Clara nods anxiously as she unbuckles her seatbelt. “Got it.”

We open our doors to get out, and I stuff my keys into my pocket as I move up beside her. When I swing my arm over her shoulders protectively, she doesn’t inch away like she would have a few days ago. After opening up to me, she’s been way more affectionate.

“What are you thinking about?” Clara asks.

I shrug. “Just how beautiful you are.”

Completely true. With the short red dress, strappy sandals that wrap up her long, lean legs, and her hair pulled up, she’s going to turn heads the moment we step into the club.

“You’ve been so serious today,” she muses as we approach the front door where a hefty guy I assume is the bouncer is eyeballing us. “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean by serious?”

Her sandals scuff against the gravel. “I don’t know. You just haven’t cracked a lot of jokes or made any dirty remarks about how short my dress is yet.”

“Is someone missing my perviness?” I tease and she doesn’t deny it. “I was just giving you some space while you thought about stuff, but since you brought it up...” I reach up the back of her dress and pinch her ass, eliciting a squeal from her.

She fights back a grin as she skitters out from under my arm. “I didn’t mean for you to start right back up.”

“You know what, I think you did want me to start up.” I charm her with a grin. “I think that, deep down, you really, really like my dirty mouth.”

She crosses her arms and raises her brows. “So what if I do?”

“So, you’re admitting you like me?” I try not to grin but fail epically.

“Well, I think it’s pretty obvious I like you.” Her eyes roam to my dick.

I bite my lip to keep from laughing at her. Then I snatch hold of her hips and reel her against me. “But you like me, like me.”

With a quivering breath, she bobs her head up and down. “I do.”

I close my eyes and breathe in the cool air. Despite where we are and why we’re here, I want to enjoy this moment. “Do you want to skip going to this place and go back to the motel for a little bit?”

“But it’s not Friday.”

My eyes shoot open. “Seriously? After what you did to me last night you’re going to go back to that?”

“I’m just kidding.” She laughs maliciously. “Besides, it is Friday, silly.”

“Oh, yeah.” Through all the stress, I’d somehow forgotten. An artful smirk curves at my lips. “Guess tonight is bow-chicka-bow-wow night, huh?”

“I guess so.” She suddenly grows serious as she warily looks over at the club. “I do think we should finish up with this, though. Maybe we’ll luck out and find your mom and then we can enjoy the rest of the night.” She gives my hand a squeeze.

“Yeah, maybe.” I’m more skeptical of the outcome, though. Even if by some miracle Marcus is here and he easily tells us my mother is alive and where she is, actually seeing her will more than likely ruin my night.

But knowing I’ll only have peace of mind when I know she’s not dead, I hold onto Clara’s hand and we walk up to the bouncer. He asks to check our ID’s. Since I don’t have a fake one, I give him my real one, hoping he’ll glance over it and let me through. Surprisingly, he does just that. The moment we enter the club, I quickly discover the reason for his carelessness. Half the people packed inside the small room are my age, if not younger.

“It’s dark in here,” Clara shouts over the bass of the music, the neon green lighting reflecting in her eyes.

I nod, intensifying my hold on her hand. I squeeze by people dancing and grinding on one another to the sultry rhythm of a song, leading Clara with me. When we reach an area where the crowd thins, I take a good look around and realize there isn’t a bar anywhere.

Odd.

Most of the crowd has paint on their skin that matches the shades on the exterior of the building. The paint glows against the black lights on the steel ceiling beams, and glitter is falling from somewhere. Almost every single person looks possessed by sheer lust, dry humping and fondling one another.

“It’s like an orgy!” Clara says with wide eyes as she watches the scene in front of us.

“Yeah, I think you got your rave wish!’ I holler over the electric music as we get jostled and groped by people.

“What do you mean?” She squints at the sweaty mob swarming us. “Wait, are they…”

I nod then offer her an apologetic look. “Leave it to my mother to be in a place filled with people rolling.”

“Are we going to be okay here?” She gapes at two people in the corner who are one step away from peeling each other’s clothes off and fucking right in front of us.

I cover her eyes and inch her toward a quieter spot in the room where people seem a little less handsy.

She tugs my hand away from her eyes. “Jax, I’ve seen people have sex before.”

My brow shoots up. “When?”

She raises a shoulder and gives a laidback shrug. “In porn movies.”

My jaw just about smacks the floor. “You watch porn?”

“I have a couple of times when I was hanging out with Mack and his friends...” She floats away in a memory then promptly shakes her head. “Where do you think I get all those dirty ideas from?”

I pull her toward me until our hips flush. “Clara McKiney, you’ve been holding out an important details about you.”