Page 20 of Beneath the Surface

Since when had Ava and Micah become a comfort? This whole situation was so fucked up.

“Hey, man. You should invite your friends to our Halloween party. We could use some new blood.” From his position at the kitchen island, Miller raised his glass in a mocking salute. His face said it all. Disbelief, curiosity, a little disdain—probably for Cruz.

“We’ll be there,” Ava snapped as I steered my three uninvited guests through the kitchen, her shoulders straight and her head held high. She looked so fucking gorgeous in that moment, my breath caught in my throat.

“We will, will we?” Cruz drawled, too quiet for anyone outside our little group to hear.

Ava and Micah exchanged glances, and Micah nodded firmly. I didn’t like this telepathic thing they had going on—not at all—and from the look on Cruz’s face, he was about as impressed by it as I was.

Focus, Grayson. The only important thing was getting to the bottom of the texts. With that in mind, I picked up the pace, managing to get the three of them up the stairs and down the hallway to my room without anyone else accosting us. When the door was closed and locked behind us, I exhaled, a little of the tension seeping from my shoulders.

I looked around the room, taking it in with fresh eyes, trying to picture how the others might see it. There was the huge bed in shades of blues dominating the space—because I liked my comfort. Then there were my desk and shelves with my laptop and books, my drawers and wardrobe, and a love seat that had replaced the smaller chair I’d accidentally snapped the leg of in my sophomore year—clearly it hadn’t been designed to take the weight of a hockey player. I’d made a half-hearted attempt to make the bare white walls less plain with a Barracudas pennant, a few posters, and some photos. The only other thing on the walls was a large noticeboard that I had bought with good intentions, but barely even used.

I hadn’t put much effort into the decor, and it showed. A couple of lamps casting a soft glow made the room look more welcoming, but with three people I wasn’t sure how to deal with in my private space, it all suddenly felt lacking.

“What the fuck am I doing here?” Cruz broke the silence, leaning back against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.

Now it was my turn to exchange glances with Ava and Micah, and I knew for a fact we were all on the same page.

“These texts,” I began. “As far as we know, only the four of us have received them. We don’t know who the sender is, or why they’re sending these messages. Cruz…” I paused after speaking his name, the sound of it unfamiliar on my lips. He seemed as uncomfortable as I was, grimacing and shifting on his feet. “Cruz,” I repeated, after sucking in a breath. “What happened at the lake last summer? We need to hear it from your point of view and compare our experiences. Maybe then we can find something to tie it all together. Because I don’t know about you, but the rest of us are at a fucking loss.”

He shook his head impatiently. “I don’t know why. If I did, do you think I’d be here?”

“Okay. You don’t know why. None of us knows why. But what did you see? D-did you see the—the hand in the water?” A shiver went down my spine, and I stuttered over my words as that night once again replayed itself in detail in my brain. A heavy silence fell over the room, Ava and Micah also caught up in the memories we all wished we could forget. Memories that were something out of a nightmare. Memories that shouldn’t have been real, but were.

Fuck.

Cruz’s eyes flashed with fire, hostility radiating from him as he stared me down, but I refused to break his stare.

We needed to know what he saw.

13

CRUZ

Hijo de puta.

My comfort was nonexistent at this moment. It had been a while since I felt the way I did. Getting moved around the system was similar to being tossed with a group of strangers you didn’t know if you would vibe with.

The last house I stayed in was in Blackstone. That first day there had been uncomfortable, but it had not been hell—this was hell.

A new year, a new home.

Most kids my age got presents or birthday cakes. For my tenth birthday, however, the family who had fostered me told me I had to go back into the system. I spent a whole year with them—the best year of my shitty life so far. I stupidly thought they would be my forever home. How silly of me to believe that someone like me could get a happy ending.

The couple who had fostered me were finally able to conceive, and they said they could no longer take care of me. I hated them at that moment, but I understood.

So here I stood in front of my new home, which came with a change of towns since the shelters in my area were too crowded.

Going into a shelter was always tough. You were a sheep coming into a den of wolves. It had been a year since I had been in a place like this, but you never forgot the feeling that came with it. You felt as if you were stained with dirt that never seemed to go away.

Years later and that feeling was still there. If I had one regret in my fucked-up life, it would be going after Big Dog that day. If I could have taken it back, I would have just kept swallowing my anger and let him try to fuck me over. At least that way, I could have seen the betrayal coming. My plan had been simple: graduate and keep out of trouble.

Maybe trouble always found people like me. I had been tainted since birth.

I knew that all three of them were looking at me, waiting for me to tell my version of events. It wasn’t much, but I was still the outcast, and my turn of events might be enough for them to decide to turn against me.

Ava and Micah sat on a small love seat against the only free wall, while Grayson sat on his bed. You could taste the unease in the air. Sighing, I slid down against the door until I sat on the floor. I hated the position. It left them looking down on me—more than they already were.

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