Page 29 of Beneath the Surface

“They want us to know we’re at their mercy,” Micah finished.

It was like the temperature dropped instantly after they spoke. With each passing day, we opened our eyes to the gravity of our mistakes.

“I think…” I paused and looked around us for good measure. “We should figure out whose body might be at the bottom of that lake.”

Gray and Micah gave me supportive nods, while Cruz gave me a sardonic smile.

“Great idea, princess, but how are we going to find a body the police don’t even know about?”

His condescending tone grated on my nerves.

“I don’t see you coming up with a better idea,” Micah fired back at him.

Our eyes met across the table, and I offered him a small smile. Cruz instantly looked annoyed by our interaction, while Grayson looked pissed.

“We can do some research and see if there are any open cases, runaways, or if someone’s been reported missing.” Grayson ran a hand through his hair as he said it.

It was a good place to start.

“Damn, here I thought you hockey players were all brawn and no brain,” Cruz teased Gray.

At least this time, he wasn’t openly taunting him, which was an improvement. Grayson just rolled his eyes, and I called that improvement. Before we could bounce off more ideas, my cell phone pinged, and all of us looked at it as if it were a ticking time bomb.

It was really fucked up when you started to fear your own cell phone ringing.

We all stared at it, and I knew I needed to check it, but I wanted to keep pretending a little longer. Up until thirty minutes ago, my day was fine—and now I had made the decision to start facing everything, no matter how scary it was.

Micah chose that moment to stretch out one of his legs so it could touch my own. I bit my lip when it began to quiver. Micah’s actions had me tearing up for no reason. It was the way he could be gentle in the moments you most needed him. Micah was always there to lend you support when you needed it most. He made no fuss about it, either.

I was too focused on looking at Micah and offering him a thank-you without words to barely squirm when a big hand settled on my leg. I could feel Cruz’s heat through the thin material of my leggings.

Shaking my head from thoughts of stupid boys, I reached for my phone and groaned.

“Is it them?”

“What does it say?”

“How many fucking more times will they do this?”

The three of them spoke right after the other.

“No, it’s worse,” I let them know as I began to gather up my shit. Cruz took the opportunity to pluck my phone away from me and read the text aloud.

Zeta Gamma Theta:

Now I see why Ava couldn’t make it to our meeting on time

Below was a picture of Micah, Grayson, and me standing outside the hockey house. It was taken at the moment that I stood between them both, and if that wasn’t damning enough, you could see just how late it was.

“Ava,” Grayson began to say as he saw the picture.

I put a hand out to stop him.

“Like I said, we can’t have everything.”

Once I was all set to go, I began to walk away, but this time, someone took hold of my hand to stop me.

What was it with these stupid boys that they wouldn’t let me make a grand exit whenever I wanted?

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