Page 128 of Damián

I move across the crowd on the dance floor, using my shoulders and arms to shove everyone aside. A woman with bright lipstick grabs my bicep, pressing herself against me, and slurs something I really don’t care to understand.

“Sorry, I’m taken,” I say, realizing how much I like how that sounds.

A few feet later, a guy steps into my path, trailing a hand down my chest, but I just glare at him and keep moving.

Finally, near the edge of the VIP section, I spot Zara on top of a chair, looking around and crying.

“Zara!”

“I can’t find him.” She jumps from the chair and sobs against my chest.

“Hey! It’s okay. I am here, and I promise you I’ll find him.” I hold her by the shoulders and look straight into her green eyes. “But Zara, I need you to calm down and stay focused. Can you do that?” I ask, and she nods, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Good. Explain as fast as you can what happened.”

“I went to get lunch with Ollie, like I always do after our ethical smuggling, but Rafael was waiting for us and brought us here instead. It’s not the first time he’s dragged us to a club and dumped us with his guards, but it’s definitely the first time it’s been this early.”

“Where are the guards now?”

“That’s also strange because they left as soon as another group showed up with the drugs. We’ve partied with this crowd before, so we figured we’d just let Rafael do his controlling dramas while we sat down to talk… we weren’t even drinking alcohol. But then Ollie said he felt weird and went to the bathroom. Right after he left, I heard one of the guys bragging about slipping something into Oliver’s Coke, and…”

“And what?”

“…And that after years of being rejected, he was finally going to hook up with him tonight.”

“Zara… is that fucking man still here right now?”

“No…”

“Describe him.”

“Not much taller than me, short blond hair, green eyes, and has an obviously fake black Dior shirt.”

“When was the last time you saw Oliver or the man?”

“The man, ten minutes ago, and Oliver, a bit more than that. We were at the main bar, and that’s when he said he needed to go to the bathroom.”

I click on the radio. “Damián here. I want eyes in both bathrooms, and we are looking for a man, five six, short blond hair, green eyes, and has a black Dior shirt.”

“On it,” says a voice over the comms.

“Anything else?” I ask Zara.

“No,” she shakes her head and cries. “I looked everywhere for him at first, but then I came back to the table because this is the only place he knows we were at. What if he came back and I wasn’t here? Did I do something wrong?”

“You did everything right. Stay here; don’t move. I’ll go find him.”

I move as fast as I can until I reach the main bar.

“Damián!” Eddie, the bartender, shouts over the music while wiping down the counter. “You want the usual?”

“Not today.” I pull out my phone, bringing up a picture of Oliver, and pass Eddie my phone. “Have you seen him?”

Eddie looks at the screen, then nods, pointing toward the far end of the club. “Yeah, he went stumbling toward the left corridors.”

I turn my head to the left, but it’s impossible to see anything. There are just too many fucking people and too many flashing lights.

I look back at Eddie. “Can I step on the bar?”

He glances at his manager, then gives me a quick nod. “Sure, man.”