I had to bargain with Sarah to let me bail before the final set even though it was a Saturday night and that meant the place was packed. I’d planned to just walk out, but after she’d spotted me heading for the door, she convinced me to stay until one. Then she’d cornered me for a talk that had turned into a prying session about which girl had me so upset.

There weren’t girls in my life.

People were fucking stupid.

There was one woman—and she was no longer in my life.

I’d made sure of it.

So what if the tears I’d seen welling in her eyes was coming back to haunt me? So what if I couldn’t stop hearing those flat, wooden words after I’d kissed her, or seeing the empty look in her eyes when she’d wiped her hand across her lips?

Jogging down the steps that led to the parking lot, I told myself it was how people like her handled things. I knew that—I got that. I hadn’t been as far gone as her, but addicts were manipulators. They were liars. We were manipulators and liars. We got better through recovery, but we had to admit the problem first. If she was still blaming Daytin and Kaleb, she wasn’t ready to get better, and that meant I couldn’t be around her.

Those tears hadn’t been for the end of a relationship that had barely started. I had no idea what she had been crying about – feeling sorry for herself, maybe – but it wasn’t because of us.

“Hey.”

The low, rough voice was almost too quiet for me to hear, and it wasn’t until she spoke a second time that I realized the speaker was talking to me.

Sighing, I paused, expecting to see one of the city’s many homeless asking for money. They’d picked the wrong guy on the wrong day. I certainly wasn’t in the mood to give anybody any money right now. How many of them ended up that way because they made mistakes like Camry was making?

Fuck. Would that be her one day?

I came up short when I realized I knew the girl in front of me.

Daytin.

Again.

“What are you doing here?” I asked tiredly.

I wasn’t a monster; I still felt bad for the girl. She barely looked old enough to drive, and if her life was even half as bad as Camry had made it out to be, sympathy was the least she deserved. But sympathy wouldn’t get her to stop going down the road she was on. And I just couldn’t deal with another addict right now.

“I need some money,” she said, forcing a smile. “I know you didn’t seem interested, but maybe…hell. I can be anybody you want me to be if you close your eyes.”

“You can’t be anybody but a kid with a bad problem,” I said flatly. “I’m not interested in having sex with you, Daytin. You need to get clean, and get help before it’s too late.”

Her eyes flashed, but her mouth trembled. I didn’t know which emotion was real. Maybe both of them were. Maybe neither. In the past, I might’ve trusted my instincts, but I couldn’t do that anymore. Not after I’d been so wrong about Camry.

“What do you know about it?” she challenged.

“More than you think.” Because of how much she’d meant to Camry, I took a step toward her rather than walking away. “Why don’t you let me take you back to the clinic? You have to realize how bad this is for you. You’re skin and bones” My eyes narrowed. “Shit, there’s blood on your clothes. Did somebody hurt you?”

She looked down with a frown. “It’s not mine.”

“That doesn’t make it better! Dammit, Daytin!” Frustrated, I looked away. “Look, you can either let me take you to the clinic, or you can go away, but I’m not giving you money just so you can score another hit.”

“I’m not going back to the clinic!” She all but screamed it.

Holding up my hands, I turned away and started toward my car. I wasn’t going to stick around until someone called the cops on her. “Have it your way.”

“What…are you rushing off to Camry instead?” she called out. “I know what the problem is. You think I’m dirty, but you can use a fucking rubber, you know. You might as well fuck me as her now after that crackhead stabbed her with a needle.”

Pissed off now, I spun around and stalked back to her. “I don’t have sex with kids, Daytin. And face it, that is what you are, you hear me? You’re eighteen. Just because you’re legal doesn’t make you less of a…” I blinked, something she’d just said clicking in my head. “What did you just say about Camry?”

She glared at me, looking all the more like the kid I’d accused her of being. “I want some money! I’m hungry and I’ve got no place to sleep after what Camry did to last night. They’ll kill me if I try to go–.”

“I want to know what you just said about Camry,” I said slowly, trying to control my temper.

“And I want some money,” she said, enunciating each word with the same precise care. “I’m fucking hungry and tired.”

“I’ll tell you what. I’ll buy you some food.”

She blinked, caught off guard. “And how about me being tired?”

“Maybe if you tell me the truth, I’ll give you some money.”

She jutted out her jaw and crossed her arms, I assumed in an attempt to look tough. Then she nodded and I motioned toward the sidewalk.

It took less than ten minutes to get seated at the twenty-four-hour diner just down the street from the club.

It took half that time to get the order placed, but Daytin refused to talk until the food came out, and then she pointed at me and said to the server, “Make him pay you. He promised me a meal.”

Shit, this kid. Swearing again, I fished out a twenty and passed it over to the server before she could even rip the ticket off. “Keep the change. Give us some privacy, okay?”

Daytin blinked, eying the money narrowly. “You didn’t even see how much it was—and all you got was coffee.”

“I’m here for one reason, Daytin. Eat. Talk.”

“Fine,” she said petulantly.

She shoved a mouthful of eggs into her mouth, gulped some diet coke, then looked around for a napkin. I felt a stab of sympathy for her and wondered if she’d eaten anything since I’d fed her Thursday night.

“I called her, I guess,” she began. “I don’t know how else she knew where I was. And she told me that I called her. But I was at this place and Camry showed up. I don’t remember how it started.” She took another bite of food and another drink before continued, “This guy was doing me and all of a sudden him and Camry were fighting. Then she pops him with a bottle and she starts staggering. I didn’t realize he got her with a needle until I had her in the car.”

All the air rushed out of my lungs.

Daytin sniffed and wiggled on the seat, her big eyes going wet. “I…shit. I guess I shouldn’t have left her there, but she wouldn’t wake up and cops were all over the place. I didn’t know if somebody had called about the noise or what. I just wanted to get out so I left her there.”

Camry’s words came flooding back. Words I’d blocked out, refused to hear.

I was looking for Daytin…when I found her, this guy was on top of her and I just lost it. I’m so tired of being used—that was all I could think. I was tired of being used, tired of my friends being used and I lost it and went after him. He hit me and it got ugly and I ended up getting a hold of a bottle and hitting him with it, but he stabbed me with a needle. I don’t remember much after that...

I’d tried not to hear them, but I’d heard every fucking one. I hadn’t let myself listen though because if I believed her and she was lying and she really was using again…

“So she didn’t use last night,” I said.

“What…Camry?” Daytin blinked at me over a mouthful of eggs. “Are you serious? She’s so clean and straight right now it’s almost sickening.” She snorted a laugh. “All she does is try to convince me to do the same thing.”

“You should,” I said dully, staring at the table without really seeing what was there. All I could see was Camry’s face when I’d ended things.

“It’s hard.”

I looked up at Daytin. “It is. But you either do it, or sooner or later you end up dead. And Camry loves you enough that she was willing to fight for you. Maybe it’s time you fight for yourself.” I stood. “When you’re ready to get clean, you know where to find us.”

I left without waiting for a response. I had to get to Camry and…hell, start begging. Do whatever it took to get her to forgive me.

On my way out the door, I took the first step toward the serious amends I needed to make.

I texted Kaleb: Camry was telling the truth. She hasn’t been using.

I wasn’t the only one who’d made a huge mistake, but I planned to do something to fix it. I just hoped Kaleb would do the same.