by K. A Knight
She nods as I get to my feet. I lean down and offer her my hand. She stares at it for a moment before placing her smaller one in mine. I yank her to her feet, and she stumbles into my chest, and of course just then, when I’m steadying her, Kalen finds us.
Fuck.
I know how much he loves her, even if he will never admit it.
When he sees us this close, alone in the dark, his eyes narrow. I see the flash of pain and then hate in his gaze as he glances between us. We step away from each other quickly, making us look more guilty. Thank fuck he didn’t see us kissing. He would have throttled me, and I would have deserved it, because even though he loves her, he will never make a move. He loves his brother more, and he thinks only Tyler deserves happiness, not him. He’s still trying to atone for perceived sins from the tours.
“Tyler is waiting for you. You’re up,” he snarls, and then turns away.
“Kal,” she calls, but he ignores her and crawls back through. She sighs and drops her head back. “Fuck, I need to stop messing things up.”
“He’ll get over it, babe. He’s seen us in worse positions.” I wink, making her smile slightly. “Now I’m off to get wet…unless you’re willing to join me.” I wiggle my eyebrows and she laughs, smacking me on the arm.
“Dirty bastard.”
“You love it,” I tease as I start to walk backwards, swinging my hips as I wink at her again. “What can I say, I make everyone wet.”
“Oh God, stop.” She sniggers and follows after me, spanking me as I bend down to crawl.
“Hey, hands off the goods, darling, unless you’ve got some singles for me,” I mutter as I clamber through the tunnel.
“Pfft, you only take twenties, you’re an expensive hottie.” She giggles behind me. The sound of her laughter makes my smile widen. I love that I can always bring her from the dark and make her laugh. It makes me feel like I have achieved something and fills me with a sense of purpose.
We laugh and joke as we head to the pool’s edge, where Tyler is waiting, already in his gear. He groans when he sees us, and I sigh when he turns away in pain. Why is this so hard?
“I better get some sleep,” she calls, and then glances at Ty. “Be safe,” she murmurs. He nods and watches her go as she spins and walks away. His eyes remain locked on her in confusion. Poor man. If he’s not careful, he’s going to lose her. He needs to figure it out as well, figure out if he can forgive her for leaving.
I quickly get ready, and once I’m in the water, I broach the subject, knowing Kalen and Pey are asleep, and only Riggs is around. Tyler won’t listen to Riggs or his brother, but maybe he’ll listen to me. He’s in front of me, as usual, always controlling the situation—not that he can ever control us entirely.
“So, are you going to forgive her or keep acting like an ass while watching her like a lost puppy?” I laugh into my mask, getting straight to the point. There’s no bullshitting with us, he needs someone to call him on his shit.
“Shut up,” he snarls. “It’s time to work, not gossip.”
“Uh-huh. You made her cry, you know.” I hear his inhale and then carry on. “It’s okay, I made her laugh.”
“Course you did,” he mutters jealously.
“You could have been the one if you weren’t so fucking adamant about keeping her at a distance.”
“It’s none of your business, Fin,” he almost yells.
Oh, now I’m getting somewhere. “Yeah, see, it is. ’Cause you’re my brother and I love you, and I’m tired of watching you hurt yourself. I want you to be happy.”
“I’m happy,” he grumbles, flicking his fins in front of my face as we dive deeper.
“No, you’re not, Ty. She’s back. She’s here. That has to count for something. Okay, so I bet it’s not how you imagined it, but if you let her go again, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life, because someone else will fall in love with her. They will marry her and make a life with her, and you will lose your chance at the best thing that ever happened to you,” I caution as we slip through the tunnel, ready to explore another passage.
“He’s right, Tyler. We love you, but you have been so unhappy since she left, and life is too short for that. Why not give it a shot?” Riggs offers, making me chuckle.
“Did you forget the part where she left?” he growls out. “Left us all? She isn’t back, she’s just here to work. She’ll leave again, we all know that. And I am happy, I’m over her… We all are.”
“Sure,” I reply. “Keep telling yourself that, but when she leaves again and you don’t stop her, can you live with that? Can you live knowing it will be someone else exploring with her, loving her? Making her laugh and watching her scream at horror movies? Holding her as she cries when an animal dies, seeing her bravery as she tries to rescue and save everyone?”
“Stop,” he begs.
“I can’t. I’ve let you wallow for too long. I thought it was how you needed to cope, but I can’t let you anymore, not if it means you wreck the best thing to happen in three years ’cause you’re blinded by your own anger,” I retort, anger lacing my tone. Can’t he see what he’s giving up? The very thing the rest of us would do anything to have—her. “You’ve found something we’re all searching for, that all of us want.”
He goes quiet then as we pass the first cavern, and I wince. Shit, that sounded bad, like I meant with her…which maybe I did, but fuck, I didn’t mean for him to take it like that.
“Yeah, I know what you all want,” he snaps bitterly, and then we both go quiet as we focus on swimming. When we’re in the opening of the second cavern, I stop before him. Staring at him through the mask, I will him to see how serious I am.
“Tyler, don’t be an idiot. You have your whole life to work through your issues, but at least actively work through them. Don’t just throw everything away ’cause you’re scared. That girl still loves you. Fuck, she loved you so much, she left because she was scared of hurting you. You don’t find a girl like that ever—trust me, I know. She’s one in a million, and she’s here. For once, take a chance. If it goes wrong, have you really lost anything? She will still leave, and you will be alone, but at least you’ll know.”
He looks at me through the goggles, searching my eyes. Riggs is quiet, letting our words sink in. We’re both hoping he understands and thinks on what we have said, even if we’re jealous, even if we both wish it was one of us who met her first and fell in love with her. But it wasn’t, and at least this way, she is still in our lives.
“We’re heading to the third tunnel,” he murmurs distractedly.
Sighing, I give him the ‘okay’ signal and follow him, knowing he will at least have to think about what we said. I just hope he makes the right choice and that Kalen won’t stand in the way.
We’re cautious as we move through the tunnel, unsure where it will take us. It seems to spin around on itself, heading upwards. We keep swimming until we break the surface around an hour later.
It’s dark, really dark. We can barely see anything, even with our lights. I pull off my mask, and Ty does the same and sparks a flare, holding it above the water as we look around. I break another and toss it away, trying to see how wide and deep this cavern is.
“Fuck.” I whistle, and it echoes. We can’t even see the ceiling, it’s so tall, or even the sides of the space. The water is pulling slightly with a small tide, which is promising.
“Let’s see if we can find an end,” Tyler murmurs. I turn to him, about to swim closer, when something catches my eye.
A dash of black breaks the surface, but when I blink, it’s gone, so I dismiss it and focus on swimming alongside Tyler. The paddling of our arms and legs is loud in the quiet cavern, apart from the swish of the water. It smells fresh in here, and large. We swim until we finally come upon a wall, but it’s not the end of the room. The water carries on between it, and when we turn and manage to spot the other wall, we groan.
It’s a fucking crevice.
The walls are really high, w
ith a massive gap between them. We can’t see the top. It could lead to a different part of the cave system entirely, and we need to map it, but we don’t have climbing gear with us. Tyler swims to the other side as I paddle alongside this one, looking for a way up, or around, hell, even under it, wondering where this leads to. This whole cave system is a series of twists and turns, with no direct route anywhere.
It’s normal to have dead ends and closed rooms, but shit here has been more expansive than we ever imagined, and we need to find a way through this and onto the next part of the system, or our fourteen-day aim will be doubled—fuck, even tripled—which wouldn’t look good, and we don’t want Steve to lose confidence in us.
“Anything?” I call.
“Nothing. Seems like the only way is up. It will take too long to go back and grab the climbing equipment. Leave it to Kalen and Peyton. We’ll check out the other tunnel, let’s go back,” he replies loudly.
Sighing, I start to swim his way when a noise, like someone breaking the surface, comes from right behind me in the dark. I spin, causing water to erupt around me as I shine my light into the darkness, squinting as a sudden burst of irrational fear surges through me. I tell myself it could be anything, but my heart is still racing as I shine the light across the seemingly still water. Only ripples along the surface alert me to the fact I’m not going crazy. Taking a deep breath, I duck under the surface and swing my light around.
The water is so dull and dark, it’s hard to see. It’s almost black as I dive a little deeper to check if it was just a rock dropping. The fear is still flowing through me, but I’m starting to think I was just being stupid. When I find nothing, I resurface, blow out my nose, and slick back my hair. I’m bloody losing it.
I look around and notice Tyler has nearly reached me when something suddenly wraps around my leg and yanks me under the water. I go down with a sputter, but my training kicks in and I flip, reaching down and stabbing whatever it is. It abruptly releases me and I swim to the surface, and when I break it, Tyler is there.
“Fin, what the fuck?” he yells.
“Something grabbed me!” I shout as I spit out water and suck in air.
We instantly both duck under the water, lights shining, Tyler ready with his knife. We’ve faced octopuses, sharks, and other water predators before, but never this deep into a cave. How could it even survive down here? Yet there’s nothing, just the dark, still water and the floating end of a rope.
Fuck.
We break the surface again, and he frowns. “It looks like you got caught in a rope. You okay?”
I nod, wiping the water from my face. “Shit, it really felt like something grabbed me,” I mutter on the edge of hysteria, so I laugh. “I’m just tired. Sorry, man. Come on, let’s go explore that other tunnel.”
I feel him watching me cautiously as we swim back to the channel we came up from. I don’t blame him, since divers have been known to go crazy down in the caves. Tiredness is an ass kicker, and you can go insane, plus the darkness and water makes you loopy, but I’m not going crazy, I know that. It was just a weird moment, he can trust me.
When we reach the dive spot, we ready ourselves and go back under, swimming downwards, our lights piercing the dark. As we move farther away from the cave, I settle down. It was just a rope, nothing else. Fuck, I almost laugh at myself.
“Riggs, heading to the next turn,” Tyler calls behind me as I use the line to pull myself down and ensure we don’t get lost.
“Got it, be safe,” he replies, his voice crackling through the speaker.
“Aww, you missing us?” I mock, making him chuckle.
“Shut up, asshole, just find us something good.”
“Pfft, we all know I will, ’cause I’m the dive god.” I laugh, causing even Tyler to snigger.
We head to the other tunnel, and this time, I go first, excitement racing through me. Tyler cautions me to be careful, which he always does. He thinks I’m too reckless and take too many risks. I just love the feeling of adrenaline pumping through me.
This passageway tightens, and we have to work to get through it without damaging the equipment. It’s slow going, and when we’re through to the other side, I whoop. It’s a dry area. It’s too tight to have an advanced base camp, but we found something! I climb from the water and leave my equipment as I rush to explore, Tyler calling after me.
It’s uphill and leads to a wall we would have to climb, but the rocks have green shrubs growing in them, which means there’s probably surface access somewhere. I don’t climb it, but I move around it, searching for any ways out. “I found something!” I shout, as I shine my light into the opening at head height. It looks like it goes somewhere.
Tyler joins me, and with a grin, I leap up to grab the edge, pull myself in, and start to crawl as he swears. “Fuck, Fin, be careful. We need to head back soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, I just wanna see where it goes.”
It gets tight, and I have to belly crawl through it, but then I stop when it turns upwards sharply. Shining my light up as I crane my neck, I grin at what I find. “Well, shit.”
“What?” Tyler calls, his voice echoing.
“It goes up, but it’s tight. Probably not our best way. Looks like we need to climb those walls to see where they go first.” I sigh and then start scooting backwards. I move carefully, rocks crunching underfoot, until I’m finally back out and Tyler slaps my back.
“Oh well, next time.”
I groan. “Fuck, you’re going to let Kalen and Pey climb it, aren’t you?”
“She’s the best.” He shrugs, and I swear as he grins. “If you’re good, I’ll let you cover the gap for us. You can free climb across the ceiling and make a ladder.”
“Fuck yeah.” I chuckle as we head back for our equipment, help each other into it, and slip back into the water. Just as I am descending, I hear a screeching noise, but I blame it on interference in my mic…right?
When we return, I’m tired, and Kalen and Peyton are eating with Michael, laughing and joking and preparing for their next dive. Tyler heads their way, and I follow as he outlines his desire for them to climb that wall and what they will need, adding a reminder to be careful in the water.
They share a disappointed look. They both wanted to explore the right side tunnel they found. But hey, at least they get to do something cool, as long as no more ropes wrap around anyone…
Chapter Twenty-One
Peyton
Tyler and Fin seem disgruntled as they sit down to eat. Once I’m done, I use the bathroom and go to prepare for another dive. My body is tired, but we still have plenty of days to go, and I can rest when I’m dead.
Michael helps me into my gear and looks around to make sure no one is close to us. “You okay, kid? I saw you yesterday. Looked like you’d been crying.”
“Fine,” I reply and smile. “Really, just a misunderstanding. How are you feeling?”
“Wishing I could be down there with you, Minnow.” He sighs, gazing at the water, and the smile drops from my face. I know that. Fuck, I wish he could be with me. I can’t imagine never being able to dive again, but it’s not worth risking his life. His lungs could pop, and I can’t lose this man. He’s my family.
My friend.
“I do too, old man, but I feel safer knowing you have my back up here.” He smiles as he checks my air and equipment. Kalen comes over shirtless, his wetsuit unzipped to his waist. My eyes drag down his impressive chest without even meaning to.
He’s all golden skin and tattoos with his eight-pack on display and that delicious V leading down. He’s the epitome of fitness, we all have to be down here, but Jesus, he’s the biggest of the guys, and his chest and arms were always my favourite. I almost drool, my eyes caught on his pecs and the bunching of his arms as he lifts his equipment and begins the checks.
It’s a good job this is a wetsuit…
“Minnow, eyes on me.” Michael laughs, and I jerk my head back to him and narrow my eyes. “Perv,” he te
ases.
“Shut up, I’m just appreciating his good quality wetsuit.” I grin.
We quieten when Kalen looks up at us in confusion. I turn away with a muffled laugh and sit down at the water’s edge, ready for today. We are going to set up the climbing gear and see how far we can get, but from Tyler’s description, we may not be able to do it all in one go. There is a truce in the air, at least between Ty and me. Kalen is still pissed and won’t talk to me.
The next dive is almost a failure. We swim through the tunnel Ty specified to climb it, but it takes so long to get there that by the time we arrange the equipment, I only manage to get around a quarter of the way up, so we leave the gear in place for Riggs to try. He’s up next, so we can take a break. Unfortunately, we don’t get time to explore the one we wanted to the day before. When we get back to camp, it’s time to eat and sleep again, but I’m not tired.
Kalen is sitting alone with his back to me. I sigh and head his way, passing him a water bottle. He takes it with a nod but downs his food and leaves me sitting on the rock. The asshole. I eat by myself and then leave to have a quick wash before getting a few hours of sleep. I tread towards the toilet and water system, which is rigged up behind some rock outcropping for privacy, and strip down to my panties and bra.
The water is cold as I splash it on my face and across my chest. My body is sluggish and tired, but I may not have time when I wake up, so I force myself to do it now.
Shivering, I quickly rinse my legs and the rest of my body when a noise makes me spin. My eyes widen as I meet the hungry blue orbs locked on me. I ignite under his regard as his eyes roam down my face to my chest, where my nipples are hard in my bra, thanks to the cold water. They dip farther down to my panties and legs before drifting up to meet my gaze. In those depths, I see a hunger so deep that I actually gasp, clamping my legs together as I remember the way he felt between my thighs.
Tyler steps into the rock outcropping, and I struggle to speak. “Sorry, I didn’t realise anyone else was here…” I trail off, my voice soft and breathy. He swallows, and I watch his Adam’s apple bob. His hands are fisted, and I see him fighting his own desire.
