from us. “Why? Is there trouble?”

“Maybe they left,” I said in an attempt to cover up my lie. “But this club isn’t the safest. I’ve heard stories, and apparently there are people snorting up in the bathroom. We should go.”

“We should,” Paige agreed absently, her gaze flitting down to our clasped hands on the seat.

“But Charlotte,” Nicole said. “My drink.”

Paige dug in her purse for her phone. “I’ll text her.” When her phone’s screen lit up her face, she stared at it as if she was a deer caught in headlights. An unhappy deer.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and my guts dropped to my knees. Probably Hill asking where I was. But it wasn’t from Hill. Rose’s duck face picture smiled from the top of the screen. And underneath, it read:

There is no debt.

Strobe lights circled around the message, carving it out and branding it to the backs of my eyes where it burned and bled. There is no debt. What the fuck did that mean?

Paige was saying something, and she pushed me out of the booth.

But before I could move, two bodies blocked our way.

“Leaving so soon?”

The familiar voice lifted every hair on my body to high alert. I didn’t even have to glance up to know it was Hill. I did anyway to read his intent. Or tried to anyway. He hid everything behind that creepy grin and his sunken black eyes, which were aimed at Paige in a way that twisted my stomach. He’d already taken my sister; fuck if I would let him anywhere near Paige.

“We are,” I said to redirect his attention.

His gaze snaked over to me, two black marbles that were meant to roll a deadly chill down my back. But this time, they didn’t. Besides, he was too smart to start something in his own club.

He clasped his hands behind his back. “You’re not where you’re supposed to be.”

I leaned against the booth seat and spun my beer bottle in half circles, relaxed despite the rushing blood between my temples. There is no debt. Maybe it was true. If anyone knew for sure, Rose would.

“I’m not,” I said coolly.

He could smash my fingers all he wanted, threaten me, whatever he needed to do to feel that almighty power he craved so much, but he didn’t have shit. Not anymore.

But I did. I had Paige by my side, her questioning stare scorching the backs of my ears, and that right there changed everything. If I stood a chance with her, at making her mine, then I needed to switch lanes. Anything Hill spewed from that pinched mouth of his I could deny. It was his word against mine, and who would Paige believe? A stranger? Or the man who had always been in love with her? Yeah. I loved her. From the second I first saw her.

Still, doubt could fester at the back of her beautiful brain, and I didn’t want that. All I wanted was a chance. All I wanted was something real with her, to be her home, and that couldn’t happen if it was all built on secrets.

So, no more. Fuck Dad and Riley’s dick pics. They weren’t my responsibility. Hill could leak all of that to the press. But if my little sister didn’t owe a debt to the man who destroyed her, then she didn’t need me to put a yellow band aid around her finger to give her superpowers. She already had them.

Hill’s eyes narrowed to lethal slits. “I believe we had a deal, son. You know what happens if the deal is broken.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said, pulling Paige out of the booth with me. “Fuck the deal.”