Chapter 10
KROSS
We stop pretending this is going to look clean the second the cleaner runs out.
Kade found the bottle shoved behind the last stall, half-empty and crusted around the nozzle like no one’s fucking touched it in months. He sprayed until the air burned and my eyes started watering. The smell hit so fucking sharp it’s clawing straight up my goddamn nose.
I’m on trash duty.
Anything with blood on it goes straight into the bottom of the garbage can.
I rip the paper towel dispensers empty, one after the other, using everything I can find to suck up the blood splattered around the room and stuffing the wads down hard. Toilet paper too, torn off in thick, frantic handfuls until the rolls are nothing but soggy cardboard.
If it’s red, it gets fucking buried.
No exceptions.
I stomp it all down with my boot, grinding it into a wet, ugly mess that makes my stomach twist, then start layering dry trash over the top. Cups. Wrappers. I pack it in until it looks like nothing more than a neglected bathroom bin that hasn’t seen mercy in weeks.
This is the first time we’ve killed someone we didn’t set out to kill.
Not that it bothers me. Not even a little.
The fucker deserved it. It was never just the cheating.
That was just the excuse. I’ve met men like him before.
Small, fragile, walking around with that tight, coiled rage under their skin.
The kind that shows up the second a woman stops making herself smaller for them.
It’s always only a matter of time before that kind of insecurity turns into something uglier.
Hands where they don’t belong. Anger they swear they didn’t mean.
So no, I don’t feel bad for him.
What gets under my skin is when it happened.
Mark took his last breath while my hands were on her. While my attention was completely caught up in Aeri and how good she felt. The moment that always matters, the second when it finally clicks for them that this is it, that there’s no clever line left and no way out, and I missed it.
Usually that’s the moment I need. The second that actually gets me off. That’s the one I tuck away in the back of my head so I can replay it later, over and over, until it does the job.
But tonight, I didn’t even want it.
I didn’t even fucking think about it, and that’s never happened before.
I’ve never been distracted. Never pulled away. Never cared about anything else more than that moment.
Until tonight.
The wall, the sink, the counter clean up just enough that none of the drunk idiots in this shit hole will even realize someone was just stabbed to death a few feet from where they’re washing their hands. The floor, however, does not cooperate.
Kade scrubs until his forearms flex and the cleaner foams pale against the tile. Most of it lifts, thins, and smears out.
The grout stays fucking red.
Not bright, but dark, settled like it’s fucking permanent.
I straighten slowly, and stare at it longer than I should.
“Well,” I say, forcing air into my lungs, “honestly bro, I think this is as good as it’s getting.”
Kade doesn’t look up. “We can’t leave it like this. It’s too obvious, especially with how bright those fucking lights are.”
My gaze lifts to the fluorescent tubes buzzing overhead, harsh and goddamn unforgiving.
Yeah. That’s an easy fix.
I cross the room and pop my blade free, flipping it open as I reach the switch box where the wiring feeds into the lights. One clean slice. Then another. The hum cuts out mid-buzz, plunging the room into shadow.
Only one light above the sinks keeps flickering, stuttering like it’s on borrowed time, throwing uneven flashes across tile and porcelain and everything we didn’t get rid of.
Much better.
I snap the blade shut and tuck it back into my pocket, satisfied. “Problem solved,” I say, a smug edge creeping into my grin.
The bass outside stutters, then cuts off mid-beat like someone pulled the plug straight out of the fucking wall.
My stomach fucking drops.
For half a second there’s nothing. No bass, or crowd noise. Just this thick, wrong silence sitting in the room like it knows what’s coming.
Then all hell breaks loose.
Shouting explodes down the hallway. Whistles cut sharp through the air.
Doors slam open hard enough to rattle the walls.
Footsteps pound past in every direction at once, fast and panicked and sloppy.
Someone screams, high and raw, followed by a voice barking orders that I immediately know doesn’t belong to the DJ.
Kade’s head snaps up.
Sirens hit next. Distant, but closing fast. That sound crawls through the concrete and straight up my spine, each wail ticking closer like a fucked-up countdown.
Fuck.
It’s a fucking raid.
“Oh fuck,” I breathe. “Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.”
The alarm kicks on, shrill and relentless, vibrating straight through my fucking teeth. The pipes rattle overhead. The whole building feels like it’s shuddering under the weight of it.
Kade’s already got his ear pressed flat against the door, his body coiled tight at the door, “They’re clearing rooms,” he says. “We might be able to sneak out unnoticed while people are panicking.”
My brain latches onto one thought and refuses to let go.
Aeri.
She’s not in here with us. No she’s out there.
In the crowd. In the chaos. In the middle of a police raid wearing red crystals and bad decisions.
My chest tightens hard enough, it almost knocks the breath out of me.
“She’s out there,” I say, the words coming out sharper than I mean them to. “She’s fucking out there.”
Kade turns, eyes locking on mine. “I know.”
“I’m not fucking leaving without her,” I snap.
Kade’s lips curl. “That makes two of us, brother.”
He pulls his mask from his pocket and slides it over his face in one smooth motion, all business now. “Let’s go get our girl.”
I nod and bump my fist against his before dragging my own mask out and pulling it down over my head. The world narrows instantly. Cleaner edges and fewer distractions.
“We leave as soon as the hallway clears.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I ask.
“It will.”
The alarm keeps screaming like it’s personally offended.
People sprint past the door, shadows streaking under the gap. Someone sobs hard enough it sounds like they’re choking. Someone else laughs like they’ve completely fucking lost it. Panic bleeds through the walls, loud and messy and contagious.
I pace once. Then again. Fingers flexing like I need something to break.
“She’s fucked up, bro,” I mutter. “We need to get out there. What if they—fuck, I don’t know—grab her. She’s got blood on her. That’s not nothing. That shit will stand out to people who are looking for it.”
Kade’s jaw tightens, eyes never leaving the door. “She’s smart.”
“She’s fucking stubborn,” I snap. “Those are not the same thing. Shit, she’s probably running her pretty little mouth off to them like she was us. Fuck.”
The noise shifts suddenly, like a tide pulling back. Footsteps thin, and shouting drifts farther away, funneling toward the exits.
Kade lifts a hand.
Still.
He counts under his breath. Once. Twice.
Then he reaches for the handle and cracks the door.
Empty hallway.
My pulse slams so hard it rattles my ribs. A sharp, feral grin cuts across my face, fear buzzing hot under my skin.
“Fuck,” I breathe. “Let’s go.”
Kade opens the door wider. “Stick together. We find her, and we leave. No fucking around this time, Kross. No bullshit. No games. We get Aeri, and we get the fuck out.”
I nod, because when it comes to her, I’m not willing to gamble. Not even a little.
My hand closes around the blade in my pocket as we push back into the crowd.
Because I’m not leaving this building without our little valentine.
The hallway spits us back into the rave like it’s trying to get rid of us.
Heat slams into my chest. Smoke hangs low and thick, catching in my throat.
Emergency lights pulse red and wrong, strobes out of sync, turning everyone into fragments instead of people.
The music is dead, replaced by alarms, radios barking orders, voices stacking on top of each other until it’s just noise and panic and movement.
We don’t talk, we just push.
Bodies shove past us without looking. Glitter-smeared hands grab at my jacket and slip. Someone stumbles into Kade’s shoulder and bounces off like they hit a wall. It’s pure fucking chaos. People are running in every direction at once, trying to escape something they don’t fully understand yet.
My eyes are everywhere.
Over heads. Through gaps. Past shoulders.
A surge of bodies crashes into us from the left, forcing us sideways toward the edge of the dance floor. The lights flicker hard, red washing over everything, then white, then red again.
And then, impact.
The collision happens right at the edge of the dance floor.
One second I’m shoving through bodies, lights strobing red and white, alarms screaming overhead. The next, someone slams straight into my chest hard enough to knock the air out of both of us.
“Aeri—”
“Kross!”
We grab each other at the same time, hands locking like neither of us trusts the other to still be there if we let go. She’s breathing hard, green eyes blown wide, hair plastered to her cheeks. Red crystals flash violently under the emergency lights.
She was coming for us.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I shout over the noise.
“Looking for you!” she yells back, fists tangled in my jacket. “I saw the cops—I was worried they would—”
A surge of bodies crashes into us again, jostling us sideways. Kade’s there instantly, closing in on her other side, one hand steadying her while his eyes sweep the crowd.
“Listen to me,” I snap, gripping her shoulders. “You need to go. You and your friends,” I add, nodding at the two girls with her. “Now.”
“No,” she fires back without hesitation. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Come on, Aeri. He’s right,” one of her friends chimes in. “This place is getting heated, unless we want to spend the night in a jail cell, we need to dip, like pronto.”