51

No Signal

“Still no signal?”

Kelly jumped at the sound of Drew’s voice so close to her. She spun around, giving her head a furious shake.

She wasn’t about to admit that she could barely see anything on the cellphone’s screen. Her eyes kept jumping. Kept shifting and refusing to focus on whatever she wanted to see. There might have been a sliver of cell signal on the deck, but staring at the phone had made it wriggle in a very unnerving manner.

“None. Nowhere. Not even out here.”

“Shit.” Drew ran a thumb and forefinger along his jaw and then shook his head. “You know what…” he began wagging a finger at her. “You know what, it might just work.”

“What?”

Shit, why did everyone have to move so fast? It was like watching a movie in fast forward — Drew’s mouth twitched like he had the palsy, his eyes flickered over her face too fast too follow, and his movements were the jerks of a rusty robot.

“The boat.”

“You have a fucking boat?”

Kelly spun to Angel. When had the girl come back from upstairs? She looked pale — those blue eyes were the only color on her face. Even her lips were white. Or was it the light? Something had happened to the sun… was it twilight already?

Impossible.

…Impossible.

“Of course I have a boat,” Drew said. “Why would I buy a lakehouse if I didn’t have a boat?”

“Was it a package deal?” the girl asked. She’d perched on the edge of the sofa, and kept running her palms down her thighs as if they were sweating.

“What, the boat?”

“Yeah.” Angel chewed for a second. “Like, does it come with the house?”

“No, it doesn’t—” Drew broke off with an irritated cough. “Kelly, if we go out on the lake, we could get a signal on the far bank.”

She turned on wooden legs and stared out over the massive expanse of water. “Boat?”

“So you have to buy it separate?” came Angel’s voice. “Like, do you have to, have to, have one? Or you’ll get chucked out?”

“Quiet, Angel,” Drew murmured. Then, in a louder voice. “Kelly? The boat’s all fueled up. It’ll be nice out there, actually. Quiet. Peaceful.”

An arm encircled her waist. She flinched and spun in Drew’s embrace. “Drew? What are—”

He was too close. His face filled every inch of her world, those dark eyes drawing at her like magnets at lode. “Let’s go out on the lake. Just the two of us. You can call for a tow… It’ll only be here tonight, anyway. We can look at the stars.”

“What time is it?” she whispered, a flicker of panic trembling through her. “How late is it?”

“Just gone two,” Angel provided from somewhere behind Drew. “Hey, should I be trying to wake up Bryce?”

“No,” Drew said, his head turning away and breaking the trance he’d put her under. “Leave him on the floor.”

“But what if he drowns in his own blood or something?”

“He’s not bleeding that much,” Drew snapped, before turning his attention back to her. His brow creased. “What did you take, Kelly?”

“Sunnie,” she managed through a throat that seemed too dry to produce words. “Weed.”

“Are you okay?”

She nodded slowly and put her hands on Drew’s chest. He was warm — warmer than the surrounding air — and as solid as Bryce had been at her back.

The thought brought with it a searingly erotic memory — Bryce’s face as he slammed into her while Angel teased at a nipple with her teeth — and she closed her eyes as a blush heated her cheeks.

“I need to get a tow,” she said. “Can we go now?”

“On the lake?”

Drew made an angry sound, but then Angel was trying to worm her way between them.

“Are you fucking crazy? You can’t go out on the lake. What happens if you fall overboard? You can’t swim. You should be here, inside. Drew can go. He can make the call. He doesn’t need you to—”

But the rest of what Angel said disintegrated when Drew backhanded the girl.

Her face snapped to the side. Her gasp drew goosebumps over Kelly’s skin as she tumbled into the back of the couch.

When Drew turned back to her, something black and malevolent glittered in his obsidian eyes. Something as evil yet indefinable as the shadows under a ten-year-old’s bed. Those that could so effortlessly veil the ragged claws of a monster.

She pushed away from him. Tried to push away.

He had his hands on her arms. And he wouldn’t let go. Wouldn’t release her.

“Come, Kelly. Let’s get you home.”

“I… I don’t want to go—”

But her teeth snapped closed over the words as Drew turned and maneuvered her through the living room. Angel watched them go, doe-eyed with a hand cupping her cheek.

“Angel?” Kelly glanced over Drew’s shoulder, still trying to peel away his fingers.

The girl slowly turned her face, blinking hard, and then fell to her knees beside Bryce, shaking him furiously.

A gust of arctic wind sliced through Kelly’s clothes. She spun around, going rigid at the sight of the outside world. It looked too harsh. Too sharp. Like every pine needle would pierce her flesh. Like the edge of every step was a razor waiting to slice into her feet.

“Drew, please, I don’t—”

“It’s beautiful out there, Kelly.” Drew hugged her. Not hard, but firmly, as if he was trying to warm her.

It worked. Her body began relaxing against him. Her boots didn’t drag through the gravel anymore but crunched alongside his.

The air was fresh out here. Sharp enough to slice her throat and shred her lungs. She gulped at it and then cupped her hands over her mouth to try and warm it before it slid inside her.

“Was it E?” Drew murmured conversationally to her. “Just some E and weed? Nothing else?”

“Yeah.”

They turned. A doorway appeared. Behind it was a whole other room. Under the house.

“Holy crap,” she murmured, swaying back from the impossibility of the enormous, sleek boat that bobbed in front of her.

“Like it?”

“Big boat.”

“Not really. It’s just a cruiser.”

“Huge,” she said again. “We getting on it?”

“Of course, silly.” Drew’s arm went around her waist again. “That’s how we’ll phone. There’s signal, out there.”

“On the lake?”

“Of course on the lake. Come on.”

He helped her up a shiny steel railing. Her feet thunked hollowly on the boat’s deck when she stepped on it. She stomped a few times, and then grinned across at Drew.

“Come here.” Drew guided her to one of two padded leather seats just above the swim platform at the stern of the boat. “Sit.”

She sank down, shivering when the cold of the leather seat seeped into her legs. Drew crouched in front of her and tugged something cold and hard over her stomach. She glanced down, peering curiously at the seatbelt spanning her torso.

“Safety first,” he said.

When she glanced up at him, a smile bloomed on his face. But, a split second before that, there’d been a shadow in his eyes. That same shadow of before.

Except, this time, she could see the monster lurking in its depths.