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I nod to Rae. “Let’s go upstairs.”

But she steps back. “No.” Disbelief slams into me as she tilts her head at my brother. “Come on, Ash.”

“You’re going with him?” I demand.

“He needs help. You have no idea what happened to him, and you don’t want to. That’s how I know this isn’t you.”

Her eyes shine with more emotions than I can name. If I weren’t overtired and bewildered, I’d make her stay until I could tease them apart, have her explain each one to me until I understood.

She piles him into the car while I watch. I’m helpless and furious. A terrible fucking combination.

I call out to her, “You owe me a favor.”

Rae freezes and turns. She crosses back to me. “What did you say?”

My heart starts beating again. I’m not sure when it stopped, except everything in me seems synced to her.

“When you first came here last year, we made a deal that included three favors,” I go on, threading my hands into her hair. “You gave me two.”

Her lips part. “Harrison…”

“Don’t,” I mutter, leaning in to press my lips to her hair as my fingers tangle in the strands. “Don’t walk out on me.”

She’s not going to, I realize as she lets me hold her.

But when she pulls back, it’s to brush her lips over mine, cool and fleeting. “I am doing you a favor, but you have to see that.”

Those are the last words before she disappears into the dark and I’m alone.

22

HARRISON

“How do you like it?” Sawyer drawls over the video call.

I tap the controls behind the bar to watch the thing skim along a ceiling track and descend down a column on the other side.

“The photographer bots are even bigger, sales-wise,” he goes on.

I scan the club, empty except for a skeleton crew preparing for tonight’s show.

Since Rae walked out on me last night, I’ve needed to prove I’m not coming unhinged. Which is why I’m at Debajo, running my business.

I hang up with Sawyer, and the robot comes down the track across the ceiling, bringing a Post-it note.

Apologize, it says.

“Don’t tell me I hurt your feelings last night,” I toss at my second-in-command as Leni rises from behind the bar.

“Hardly. Your brother and girlfriend on the other hand…” With a cloth, she wipes down the surface. “What’s between you and your family is your business. But you can’t afford to cut your own clubs off at the knees indefinitely.”

The steel edge under Leni’s voice makes me blink. She’s always been a friend and an advisor. But right now, she doesn’t get how close we are to blowing this all up.

The door opens, letting in heated conversation exchanged between security and someone outside.

“What is it?” Leni demands.

“Some guys out back in the parking lot thinking they can sell,” security replies.