I wasn’t watching Cal. I didn’t even think to.

That was my mistake.

First of many.

After an hour of deliberation, I got three women to buy us all drinks if I paid them double. It was a fair-enough deal, all things considered. If this helped Cal and me get out of this nightmare, it was worth it. I paid them up front to secure their secrecy. When we got back to our table, it was already crowded with slick skin and bikini strings and empty shot glasses. A few men orbited nearby, panting. I pushed forward, looking for Trey.

“Hey, I got three ladies here who would like to—” But I stopped when I saw Cal.

On our table, a woman lay splayed out on her back, naked save a lime in her mouth and a full shot glass balancing over her belly button. Cal knelt between her split thighs and took the shot glass in her teeth. She gave a little twitch as the booze went down, and then she pulled herself up the length of the other woman’s body to the lime, pausing over her bottom lip long enough to get a “Sweet Jesus” out of Trey. Then she flipped the lime into her mouth and bit down, juice running down her neck.

The woman rose on towering heels and sent an empty glass to the floor, where it shattered, all sparkle against the liquor-soaked laminate.

“I’ll get a broom,” the next in line said, but Cal shook her head.

“Don’t bother.” And to the crowd’s delight, she sank back to her knees. Then she looked up at me. Her cheeks were red, but a different kind of red than I had seen before. This looked less like blood and more like fire. The girls I’d paid fidgeted behind me, embarrassed to be on my team.

“Welcome back, Pey,” she said, balancing a new shot on the next stripper’s stomach. “I honestly thought you would pussy out.”

Trey laughed.

“Good one, Cal! Pey is a pussy!”

She ignored him, holding my gaze.

“Nobody eats limes with Jäger shots,” I said, shock rendering me dumb.

“This is Hell, Pey.”

Cal stood up and turned away from the table, from the woman on the table, from Trey. She turned away from everyone but me. Then she bent over and dragged one finger along the club’s floor, glistening with glass and booze and blood.

“We can do whatever the fuck we want.”

She put her finger in her mouth, and the crowd went wild.

SILAS