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If she gave me another chance, I’d show her just how wrong I had been. I’d prove to her every goddamn day that I wasn’t going anywhere ever again, that she was it for me and always had been.

She probably wouldn’t believe me at first. Maybe she would do everything she could to push me away and never give me the chance to make things right.

But I won’t give up. Not on her. Not on us.

I’d make it right.

Somehow, someway, I’d make it all right.

Losing Rosalie once had broken me. There was no way I could go through it all over again.

I took another long drag on the blunt. The high settled in nicely as I closed my eyes and rested my head against the headrest.

The sound of her laughter when we were driving at high speeds. The way she’d try to steal one of my hoodies to keep at her place when I couldn’t come over. The way her hands felt, running through my hair.

I missed it all.

Her soft, sleepy voice in the morning. The way she bit her lip when she was nervous, but making an effort to act like she wasn’t. How she sang along to the hip-hop songs I loved to listen to. The way she leaned into our kisses, like she needed them to breathe.

“Fuck. I hope I didn’t ruin it all for good. Just give me one more shot, baby girl. That’s all I’m asking for,” I said to myself as I finished off the blunt.

Right on time, Billy resurfaced from the house, a couple of paper bags in his hand. He checked his phone as he walked over to the SUV and opened the trunk, lifting the floor cover and sliding those bags inside the space there.

He got in the driver’s seat and turned toward me.

“It’s some good shit, huh? New product line, flying off the shelves. One more quick stop, and we’re heading up to make the deal,” he said as he started up the car and backed down the street.

We turned down a few more roads before parking in the driveway of one of the houses I knew they had a bunch of girls in.

“Let’s go. You need to shower. You smell like a dog—no offense.” He laughed as he got out.

I followed him, grabbing my duffel bag from the back seat. I slung it over my shoulder as we walked inside.

The sounds of moaning and the smells of heavy perfume and sex slammed into us as we walked in. A few chicks wearing barely anything greeted us, but he sent them away and led me to a bathroom by a back door.

“Head out back when you’re done, and we can go,” Billy said as he shoved open the bathroom door and jerked his head toward the exit.

“Be out in ten,” I said as I walked in.

The shower felt good, but I rushed it. I wanted to get out and get this business with Billy over with so I could finally get to see Rosalie.

I walked out back and around the side of the house. Billy was leaned up against his SUV, dressed in a fresh top, his thick white chain with diamonds in it on full display around his neck. He was talking to a chick with short red hair that matched her street name.

“Red,” I said as I walked up to them.

“Hey, heard you were back. ’Bout time. Missed seeing you around. Especially some of the girls,” she said as she winked at me.

Red ran the houses full of girls on the Barrons’ block. She called it a superior escort service. The only things those girls had missed about me were my cash and my dick. They didn’t care about me beyond that.

“I’m not in the market for a good time. Just helping Billy out with something,” I said as I put my duffel back inside the SUV.

“Damn, that’s too bad. Anyway, you boys have fun. I gotta go.”

With that, she walked out onto the sidewalk and out of sight.

We rode with the music bumping as we cruised a couple of hours through LA to a club in the nicer part of town.

He didn’t valet park; instead, he parked the SUV around back, and that was where we entered the club. We went through a few hallways as the music got louder, and Billy pushed open some double doors into the main club space.

I saw her as soon as I walked into the room.

Rosalie Wells was sitting at a bar on the second level, wearing a sexy, tight little black dress that was hiked halfway up her thighs. Her blue eyes picked up the club’s light as she glanced around the room. Her hair had gotten longer.

She was still so fucking beautiful.

She looked like my girl, but the smile she had didn’t reach her eyes. It was like she was here, putting on a good face, but her heart wasn’t in it. Next to her had to be the guy she was with.

I tried to get a good look at him, but from where I was standing, a group of girls blocked my direct line of sight.

Once they saw me and Billy, they jumped up and down and cheered, trying to get our attention.

“I need to get up there,” I said to Billy as he stood on my right, already with some blonde chick up under his arm.

“What?” he shouted over the loud music.

I jerked my head toward the second level, and his eyes went up.

“Ohhh … got it, man. Hey, baby, let’s go get you a drink,” Billy told the chick.

She giggled and let him lead her toward the stairs, and I followed behind them.

Each step felt like an eternity. My heart was pounding with the beat of the music, going faster the closer I got to her.

The world narrowed as I kept my eyes trained on Rosalie while I climbed the stairs.

I walked over to the railing behind her, leaning against it. I placed my hands on the cold metal.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move, not when I didn’t know what I was going to do or say to her first.

Billy got drinks and came back over. I thought I heard him toasting the chick’s perfect tits, but I couldn’t say for sure because at that moment, the man next to Rosalie slid his hand onto her soft thigh.

Something inside me boiled. The way he gripped her in a way like he owned her … was I too late? Was she really into this guy and I’d lost my chance?

He said something, and I swore her entire body slumped slightly.

The cold way he looked at her made my blood boil. It was like she was only there because it was what he wanted. Which would make sense because the clothes she wore weren’t something my girl would care to wear. Shit, this wasn’t even a place she would normally come to.

She frowned at him, and he leaned into her, his voice too low to hear over this crowd.

But the look on her face at whatever he’d said made me want to walk over, rip him off the fucking stool he sat on, and throw him over the balcony.

But he wasn’t alone. The guys sitting on the other side of him all wore the same MC patches he did.

I wasn’t sure I could handle a whole biker gang alone. But I would be down to try if I had to.

She smiled and said something back, and I gripped the railing so hard that I was probably leaving a dent when I saw him kiss up her neck.

Billy looked over at me and tapped my shoulder.

“Aye, yo. Chill, man. Last thing you need to do is start some shit that I’m going to have to get involved in. Because if I do, I’m gonna have to shut down this whole club.” Billy nodded at the girls at the table across from us, and they all walked over.

I let go of the railing and crossed my arms over my chest, trying to relax as I saw her pick up a glass and take a sip.

Then the moment I’d been waiting for happened.

She turned slightly in her chair and looked around, her gaze coming to a screeching halt when her eyes locked with mine. Her cheeks lit up, and her mouth parted slightly as she let out a silent gasp.

I smirked at her, and the entire room fell silent in my mind as she whispered my name.

“AJ.”

With that, I knew. She still had feelings for me.

Leaving her was my biggest regret, and I would do anything to show her how much I’d changed.

I didn’t care how long it took. I’d prove to her just how much I loved her.

Start at the beginning with Tandem , book one of the Drifting into You trilogy.