Read Online Deep Betrayal (Lies Beneath #2) by Anne Greenwood Brown - Free Book Online Page A

police?”
    “What for?”
    “He told them the town needed to set up a night-watch group.” She paused, waiting for me to catch up, but I was already two steps ahead.
    “An armed patrol.” She lowered her voice. “He’s telling anyone who will listen that mermaids are killing people out on the lake.”
    That’s rich
, I thought.
Apparently he’s forgotten that the last kill on the lake was at
his
hands
. I got down on my knees and looked under the bed.
    “Jack refused to leave the station until someone took him seriously. They had to call my dad to come down and get him. Chief Eaton is one of my dad’s best friends. Super embarrassing. What are you looking for?”
    “Oh, um, I lost something,” I said. “An earring.”
    “Let me help you. Was it special?”
    “Very,” I said, noticing for the first time that the screen was off the window.
    Later that night, rain splattered against my open windowsill. Calder was out there somewhere. I wondered if he was cold. I wondered if he’d found shelter for the night. Dad came into my darkened room and stood by the side of my bed. I pretended to be asleep, but he knew I was faking.
    “Lily, we need to talk to you.”
    We?
I turned over quickly to find Calder standing in the dark, behind my dad’s shoulder, staring down at me with serious eyes. I pulled the blankets tight around me.
    “I’m going to give this a go,” Dad said. “See if there’s any truth to what you’ve told me.”
    “Yeah, Dad. Okay.”
    “Tonight,” he said.
    “Wait? What? Without me?”
    “Lily,” Calder said, drawing closer. “Is that really something you want to watch?”
    When he said it like that, when I thought about
all
that a transformation would require, I cringed. No. He was right. I didn’t need to see that.
    “Our first step,” Calder said, “is to see if Jason can, in fact, transform.”
    So it’s Jason now?
    He glanced at my dad. “If he can—and I don’t doubt that for a second—then we’ll have to start training right away. He needs to know how to scramble his thoughts if Maris and Pavati can hear him, and he needs to know how to defend himself if they can’t. Well, he should really know how to do that either way. He’s not going to be able to stay out of the water—like you are.” He looked at me hard to remind me of my promise. “So we’re going to start training immediately.”
    “Train?” My voice was a whisper. “How long will you be gone?” I asked, dreading where this was going. The feeling of abandonment trickled through my chest, and I braced myself against their answer.
    Dad paced back and forth at the end of my bed. “I can’t stand it any longer, not knowing. I’ve got to stretch my … I’ve got to go. For just a little while.”
    “Tell me how long you’re going to be gone,” I demanded.
    “It’s just for a little while,” Calder said.
    “But I haven’t seen you in over a month!” I hated how hysterical I sounded, but I couldn’t help it. This was unfair, and Calder didn’t seem to care at all.
    “Lil,” he said, bowing his head.
    Dad stepped closer again. “I told your mom the college was sending my whole department to a conference and that I’d be home on Sunday.”
    “But that’s
three days
!”
    “Shhhh,” Dad said, tamping down my volume with his hands. “It’ll probably take me at least that long to learn what I need to know.”
    Dad looked at Calder and tipped his head toward the door. Calder took the hint and said, “Good night, Lily.” He hung in my doorway for a second before slipping away like a shadow.
    I watched the hall for a few more moments, in the hope that he’d come back. When he didn’t, I set my jaw and flopped back on my pillow. I turned away from Dad to hide my face. He put his hand on my shoulder and rolled me back toward him. My cheeks were already wet.
    “So it’s that way? You’ll miss him that much?”
    “Every minute.”
    “Remember you’ll be leaving for college soon, Lily.