DAXTON POV
Maria wasn’t outside getting air. JJ—Jerkface James—had lied. That much was obvious. At least, I hoped it was a lie. If she wasn’t outside, it meant she was still somewhere in the club, and that gave us a chance. I clung to that thought, though the tight knot in my chest told me to prepare for the worst.
I always prided myself on being the rational one, the planner. Think first, act second—that’s how I dealt with things. But now, every second we wasted felt like a countdown to disaster.
The bathrooms were on the far side of the dance floor, meaning I had to push through the writhing drunken bodies of sweaty twenty-somethings, all grinding against each other like it was the end of the world. Not that long ago, this would’ve been my scene too, but now the thought of it made my
