Surge: A High School Bully Romance (Salinity Cove Book 1)

by Maya Nicole

  I gulped and tried to look past him to Blake, but he grabbed my chin. My skin heated with his touch, and I leaned harder against the wall, using it for support.

  It was taking everything in me not to kiss him and I didn't know why. "Are you... sirens?"

  Jax's lips turned up as he let go of my chin and ran a finger over my lips. "Sirens are female, and so incredibly intoxicating, males lose their minds with one little taste of her lips. Sometimes even the sound of her voice." He cocked his head to the side. "Where's the knife?"

  "What?" I had been so mesmerized by his fingers tracing my lips that I couldn't think. "The knife?"

  "Go get the knife." He pushed away from me and sat down next to Blake. "We'll be waiting."

  Chapter Twenty

  Jax

  As soon as she was far enough up the stairs, I turned to look at Blake. His lips were drawn in a tight line and his shoulders slumped.

  "Are you worried she has siren in her bloodline? It's highly unlikely." Even as I said the words, they sounded ridiculous.

  What I felt toward Riley wasn't normal. She was like a magnet and I couldn't get her out of my head. Tritons, both male and female, didn't feel the kind of desire that I had for her. I wanted to take her to my bed, tie her up, and never let her go. Or let her tie me up.

  "I'm not worried about that." He sat back on the couch and rubbed the stubble on his cheek. “A highway patrol pulled me over for no reason. Was a real dick."

  "Did you get his badge number? They should know-"

  "It was because of my skin color, Jax." I rolled my eyes. It was still a fairly new phenomenon for me since I had only been on land just over three years. "If they treat black people and other people of color like criminals, how would they treat non-humans?"

  "Not well. We can't let Riley know." Of that I was sure. We needed to be more careful around her.

  "She knows we're something, but seems to be in denial." He stood. "What's taking her so long?"

  I cursed and followed him up the stairs. I went straight to her room where the door was shut and opened it.

  "What the hell?" Blake took a step in and then thought better of it and stepped back out.

  In our human form, we weren't as strong or as well protected as when we were shifted. In the water, we were not only able to camouflage to be virtually undetectable to human eyes, but we had a layer of protective scales.

  The scales protected us against most threats, including shark bites, but there was one thing that it didn't protect us from: a siren's knife. The same knife that Riley was standing in the middle of the room with. Her eyes landed on us as her chest heaved.

  I wasn't sure what Blake had told her before I arrived, but clearly she had decided to test out its capabilities on her desk chair, wall, and a wooden storage box at the end of her bed. It looked like she had stabbed it about twenty times.

  "Can you put the knife down?" I held up my hands and stepped toward her. I hoped she didn't plan on coming at me with it. "I guess we now know you have a little siren blood in you."

  She held the knife out at me like the night I had let myself into her house and room. "Stay back."

  Blake's cell phone rang with Morgan's ringtone. He ignored it and stepped beside me. "Riley, this changes things."

  Her eyebrows pinched together and she backed up. "No, it doesn't. You took my mom, didn't you?"

  "We didn't." I kept my eyes locked on hers. I could see how she would draw that conclusion, but we weren't monsters.

  "Then who did?" Her chin trembled, but she quickly pulled herself together and stood up straighter. "You three are mermaids and I can stab crap I shouldn't be able to stab with this knife."

  She stepped to her bed and slashed at the metal spindle on the end. It flew off and hit the wall on the other side of the room. A pained laugh left her.

  "Why don't you put the knife down and we can talk about this." Blake stepped toward her again, but this time the bed was between us and her.

  "So you can take the knife and destroy it?" She was back to pointing it at us. "Fuck that."

  I rubbed the back of my neck. "You know too much."

  "So what, are you going to kill me now like some mafia boss?" She pulled her phone out of her back pocket. "I'm calling the police."

  "The police won't help you. The chief is one of us, and if he sees that knife, I can guarantee he'll tell the admiral." I crossed my arms over my chest. "If the admiral knows you know about us, he does act like a mafia boss."

  "So you're military?" I was glad I confused her. She needed to be confused about what we were.

  "Something like that." I jumped a bit when Morgan's ringtone sounded in my pocket.

  "You should get that, it might be the admiral."

  I picked up the second time it went off. "What?"

  "It's your sister."

  There were few things that shook me to my core. One was thinking about my mother, and another was the possibility of my sister joining my mother.

  I took off down the stairs, Blake right behind me. I knew I was in no state to drive so I headed to his car, which was faster anyway.

  "Where are you going?" Riley was in the doorway, knife in hand, looking confused.

  I rounded the car and opened the passenger door before speaking. "You better pray, Kline, because if my sister-"

  "Jax. Get in." Blake was the definition of calm as he gave me a warning look over the top of the car. "It's not her fault."

  I got in and slammed the car door as Blake started the engine. I shut my eyes and hoped my sister hadn't taken a turn for the worse.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Riley

  The Tritons weren't at school on Thursday and Friday. I had texted all three and got no response. I didn't know why I cared, but it felt important to keep tabs on them at all times.

  I had tested the knife on countless things, including the marble counter in the kitchen. It cut through it like it wasn't a solid piece of rock. The imaginative side of me wondered if it could cut through a bank vault.

  My phone rang right as school got out on Friday. It was Mr. Nguyen, who I hadn't heard from him since we met about the secret money my mom had stashed away.

  After exchanging brief pleasantries, he got straight to the point. "The judge who was supposed to sign off on releasing the money to you went out on a leave."

  I stopped and leaned against the bank of lockers, shutting my eyes. "I needed that money. They already took my car."

  "These boys you're dealing with, their families do not like your father." I heard a door close on his end of the phone. "How much has your mother told you?"

  "Nothing. How do you know anything about what's happening?" I was starting to grow suspicious of every single person now.

  If the Tritons could pay off security at the school, just what else were they capable of? I knew that had to have something to do with where my mom was and the financial issues I was now going through.

  "I was good friends with your mom in high school." He sounded distraught. "But as soon as she left Finn and started seeing Robert, she changed."

  "Changed how?" My feet carried me toward the parking lot where Ivy was waiting.

  "Cut off ties with everyone, and Robert became her sole focus. I hadn't heard from her in years until she came to my office one day with you when you were just a few months old."

  I slid into Ivy's car and turned down the music. She gave me a questioning look and then pulled out of the parking lot and drove toward the dance studio where she would drop me off.

  "Did she share anything else with you besides what you told me already?" I looked at the dark clouds in the distance and thought it was fitting to my mood lately.

  "She said that Robert had dangerous information about Finn, you, and her. She was scared he was going to do something if she stepped out of line and she wanted to set up a safeguard for you just in case."

  "What information about Finn?"

  "She told me it had something to do with his f
amily and her family. She gave me as little information as possible because she feared he would find out and come after me. Those with money will do anything to protect their names and themselves." He cursed. "I have to go. I'm working on getting this in front of another judge."

  He hung up and I stared at my phone. "Fuck." I shut my eyes and then slammed my fist against the dashboard, causing Ivy to swerve a bit.

  "Hey, what's wrong?" She reached over and put her hand on my arm.

  "What isn't wrong, Ivy?" I choked on my tears as they started falling. I wanted to be strong because that's what my mom would have wanted, but I was scared. "When are they going to get to you and take you away from me?"

  The sheer loneliness I felt from not having my mom around was suffocating me. I never realized how much I relied on her for emotional support until she wasn't there to listen to me or for me to hear her stories.

  "I promise you they won't. I don't care if they film me taking a shit. Let them post it on the internet." She turned into the dance studio parking lot.

  I laughed and started coughing. She rubbed my back and handed me her water bottle. "Thanks."

  "Aiden will come back to us. If only he was still seventeen he could go to the police for child pornography." She turned toward me. "Speaking of seventeen. Your birthday is next Saturday. Do you still want to have a kickback party?"

  I put my head back against the headrest and wiped at my face with a tissue. "I don't know. My electricity might not even be working by then."

  "I can talk to my parents about letting you borrow some money." Ivy had already done so much for me and my tab was over five hundred dollars with her.

  It wasn't that I was opposed to accepting her help, but the way things were looking, it didn't seem I'd ever get access to the money in the account my mom had set up. She had it set to pay out to me when I graduated college or with a judge's approval in a time of need. That was probably the only way she could protect it from my father.

  "I might not be able to pay them back for a while." Another round of tears hit me. "How am I going to pay for college applications?"

  "Let me talk to them, okay?" She leaned across the console and pulled me into a hug.

  I didn't know how I had gotten so lucky to have a friend like her. I just hoped I didn't lose her by the time everything was over.

  The sound of a motorcycle coming to park next to us made me pull away. Morgan sat on his bike, looking over at the car with his helmet still in place. I could practically feel his eyes boring into me through his tinted visor.

  "I thought you told Bernardo you didn't want him as a partner." Ivy sat back in her seat with a huff. "It's like they want to make you miserable but can't do it from afar."

  I considered confiding in her about the knife and the strong possibility that I was some kind of distant relative of sirens. It would be so much easier if she knew.

  There was a reason the Tritons acted fearful of the knife. I would never be able to use it on a person, but its possibilities were constantly on my mind. Not that I'd ever go on a jewel heist or rob a bank.

  I flung open my door and stepped out. I gave a quick wave to Ivy as she pulled away. She had volleyball practice, but Bernardo already said he'd give me a ride home since he didn't have a lesson after mine.

  I ignored Morgan and walked into the studio. The tightness in my chest instantly decreased as the familiar smell of suede hit my nose.

  Bernardo came from around the front desk and pulled me into a hug as soon as he looked up from the computer screen. "Go get changed and let's dance it all away."

  He knew it was my last lesson for a while. The owners were still going to let me come to dance classes and practice parties, but it wouldn't be the same as learning in a one-on-one format.

  I said hello to another student and instructor on my way to the bathroom. I set my bag on the bench in the bathroom and pulled my shirt over my head. Just as it was completely off, the door opened and I turned my back.

  "Sorry, I've gotten too comfortable around here." I laughed and pulled a thinner, more practice-worthy shirt over my head.

  "Do you always just change out in the open like this?"

  My body froze and my face turned fifty shades of pink. I was lucky I hadn't had my pants off. "It has a picture of Ginger Rogers and the word women right on the door. Most men don't just walk into a women's restroom."

  I turned to face him and had to stop myself from having a reaction to the way he looked. He was leaning with his shoulder against the door, his legs crossed. His hair fell onto his forehead and he brushed it back with his free hand.

  That wasn't the most drool worthy part about him. He was dressed head to toe in leather that hugged him in all the right places. I resisted the urge to look south of his waist.

  "Do you like what you see?" He pushed off the door and put his helmet down on the bench before shrugging out of his leather jacket. Underneath, he wore a skin-tight black shirt and my mouth opened a bit.

  My body didn't seem to get the message that he was the enemy.

  "Bernardo said he had some clothes for me to change into since apparently leather isn't that easy to move in. I tried to explain to him that in the bedroom I move just fine in leather."

  My eyes went wide and I grabbed my skirt. "He probably took that as a come on."

  He moved to block my path into the one and only stall. "Going somewhere, vixen?"

  "To change." My eyes deceived me and slipped down past his waist. The leather sat snug against his muscular quadriceps, and it was clear he was happy about something. "If you're looking for men's clothing to change into, it's across the hall. Unless you want to wear my skirt."

  He hooked his fingers in my belt loops and pulled me against him. "I haven't seen you in a few days. I missed you."

  "What are you even doing here?" I backed away from him and stepped into my skirt, taking my jeans off under it. "Shouldn't you be brushing your mermaid hair with a fork?"

  I turned to put my pants in my bag, but he pushed me against the wall, his mouth coming to my ear. "Do I need to tell you not to say shit like that out loud?"

  "Let me go."

  "Not until you tell me you understand." His lips were right against the shell of my ear, and I shuddered. "Does this excite you? Me pressed up against you like this?"

  I couldn't find my voice as he moved his hips closer and I felt his excitement against my ass. He let out a confused laugh when I didn't respond. "I guess I'll go find those clothes to change into."

  I had to sit down on the bench for a few minutes before going back into the studio. I hadn't wanted to believe that I was a siren, but damn it if I didn't feel like doing stupid shit when they were near.

  It didn't explain why it was only around them, but I also had a knife that could cut through metal and marble without much effort on my part. Maybe I was dreaming and would wake up.

  I splashed water on my face and looked in the mirror. My face was splotchy from crying and there were circles under my eyes. I needed a weekend where I didn't have to worry about where my mom was or what I was going to do when the money ran out.

  I needed to get a job.

  The reality of it set in again, and I closed my eyes. I could handle this. I was practically eighteen and was going to be away at college next year anyway. Growing up was just coming a little sooner than expected.

  There was a knock on the door. "We're waiting!" Bernardo couldn't hide the excitement in his voice.

  I took a deep breath and walked into the studio.

  I hadn't wanted to be rude when my last lesson was spent practicing the waltz with Morgan, so I let my annoyance fester inside. He had distracted my focus to the point where I could hardly move without messing up a step.

  He had changed into sweatpants that were way too tight on him, but were better than the leather he had been sporting. I even caught Bernardo checking out his ass a few times in the mirror as we moved across the floor.

  Morgan was a natural at dance, but
I couldn't figure out how he learned the steps and how to move correctly so quickly. It usually took me an entire lesson to get a new step learned and integrated to be fluid, and he could do it after seeing Bernardo model it once.

  The end of the lesson came too soon, and Bernardo took my arm and led me and Morgan to the office and shut the door. He slid a box of tissue over to me as we sat since tears were already silently falling down my cheeks.

  I was going to set a world record for crying in one day at the rate I was going.

  Morgan sat hunched over with his forearms on his knees and watched me as I tried to pull myself together.

  "I know today was officially supposed to be our last lesson, but Morgan came by earlier and talked with me." Bernardo gave Morgan a look of endearment. "He has offered to pay for lessons for the both of you as partners."

  I looked at Morgan, who was smiling at me. "Why?"

  He rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair, propping his ankle onto his knee. "Can't I just do something nice for you?"

  "No." I stood. "This last lesson was supposed to be special and you completely took it over!"

  Bernardo looked taken aback and looked between Morgan and me. "Riley, he's just trying to help."

  "I don't need his help. He probably just wants sex." I crossed my arms and glared down at Morgan. "Or to ruin the only good thing I had left."

  He threw his hands up in surrender before lacing them together on his stomach. "So you'd rather not dance than accept my offer?"

  I worked my bottom lip between my teeth. Would it really be so bad to take dance lessons with him?

  "What's in it for you?" I sat back down, the fight leaving my body. I was tired of fighting. "I won't be able to pay you back, at least not anytime soon."

  "Nothing." His eyes twinkled, really bringing out the green flecks in his hazel eyes. "I just want to dance."

  "What about swimming?" What about you being a fucking mermaid or whatever the hell you are?