What Lies in the Darkness (Shadow Cove Book 1) (11 page)

“Huh. The things you learn during a stakeout.” I give her back her phone then roll down my window. “So, how long have you had Dixon’s number?”

“Since today. I thought I’d save it in my contacts for when we have to call him back and tell him we have his computer.” She drops her phone onto her lap and glances out the windshield as Rylen walks by with a couple of his friends.

He waves at us, and I give a small wave back, not wanting to draw attention. But my standoffish move has the opposite effect, and instead of moving on, Rylen says something to his friends then strolls toward my car.

When he reaches my door, he crouches down so we’re eye level. “Hey, I’m glad I ran into you.” He drags a hand through his hair, making the dark strands stick up in every direction as he blows out a tense breath. “I want to apologize for what happened in the hallway. I never should’ve brought that shit up. I usually try to avoid talking about the stupid rumors going around school. Anyway, I wanted to make sure you were okay, but then I realized you didn’t know and … I’m just really sorry I upset you.”

“You didn’t upset me,” I promise. “The rumor did. And that wasn’t your fault, so you don’t need to apologize.”

Guilt crosses his face. “Yeah, but I haven’t done anything to stop it, either.”

“I don’t expect you to,” I tell him. “Besides, it’s not like you could go around and force every single person in this school to stop talking about Bria and my brother. And even if you did, by tomorrow, they’d already be on to the next juicy story.”

“Yeah, maybe,” he mutters, dazing off with his brows knit.

I cast a mystified glance at Kennedy, who only grins at me like a goofball. “
What?
” I mouth.

Instead of replying, her smile broadens.

Weirdo.

I redirect my focus back to Rylen, who’s staring at me with an unresolved look on his face.

“Can I ask you something?” His tone carries caution.

I nod. “Sure. What’s up?”

“Well, I … It’s just that …” He shifts his weight, fidgeting with a studded leather watch on his wrist. “I was kind of thinking that maybe—”

“Yo, Rylen, get your dumbass over here!” Logan, one of Rylen’s friends, hollers across the parking lot. “We need to go before all the good shit’s taken!”

Rylen heaves a discouraged sigh. “I guess I should get going. The skate shop just got a new shipment of boards, and Logan’s been freaking out all day that all the good stuff’s going to get picked over.” He starts to stand up then pauses. “You should head down there with us. You could keep me company while Logan looks at every single deck in stock.” His lips tilt into a lopsided smile. “He’s seriously worse than my sister when it comes to shopping.”

“I wish I could go. I could really use some bearings, but I have some other stuff I have to do.” Plus, I have a total of eight dollars and seventy cents to my name, which already has to go toward gas. “Sorry.”

“No worries.” He straightens, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “Maybe some other time?” When Logan shouts at him again, he visibly cringes. “And maybe without Logan.”

“Sure,” I say, fiddling with the keychain dangling from the ignition. “I’m always down for anything that has to do with skating.”

“I know you are.” He gives me this weird, indecipherable look before backing away. “See you later, Mak.”

The second he’s out of earshot, Kennedy erupts in laughter.

“Oh, my God, that was so entertaining to watch,” she says through her uncontrollable giggling.

I poke her in the side. “What the hell’s so funny?”

“Rylen trying to ask you out.” She dabs tears from her eyes with her fingertips. “And you being completely clueless about it.”

“Hey, I know when a guy’s trying to ask me out.” I pinch her arm, but she only laughs harder. “Oh, will you shut up? You read that totally wrong. Rylen and I are just friends … No, we’re not even that. We’re just two people who share a mutual skating obsession and enjoy a little healthy rivalry.”

“Oh, my dear, sweet, little, naive Mak. Take it from someone who deals with guys asking them out all the time. Rylen wants you. Badly. He just about asked you out.” A giggle slips from her lips as she stares at Rylen’s Land Rover backing out of the parking space. “I can’t believe you couldn’t see it. He looked so nervous I thought he was going to throw up. And then Logan totally ruined it for him.”

“Yeah, right. You’re so wrong. I mean, can you imagine someone like Rylen liking me? That would be crazy.”

“Why? You two have so much in common. He loves skating. You love skating. You’re both hot.”

I snort a laugh. “I’m so not hot.”

“You are, too. You just don’t flash it around by wearing slutty clothes.” She scrutinizes my plaid shirt, torn jeans, and sneakers. “But you’ve got killer legs and eyes. Seriously, Rylen couldn’t stop staring at your eyes.”

“Maybe that’s because they’re on my face.” My tone drips with sarcasm. “And generally, people tend to make eye contact when they talk.”

She shakes her head. “Not the way he was. Trust me. And that whole thing about hanging out at the skate shop with him was just a backup plan because he chickened out on asking you out.”

I don’t know how to process what she’s saying, and honestly, I really don’t want to. While Rylen is completely gorgeous, nice, and we do have a lot in common, there’s no way he could like me in the way Kennedy is implying. Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. We’re from two different worlds; his being all shiny, sparkling, and respectable, and mine is all dull, grey, broken, and sometimes borderline crazy. We would never work, and all of his friends—particularly Dixon—would make sure of that.

I straighten in the seat as I spot Liam booking it out of the school. “And there’s our man of the hour.”

Kennedy tracks my gaze. “Took him long enough. What the hell was he doing in there, playing with himself in the bathroom?”

“You can be so gross sometimes,” I tease with my gaze secured on Liam. “Ready to get this show on the road?”

She nods, buckling up. “I just hope he goes some place interesting because, so far, this stakeout has been the most boring twenty minutes of my life.”

As Liam nears our car, I snag Kennedy’s sleeve and yank her down with me as I duck for cover.

Her eyes pop wide as she moves closer to the console. “Shit. Did he see us?”

“No, but he walked right by the car.” I wait about thirty seconds before peering up over the steering wheel, right in time to see Liam hopping into his car.

I sit up in the seat as he pulls out of the parking space and draw my seatbelt over my shoulder.

“Don’t follow too closely,” Kennedy warns. “Or he might notice your car. And if he does, he’ll know it’s you.”

“Yeah, I know.” I shoot her a confident smile. “Don’t worry; I’ve got this.”

Liam drives onto the road, and I wait a couple of seconds before following. I maintain a good distance as he drives up the street, heading toward the main section of town where most of the high-end restaurants and stores are located. When he reaches the park, he makes a right-hand turn, veering toward where the fancy shops turn into dilapidated older stores.

“That’s weird,” I mumble. “Why would Liam head toward the poor side of town?”

“Hey, I come over here all the time,” Kennedy protests. “To visit
you
.”

“Yeah, I know, but … Liam doesn’t have any friends who live around here.”

“Unless maybe he has a secret girlfriend or something.”

I throw her a questioning glance. “A
secret
girlfriend?”

“Maybe he’s dating a lower-class girl, and he doesn’t want people to know about it, or his parents banned him from dating.” She slides on her oversized sunglasses. “It probably happens here more than you think.”

“Actually, I think about that kind of stuff a lot.” I put on my own glasses as the sun shines directly at the front of the car. “I just didn’t think Liam would ever be one of those people. I’ve only ever seen him date cheerleaders and homecoming queens.”

The brake lights illuminate on Liam’s car as he slows down to park in front of a small, white building on the corner of a back road. Above the entrance door of the building is a wooden, hand-painted sign that reads: Comics, Collectables, Knickknacks, and Everything Shop.

“I wonder if they’re speaking literally when they decided to put the word
everything
into the title of their store.” I spin the wheel to park my car down near a large oak tree so we’re hidden. I push the shifter into park and eyeball the store dubiously. “I’ve never noticed this place before. Have you? It kind of sounds like a pawn shop.”

Maybe that’s what Liam is doing here—pawning off the stuff he stole. But why? He can’t possibly need the money when he’s driving around a car that costs six figures.

Kennedy draws her glasses down the brim of her nose and squints at the store. “I’m sure I’ve passed it before, but except for the sign, it just looks like an old house, so we probably never noticed it.”

“Maybe,” I mutter, wariness weighing inside me and only growing as Liam gets out of his car and pops the trunk.

He reaches inside and retrieves a medium-sized cardboard box with an unfamiliar logo on the side. Then, with a frantic glance around the neighborhood, he hauls butt across the yellowing grass and up the stairs of the store. Looking over his shoulder one last time, he raps his knuckles against the door.

“He seems awfully nervous for someone going inside a store,” Kennedy notes, slanting forward in her seat.

“Maybe because he’s carrying around stolen merchandise and is about to pawn it off.”

“You think he’s got the computer in that box?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” I reach for my door handle to get out.

“Wait a second.” Her fingers wrap around my elbow. “What’re you going to do? Just walk up and accuse him?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” I reply, wiggling my arm out of her hold. “But don’t worry.” I crack my knuckles and grin. “I can be charming when I need to.”

“But what about this place?” She scrutinizes the building. “It looks super sketchy.”

“I’m sure it’s just a store.”
At least, I hope so.
“You can stay in the car if you’re freaked out.”

She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, right. Like I’m gonna let you just wander into some creepy store all by yourself. Just what kind of friend do you think I am?”

I smile. “The best of besties.”

She grins, gripping the door handle. “Come on, bestie; let’s go get your thousand bucks.”

Nodding, I hop out of the car and meet her around front. Then we hike up the sidewalk and cut across the grass to the store, stopping in front of the door.

Kennedy hugs her arms around herself. “Should we knock or just walk in?”

I peer up at the sign and then at the wooden door with no windows. “I don’t know … Maybe knock.” Sucking in a breath, I knock and wait.

We hear a light bang, voices, the rustling of locks being unlatched. Then the door cracks open, and a beady, bloodshot eye peeks out at Kennedy and me.

“Can I help you?” a guy asks, his raspy voice sending a chill down my spine.

I’ve heard the voice before, but I can’t quite place from where.

“Um, yeah, my friend and I would really like to check out your store.” I slant to the right, trying to get a better look at him. He inches to the side, shielding his face with the door. “We just weren’t sure if this was the entrance.”

“Sorry. We’re closed,” he snaps, moving to shut the door.

I flatten my palm against the door and hold it open. “Look, it’s really, really important. My friend’s birthday party is in, like, two hours, and we completely let it slip our minds until about an hour ago. We need a present ASAP, but she’s really hard to buy for. You know the type—super picky. She’s really into comics, and when we spotted your store, it was like a sign from the heavens. So, if you could just let us come in and buy something for her, you’d totally be saving our asses.” I give him my best sugary sweet smile, hoping that’ll win him over.

He remains silent for a moment, and I start to believe he bought my bullshit. Then he says, “Nice try, Mak, but I know none of your friends are into comics.” With that, he slams the door in our faces.

Kennedy gapes at me with bewilderment. “Who the heck was that? And how dare he slam the door in our faces?”

I mentally rewind through what the guy said, trying to match up his voice with someone I know. “His voice was vaguely familiar, but I didn’t hear enough to place it to a face.”

Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Kennedy faces me with her hands on her hips. “What do we do now?”

I check the time on my watch then turn for the car. “We go back to the car and wait for Liam to come out.”

Kennedy’s head bobbles back as she lets out a groan. “Another stakeout?”

“Yep.” A tiny smile touches my lips. While Kennedy may hate stakeouts, and I’ve never been a huge fan of them, I feel strangely close to my dad at the moment. “And with the way this is going, I’m thinking you better get used to them.”

LOCATION: MAK’S CAR

TIME: 5:14 PM

DATE: MONDAY, MARCH 22
^ND

We sit in the car for so long that the sun begins to descend below the hills, and the sky shifts from a vibrant blue to an array of oranges and pale pinks. We ditch the sunglasses and raise the visors, which gives us a better view of the entrance door to the store in question. Nothing happens. At all.

Kennedy yawns, stretching her arms above her head. “Oh, my God, what the hell is he doing in there? Throwing a secret rager or something?” She glances at the time on the clock. “It’s been over an hour.”

“Thanks for the tenth time update,” I joke, scrolling through an article on my phone.

She lowers her hands to her lap and slumps back in the seat. “Sorry. I know I’m being whiny, but I’m not used to sitting still for this long. I like to be in motion.” She circles her hands in front of her and sighs. “Maybe we could try knocking on the door again.”