Bryce bit down on her trembling bottom lip silently, and Thea wanted nothing more than to reach out for her. She was afraid that if she did, though, Bryce would push her away again. With everything that had happened, she’d shut down, barricade herself somewhere Thea wasn’t allowed to follow. The fear that maybe this wasn’t over, that maybe the killer was still out there and preparing to target Bryce…
Thea hadn’t been able to breathe for days because of it.
“There’s a way to know for sure,” Thea suggested timidly, glancing first at Mikey and then Bryce.
Mikey frowned. “How?”
“The podcast.” She felt sick even saying it. But how else could they be sure? How else could she stop feeling as though Bryce was about to be taken from her? “If it isn’t Jace and the killerisstill out there, they’re still listening; and if they’re still listening…”
“No.” Bryce’s voice cleaved through the bookstore, through Thea, with its severity. “You’ve taken this too far, Thea.”
“You said it yourself. Jaceisn’tconnected to the other victims. It probably isn’t him. What do you suggest? Sitting back and hoping that whoever owns that shed isn’t coming for you next? ”
“No, I don’t suggest that. I suggest cancelling the podcast and leaving this alone for good.”
The stunned silence that followed smothered Thea. She scrutinized Bryce; searched for any hint that she didn’t mean it. All she found was stone cold determination. “You want to stop doing the podcast?”
“Yes.”
“So that’sit?That’s the end ofus?”
“Yes.”
“No,” Thea refused, voice cracking with strain. She did her best to keep her features steady; a talent that had been learned only from Bryce.“No. We can’t let somebody ruin this for us.”
“There won’t be an ‘us’ left to ruin if we carry on!” Bryce erupted. “And you know what?Yourpicture wasn’t on that wall. It’s notyourdecision to make. I’ve spent too long following you around, getting involved in this crazy shit just to please you, and look where it’s gotten us. I can’t afford to do this anymore. I have my sister to think about.”
Thea flinched against the words, each one an arrow ripping through her chest. She was doing this forBryce, because she was terrified of losing her. How could Bryce not see that?
“And what if we’re right? What if the killerisstill out there? Whether we cancel the podcast or not, they’ll search for their next victim; which, by the looks of things, is you. At least this way we know we havesomecontrol over this, some forewarning.”
A look of sheer, heart-wrenching disgust flickered across Bryce’s face, and it left Thea with a foul taste in her mouth. What was happening to them? The more she tried to cling to Bryce, the further away from her she seemed to fall.
“You really would watch the entire town die if meant you still got to play thisstupidgame, wouldn’t you?”
“Is thathonestlywhat you think?” Tears streamed freely down Thea’s hot cheeks.
“Guys, please.”Mikey stepped between them, shoulders hunched as though he carried an invisible weight. They all did. “Let’s not fight.”
“I’m doing this because Icareabout you.” Thea inched forward, wringing her hands together as though it might make Bryce justsee. “Because if someone is coming for youbecauseof the podcast,I want to be prepared. I want to help. Because I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning and find your face on the front of theGazette, too.”
Bryce didn’t believe her. Thea could tell as much by the way her nose wrinkled, the corners of her mouth turning down with that same stubbornness she’d always had.
“You’re my best friend, B.” Thea’s voice cracked with the words, because Bryce wasn’t just her best friend. She was so much more than that. She was the person Thea would do anything for; the person for whom Thea would fight tooth and nail just to hear her laugh. The person who she would lie uncomfortably still beside for an entire night if it meant their hands remained laced together in bed without disruption, and the person Thea could talk to at seven in the morning, when she woke grouchy and hungover. She was… Bryce. She was Thea’s person. And Thea couldn’t stand the idea of Bryce not being a person at all anymore. Seeing the photographs in that shed had been bad enough. If something came of them… “I don’t know what else to do. What else can we do?”
Mikey sniffled behind Thea, and she felt him shuffle closer, felt his hand squeeze her shoulder with reassurance. “It has to be your choice, Bryce. But I do think there’s a method to Thea’s madness. We couldn’t save Hannah, but neither could the cops. If the killer reallyisout there, and I think we both know they are, the ball’s in our court. They listen to the podcast. They mimic the murders you talk about. If we do this right, we can decide how this goes.”
When Bryce’s face crumpled and she clutched her sides as though trying to hold herself together, Thea’s heart almost ripped through her ribcage.
And she couldn’t stand there anymore, too far away, too unable to help her, touch her.
But Bryce slipped away before Thea could get close. A muscle feathered in her jaw as she glared first at Thea and then Mikey through a veil of brimming tears.
“I didn’t decide any of this.” Her voice didn’t sound like her own. It was detached, metallic, as hollow as Thea’s chest felt. “Do what you want. I won’t be part of it.”
“Bryce —” Thea tried to plead, but it was too late. Bryce was gone. Thea had lost her.
* * *