The Boneyard was alive tonight. The bonfires burned high, the music blasted from someone’s truck speakers, and the waves crashed in the distance, their rhythm almost lost beneath the sound of laughter and reckless energy.

JJ Maybank thrived in nights like these—drunk on adrenaline, on freedom, on the feeling that nothing mattered except the sand under his feet and the firelight in his friends’ eyes.

But then he saw her.

She wasn’t a Pogue. That much was obvious. Her sundress was too clean, her hair too perfectly styled, like she didn’t belong in the chaos of the Boneyard but had wandered in anyway. A Kook girl at a Pogue party. Interesting.

She was standing near the edge of the crowd, arms crossed, watching like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to stay or run. JJ wasn’t one to let a mystery sit unsolved, so he grabbed a beer, sauntered over, and flashed his signature smirk.

“Lost, princess?”

She glanced at him, unimpressed. “Not everyone who comes here is lost, you know.”

JJ chuckled, taking a sip of his drink. “Right. So, what’s your deal? Slumming it for the night? Looking for a little adventure?”

She raised a brow. “And if I was?”

That caught him off guard. Most Kook girls either avoided him completely or threw insults like knives. But she? She was challenging him.

JJ stepped closer, eyes locked on hers. “Then I’d say you came to the right place.”

She let out a small, knowing smile, and damn—he felt it like a shot of whiskey straight to his bloodstream.

The fire crackled behind them, the air thick with salt and smoke. Somewhere in the distance, his friends were shouting over a stupid bet, but none of it mattered.

Because JJ Maybank had just found the most dangerous thing at the Boneyard tonight.

A girl who could play his game.