Page 37 of Salacious Park Avenue Prince

He answered on the third ring. “Caaaleeeb.”

A blast of music assaulted my ears, and I pulled the phone away. “Where are you?”

“At a lambast—lame…ass party. Where are yooou?”

“It’s two a.m. Where do you think?”

“Hmm. Jen’s bed.”

What?“It was only a first date.”

“Aww, didn’t go well?”

“It was fine, I just—” The sound of dry heaving had me sitting up in alarm. “Travis?”

He groaned, and that was it. I was tracking his ass down.

“Are any of the guys there?”

“Nooo.”

“Tell me where you are. Or put someone on that can tell me.”

He mumbled the name of a bar, and I shoved my shoes back on as I searched the address on my phone. Thank God Dad had gone to visit Vera on location for the weekend, or it would’ve been a lot more difficult to sneak out.

“Travis? I’m on my way. Okay?”

When he didn’t answer, my pulse began to race. That none of our friends were there didn’t sit right with me. What if something had happened, or, shit, what if he’d been drugged? What the hell was his sixteen-year-old ass doing at a college party anyway?

Ten minutes later, the taxi dropped me off at the corner, and I handed the driver a few bills. “I’ll double it if you wait.”

He narrowed his eyes then shrugged. “Need a smoke break anyway. You’ve got five.”

I jumped out and ran toward the entrance, pausing only long enough to flash the fake ID Travis had given me. Thatthing was finally coming in handy, although maybe Travis wouldn’t have gotten himself into this situation at all if he didn’t have one.

What was I thinking? All Travis had to do was flash a smile at someone and they’d drop to their knees and do whatever he asked. It was something I both admired and hated about him, because damn if I could ever tell him no either.

I called his phone again, but this time he didn’t pick up.

Shit.

I scrolled through my photos until I found one of him that I’d taken not long ago. He was always putting on a fashion show, showing off one of the many outfits he put together, and forced me to watch. Not that it was a hardship, considering he always made it entertaining, and gave me a reason to have an entire “Travis” album in my phone for moments just like this.

“Have you seen this guy?” I yelled out over the music to a group nearby, and when they all shook their heads, I made my way around the room. It was impossible that no one had seen him. Travis wasn’t exactly a wallflower, and he was a million times better looking than most people, especially the ones in here. But every answer was the same until I climbed up to the DJ booth and held up Travis’s picture. She didn’t stop mixing as she glanced at it, then nodded toward a hallway.

God, what did he like about these places? It was hot and loud, and I had to push through too many bodies to count just to get across the room. This was so not my scene.

“Travis?” I pounded on one of the bathroom doors, only to jump back when it opened and a guy twice my size answered with a glare. After a glance behind him to make sure he wasn’t holding Travis hostage, I moved on, peering into each of what looked like private VIP rooms.

Come on, where are you?This was taking longer than I thought, and I doubted the taxi was still waiting.

“Travis?” A velvet curtain hung across the entrance to the last room, and when I pulled it back, I saw a lone figure lying across the seating area. “Holy shit, Trav?”

He didn’t stir as I ran over and shook him awake. One of his eyes opened, and when he saw it was me, he cracked a half-smile and lifted an arm.

“Caaaleeeb. C’mere.”

A wave of relief ran through me, and I sank onto the couch beside him. “You ass.”

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