Make My Move (Hannaford Prep #5) - J. Bree Page 0,87

a million times and lays the charm on thick. “When have we ever turned down the chance to spend the evening with you, Ria?”

And just like that she chokes on her own tongue as she gets the fuck out of our way. The scenery never changes, we go through the stockroom, then the kitchen before making it out to the bar area. It’s dark as hell out here and I have to pause for a second to let my eyes adjust.

The place is fucking packed.

It’s usually busy but there are people jammed into every little nook and cranny of the place until I feel my skin crawl, my stomach roiling a little at the lack of air.

I don’t let any of that show on my face.

Harley takes the lead and I push Avery between us, giving Blaise a look so he’ll do the same with the Mounty. She startles and I’m sure she’ll want to argue about it but I’m too focused on watching Avery to help Blaise convince her. This place is well known for girls being assaulted, too many people and too damn dark to be safe.

We should have left them in the car, safe and locked in.

We search the ground floor but Joey has never been big on alcohol. He’s always wanted the harder shit so we’re forced to head upstairs. The music is too fucking loud and shit and half the people up here are off their fucking heads. I tuck Avery back under my arm and see Blaise do the same with the Mounty from the corner of my eye. It’s crazy enough up here that she lets him do it without a word.

Because he’s the only one with his arms free, Harley takes over the search. After a few minutes without any word from him, I pull Avery over to the restrooms, our usual meetup point, to wait him out. The girls huddle together again but Lips’ eyes are sharp as they take in the writhing bodies, like she could see through them all if only she looks hard enough.

We’re all startled by the disability restroom door opening and Harley’s head popping out.

“Mounty, I need you to look at this,” he snaps out and Lips moves without question, ducking behind him as he stands like a fucking wall in the way.

“Move, Harley, we need to get him out of here,” Avery says, but he shakes his head.

“Just let Lips get a look at him first. Give it two fucking minutes, Aves, don’t—”

“Why the hell would she need to look at him?”

I share a look with Blaise but then Lips calls out, “Don’t judge me for asking this but I am supposed to try and save him or are we waiting this out then calling it in for a cleanup?”

Save him?

Fuck.

No more playing nicely, I jab Harley in the gut to move him and shove my way into the room.

Joey’s dead on the floor.

Fuck.

Wait, no, he’s breathing but just barely, he looks like a fucking corpse.

Senior is going to kill me.

And Avery.

“I die if he does.” I don’t even mean to speak, the words just rip their way out of me, but the most painful ones stay lodged in my throat, Avery is dead too.

Lips instantly springs into action, not another word needed for her to transform into a field nurse and start working on saving the fucking useless asshole brother of mine. She rolls Joey to his side and shoves her fingers into his mouth to clear it out. His hacking breath starts to even out and she props his head up at a different angle until his breathing stabilizes a little more.

Blaise and I both watch her but Harley is watching me, his eyes too fucking fixated. He heard what I said and the puzzle pieces in his head are slowly moving together.

I’ve done everything I can to keep him from ever knowing about the guillotine hanging over my neck. He had enough worries with his own ticking time bomb family.

“I can call a doctor. What does he need to reverse this?” Avery asks as Blaise gets the door shut and locks it.

Harley finally looks away and moves to help Lips, kneeling down to help to support Joey’s twitching body. Fuck.

What did he even OD on? The list of shit he takes is about as long as the list of shit that’s available. I stoop down to start rummaging through his pockets and, sure e-fucking-nough there’s a pile of little clear baggies. The