Page 26 of Stay Scared

“And the fourth man?”

“We’re searching for him.”

“You cannot promise he is gone.”

“I cannot promise that.”

Cade turns toward the service corridor. Owen follows his line of sight, and neither man gives it his back again.

I remain outside the room. “What did you actually plan for tonight?”

Ash answers without looking at either man. “To frighten you with material you could not dismiss as generic. To force you out of the observer role.”

“You planned physical contact.”

“Physical contact was part of the design.”

I remember page twenty-something of the waiver. “And if attraction complicated the experiment?”

Cade’s expression changes, and Owen’s shoulders lock.

Ash looks directly at me. “We expected that possibility.”

He leaves the rest hanging long enough for me to understand it.

“You expected me to want one of you.”

Cade gives a humorless breath. Owen looks away first.

Ash holds my gaze. “We hoped you might.”

“And if I chose one?”

“The others would live with it.”

Owen’s mouth tightens. Cade looks like he has already decided he would hate that arrangement, which is interesting enough to remember.

I point toward Cade. “You wanted the confrontation.”

“I still want it.”

Then Owen. “You wanted me to finally look at you.”

“I wanted you to do it on your own.”

I turn to Ash. “And you wanted me to surrender control.”

His eyes stay on mine. “I wanted to know whether you could choose uncertainty without turning it into a performance.”

I glance toward the open corridor. “The stop phrase protects me from the three of you.”

“It applies to all three of us.”

“And the three taps do the same.”

“The taps trigger the same stop.”

“If I use either, you stop touching me, stop pursuing me, and remove restraints.”