Page 6

T he kid followed me into the water, and I gritted my teeth in frustration. No one had surfed this beach in nearly a year… not since the incident .

I had no idea that someone had bought the shack, and honestly, while I knew I should have been happy that Jake’s… legacy, for lack of a better word, was finally starting to be erased, I really just felt annoyed that this little prick was here disturbing my peace.

Because it was a good thing that the town was finally moving on.

The boys had done everything in their power to keep the accident from becoming this big, sensationalized thing.

And most of the fail-safes they had installed to keep Leviathans a secret seemed to have been held up. Or so I had thought.

The last thing I wanted was people like this dumbass kid swarming to Leviathans and killing themselves riding waves they had no business riding.

I’d always been against keeping the shack as some sort of weird shrine, no matter what Jake’s death meant to the town… what it meant to me.

Selling the place meant that the tragedy would fade into the past where it belonged, and I could finally rest in peace knowing that my foolishness wouldn’t put an entire new generation of surfers at risk.

I wished the guys and I had never discovered Leviathans in the first place. Now, with this punk-ass kid paddling out after me on his highlighter pink board, I regretted it more than ever.

“Fuck off, kid. I surf alone,” I snapped over my shoulder, tossing my wet hair out of my face as I prepared to drop in.

“Yeah, except you’re surfing on my beach, dickhead. The least you could do is hear me out!” the little shit called after me as I caught my wave.

His protests melted away, however, as the water tumbled and rolled beneath my board.

I leapt to my feet, completely forgetting about the annoying kid the second I caught traction.

I fell into the familiar feeling of carving through the green room, running my fingers across the warm wall of water as I passed through the barrel of the wave.

Already lost in the magic of the sea, I caught myself smiling at the cacophony of sparkling whites, blues, and aquamarines that made up this temporary world of liquid glass.

A moment of true peace possessed me as I edged my toes over the nose of my board, hanging ten, and I thought: This must be what heaven is like …

The thought was fleeting, however, as that punk-ass kid suddenly ripped past me, carving out in front of my board in a clear attempt to force me to bail.

Rage flared through me.

Dropping in on someone else’s wave wasn’t only bad etiquette, it was fucking dangerous.

And this asshole wanted to ride Leviathans ?

Fucker!

I wiped out just as the wave broke, and my board shot out from under me. My tether snapped taut, both keeping my board from getting lost in the ocean and causing a small spark of panic to shoot through me.

As I rolled through the aftermath of the wave, instinctively righting myself and following my tether to the surface, I hauled myself out of the water and straddled my board.

I could hear the kid cackling in the distance, and anger like I hadn’t felt in years ripped through my veins.

I locked eyes on him, and suddenly, he wasn’t laughing anymore.

Laying down on my board, I started paddling toward him. This little shithead clearly had a death wish.

He wanted to kill himself on Leviathans? I would make it easy for him and drown his skinny ass right here, right now.

He gulped when he realized I was out for blood, and he plastered himself to his own board, catching a baby wave into shore.

I cursed under my breath and followed suit.

By the time I was in the shallows, he was already sprinting through the sand back to the shack, and I almost laughed.

He was sorely mistaken if he thought he would be safe from me there.

I’d basically grown up in that shack. I knew things about it that no other living person knew, like the fact you could disable the lock mechanism in the door handle by pushing it in slightly and giving it a clockwise, quarter turn.

Sprinting after him, I ripped the quick release off my ankle tether, abandoning my board and following the kid into the shack.

Predictably, he tried to lock me out, and he yelped in terror as I exploded through the door like I owned the place.

“Dude! It was a joke, relax!” He was babbling, holding up his hands and backing away from me.

He was so small. Just a little pipsqueak, and I forced down my amusement at the fact that he felt brave enough to fuck with me. I wasn’t done being pissed with him. No time to admire the giant balls he must have hiding under those Hawaiian swim trunks.

Ignoring his protests, I crowded forward until he was backed up against the wall, smack dab between the black and white portraits of Mark Foo and Keala Kennelly.

I slammed him against the wall by his throat and marveled at how easily my hand swallowed him whole.

“Jesus, dude! I’m sorry, ok!?” He was kicking his feet and clawing at my hand as I watched him struggle beneath my grip. I stared, fascinated, as he scraped his blunt fingernails over my skin, carving deep red marks into my wrist.

I'd avoided people since the accident, so even though his marks hurt, they were oddly comforting.

They were better than feeling nothing.

Now that I had him pinned, I took a second to really look at him.

He had a mop of golden hair that had a few sun-bleached strands poking out.

His cheeks, which were currently flushed pink from the physical exertion, were dusted with a light smattering of freckles. His hazel eyes had looked blue outside but were now leaning toward a soft green. Each eye was lined in thick dark lashes. I was so close I could nearly count them.

There was a drop of saltwater on his pouty, pink lips, and I watched his tongue dart out to lick it off as he continued to buck and arch against my ironclad grip.

“You think it’s cool to drop in on someone else’s wave?” I asked, my voice low and calm. The more he struggled, the tighter I squeezed, relishing in the way his pink cheeks began to turn an alarming shade of red.

He coughed and shook his head.

“No, I just… I didn’t know how else to get your attention!” he croaked. I could feel his heartbeat in my fingertips, and I forced myself to let up a bit so he could breathe.

“You have my attention now,” I growled, and his cheeks turned an even deeper shade of crimson. His skin was flushed and hot beneath my palm, and he squirmed again, though he seemed less desperate now.

He was looking at me in a way that suddenly made me feel off balance. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but my heart skipped a beat.

“Listen…” He coughed again, and I reflexively backed off a little more, letting him take in a big gulp of air he clearly needed. “I need your help. You want to surf on my property; it’s a win-win.”

“I don’t need your permission to surf here. You can’t stop me,” I pointed out, tilting my head toward his prone, sea-slick form. He was hairless and lean.

So… young and… vibrant.

My throat caught, and I let out a slow breath through my nose, pushing back the ever-present trauma of the accident that haunted my every waking moment.

“I’ll call the cops!”

I barked out a laugh and leaned in closer to him, enjoying the way the color in his cheeks continued to deepen at my proximity.

He smelled… amazing. Like the ocean and sunscreen…

but also something more masculine and raw.

Something that I was pretty sure was just his natural scent.

I resisted the sudden urge to lean in closer to inhale.

Instead, I growled, “Go for it, kid. They’re not gonna do shit.”

His expression flickered from angry to frustrated to devastated and then, finally, defeat.

He sort of deflated against the wall and hung his head.

I should have felt happy that I won.

But something about watching all the fire melt out of him just pissed me off even more. It reminded me too much of myself and everything I lost the day that wave killed Jake Whittling.

“That’s it? You’re giving up?” I found myself saying, my tone much more accusatory than it should have been.

His head whipped up, and he narrowed his eyes on me .

“I won’t ever give up, dude. If you’re not willing to help me, I’ll still find a way to do it on my own. I’m surfing Leviathans. It’s happening. Help me or don’t,” he spat, and I snarled, my fingers tightening around his throat again.

I stroked my thumb over his heartbeat, gritting my teeth in frustration.

Thump, thump, thump.

Strong. Vibrant. Alive.

“You have a fucking death wish, kid?” I snapped, and he chuckled, giving me this sly, mischievous little smile that I was sure got him out of all kinds of trouble. He had dimples on both cheeks, and I would bet money he could convince the devil to give him a hall pass with that smile.

“I won’t die if you help me .” He smirked and shrugged despite the fact that I still had him pinned to the wall by his throat. “If you don’t help me… well. I guess I will probably die.” He sighed, checking his nails like I wasn’t about to crush his damn windpipe.

Little fucker.

He met my gaze dead on, and that impish smile of his spread wider. He knew he had me.

With a snarl, I released him and spun away, running my fingers into my hair and tugging at the roots in frustration.

This wasn’t heaven. This was fucking hell .

Fuck this kid.

“What is wrong with you?” I hissed at him. “Do you not value your life at all? Did you not hear about what happened last year? About why this shack was even available for you to buy?”

He rubbed his throat gingerly, watching me with one eye squeezed shut as if it hurt to touch the bruise blossoming on his neck.

Guilt crashed through me, and I immediately regretted losing my temper like that. He couldn’t be older than what? Twenty? Twenty-one?

It wasn’t his fault he was a little prick. He would grow out of it.

I had…

I think .

“Yeah, I heard. It sucks, but I’m not that Jake guy. I’m gonna do it, and I’m gonna live to talk about it.”

I glowered at him.

So arrogant.

I ignored the voice in the back of my head that reminded me I had been arrogant once, too. We all had. We hadn’t had anyone to coach us or teach us.

Maybe if we had, things would have been different.

Looking at this stubborn little asshole in front of me, I knew nothing I said to him would talk him out of doing it.

I knew it because nothing would have talked me out of doing it.

“Fine,” I barked, and the smile that broke out on the kid’s face… Both his dimples popped, and I scowled.

“Really!?” he asked, leaping up in the air like a Mexican jumping bean.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed.

“Yeah. Really.”

“What, like, now?”

I glared at him as I headed for the door.

“No, kid. Not, like, now, ” I mocked. “We’ll start tomorrow. Now, I’m going to finish my morning sesh. Try not to fucking drop in on me again, yeah?”

He nodded his head eagerly, his megawatt smile so big I swear the corners of his mouth were going to touch his ears.

“Yeah, yeah! No problem… Mr…”

“Riddick. You can call me Riddick.”

“You got it, Riddick!” he chirped happily, and I paused at the door just as I was about to leave.

“One last thing…” I trailed off, clearly wanting him to tell me his name.

“Finn.”

I nodded .

“One last thing, Finn. If you tell anyone about our little arrangement, the deal’s off, got it?”

His giant smile slipped a notch, and he frowned.

“How come?”

I sighed. “My buddies and I have been trying to keep Leviathans from getting swarmed for years. No one’s going to be thrilled to hear that you’re training to ride the wave that killed Stars Cove’s poster boy.”

This didn’t seem to sit right with him, and I scoffed.

“So you’re in it for the glory, then? You need the crowds and the titles and the accolades or what, it’s not worth it?”

His frown deepened, and he set his jaw, locking his fierce, impish gaze on me.

“It’s not about that. It’s about proving to myself that I can do it,” he insisted, and my lip twitched.

“Well then, you shouldn’t have a problem keeping your damn mouth shut. Welcome to the club, kid.”

“There’s a club!?” he asked excitedly, following me out of the shack, much to my dismay.

“Yeah, there’s a club,” I grumbled.

And the only way out is in a fucking body bag.

But I didn’t tell the little imp that last part. That was something he was going to have to learn on his own.