Masquerade (Heven and Hell #1)(40)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“Hey?” He grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers and pulling me around to face him. “What’s wrong?”

Without warning my eyes filled with tears. Sam let out a low curse and pulled me against his chest. “It’s okay,” he murmured.

“No, it isn’t.” I sniffled. “I’m a horrible person.” I wiped my face against his shirt.

“Why would you be a horrible person?” I could hear the laughter in his voice, and I pulled back. His smile died on his lips.

“Hey,” he whispered. “Tell me.” He caught a stray tear with his thumb and brought it to his lips. I watched fascinated. “Heven?” he prompted after a few silent moments.

I took a deep breath. “I lost my bracelet. I think it fell off in the lake.” I looked at the floor not wanting to see the disappointment in his face when I said the words. I was afraid that he would think that I was careless with it, or that it didn’t mean anything to me.

“Damn clasp,” he murmured then tilted my chin up so he could look into my eyes. The gold was a little deeper tonight, and it reminded me of the burnished gold color of the fall leaves that made Maine so famous. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll find it.”

I shook my head. “It’s probably at the bottom of the lake.”

“Maybe not. Maybe it fell off before that.” He took my hand and began leading me away, toward the party.

“I feel kind of empty without it.” I whispered.

He squeezed my hand as we walked out onto the deck where a huge cake burning with candles sat, and everyone gathered around while Kimber blew them out. I made sure that she could see me before she started cutting the cake and handing out large slices.

After almost drowning, losing my bracelet and hearing the awful things Kimber said to me, I was ready to go home. Instead I was sitting here pushing cake around on my plate.

“Are you okay, Hev?” Cole leaned over to ask me.

“I’m fine.” I said, pushing the uneaten cake away. “I lost my bracelet.”

“Oh, no!” Kimber gasped. “I know how much it means to you. I am so sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Underneath the table Sam squeezed my fingers.

“I’ll go ask the DJ if anyone turned it in to him.” Kimber said, jumping up.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said.

“It’s the least I can do.” She argued. I didn’t say anything else because she was right.

Before she walked away, a guy in our class came up to the table. “Hey, guys. Have any of you seen Andi around?”

“Sorry, Sean, I haven’t.” I said. Everyone else shook their heads.

His shoulders sagged, “I can’t find her and she isn’t answering any of my calls or texts.”

“When’s the last time you saw her?” Sam asked.

“Right before the blackout. We were dancing, the lights went out and when they came back on she was gone.”

“I was just on my way to the DJ booth. Come with me, and we will have the DJ page her. Maybe she went off with friends and lost track of time.” Kimber told him.

He nodded, but his eyes were worried. I watched them disappear into the crowd and an uneasy feeling came over me.

Sam stood up from the table. “I’m going to go look for your bracelet.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“No. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“I want to help.”

“Please,” he sounded weary. “Just stay up here.”

“You act like I need to be watched or something. This is my best friend’s house. I have been here a thousand times. I know the place better than you do.”

“I don’t think you need to be watched, Heven.” He said patiently. “But you almost drowned, it’s chilly, and now there’s a girl missing.”

“Missing? She isn’t missing. She probably just wandered off, drunk.”

He nodded, but his eyes said something else.

“As much as I hate to admit it, dude’s got a point.” Cole said.

We both looked over at him, forgetting that he had even been listening.

“Fine,” I muttered and looked at Sam. “Go. I’ll stay up here.”

“Thank you. I’ll be right back.” He kissed my forehead then brushed a stray piece of hair out of my face.

Dammit, how was I supposed to be mad when he treated me with such tenderness?

“Hurry back.” I whispered. He smiled then turned and walked away.

I sat down next to Cole, watching Sam gracefully forage through the grass. Suddenly, I felt as if I was being watched. I turned my head to see Cole staring at me with a funny look on his face. “What’s the matter?” I asked.

“You really like that guy, huh?” he said, glancing in Sam’s direction.

“Yea, I do.”

“I just don’t get it,” he muttered.

I didn’t have a response to that, so I turned back to watch Sam. He didn’t have to get it. I did.

“Hey, Hev.” he said, touching my arm. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It’s ok.”

“But I feel it is my duty as your friend to inform you that you will not be winning any Olympic swimming medals anytime soon. My two-year-old cousin swims better than you.” He grinned, and I smacked him playfully on the arm.

“You know I can’t swim,” I said.

“Maybe I can call up my cousin and have him give you a few lessons, you can pay him in goldfish.”

Sam

I tried to appear casual as I looked through the grass. This entire night had been a great lesson in control for me. Sometimes it scared me – how good I had become at lying. I didn’t bother to wish for a normal life because that wasn’t going to happen. But, I did wish that I could be honest with Heven about myself and for her to still want to be with me. Was it really fair of me to ask her to live a life that would be so chaotic?

I pushed the thoughts aside and concentrated on my task. I looked back over my shoulder to where I left Heven. She was still sitting on the deck and Cole was talking, making faces, and she was smiling. I hated that guy. He acted like he was so much better than everyone else, like he was good. There was something about that goodness that really ticked me off. But there was one other thing that really got to me about Cole. He was normal. He could give her normal. But he would never love her like I do.

Focus.

Checking once more that Heven – or anyone else – was no longer looking my way I ducked into the trees. The monster was out here. Waiting. That little stunt earlier with the truck was just the monster’s way of saying that it was watching and that it was back. I had a very bad feeling that the girl who couldn’t be found – Andi – was dead.