Page 219 of Stay Scared

Instead, I fist my bandaged hand in his ruined shirt.

“You don’t get to order that.”

His mouth comes close enough that I feel his breath. “Then call it a threat.”

“Terrible strategy.”

“I have had a difficult night.”

Despite everything, heat moves through me.

They are still exactly what they were: bruised, bloody, and nowhere near harmless.

The paramedic reaches the ambulance and stares at the four of us. “Which one of you is my patient?”

“All of them,” Mark calls from a safe distance.

“Salem first.”

I release Ash.

He releases me last.

The paramedic reaches for my elbow, and Cade immediately moves before catching himself under my glare. Both hands clench at his sides.

That might be the most heroic thing he has done all night.

I climb into the ambulance.

Owen steps toward the open door, and Cade comes with him until the officer catches Cade this time.

Ash stays where I left him with blood drying across his shirt, watching me like the closing doors are a personal insult.

My phone vibrates again.

Jessa.

I silence it without reading the message. Whatever Fright Circuit wants can survive until I no longer have dried blood beneath my fingernails.

Cade raises his voice from outside. “Which hospital?”

The paramedic calls back the name before I can stop her.

Cade looks satisfied.

“Traitor,” I tell her.

“You’re welcome.”

Owen has already heard it.

Of course he has.

Ash looks at the founder key in my hand.

His key.

Now mine.