But tonight, I can’t settle. I keep checking my phone, looking for a text that doesn’t come. I see Carrie again, sitting alone now, scanning the crowd every time the door creaks open. I wish I could do something for her, but all I have is the same uneasy waiting as everyone else.
I head to the bar, order a Coke just to keep my hands busy. Blade and Wrecker are talking in low voices nearby. I know they’re worried about the same thing I am—Jinn running deals with people we don’t know, pulling us all into something bigger and riskier than anything we’ve done before.
The door opens and the room quiets for a split second, but it’s only some prospects dragging in a keg. I take a breath, remind myself that Jinn always shows up late when he’s working an angle. He likes making an entrance, keeping everyone just a little off-balance.
Still, I can’t shake the feeling that something is about to go wrong. Maybe it already has.
I look over at Carrie again. Her hair falls in her eyes as she stares at her phone, and I feel a pang I don’t want to examine too closely. She deserves better than this. Better than waiting for a man who treats her like an afterthought. Better than a club full of ghosts and grudges.
But she’s here, just like I am.
Waiting.
It’s nearly nine when Jinn finally walks through the door. He acts like he owns the place, like we haven’t all been waiting for him. His leather cut is thrown over one shoulder, and his hair is messy, that wild glint in his eyes telling me right away that he’s up to something.
Carrie sees him too. She sits up a little straighter, hope flickering across her face. Jinn barely glances her way. He makes a beeline for me instead, the crowd parting around him.
“Need to talk, JC,” he says under his breath, already steering me toward the back hallway.
I follow, my jaw tight. The noise of the party fades as we duck into the office. He shuts the door and tosses his cut onto the desk.
“What is this about?” I ask.
He grins, teeth too white, the kind of smile that always means trouble. “Opportunity, man. Big money, clean handoff, new guys in from Louisiana. We run a few crates across state lines, get paid, everyone wins.”
My stomach sinks. “You don’t even know these guys, Jinn. You said yourself you only met them once. I don’t like it.”
He waves me off. “You worry too much. We need this. Club is stretched thin, bills are piling up. This is how we fix that.”
I shake my head, frustration boiling up. “We don’t run guns for strangers. That’s how people get burned.”
He steps in closer, his voice dropping. “I’m not asking for your permission, JC. I’m telling you it’s already happening.”
I stare at him, disbelief warring with anger. “You drag us into this without a vote? Without even talking to Blade or Wrecker?”
He just grins. “Let me worry about the details.”
There’s nothing left to say. He’s made up his mind, and nothing I say will change it. I look at him and realize that the guy I grew up with is gone, replaced by someone hungry for power and reckless enough to gamble everything.
I push past him, back into the noise of the party. The club feels different now, like the floor might drop out from under us any second.
Blade and Wrecker catch my eye from across the room. Blade is tense, drumming his fingers against his glass. Wrecker is watching everything, the way he always does when he smells trouble.
I go to the kitchen, needing a moment to think, grabbing a beer just for something to do with my hands.
I set the beer down untouched. My thoughts keep circling back to Jinn, the deal, the risk, and Carrie—always Carrie, waiting and hoping, still believing he’ll treat her right.
Marcy appears at the back door, her voice soft and hurried. Marcy is nothing like Carrie. Where Carrie is gentle and easy to be around, Marcy always moves like she owns the space. She has this sharp, restless energy, the kind that fills up a room even when she’s silent. Tonight her hair is wild, dyed a little too bright, and her eyeliner’s smudged, but she still manages to look put together, in that careless way some girls pull off. She’s always hungry for attention, and if she doesn’t get it, she finds a way to make herself impossible to ignore.
“JC, have you seen Carrie or Jinn?”
I shake my head. “Carrie’s probably outside. Jinn just stormed out back.” I don’t bother to hide my irritation. Shedoesn’t notice, or maybe she just doesn’t care. She slips away, her phone clutched tight in her hand, already scrolling for someone else.
The last thing I want is more drama. But I glance down the hall and see Carrie’s silhouette through the window by the front porch. She’s sitting alone, elbows on her knees, staring out into the dark. For a second, I just watch her, thinking how out of place she looks here. She’s too soft for this world, too hopeful, but she keeps showing up, no matter how many times the universe tries to knock her down.
I step outside, the door closing quietly behind me. The night is cool, heavy with the scent of cut grass and distant exhaust. Carrie doesn’t turn right away. She’s lost in her thoughts.
“You okay?” I ask, settling beside her on the top step.
