Bryce slapped it away. “You can go, but she’s not.”

“Oh my god!” Corrigan cried, “I thought you surrendered.”

“On trying to get through your head, not on Sheldon going out there.”

“No! No. No. Are we twelve, fighting over a girl?” Corrigan laughed in disbelief.

“No,” Bryce said calmly. “She’s my girlfriend and she’s not going out there.”

I slapped both hands on my ears and cried out, “Don’t say that word!”

Bryce ignored me and said again, “The line’s drawn, Corrigan. Step over.”

Corrigan smirked in his best friend’s face and drawled, “So we’re playing who has more credibility? Are you serious? You’re pulling the boyfriend card?”

“Not that word either!” I shrieked.

“I guess I am,” Bryce said clearly.

“Fine. I’m her best friend.”

“So am I—and I’m the guy she’s in love with.”

“She loves me too,” Corrigan debated.

“Not in your bed.”

I slumped over and dropped my forehead on my knee.

Corrigan sighed, “You can’t be her best friend and her lover. You can’t be both.”

“Are you kidding? Of course I can.” Bryce stood up and added, “I love her and you’re not taking her.”

“Oh my god!” I burst out. “The crazy people are outside, not in here!”

They both ignored me and Corrigan retorted with, “Sheldon is going to get the best reaction out of this guy. He’ll look at her and something will happen. A twitch, a whisker, I don’t know. Something. I have to take Sheldon with me.”

“No, you don’t,” Bryce got in his face. “Look, all you need to do is tell him that we’ve got a trail on this guy’s feed. Tell him that we’re going to have the address in the next thirty seconds or something. Then you’ll see a reaction or you won’t.”

“Stop it,” I said forcefully. “Stop it right now!”

Corrigan shifted back and Bryce faced me. He said calmly, “There is someone out there who’s obsessed—”

“And he’s likely to kill you just as much as me,” I pointed out.

Bryce quieted.

“I did not…I didn’t bitch slap Lew to end up hiding in my own house. That’s not me and you both know it! I am done hiding, that’s the entire reason for this party.”

At Corrigan’s brief flash of triumph, I squashed it immediately and said, “But I’m not going to go accuse some cop of being dirty or setting this up or even…I don’t know…trying to actually find this person by letting me be the bait.”

“Sheldon…,” Corrigan sighed.

“I am embarrassed that I’m here,” I cried out. “I’m embarrassed that…we’re insane. I got fed up and instead of thinking rationally and going to the police, I threw a party. And you let me!”

Bryce and Corrigan almost jumped from the accusation, but both merely looked scared—in their tough and manly way.

I cried out, hoarse, “We’re a bunch of high school kids! I’m not some ‘Ruling Queen.’ I’m just…I’m just a girl that goes to school, that wants to keep her two best friends close, and…God forbid!—I even want to, maybe, hold hands in a slightly couply boy/girlfri—I still can’t say that word.”

“So what are you saying?” Corrigan asked, cautious.

“I’m saying that we’re insane!” And then I crumbled and fell back on the couch, stricken.

I knew that there was a brief exchange of looks between Corrigan and Bryce.

Bryce won out. He shooed the best friend and computer tech from the room as the boyfriend—still a knee jerk reaction—sat beside me.

“Hey…,” Bryce murmured, huskily.

“Don’t!” I said sharply.

Bryce grew silent. His hand fell away from my knee. “Sheldon,” he sighed.

And that one word, from that one voice that belonged to that one person—this is where my walls crumbled and I curled over my knees with a hoarse cry.

I didn’t want to die.

“I’m so stupid. We’re stupid.” I cursed. “This isn’t some high school prank.

We’re not—we have no idea what we’re doing. We’re talking about dirty cops. Are you serious?! When did we lose our minds?”

“Probably about the time when you said, ‘let’s have a party,’” Bryce remarked, ruefully. His hand slid down my back. “I don’t think Corrigan ever had his mind, if that’s worth anything.”

“It’s not and you’re not helping,” I pointed out.

He was joking. I was crumbling and he was joking.

“Stop the show,” I murmured, hoarse. “I’m scared, Bryce. This is real…”

“I know!” Bryce snapped. “What do you want me to do? We’re already…the party’s here, Sheldon! The people are here. They’re out there. We can’t send them home.

We can’t…the trap’s already been laid.”

It hadn’t been baited.

“I have to go out there.”

“What? No!” Bryce denied.

“Yes.”

The trap needed to be baited. We’d brought it this far…

“No,” Bryce said again. “This guy, he’s strong, Sheldon. He’s sick and twisted and you can’t go out there. I mean, my god, he killed Leisha and Bailey. He killed them both and then moved their bodies. What kind of sick person does that?” Bryce shook his head again, but stopped when the door was abruptly kicked open. Chet stumbled inside, along with Mandy. They fell to the floor, rolled over, and stared at us, dumbfounded.

“Oh, hey.” Chet grinned stupidly and then pushed himself upright. He soothed a hand down his wrinkled shirt and announced, “Corrigan’s been arrested. The cops want you to go down and post bail. Some Officer Sherry told me to tell Sheldon that.”

Bryce and I didn’t even blink. We should’ve, but I almost expected something like that to happen. So we just stood and traipsed out the door. As we headed downstairs, I was grateful to see that a lot of people had cleared out, but was even more grateful when Mandy said she’d make sure everyone was gone by the time we got back.