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While I was sitting here playing fucking games thinking maybe we still had time before this whole thing detonated in our faces.

The thought settles ugly in my chest, sharp enough to make my jaw tighten while I yank open my bedroom drawer looking for my knife.

“You going?” I ask finally, forcing my voice flat.

Through the speaker, I hear the scrape of Dagger grabbing his keys.

“You really asking me that right now?”

Fair.

I shove cigarettes into my pocket and head back into the living room while bass from the distant beach rattles faintly through the open balcony door. Even from up here, I can feel the city vibrating tonight. Thousands of bodies packed together down by the shoreline, music shaking the sand while dealers move product through the crowd like sharks cutting through water.

And somewhere in the middle of it—

Blair.

High. reckless. probably laughing at something stupid while pretending she’s not actively self-destructing.

My stomach twists hard enough to piss me off.

“You know, she’s gonna run the second she sees us,” I mutter.

“Yeah, I know,”

The words settle heavy between us.

Because underneath all the irritation and jealousy and unresolved shit twisting between me and Dagger, there’s still the same ugly truth neither of us can escape:

We almost lost her once.

And if Dante’s people spot her before we do tonight—

We might not get lucky twice.

I grab the beach flyer off the table again, staring at the massive neon lettering while dread crawls steadily beneath my ribs.

Dante’s crews always move heavy at parties like this.

Too many tourists. Too many wasted idiots looking for their next high without asking questions.

It's the perfect hunting ground and the perfect place for Blair to disappear.

“Fuck. She shouldn’t have fucking come back,” Dagger mutters quietly through the phone.

But he sounds wrecked saying it.

Not angry.

Terrified.

And that hits harder than it should because I know exactly what’s sitting underneath it.

The hospital.

That fucking hallway.

Watching nurses swarm around Blair while both of us stood there realizing we’d already failed one girl in this world.