Again, I wasn’t entirely sure what drove me to do this, but I reached an arm around Noah’s shoulders and pulled him in for a side hug. For a moment—brief enough to make me second-guess if it even happened—Noah seemed to melt into my side, his body going limp, his head resting against me, and his body leaning into me. Then the hug was over, bodies separated, the space between us feeling miles long even though I could reach out and hold his hand in mine.

“Thank you,” Noah said, looking up at me and offering a shaky smile. “This never happens at our book club, I promise. You just picked one hell of a night to join us.”

“It’s all good,” I replied, returning the smile, trying to radiate confidence and strength even though the contents of that bloody box did actually shake me up.

Sirens sounded from down the street, followed by a splash of red and blue lights, painting the entire street of townhomes in stark colors. I already spotted a couple of neighbors looking out from the corners of their blinds, curious to see who was getting in trouble. They parked directly in front of us, two officers climbing out of the car and doing an immediate scan of the area, looking us all up and down as they walked toward us. My heart rate picked up—as if it could get any higher. Even without doing anything wrong, cops still made me nervous. I glanced down at the guns holstered on their hips, hating how close we were to them.

“What happened here?” the closest officer asked—Officer Hallston, according to his badge.

Noah started to explain, but Mason soon jumped in, finishing off the story with tears still welling up at the corners of his eyes. He almost appeared more distraught than Noah did, and the threat wasn’t even directed at him. I didn’t really blame Mason, though. I’d probably feel the same if I were the one to open that box, knowing that whoever set it there had been feet away from me.

The two cops took down all of our accounts, no matter how short they were, and walked up the steps with gloves and plastic wraps going over their shoes. They looked things over, neither of them seeming the least bit fazed. Sure, they’d both probably seen much worse, but not even a flinch came from either.

“We’ll take this into evidence,” Officer Hallston said as he came back down the steps and went toward his car, coming back with a bag big enough to fit the box inside. He handed it to his partner and gave Noah the rundown of what happened next, which basically boiled down to sit and wait. They couldn’t do anything without going through forensics first.