Repossession (The Keepers Trilogy) (12 page)

We walked out over a cusp of rocks, stopping to stare down into the calm water. The surface was deceptive. Exceptionally clear, with a teal hue, it looked heavenly and innocent. As I focused on its depths, though, there was a darker tone that lurked beneath the blue, filled with mystery and danger. I wanted to feel it all, needed to be in the midst of it.

Walking around Kale and Jet as they exchanged words, I darted over to the edge, stopping only to accept a shot of something from a woman with a tray. “How do I pay?” I asked, chucking the liquid back, feeling it burn my throat.

“On the house for members.” She looked at me suspiciously. “Are you new?”

Kale’s voice echoed behind her. “She’s a member. She’s with me.”

“In that case,” I reached again for the tray, “I’ll make that two.” I tossed another back, squeezing my eyes shut as I swallowed. The woman nodded and went back to work, leaving us at the ledge.

Kale chuckled. “Careful with that stuff, it’s hardcore.”

I winced, still feeling the burn. “Thank God.”

“I take it you’re in the mood for a swim?” He watched the way I drank in the sight of the alluring body of water before us.

I bent down to pull my boots off, desperate to rid myself of them. “You have no idea.”

“There’s a place upstairs to dry your clothes afterwards. I’ll hold your boots if you want. I can—”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, eyes trained on the water. I ripped Jet’s shirt and jeans off, chucking them on top of my boots, and dove in. My heart rate soared when I felt the cool water rush over my body, licking and caressing every part of me that the men on the train had touched. Fully submerged, I relished in the weightlessness, welcoming the smooth glide of the liquid as it conformed to and invaded the curves of my skin. I could stay under forever.

And I wanted to go deeper.

Opening my eyes under the water, I pulled myself farther down, grasping at the dark depths, begging them to lure me into their embrace. My naked skin chilled as I swam deeper, the cold quickly settling into my bones. I stopped my descent when my ears began to hurt from the pressure, treading to suspend myself right there, in the place that felt so perfect. That felt like home.

My gaze roamed up, meeting the surface. Faint traces of legs and arms thrashed around, and I knew people were talking and laughing, but their noises were muted. The peaceful stillness was blissful. Dim spirals of light cascaded from the surface, reaching toward me, but I stayed there, hovering on the edge of darkness, lingering between two worlds I didn’t understand but wanted to know more of.

A few seconds later my lungs signaled their need for air and I begrudgingly began my ascent, closing my eyes and soaking up the last few moments of peace. I broke the surface and sucked in a breath, smoothing my hair back.

“Jet, she’s right here!” Kale called. He was swimming a few feet away from me, his soaking-wet blond hair appearing darker. Friendly brown eyes found mine, and that charming grin of his tipped his lips again. I didn’t move from where I’d come up for air. His stare held mine and I was sure of it, now. There was no denying it.

Kale was sexy.

Really sexy, in a warm, sensual sort of way. But his personality was far from intense. He had a carefree air about him, something that made me feel smooth and at ease. Like I could breathe. I liked that feeling.

Not like Jet, who was almost always intense, with that earnest, passionate expression of his. He was always analyzing, always studying something with his eyes, the fierce concentration evident in them. Jet’s confidence and determination made me feel safe. Protected. I’d grown to like that about him—his heaviness. But right now, right this second, I didn’t want heavy. I wanted light. Freedom. And Kale’s energy oozed those very things.

Whether it was the two shots I’d downed before diving into the Abyss or the thrilling rush of the cold water that prompted me to splash Kale, I wasn’t sure, but before he could say another word to Jet, I sent a cool spray across his face.

His eyes sprang shut and surprised laughter sputtered from his lips. “Did you just … did you just
splash
me?”

I splashed him again. “Yeah, so? What are you gonna do about it?”

He opened his eyes and there was a wicked glint in them. A challenge. “Oh, okay. I see. That’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” He splashed me back. “How do you like them apples?”

“Skylla, you scared the shit out of me. I didn’t see you come up for air,” Jet said, swimming over to us. He remained a few feet away, his expression guarded as he kept his distance.

I splashed him next, unleashing a playful smile. “I’m fine, Grandpa. Stop worrying about me. Have a drink. You never know, it might be your last.”

The muscles in his jaw hardened and his eyes flicked between me and Kale. “Forget it. I’m not interested in babysitting you.” With a hard scowl, he swam back to the rocky shore, gracefully slipping out of the water. Except for his boots, he was fully clothed. As he rose to full height, he peeled off his shirt and grabbed his boots and backpack, then started to trek up the rocks to the stairwell.

“He’s uh … kind of intense, huh?” Kale followed my watchful gaze.

“He lost his sister.” I shrugged. “That’ll do it.”

“You’re just trying to get him to lighten up for a few minutes. It’s a good thing.”

“You think?” I was worried now, my gaze frozen at the top of the stairwell. “I just … feel sorry for him.”

“What about you?”

“Huh?” I looked at him now.

“What did you lose?”

My defensive hackles suddenly rose. I was unsure I’d ever want to share what happened on the train with anyone else. Only Jet knew. Only he had a right to know. “What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s lost something since the Invaders arrived. What about you?”

“My parents. My home. My life back in Alabama.”

My dignity
.

I steeled myself to continue. “Good news is, I had no clue what I was doing before the attack, so I guess I gained something.”

“How do you figure that?”

“Now I have some direction. I know what to live for.”

“No clue what you were doing, huh. So you didn’t have direction before?”

“Nope. I was just … drifting. Then the attack happened, and Jet and I crossed paths …”

“And he gave you direction?”

I thought about that for a moment. “Yeah, he did. I don’t have anything to fight for. My family’s gone. I was never a straight-A student, or captain of the cheerleading squad. I didn’t have a ten-year plan, no serious college ambitions. I was just a dreamer, you know? Always looking outside of my little town. I wanted out. Wanted to travel or something.”

“Careful what you wish for,” he huffed.

“I never wished for
this
.” I swirled my hand in the air, gesturing to the cave surrounding us. “But I did wish for something. To feel alive. And I do now, as insane as that sounds.”

“Funny.” He laughed dryly, glancing up to the top of the stairwell, where Jet had disappeared. “I feel dead. Only my body doesn’t know it yet.”

“That’s because your mind is giving you the will to live for something.”

“What are you living for?” His chin jutted out at me, the playful sparkle in his eyes dulling to an earnest glow.

“There’s nothing left for me, but there is for Jet. I’m going to help him find Hera, his sister. I owe him that.”

“You owe him?”

I exhaled loudly and smiled, the warmth in my veins shifting into a low simmer. I needed another one of those shots. “Long story. Anyway, where were we?”

“Huh?”

I splashed him.

“Oh!” He chuckled, the mischievous glimmer returning to his deep-brown irises. “You mean our epic splashdown? I think we were right … here!” A surge of cold water rushed over my head as his arm swooped forward and delivered a mini tidal wave in my direction. I shrieked and retaliated, launching us into an all-out water war, loving how the Abyss’s techno music mixed and mingled with our laughter.

A few minutes later I was winded and ready for dry clothes, and my stomach was growling. Swimming back to my boots and dry jeans and shirt, I mentally picked through the remaining contents of our backpack. We had at least one can of beans left, plus whatever Kale had brought with him.

Slipping my clothes on and tying my hair back, I left Kale to finish his swim and carried my boots as I ascended the stairwell to the top of the cave. I needed to find Jet, wanted to smooth things over with him.

“Hey,” I said, spotting him as I rounded the corner. He was leaning on the wall, one leg bent and propped back against it, a pretty blonde resting against him, giggling at something he was saying. His jeans were still soaked, his chiseled torso bare.

He straightened up when he saw me, bending down to whisper to the blonde, “Give me a minute, okay?”

“Oh, sure,” she said, pouting. Her eyes bounced to me and then him again before she slunk away into the crowd. An irrational pang of discomfort spiked hot in my chest but I pushed it down, smothering it until it was buried.

“What’s up?” he asked, crossing his arms and remaining against the wall.

“Just wanted to find you. Are we okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.” His expression was indifferent. Cold. I didn’t like this Jet.

“Jet, we’re not fine. I can see that you’re mad at me. Look, what I said earlier, I was just trying to—”

“You don’t have to explain anything to me, Skylla. You were right. I was on your case. It’s not my fucking job to look out for you. I never asked for that.”

An icy blanket settled over me and my jaw went slack at his words. “Okay … I never asked for it, either.” My tone was snippy now, but I didn’t care. He couldn’t say something like that and expect me to just take it lying down. “I didn’t ask to be taken prisoner, didn’t ask to be assaulted, didn’t ask for you to shoot those bastards and take me from that jail. And I certainly didn’t ask you to run with me. If I recall, you were the one who wanted to stick together. Sorry if saving me—or babysitting me as you called it—has been such an inconvenience for you. Maybe we should go our separate ways….” I huffed in frustration and turned to walk away, but he caught my hand.

Something about the way he grasped it made my stomach flip. It wasn’t hard or insistent, wasn’t aggressive. It was a soft grip, a pleading one.

“Don’t,” he said quietly.

“Why are you upset? You’ve been acting weird since we ran into Kale. I can tell you guys get on each other’s nerves, but can’t you just get along for a little while? So we can all help each other?”

“That guy doesn’t know any more about the enemy than I do. He just thinks he does.”

“You don’t know that. If you really believed that, you wouldn’t have come here.”

“Yes, I would have. Because you asked me to.”

The twinge in my stomach clenched harder, and I raised my eyes to his, our gazes locking.

“I don’t regret watching out for you, Skylla,” he said. “But here you are, skinny dipping with that asshole, having a grand old time, while I’m up here trying to get information, trying to get shit done. And instead of worrying about taking care of business, I’m worrying about you drowning or … I don’t know, something. I don’t trust him, all right? I don’t care what kind of fucking puppy-dog eyes he gives you, I don’t trust him yet.”

“Taking care of business.
Right
.” I gestured in the direction of the blonde, who was now watching curiously from the bar, winking at Jet.

Jet stuffed his hands in his pockets and sighed, tilting his head back against the wall. “That’s not … that’s not what I meant.”

“Well what do you want from me, Jet? You don’t want me to talk to him? It’s a little late for that.”

“I just want you to be cautious around him. Don’t get too close to him, that’s all. I don’t like the way he looks at you. It fucks with my head.”

“What?” I moved to step in front of him, raising a hand to cup his cheek and pull his eyes down to mine. “What are you talking about?”

“Everything about you fucks with my head, Skylla. From the moment I laid eyes on you. I’m distracted and I don’t like it. For a minute, just for a minute, I thought it was better if I was as far away from you as possible. I tried … I tried leaving you, just walking away. Back at the restaurant.”

It dawned on me, recalling my run-in with Kale and how Jet was nowhere to be found. “You tried sneaking away—?”

“I couldn’t, because my need to be near you, to protect you, is so fucking strong, it knocks the wind out of me. It’s physically impossible for me to walk away from wherever you are. No woman has ever done that to me. It makes me crazy mad, okay?”

I released his cheek and swallowed, trying to process what was happening here. “So … that’s why you’re annoyed with Kale? Because you think—”

“I don’t think, I know. He wants you.”

“He just met me.”

“So?”

“So, aren’t you jumping to conclusions a bit?”

“All it takes is one look at you to know you’re worth having—in every sense. Guys can see that shit from a mile away. He wants you. Count on it.”