Dark Shadows (Gia Santella Crime Thrillers Book 11) by Kristi Belcamino (best motivational novels txt) 📗

know. It’s sort of dumb. Even though we’ve known each other since we were kids, we just started dating. It’s all sort of fresh and new.”

“Wouldn’t he have come with you?”

She looked away and shook her head. “He’s not really into film. He said I should take Owen or Conner because he loves Coppola.”

I thought about what I’d seen earlier. How convenient for him to say that. Was it so he could be with Amanda?

Lucas appeared with her drink and sat back down beside her, kissing her neck.

“I’m bored,” he said in a low voice. “Want to go to our room?”

“Yes!” she said and jumped up. She turned to me with a guilty look.

“I’m going to bed in a few minutes, too,” I said and yawned.

When I stood, all the others looked at me.

“Hey, I’m going to bed. I’ll lock up and set the alarm system. There’s been some break-ins recently. If you need to leave for any reason, just come knock on my bedroom door, and I’ll let you out.”

Yawning, I headed for the front door. Suddenly, Conner was behind me, wrapping his arms around me from behind and kissing my neck. I shrugged out of his embrace.

“You are amazingly hot,” I said. “But not tonight.”

“Was it that call you got?”

It was none of his business, but after we’d been so hot and heavy earlier, I thought he deserved my honesty. I gave a slight nod.

He gave a small smile. And then did the sweetest thing—he kissed my forehead.

“Sleep well.”

And then he was gone into the dark of the rest of the house.

I set the alarm system and headed up the stairs to my bedroom.

In my room, I slid the deadbolt across the door and stripped off my clothes without turning on any lights. The room had a faint blue glow from the lights in and around the pool below filtering in through my windows. With the French doors to my balcony thrown open, I could hear the others talking and laughing down below, and it was oddly comforting. A light breeze blew the long, sheer curtains into the room, and I felt a sense of peace I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I fell asleep almost immediately.

I woke in the dark, sitting up straight. I’d heard a sound.

Something disturbing that sent my heart racing and blood pounding.

I wasn’t sure what I’d heard, but it put my body on high alert.

Instinctively, I reached for the gun in my nightstand drawer.

My hand groped at an empty wooden rectangle.

It wasn’t there. Neither was the silencer.

I switched on the bedside light to make sure, but the drawer was empty.

Then I heard a blood-curdling scream coming from the pool area.

I raced to my balcony.

Despite the sun creeping over the horizon to the east, the backyard was still in dark shadows, and the turquoise lights still lit up the pool, showcasing a horror vignette: a body floating in the pool surrounded by a crimson cloud of blood.

It was Lucas.

8

Amanda, dressed in a white nightgown, stood by the side of the pool, her body shuddering as she wailed.

Behind me, I heard doors slamming open and people shouting and footsteps.

I stood still for a second and then saw something that I wasn’t sure how to interpret.

Amanda looked around, her head swiveling, and then she waited a few seconds very calmly. And then she screamed again.

What the fuck was that about?

Conner came racing outside, swore, and dove into the pool. He swam to Lucas’s body, which was floating face down and pulled it to the stairs. He lifted Lucas out and put him on his back. He started CPR, but Lucas’s face was blue. Even from the second story I could see that.

And still, Conner pumped on his chest. Owen was there suddenly, kneeling beside and shaking Lucas.

I reached for my phone and ran out of my room even though I was only wearing underwear and a thin camisole.

Outside, Conner had given up on the life-saving measures. He sat with his head in his hands on the edge of the lounge chair weeping. Amanda was sitting near Lucas’s head, legs splayed, tears dripping down her face. Owen had his arm around her. He wasn’t crying anymore, but his eyes were swollen and red.

“What happened? How did this happen?” she asked.

I grabbed a blanket out of a basket near the fire pit and gently covered up Lucas’s body, trying not to meet his blue, sightless gaze.

I took Amanda by the arm. “Come on, let’s go inside.” She didn’t fight me.

Owen stood, too, and put his arm around her. They headed for the back door. I went over to Conner. “You okay?”

He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Me, either,” I said. “Will you wait here while I call the authorities?”

He nodded, staring straight ahead.

I looked down at the cell phone in my hand and hesitated. I didn’t even know who to call. What was 911 in France?

Then I realized I needed to call Dante’s friend, Ryder.

He answered immediately.

“I’ve got a problem.”

Inside the house, I went back upstairs to put on pants before the cops came and found Sabine standing in front of Hannah’s door.

“Something’s wrong with her,” Sabine said looking at me, white-faced.

I looked into the room. Hannah was sitting up in bed, bleary-eyed and blinking.

“What’s going on? I don’t feel so good.”

She reached over the side of the bed and grabbed a small ceramic trash can. She held it for a second and then leaned over and vomited into it

I sat on the edge of the bed and held her, pulling back her hair as she got sick.

Then she was done and thrust the trash can at me.

I set it on the floor and she looked at me.

“I can barely keep my eyes open,” she said and slumped over. “Where’s Lucas?” she said and then closed her eyes.

Sabine gave me a look.

“Did you see outside?” I asked her in a guarded voice. Sabine nodded and her face crumpled.

After I stood, I saw the glass near