“The cold, you mean? You’re only up to your waist.”
“I’m over the worst part,” she said. “Now I can stay here and watch you.”
“That was the idea,” Ethan said, wading in slowly with a few wincing breaths. “The idea to stay and keep watch over you. Play it safe, or at least try to salvage some safety from this.” A louder splash as he must have lost his footing over one of the slimy rocks. Another deep breath as he submerged deeper. “Matthias would probably lose his mind if he knew what we were up to.” In the moonlight, she could almost see the strain on his face as more and more of his exposed skin met the unforgiving cold of the quarry’s deep water.
Kalani, on the other hand, was beginning to grow quite comfortable in the water. At least up to her hips. “What Matthias doesn’t know,” she said.
“What he doesn’t know,” Ethan said, “is that you suspect your sister might be involved in whatever happened to Tucker. I’d say that’s a pretty major turn of events. And a pretty good reason to speak up.”
She didn’t want to think about Lea. Not there in the water. She barely wanted to think about her at all with Ethan, but it was becoming an increasingly unavoidable topic. Why did Lea have to be so fucking shady?
“Jesus Christ,” Ethan squealed as he lowered himself waist deep.
“Do I even want to know?”
“No,” Ethan said, wincing. “And I’m not going to tell you.”
She started wading toward him, biting her lip to hide the giggle. “You don’t have to tell me. Maybe I’ll come over there and find out for myself.” Biting her lip, too, to hold back from saying any more. She wanted it to be a surprise, but she suspected that there wasn’t much left, at that point, and at that time of night, and in the water, that Ethan would be surprised about.
“I’m sure we’ll get used to it,” Ethan said.
“What, your shriveled-up manhood?”
“No,” he shot back.
“No way,” she said. “Never.” He was within arm’s reach, his arms stretching out for her. She stopped and took a handful of water, scooping a splash toward him, the water glistening in the moonlight across his chest. He howled at the moon like the beast he was when it made impact.
His splash came back with a little more fury, his hand and arm considerably larger than hers, and thus the cold revenge even more extreme. It felt like she’d been struck by a long, tasseled whip. And now it was her turn to howl, her face having received most of the cold spray. Again she felt winded. Exhilarated. Alive.
Finally, life was happening again.
Cold, and a little scary. But exciting. Life with Ethan.
“Come here,” he said, white teeth gleaming. She was so glad to see him smiling again. She was glad to feel a similar reaction on her face, too. They needed a little more of that to light the way. The rest of the way, no matter how dark it got. Lighting the way.
“Come on,” he said. “Scared? Now you’re scared?”
“Just of you. I don’t care anymore about whatever kind of lake monsters we’ve got living down there.”
“You’ll care,” he said, still pursuing her through the shallow water. She was walking backward again, away from the long range of his splashes. Away from the long arms that could do so much damage. It was counterintuitive but thrilling to be pursued like that.
“I’ll make you care about lake monsters,” he said.
Kalani laughed and reminded him, again, about the water temperature.
“I think he’s getting used to it,” Ethan said, still smiling.
And then Kalani slipped and went under completely, cold, wet, and black, the underwater thrashing sound of water in her ears as she fought back up to the surface. She crested free and took a big breath. The cold had sucked at least two out of her, and she had to fight to catch up. She fought until she had enough to spare a short string of curse words. It was exhilarating, having survived.
“What happened there?” Ethan said, laughing.
“A rock,” she said, still almost hyperventilating. “I slipped off a rock. And be careful over there by the ledge, it’ll drop off real quick.”
“I’m not afraid of it,” Ethan said.
“You should be.”
“Why delay the inevitable?” he said, taking a deep breath and then falling straight down in place under the water. He popped back up, water spraying from his mouth, his voice sounding shaky and a little higher as he delivered his own litany of cursing.
An adjustment period for both of them. It was necessary if they’d both want to be comfortable. It was a rush of new stimuli back in Hawaii, which slowed to a trickle during several months of their coded messaging. Face-to-face again, after the further deepening of feelings, and after hearts had grown even fonder, Kalani could feel the need for at least some type of adjustment. It was a little scary, like wading deeper into the shock of the cold, black water. Exciting at first, sure, and then maybe a little overwhelming . . . and then safe and warm and good again. She felt that growing comfort as he waded in her direction, the rest of his body still shining from his recent full plunge. “Come on, do it,” he said, his voice teasing. “Come over here.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’ll help you.” His smile widened and she was sure he was about to dunk her under the water, a full submersion all the way past her head. Kalani staggered away from him, feigning fear, but still a little curious as to what he’d actually do. He said, “You want some help?”
“You wouldn’t,” Kalani said, slowing down her escape, feeling even more curious. Even more wanting him to catch her and dunk her. Being pursued by Ethan was intoxicating. “You wouldn’t dare do that to me and my hair.” She shook out her already wet hair and cocked her head in a ridiculous, self-aggrandizing pose.
“You think I give a shit about your hair?” he laughed and got within arm’s reach.
She laughed. “Okay, okay. . .”
“It was your idea coming in here, you know. The midnight swim.”
“I know.” She turned her head away to locate the space of black she prepared to dive into. Before anything was decided, and before she could remember what she was supposed to even do, Kalani felt him close and warm. Warm despite his recent plunge, the cool water having taken on his heat. She wanted to see him that close again, but she couldn’t turn her head. His hand wrapped softly around her neck, and then his face nuzzled into her there. She’d gone still and limp and felt him nibbling along her throat. A quiet little giggle wafted over the water, not loud enough for a rock echo. She was so thankful for that.
When he pulled back, she was finally free to bring her head back and straight, and then lean in to his, and taste the kiss she’d been craving since their last mid-forest meeting. Yes, everything had been going well. To plan, almost. Despite all the chaos and suspicions circling around them. As long as it didn’t have to do with them directly . . .
As long as she could reach out and actually touch him. Taste him.
“Okay,” he whispered. “You ready?”
She nodded. Then she saw him nod, too. Their hands were still clasped, fingers entwined as if their lives depended on it, while the two of them slowly lowered down into the water. Kalani squatted lower and lower as the shock of the water took over her body, from waist to bottom rib, not feeling it at first, and then feeling an almost burning sensation. Then dull throbbing. Then nothing as the process continued on higher at other parts of her body. One last deep breath and then lower, so sweet and shocking. So nice to do that with him, smiling Ethan. She could only imagine what her face had looked like to him at that moment, slipping deeper under, and wrestling out a range of ridiculous facial expressions. A range of boyish laughter from Ethan to indicate their finally having accomplished some progress in the adjustment.
One final breath, together, and then under.
She closed her eyes at the sting. She was enveloped in nothingness.
Hands still clasped.
Faith that he was still
there with her.
Kalani felt him move first, his spring through the water and back up to the land of the living. She jumped up too from her squat, legs having more kinetic energy stored up than she’d expected. The adrenaline of their meeting propelled her up out of the water like a jumped fish and she landed straight into his arms. They were together again.
They kissed until another row of laughter broke them apart, the feeling of his abs rippling and vibrating with his pressure against her, the feeling of his voice again. “We did it,” he said, laughing, excited and tight-sounding. “Good job, we did it.”
The water was colder than she had remembered. And the whole thing had been surprisingly scarier than she’d thought. If the Kalani back on the hot land would have known, she perhaps wouldn’t have taken the plunge. She supposed she definitely wouldn’t have done anything like that were it not for Ethan. And in the water, deciding to go all the way, he was there to guide her. To help her.
Or at least to threaten that he’d come and do it himself. Grab ahold of her hand and force her under. It was good motivation, despite the brutishness. No, maybe she liked that brute side of him, because she could trust that it was for her own good.
It was good to have that sort of positive motivation in her life. She’d had all different types of men with all different types of suggestions. Ideas for her personal development, some not so good. But with Ethan, it seemed like all of his ideas were thought in a way that would help her—and her alone. Well, perhaps her with him, like as a team. She wanted that, a team.
She felt him let go of her hands, and then a push of water against her body. Some hard, invisible motion, leaving her. Kalani sprung up, wiped the water from her face, and opened her eyes. She cleared the hair from her eyes and opened them again to find herself alone at the surface. Alone in the scary world above. A darker one than the unimaginable depths of the quarry.
At first, she only whispered his name. “Ethan?”
She could only hear the faint trickling of water dripping off her and back against the surface. The quiet click-clack slapping of wavelets against rock at the far end of the swimming hole.
Kalani felt around her, thrashing around blindly, her hands waving through and splashing. And then quiet again. She’d felt nothing, not even another mysterious movement of water.
It was a joke, of course.
It was Ethan finally being a typical guy.
A jerk, sort of.
She didn’t like the feeling but slowly convinced herself that it was fun. It was funny. Ethan just being funny.
Her mind went to the deepest and darkest corners of her reasoning, where all the most irrational and exciting fears lay in wait. It was dark and murky and similar to what might have been waiting for them at the bottom of the quarry. She hadn’t thought about it much—even after Ethan’s concern—until that moment. In his absence, it was all she could think of. Buried mining equipment? Something rusted and bent, sharp and scraggly. A long, looping rope? A rope floating up and ready to tangle anyone diving deep enough? Some hilarious jerk like Ethan?
“Ethan?” she said louder this time, hating how alarmed the echo sounded as it bounced off the tall walls surrounding her. It was mocking her, the concern slapping right back into her face, buzzing her ears.
“Ethan, come on.” She didn’t care about hearing it. The ability to think that in-depth about such peripheral subjects of the situation was rapidly decreasing. By the second, she could feel parts of her mind shutting down and streamlining, the options narrowing down to simple panic. The fight-or-flight sensation setting in. There was no one to fight. And flight? Where would she swim?
Kalani called his name several more times, wandering around in the water. Blind. Thrashing her arms out in semicircles as she moved, just hoping to catch an inch of him. She preferred his earlobe, or his hair, to drag him around by it mercilessly. Or maybe another piece of his anatomy, to punish him for being so bad. With more time that went by, and with each unanswered call, she wanted to inflict worse and worse damage to him.
“Where the fuck are you? Ethan!” Her pace quickened, covering more ground around the shallow end. When she stumbled off the ledge, her adrenaline took over, carrying her swimming hard in another mindless semicircle. Aimless circling searches that all turned out to be fruitless.
Kalani paddled back to the she shallow end, where she could walk again and breathe. She needed to breathe.
She stood up in the water, glad to have some footing. Some air.
She waited for the water to quiet. “It’s funny. Okay, you’re funny. Very funny.”
And then she waited again. Yes, it was funny. It was hilarious. He’d won.
But where the hell was he?
She counted in her head, ten seconds. It must have been a full minute before she started the counting. She was shaking.
“Ethan?”
She lost track of her count.
17
Kalani
Kalani made her way—splashing and frantic—to the side of the rock ledge she’d originally slid into the water from. Where her clothing lay in a pile. She would need clothes in order to run back to the house and be presentable—minus, perhaps, the hyperventilating.
She would need to get back as soon as possible and tell them about Ethan getting tangled up at the bottom of the mine. She wouldn’t think about that until she got there. She couldn’t.
She raised her leg over the ledge, halfway over, the water spilling loudly onto the rocks. Her heart thumped hard, worse than when she’d entered the water. Her nerves fired just as harshly and chaotically. The only intelligible thought streaming through her mind: Where the hell was he?
She stood over the pile of her clothing, and over his, and then turned to look back across the lake one last time. If it was a joke, and he’d run off . . .
Please let it be a joke.
Kalani pleaded with him, silently, and then not so silently. Her little mumbles mixing with the babbling sound of water she’d left in the swimming hole. Please, Ethan. Please. Please be okay.
Oh, my God.
She heard his voice—coming from a far-off place, in an unexpected direction, in the dark shadows at the far end of the swimming hole. His voice, odd, ghastly, singing? Low and playful, melodic but almost teasing in its tone. But it was him . . . wasn’t it?
The internal volume of her panic, her pulse thumping through her ears, made it difficult to tell. To clearly hear. To clearly think. She screamed back at him with that same urgency, calling his name. And then cursing his name until his voice returned to a normal tone, a normal way of saying, “I’m over here.”
And, then, with a little fright in his own voice, perhaps at what he’d just done. “Kalani?”
She slipped into her running shoes and grabbed the rest of her clothes—not his—and made her way over the unsteady terrain of the rocks adjacent to the quarry. There was no way in hell she was getting in the water again. No matter what had happened, swim time had ended for her. The pool was most certainly closed, as were perhaps all kinds of other pleasure parks for Ethan.
He was laughing. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
He was in the shadows still, his voice echoing inside.
“Where are you?” Kalani said, her voice as icy as the water had been and as Ethan had turned the blood in her veins with the idea that he’d drowned.
“I’m over here,” he said. “In this cave. I found a cave.”
“What happened?”
“I dove under . . .”
She was close to the sound of his voice, but still couldn’t see him. “And then what?”
“And then I stayed under,” Ethan said.
“You fucker, you scared the crap out of me.”
“I’ve got a talent for that.”
“For scaring me?”
“For holding my breath under water. Didn’t I show you that back in Hawaii while surviving that tsunami? I thought I did. Magic—escape, mostly—silly hobby,
really.”
She thought back to the tsunami. She’d been just as scared when Ethan disappeared as when she’d been living through monstrous waves. This time she had feared for more than her life. This time, it had been for Ethan’s. The idea of him tangled up down there in the murky depths of the swimming hole. That son of a bitch!
She could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smiling. “I just held my breath for a little while and then snuck over to . . . well, I swam underwater over to this cave.”
She wasn’t processing it correctly. Did he say “cave”? By the way his voice echoed out into the night, it definitely sounded like he was in a cave.
So that’s where he would actually die, then, in a cave. With his throat and airway squeezed off, and his balls crushed under her foot. That bastard.
“You see me yet?”
“No, but when I do . . .” She could feel the rage building in her voice.
“When you do what? You’ll feel relieved?”
“I’ll feel something . . .”
“What?”
“The satisfaction of sticking my foot up your ass.”
“Oh, I’d like to see you try that,” he said, laughing. “That’s what caves are for, exploring.”
“I won’t be exploring.”
“They’re also for making out,” he said, his face coming into view. “Think we can do that instead?”
Her hands went immediately to his throat, trying to grasp around and squeeze off his air supply. But she only got a few seconds of good choking out of the gesture before his arms swatted her away. He was too strong to choke out. But not strong or quick enough to block her knee from lodging between his legs.
He crumpled over and stumbled back, and then made some inhumane sounds as the pain of his crushed testicles registered in his brain.
Kalani didn’t care. She didn’t care that it had been a tough night for his manhood. First the cold water, and then being pulverized. She couldn’t imagine what kind of shrinkage that last blow had just produced. Perhaps the sad little thing had even retracted into his body.
Dark Discovery (DARC Ops Book 8) Page 14