Elise slid into the space beside us, Nina at her elbow. She trailed her fingers along the lineup of cups, claiming the space as though she owned it, before drifting closer, lips curved in a smile that wasn’t one.
“Nice party,” Elise murmured, eyes sweeping the room before pinning Avery. Then her gaze flicked toward Jax, and the smile cut sharper. “Funny. Thought you’d be home crying overyour mess.” Her gaze flicked to where Jax waited. “Guess you weren’t enough for your brother’s friend either.”
The words landed like glass shattering. Avery’s body went rigid. Her grip on her cup tightened until the plastic crinkled.
“Go to hell, Elise.”
Elise’s smile sharpened, lazy and cruel. “Already there. Want me to save you a seat?”
I stepped forward, but Elise leaned in first, lips brushing Avery’s ear. Whatever she whispered made Avery flinch, her hand jerked, and her drink sloshed down her shirt in a dark streak.
“Shit,” Avery muttered, fumbling for napkins.
Elise plucked a cup off the table and pressed it into Avery’s hand with an exaggerated eye roll. “Try not to embarrass yourself any more than you already have.”
Avery took it—cheeks flushed with more than embarrassment—and tipped it back. A defiant swallow, eyes locked on Elise.
I caught the curl of victory in Elise’s smile before I saw anything in Avery. She drank deep, eyes locked on Elise as if downing the rest of it was a challenge.
Avery laughed suddenly, too loud for the moment, tugging me close as if we were just two girls at a party. For a second, it almost worked—her cheeks flushed, her grin wide. She even stole a glance toward Jax at the edge of the crowd, chin tilted like she could prove she wasn’t afraid.
Minutes blurred—music pounding, Avery pulling Jax into her orbit with a lift of her chin. He’d moved in close, telling Elise to back the hell off. Avery didn’t flinch. Instead, she angled her face toward him, daring. “Why are you here, Jax?” She narrowed her eyes at me, but there was no anger. “Did Mila tell where we were going?”
His answer was low, firm. “Where you go, I go.”
Her laugh shot past her lips. “Then I’m going to dance.”
She dragged him with her, weaving into the crush of bodies. Jax stayed close, a wall at her back, his eyes scanning, never settling. It helped something relax in me that he was on Avery duty, and I scanned the crowd for Luke.
I spotted Theo instead. He’d found a brunette near the wall, his focus fixed on her animated hands more than anything happening with us. Tori was nowhere in sight. I lost track of Avery in the push of the crowd until Luke’s shoulder brushed mine.
“Couldn’t stay away, huh?” I muttered.
He gave me that crooked grin, the one that said he knew too much. “You’re surprised?”
I tipped my empty cup toward the dance floor. “Tonight’s a train wreck.”
Then the floor shifted beneath us. The music jolted, not the beat but the way the bodies around us stuttered, a ripple of attention cresting in one direction. Shouts rose over the bass. Cups tipped. The floor seemed to tilt under me, wrong, wrong.
My stomach dipped before I even saw her.
Through the crush, Jax’s frame broke clear—Avery in his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder. But her eyes—wide, frantic—fought to stay open, panic skittering for something solid in the blur.
I shoved forward, Luke tight on my heels, the crowd closing and opening around us in jolts of movement.
She blinked hard, unsteady, the motion sluggish. “Dizzy.” Her voice caught on the word. “Everything’s… spinning.”
Elise’s laugh cut clean through the music. She raised her voice, pitched just right for the nearest circle to hear. “Wow. Didn’t think you’d go that far, Jax. Guess slipping something in her drink was easier than convincing her to sleep with you.”
The room shifted. Heads turned. Whispers rippled like sparks catching dry grass. Phone screens lit up.
Jax’s expression hardened. “I didn’t touch her drink.” His grip tightened, steadying Avery against him. “Don’t you dare?—”
But Elise already had her stage. One arched brow, one tilt of her head, and suddenly, he was the villain in her story.
I shoved through the bodies until I was at Jax’s side, Avery limp against his chest, her eyes wide with panic. My glare cut straight to Elise. “Don’t pretend that you weren’t the one who handed her that drink, Elise.”
Elise’s mouth curved, wide-eyed innocence dripping from every word. “Me? I wasn’t the one hovering over her.” Her gaze slid toward Jax, deliberate, cruel. “That was him.”
