by Tijan
Giggles were coming from them. Giggles. From grown men. Only true friends laughed like that.
I waved a finger between them. “When did this happen?”
They stopped and drew to their fullest height. Bryce frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I thought you guys were faking before. I thought . . .” I thought I had destroyed their friendship? They were acting like they had in high school. It was—I felt a kick in my gut—nice. Then hope started to grow. Did I dare hope . . . the old trio was back?
“Oh no.” Corrigan clipped his head in a fierce motion.
“What?” My arms jerked, and I spread my fingers out, pressing my palm to my side.
“We’re friends despite you.” He gestured to Bryce. “I still love this guy, and he loves me. No matter who you pick, we’re not losing a damn good friend. This is despite you,” he repeated and stressed that word.
My mouth went dry. “What do you mean?”
“The two of us are going to remain friends, but once you pick, the person you don’t choose steps away from you.”
“Me?”
Bryce nodded.
They were serious, dead serious. I didn’t know how I felt about this.
Bryce’s tone sounded harsh. “We’ve discussed it. Whoever you don’t choose steps back from you, but not each other. We’ll still be friends.”
“But—” My mind was racing. I was going to lose one of them. “You told me this wouldn’t happen. I would still have both of you.” I needed them. They were my family.
“You’ll still have us.”
“But.” I pressed my fingers to my temples. A headache was coming on. “You’re not making sense.”
“We’ll both care about you. That won’t go away, and yes, we’ll both still be here for you, but not in the way you want. Not in the daily way. If you need us, like really truly need us, we’ll be here for you,” Corrigan said.
Bryce finished for him softly, “But it’s not going to be how you want it. We’re still family. We’ll be here for you if you need us, but not every day. It’s like we’re a family member that moved away. Every now and then maybe we can see you, but not every day. It can’t be like that, Sheldon.”
Corrigan added, “It’s the fairest way to do it.”
I was going to lose one of them. No matter how they were saying it, I would lose one of my family members.
Bryce was studying me, and he pressed his lips together. “Stop whatever you’re thinking. Stop it. This is the right way to do it, and you can’t deny this. You fell in love with both of us, and that’s not fair.”
“But—”
“Stop, Sheldon.” Corrigan was scowling now. “We don’t lose both of you this way. It would happen anyway. Once you picked, that other person would have to go away anyway.”
“But—”
“Just stop, Sheldon.” Bryce and Corrigan were right next to each other. They were looking at me with the same determined expressions, and they had decided. I had no decision in the matter. The lump got a shot of testosterone and grew to a goliath size in my throat.
They were right. No matter what, I would lose one of them.
I jerked my head in a nod. “Okay.” I took a shuddering breath in. “Okay.” Then I let it out.
“All right.” Denton’s cheerful voice was like a knife breaking the tension in the room. It was jarring and almost brought me to tears. Feeling them coming, I pressed a hand to my eye and turned away.
Denton didn’t notice. He was heading back for us. He clapped his hands together. “Papa Neil and Step-Girlfriend-Mama are all settled. I don’t need to worry about their staff. I guess they have their own protocols or whatever, but I put a bunch of wine and champagne on ice. Everything’s set up downstairs and waiting for us to party the night away.” He was grinning from ear to ear. “What do you guys say? Are we good to get our booze on?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My throat was burning.
“Yes.” Corrigan stepped forward. “We’re ready.”
There was a moment of silence.
Denton asked, “Sheldon?”
Bryce said over him, “Sheldon, you ready?”
No.
My throat wouldn’t stop burning.
He stepped closer and put an arm around my shoulders. Turning me forward, he nodded at Denton. “She’s good to go. Let’s forget about the shitstorm going on for the night and have fun.”
“Oh . . . sure . . .” I felt Denton’s gaze on me.
The decision was made. It was final. They made it without me, and they were letting me know I had to accept it. It was how it was going to be, but fuck— it hurt to swallow that. Then I jerked my head in another nod. “Yeah.” It was the right thing to do. “I’m good to go. Let’s get shitfaced tonight.”
I had to say goodbye to one of them.
“All right then.” The cheerful tone had waned from Denton. His grin faded as well, and he started back down the hallway. “I suppose follow me then?”
CHAPTER EIGHT
The police were notified of everything that happened; that my dad’s security team found evidence of fireworks-gone-wrong. When Neil got the news, he was sitting across from me at the breakfast table and immediately looked at me, then Corrigan, and Bryce. His eyes went flat. His lips pressed together in a firm line, and he let out a loud disapproving sigh before murmuring into the phone, “Fine. Yes, canvass any neighbors to see if they could’ve gotten onto the property.” His gaze came back to me and stayed. “But I have a feeling you won’t find much.”
Bryce was at the coffee machine. Corrigan had just sat down with toast on his plate, and I had lifted my own coffee cup to my lips for a sip. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Denton came into the room then and halted abruptly, looking around at everyone. A quick frown appeared, and then he shrugged, sliding into one of the empty chairs. He swung his head around the room with an easy grin. “How’s everyone doing this morning?”
No one answered.
My dad ended his call. The disapproval seemed to have doubled, and he looked among all three of us again, Denton excluded because, hello—puppy dog smile and innocent eyes. No. My dad knew who had been behind the explosions now.
He sighed a second time. “I hope it was worth it… whatever you three did to get here.”
My jaw firmed. “It will be.”
He shook his head and stood up from the table. Taking his coffee and the newspaper, he saluted Denton with his cup. “No offense to your presence, but because of my daughter and her two friends, I’ve found that I’ve lost my appetite.”
“Oh.” Denton frowned. “Okay.” After he left the room, Denton asked, “What was that about?”
“Nothing.” I gripped my coffee cup tighter. “Just . . . he wants me to hide. I have a different opinion.”
“Oh.” He glanced to Corrigan and Bryce, who were still frozen in their state, waiting. And just like that, both finished what they were doing. Bryce poured himself some coffee, and Corrigan bit into his toast. Bringing his coffee and a cup for Denton, Bryce took my dad’s empty seat, and for a moment, all four of us were quiet around the table.
Corrigan finished his first slice of toast and picked up his second. Before he bit into it, he said, “All right. Quiet time is over, folks. What’s the plan?”
Everyone looked at the other. No one said a word. Then I laughed and shook my head. “No one has a clue.”
“Well, screw that. Let’s figure something out.”
Denton was still swinging his head from one end of the table to the other. He leaned forward now. “Wait. You guys are going to figure out who framed Sheldon?”
“You got any ideas?” Corrigan asked.
“No, but—” he stopped, a quick frown appeared.
“But what?” I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table. My coffee cup was suspended in front of me.
“I heard a rumor.” He looked to Bryce.
“About me?”
“No, about
that model you were dating.” Denton cast me an apologetic look.
I rolled my eyes, but the mere mention of her brought a nice little stabbing pain to me. Lovely.
Bryce looked at me, too. “I swear, Sheldon, I slept with her once. The rest of the time was just making sure she never went off the deep end. That’s all over now. She’s got nothing on me anymore.”
“No.” Denton cut in, stopping anything I might’ve said. “That’s the rumor I heard, not about you or Sheldon, well, not really. I heard her assistant was the one who cut Sheldon’s brakes. The reason why,” he looked at Corrigan, “you had that accident.”
“Wait. What?” Corrigan jerked forward in his seat.
“Where’d you hear that?”
Denton turned to me. “My agent told me. She heard it from one of her clients. You know how that stuff gets around.”
Her assistant cut my brakes? I glanced at Corrigan. She’d been the reason he got in an accident? His gaze was clouded. I couldn’t decipher the emotion, but when he met my gaze and looked away with a cringe, it left a sour taste in my mouth. It also set our next step in stone.
I wanted public. I wanted a confrontation. I wanted to ruffle some feathers, and maybe the real killer would make a mistake.
“What are you thinking?” Bryce had been waiting. He leaned forward. “I recognize that look.”
Denton frowned. “Is it sad I recognize it, too?”
Corrigan turned back, a half grin on his face. He shook his head, a sad laugh coming softly from him. “It’s that look that always gets us in trouble.”
They were right.
We’d probably get in trouble.
I didn’t care, and thirty minutes later after I relayed the plan, they didn’t care either.
“Right.” Denton clapped his hands together. “Now for the best thing. Disguises.”
*
Sneaking out of the house was the first part of the plan. Bryce announced his excuse first. He was going to call his agent and then take a nap. Corrigan was second. His excuse was a movie. He would be in the theater watching a movie. Then Denton, who had the real excuse. He let everyone know he was going to have dinner with a movie producer. That much was true, but he didn’t give the details that the dinner was at the same hotel where Bryce’s ex Guada-whore was staying at too. And me—I gave no excuse. At this point, Beth and Neil seemed relieved if I wasn’t in a room with them. There was no tension, so when they went to the pool for a relaxing afternoon, I snuck into the garage first. I climbed into the trunk, leaving it open, and a moment later, Corrigan crawled in with me. Then we waited, but it wasn’t long before a driver came over and got behind the wheel. We could hear him saying to someone else, “Yeah, boss needs a ride to the city. No, Car One. It’s what he wants. Yeah. Yeah.”
After that, everything worked like clockwork.
The car started and pulled around to the front. The back door opened, and we heard Denton say, “Mr. Scout needs a ride as well. He has to meet with his agent.”
I felt Corrigan laughing behind me, and I elbowed him in the gut. “Hush.”
He wrapped his arm farther around me, pressing behind me. He whispered back to me, “Stop worrying. I’m just thinking of your dad and Beth, what they’ll think having the entire house in peace for the whole afternoon. I bet they won’t even know until we get home.”
“Or until the paparazzi finds us. I’m sure my dad will get a call right away. He’ll be pissed.”
Corrigan’s laughter was comforting next to my ear. “Same old Sheldon. That’s what he’ll think. It’s nice to have you back, have all three of us back together.”
I laughed, but the chuckle died in my throat a second later. It was nice, but it wouldn’t last. The three of us were done after this, after I picked. Suddenly, I couldn’t see one reason why he was laughing now. “Shut up, okay? Get ready. It won’t take long.”
“Got it.”
The car ride was bumpy. I knew when we arrived at the hotel, as the car slowed, voices and shouts sounded right above us. It was a constant murmur of noise, but then Bryce’s name was shouted, and everything went up three notches.
“BRYCE!”
“Where’s Sheldon?”
“Are you here to get back together with Guadalupe? How does Sheldon feel about this?”
“Is it true you’ve been hiding out with Sheldon? What about Corrigan? He’s been missing, too.”
“If you’re here with Denton, does this mean the rumors that the two of you hate each other are false?”
“Bryce! Tell us something?”
They were all shouting at him, right above where we were in the trunk. Some touched the car, then we heard a different shout, right before the car sped up a hill. “Back away from the car. I said, GET BACK!”
Then it was silent. The car came to a complete stop, and the trunk opened, blinding both of us from the sudden light. Bryce smirked down at us, holding the top of the trunk so it wouldn’t fall back onto us. “Come on. Hurry up. The hotel security’s been alerted we’re here so they’re expecting us around the front. They’ll get curious and come looking if we don’t show up in the next thirty seconds.”
Corrigan rolled out first. I started right after him, but hands picked me up under my arms. Bryce lifted me clear from the trunk, and murmured in my ear, “Be safe. I mean it.” Then he let me go and shut the trunk.
“Sheldon,” Corrigan hissed from the side. He had dashed behind some foliage, and I took off after him the same instant Bryce hurried back to his seat. As I reached Corrigan and he pulled me down, the car sped forward and went around to the front of the hotel.
That was when I poked my head out and surveyed where we were. It wasn’t the same hotel as before, where his ex had been staying while I was at the same hotel. This was a different hotel.
Corrigan told me, “It’s the Palloy.”
That made sense. The hotel was known for its privacy for celebrities. It was almost a fortress. A thirty-foot wall surrounded the hotel, and the only way in and out was a gate, which was situated around the back of the hotel. Guests arrived and drove around to the front. They could unload and enter the hotel, knowing no one was taking their pictures. I looked up to the top of the wall. There were no trees for paparazzi to climb. It was completely bare.
Corrigan added, “If they touch the wall and climb, they’re trespassing. The wall is property of the hotel.”
I frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
I sighed. “This isn’t going to be the shitstorm that I wanted it to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wanted attention. I wanted the media to know we were here.”
“They will. Trust me.” Corrigan stood up, but was still crouching over so his head couldn’t be seen from the top of the foliage. He motioned for me as he started heading toward a back door. As I followed him, he whispered back to me, “I know some guys from school that used to work here. They aren’t supposed to keep phones on them, but they do anyway. Catching a photo and selling it to the tabloids helped buy one guy a car.”
“They never caught him?”
“They did, but they just fired him. He went somewhere else and did the same thing. Tabloids spend a lot of money for those pictures, some of them anyway.”
Pressing my lips into a flat line, I didn’t want pictures taken and sold. Whatever was added could be made up or twisted into a lie. I wanted cameras. I wanted actual paparazzi in the lobby. I wanted all of it caught, then blasted on some show. This wouldn’t do. Corrigan tried the door handle, but it was locked.
“I thought you were going to go in and sneak an ID card from someone?” That had been the plan.
“I will. I just wanted to try this way first.” He glanced at me. “You going to be okay waiting out here?”
I gestured to the bushes next to the door. “It’s a stalker’s wet dream.” Giving him a smile, I patted his arm. “I’ll be fine. Go ahead. Give this girl her fairytale and break her into this ri
tzy hotel.”
He laughed. “I will. I’ll be back in a few, okay?” As he slipped past me, his hand brushed against mine. Acting on impulse, I grabbed for it. Sudden tears threatened to spill out, and I wasn’t sure why I was feeling this way, but when he paused and looked back, I just squeezed his hand and whispered, “Be safe.”
“You okay?”
I nodded. I would be. That’s what I reminded myself. I would be, at the end of all this.
Corrigan left, disappearing around the corner silently. He was supposed to sneak in through a side door, that either Bryce or Denton was going to open for him. Bryce and Denton had talked about the hotel layout. I hadn’t paid much attention. I’d been too busy plotting what I was going to say to Guadalupe and her assistant, but I wished now that I had paid more attention.
Then the back door opened. I slunk farther down behind the bush, hoping they couldn’t see me as one employee stepped outside and lit a cigarette. He leaned back against the wall, inhaling and seeming to savor the taste of it before letting it back out. I frowned. This could take a while, but then a name was called from inside the building.
“Aron.”
He opened the door and stuck his head inside. “Here?”
A woman dressed in a housekeeper’s uniform came to the door. She saw the cigarette and heavy disapproval flashed to her face. She shook her head, her hands resting on her hips. “What are you doing? Those things will kill you.”
“Yeah, yeah.” He took another drag before asking, “What do you need?”
She gestured inside, over her shoulder. “Security’s saying a door was left open by the west stairs. I’m supposed to send you over to check it out.”
He made an impatient sound. “What? Can’t they check the security cameras?”
“Glen said he was in the process of wiping the footage from yesterday. He messed up though and accidentally deleted the footage of today, too. He said to have you check it out, just post there and make sure no one’s trying to slip in.”
“Come on.” He held his cigarette up. “I’m taking a break.”