Page 244 of Stay Scared

All three men react at once, and I burst out laughing.

Cade looks murderous, Owen checks the time automatically, and Ash stares toward the exit like he might have Mark removed from the property by force.

“Do not.”

Ash looks at me. “I kept that thought to myself.”

“You were thinking loudly.”

Cade’s mouth finds my neck. “You said you might stay.”

I did, six weeks ago, before I could tell whether returning here would make me feel trapped again.

The open gate behind me kills that fear.

Wanting them is worse.

I reach into my pocket and wrap my hand around Ash’s key, then pull my phone out with the other.

Mark answers before the second ring. “You alive?”

“For the moment.”

“Comforting.”

“I’m staying a while.”

Silence follows.

Then, “Define a while.”

Cade’s mouth moves against my throat while Ash settles his hand at the base of my spine. Owen takes the phone gently from my hand.

“Indeterminate,” he tells Mark.

I smack his chest, and he hands it back.

Mark sighs through the speaker. “Call me before somebody turns the haunted house back on.”

“I will.”

I hang up and put the phone back into my pocket beside the founder key.

Cade looks toward the gate, then at me. “You staying?”

I pull him down by the front of his shirt, and his hands close around me.

Behind us, Owen locks the mechanical door.

I turn sharply.

He lifts both hands. “Not the exit.”

I glance back.

The main corridor remains open.

Ash watches me. Nobody explains further.