Jaden (Jaded #3)(54)

I couldn’t lose him. I couldn’t lose either of them.

She started rubbing between her eyes, the bridge of her nose. “Wait a minute here. So, you’re saying Bryce isn’t here?”

“Isn’t he why you’re here?”

The two shared a look, and the other detective raised an eyebrow. “Are you worried about him, Sheldon?”

I gritted my teeth. She hadn’t earned the right to use my first name. “It’s Jeneve to you.” My tone was frosty.

Her other eyebrow matched the other, both raised high now. “Hold on. Putting aside your winning personality, like always, you’re saying Scout isn’t here?” She leaned closer, growing more serious. “Should we be looking for him?”

“Aren’t you right now? And what about Corrigan? They were together.” My chest started hurting. I could feel a panic attack coming on. “We just left them. Nothing bad could’ve happened since then.”

Could it?

“Okay.” Sheila held both her hands up. “I’m figuring this out. Sheldon, we’re looking for Bryce because we have to ask him some questions. To our knowledge, nothing has happened to him. Or are you telling us differently? Should we be searching for them?”

None of this was making sense. “Why are you here if nothing’s happened to them?”

“Because—” Sheila started to answer.

The other female defective cut in, “We can’t say.”

Fuck the headache. This officer was a whole new type of headache. I glowered at her. “Well then.” I folded my arms over my chest. “I can’t say either.”

The male detective yelled from the other car, “We got what we needed!” He waved his phone in the air. “Scout was just leaving some fraternity house. Officers have detained him for questioning.”

I could feel the female mocking me before she called back, “Is he being cooperative?”

“He is. He’s just confused.”

“Let’s head out then.” She whirled her fingers in the air, making a circling motion.

“Wait a minute. Was Corrigan with him? Is he okay, too?”

But they weren’t replying to me. As they all started for their cars, I grabbed Sheila’s arm. “Wait. He’s okay? Nothing happened to him?”

She gave me the slightest of warm smiles. Her tone was gentle. “He’s okay, Sheldon.” She patted my arm. “I’ll inquire about Corrigan, but we weren’t here out of any concern for them. We just need Bryce to answer a couple of questions.”

“Oh.” Then what the hell was happening? “What’s happened?”

“I can’t say anything, but trust me. In a f*cked-up way, this might be good news for you.”

Huh? So many questions were racing through me as I stood there and watched both cars pull out of the driveway.

The same helpless feeling that had been plaguing me weighed heavily once again. I felt like an elephant was trying to sit on my chest.

“Sheldon,” Denton called from the front steps. He sounded wary. “Come in. The guy told me before they left that Corrigan’s going to the station with Bryce, then I’m sure they’ll head back when they can.”

That something that is off was still with me. I couldn’t shake it, and I wondered if this was the beginning of an impending doom.

“Sheldon.” Denton still waited. I hadn’t moved. When I still didn’t move, he said, “I’m closing the gate. You can stay out here all you want. I’ll wait here.”

I glanced back to see that he had settled down on the ground, leaning back against the wall. He rested his head back and closed his eyes. There was no Mena so I assumed she had gone inside, but I didn’t care.

Corrigan and Bryce were the only ones I cared about.

As it was, I didn’t have to wait that long. Corrigan texted me a few minutes later: Home soon. B needed to answer some questions the police had. Don’t know what’s going on, but it was about Guadalupe.

“Was that Corrigan?” Denton must’ve heard my phone beep.

“Yeah.” I headed back up the stairs now. “They’re heading home now.”

He yawned, rubbing a hand over his face. His makeup smeared. “That was fast. The cops literally just left.”

“Yeah.” I frowned, but we’d have answers soon. Offering a hand to him, I helped him up and we went inside. “Where’s Mena?”

“She said she was tired. I’m sure she’ll be in her room all night now.”

He went to the refrigerator, and when he pulled out two bottles of water, I smiled in thanks and took a seat at the table. He sat across from me. “Man,” he said. “I’m tired. I need to go back to work. Too much stress trying to find your killer, traipsing around in ball gowns.”

I grinned. “I thought this would be second nature to you, Mr. I’m-in-Movies.”

He laughed shortly. “Nah. The hours are fine. Even dressing up and pretending to be a fraternity brother who’s pretending to be a girl is fine. It’s the stress about what could happen to you, now being worried about Bryce and Corrigan, too.”

Denton was concerned about them too. I frowned to myself. That thought had never occurred to me, but I didn’t know why it hadn’t. It wasn’t a surprise.