Secret Bay High Lies (Secret Bay High - Book #4) Read online

  There was no need for Susan to know that, and I wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up. If Damon wanted her to know at some point, that was up to him. But, I wanted him to be able to trust me not to say anything about his personal life to Susan.

  Even if I was the one who really wanted to have answers from the man, I knew Damon would take care of it as soon as he found the right time to talk to the guy.

  Today wasn’t that time.

  We paused outside, looking at the door for a moment and hesitating before we walked in. Then, Damon surprised me as he leaned over and planted a kiss right against my cheek.

  “Just remember, no matter what Susan says in there or what she tells me I can and can’t do, you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t care about these lectures, I care about being with you and being there for you, okay?” he said.

  “I love you,” I replied with a grin.

  He smiled as he put his hand on the doorknob. “I love you, too.”

  Chapter 16

  Damon

  The lecture was about what I thought it would be. Dean and Susan both took turns telling me how disappointed they were with the call from the school, and furthermore, how they hoped it wasn’t ever going to happen again.

  “I thought you and Chad were friends,” Susan said. “He and Peter used to come over all the time and the three of you would play video games for hours. Or you’d go down to the Bay and everything.”

  “Things change,” I said. “Chad kind of turned into a jerk the past few months, and I’m not going to keep putting up with him.”

  “Even if he’s the biggest jerk in the world, you can’t go around throwing your fists in people’s faces. The more you get suspended, the harder it’s going to be for you to graduate,” Dean said. “You’re already struggling to get through math class, and this is only going to put you further behind.”

  “Sutton’s helping me with math,” I told them with a shrug. “I’m sure she’s going to pull me up to where I need to be in no time.”

  They exchanged a look, and I knew they weren’t happy with what I’d announced. But, it was true, and I really didn’t care if they approved or not. The facts were the facts, and there were some things they just couldn’t change about me, and I wasn’t going to act like those things didn’t exist.

  I was proud to be with Sutton, and I wasn’t going to act like I wasn’t. Shoot, I was proud of the fact that I had beat up Chad again, too. I might be sorry that I disappointed Dean and Susan, and I was sorry that I had to deal with a two week suspension from school.

  But, when it came down to it, I would happily punch Chad in the face every time I saw him. Though I had no proof he was the one who smashed my bike except for the fact we’d had such an escalated argument just hours before, I was confident he was the one to blame.

  And I wasn’t going to let him just get away with something like that. Not when I had anything to do with it.

  I endured the entire lecture without fighting back, apologizing when I felt it was right and doing my best to keep the situation as calm and collected as possible. I didn’t want to get in another argument with Dean or Susan, even if I wasn’t afraid to stand up for myself. The fact that they had backed off over being on my back about Sutton was enough to keep me from being overly rebellious, and besides that, I knew I had screwed up with the fight at school.

  It probably would have been better to get Chad in the ring again, or at the very least to catch him when we weren’t on the school grounds. If anything, that would have at least kept me from getting a suspension over the whole thing. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have had someone on me to pull me off him if we had fought privately, and I didn’t want to think about how far I’d let my anger go if I had given it full control.

  It was a good thing the teachers were there to pull me off him, even if Chad was fighting back. He couldn’t get me down, there was no way. He got in a few good blows, but not once did he get me off my feet, and I didn’t know if it would even be possible for him to do it.

  I was a trained fighter who fought as professionally as I could in my field, and Chad, well, he just like to throw his weight around when things weren’t going his way.

  “Graduation is coming up, Damon,” Susan said quietly. “You need to focus on your school above all else.”

  I knew she was implying Sutton, but I ignored that and focused on what she had actually said.

  “I am focusing on school, and I promise I’m going to take it seriously for the rest of the year. I’ll graduate on time with the rest of the class, okay?” I said, looking from one of them to the other.

  “Okay,” Susan said at last, but her tone was defeated. I knew she wanted to say so much more, but it was also pointless for her to try to lecture me. I wasn’t the kind of guy who liked to sit through the long talks she gave, even if I knew she wanted what was best for me.

  Though I loved Susan very much, I still was headstrong and liked to do things my way. I did them my way regardless of what anyone else said or did, and I didn’t plan on changing that any time soon. If they wanted me to take my school more seriously, then I would do it, but I still was going to take care of business the way I saw fit.

  “Can I go now?” I asked. “I want to get the homework from today done so Sutton can take it with her in the morning. I told you I’m going to take it seriously now, so I better get to it.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Dean said before Susan could speak again. I nodded and rose from the table, grabbing my backpack on my way back into the hall. Sutton was leaning against the railing a the top of the stairs, and she smiled when I reached her, planting a kiss right on her lips.

  “How’d it go?” she asked in a low tone. “I could only hear bits and pieces. Are you in a lot of trouble?”

  “No,” I said. “It went better than I thought, but I’m going to have to work harder in school to keep them happy.”

  “I’ll help you,” she said, and I grinned.

  “I know you will.”

  Though I meant it when I promised Dean and Susan I would focus on school before anything else, there were still several things I couldn’t shake from my mind. The fight I had coming up was one of them. It was only a matter of days away, and I wanted to be ready.

  With any luck, this was going to be the last fight I’d ever have to do, and that felt good. I didn’t want to deal with it anymore, or with the guys I owed money. They might not think that I was serious when I told them I was going to be done after the debt was paid, but they were in for a surprise if they thought I would continue to fight for them.

  I was over the life, and I wanted out. I enjoyed fighting, but I didn’t like doing it because I had to. If I was in the ring, I wanted to be there out of passion for the sport and making money for myself, I didn’t want to be in there because someone else was making me do it for money I owed them.

  Then, the other thing that was on the back of my mind was my father. I couldn’t stop thinking about him or the day that I had seen him when I was with Sutton. The look on his face, the fact that he recognized me, everything. It made me sick, but at the same time, it only added fuel to the fire for me talking to him.

  I had to find out if he had anything to do with Sutton’s parents’ murders, and the only way that was going to happen was if I were to talk to him directly. But, it had been years, and I wasn’t sure what to even say to the man. I hated him, and I wanted him to know it. I wanted to punch him in the face and scream at him.

  I wanted him to know just how much pain he caused me and my mother in our lives, and I wasn’t even sure if he knew that Mom was dead. He was so distant from us when we were a so-called family, I didn’t think he and Mom would have stayed in contact with each other once I was out of het picture and she succumbed to her addiction.

  But, I knew if there was any hope for me to be able to put him out of my mind, I was going to have to face him at some point. And, since I didn’t have any way to get in touch with him outs
ide of the school where he allegedly worked, I decided the best thing to do would be to go there.

  Susan had warned me about showing up on school grounds, but then, Susan also hadn’t given me any other option for getting a hold of him. It seemed if I was going to talk to him, I would have to confront him there.

  And that’s what I did.

  I knew when the final class was out for the day, so I slipped out of the house and headed over to the school, not telling Dean or Susan where I was going. Dean was down at the board shop, and Susan was busy in the kitchen when I left, so it was rather easy to slip out unnoticed.

  Once I was on the sidewalk, I hurried to reach the school before my father left for the day. I had no idea what kind of car he drove, but I knew his face, and he wasn’t hard to find.

  The way he was looking around his surroundings as he walked out of the school led me to believe he suspected I would be back, and he wanted to be ready for me when I was. My heart nearly stopped when I saw him, but then it raced when he finally noticed me.

  He held a bag in one hand, his jacket draped over his arm in the other, and he started for me. My immediate instinct was to turn and run. It was what I would have done when I was much younger. But, I was a man now, and I was going to face him.

  “Dad,” I said when he was close enough to talk.

  “Damon,” he replied. “What do you want? You’ve been here three times now.”

  “I wanted to talk to you,” I said, trying to stay calm.

  “About?” he was dismissive.

  “Everything,” I said. I hadn’t seen that coming, not even in myself, but when he asked me what I wanted to talk about, it spilled over. “Like why did you mistreat me and Mom when I was younger? Why did you let me get into the foster care system? Why didn’t you care about anyone but yourself? Why?”

  I felt the lump forming in my throat, but I was determined not to let it take over. I didn’t want to burst into tears, but it was hard not to let my emotions get the better of me. I wasn’t crying because I was upset, but I did want to hit him. I wanted him to know the pain I felt for so long.

  “Did you really come here to try to make me feel guilty about my life?” my dad asked with a yawn. “Really? I thought you would have grown into a better man than that, Damon.”

  “You have no idea the kind of man I am!” I fought to keep my voice down. “You’ve not been in my life since I was five years old!”

  “That was your mother’s doing,” he snapped.

  “Mom’s dead!” I shot back.

  “I heard. Pity she wasn’t able to get her life under control. Glad to see you’re doing well. At least, I assume. Considering you’re here and school’s not out yet, are you suspended or did you drop out?” he asked condescendingly.

  I clenched my fists and unclenched them, trying to form my thoughts.

  “If you were part of my life,” I said, “You wouldn’t have to ask.”

  Without another word, I turned and stalked out of the parking lot. He didn’t call after me, and I heard him get in his car and start the engine. I was hurt. I didn’t know what I expected from the conversation, but I hadn’t thought he would be so dismissive and condescending. He didn’t even flinch when I told him that Mom had died.

  I was angry, and I took a long time getting home. I didn’t care if Susan found me missing and got angry with me all over again. I was too angry myself to see her, and I might have said something I regretted.

  By the time I did finally make it back home, Sutton was just getting back from school. She smiled and waved when she saw me, but her smile vanished when she saw the look on my face.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I went and talked to my dad today,” I said with a shake of my head. “He was an asshole.”

  She gave me a compassionate look. “I’m sorry. Did you learn anything?”

  “Not about the murder,” I shook my head. “I wanted to bring that up, but with how he was acting, I couldn’t think clearly enough to really form any thoughts. I just had to walk away before I did something that would get me in even more trouble.”

  “Well, do you think that he did it from what you did see?” Sutton pressed.

  I sighed, pulling her close for a hug. “I don’t know. I wish I could say for sure one way or the other, but I really don’t know. I mean, I would like to say that he didn’t, that he was just a mean father and there’s no way he would do something like that, but with how mean of a man that he is, I don’t know how far he would let that go.”

  Sutton sighed. “I was hoping that would give us some answers.”

  “I was, too,” I said. I secretly promised I was going to keep an eye on my father and learn the truth. I didn’t know if he was responsible, but I wanted Sutton to have the answer, and I wanted to know, too. There was no reason in my mind he would do something so terrible, but at the same time, it was my father, and he was a terrible man.

  I didn’t care how much work it took, I was going to find out if he was the one behind the deaths of her parents, and if he was, I would make sure he paid for what he did. I didn’t care how much trouble I got in in the process. She deserved answers, and justice. We both did.

  “Don’t tell Susan about this, okay?” I said as I took her hand. “She didn’t know I was going to see him.”

  “My lips are sealed,” Sutton promised. I squeezed her hand as we started up the stairs. Though I was still angry and hurt over the interaction with my father, I couldn’t help but smile when Sutton put her hand in mine. She really was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I would find out the truth for her.

  Shoot, there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for this girl.

  Chapter 17

  Sutton

  I tossed and turned in my bed, trying harder for sleep than I ever thought possible. I was no stranger to poor sleep quality, that was for sure. But tonight, it was harder than ever. I couldn’t get what Damon said about his dad out of my mind.

  Sure, the thought had been lingering in the back of my head for a while wondering if Richard could have been the one to murder my parents. But, the fact that Damon had gone to talk to his father and we were no closer to knowing the truth was driving me crazy.

  I just wanted answers, and though I wasn’t even sure what the next step would be once we found out the truth, I still was going to fight for it as much as I could. I had to know who killed my parents, and why. No matter how I twisted the situation in my own mind, it really didn’t make any sense.

  My father hadn’t ever mentioned any of those four people to me or my mother as far as I knew. Susan, Dean, Richard, and Pam. Damon was the only common thread among the four from what I could determine. The biological son of Richard and Pam, and the foster son of Susan with her boyfriend Dean heavily involved.

  But, that didn’t answer why I was sent to live with Susan when they passed, and it didn’t give me any insight as to why his biological parents were on my father’s scope. As confusing as it was, I knew he had to have a reason for it. My father was a PI. He didn’t just investigate people for no reason.

  And, considering the fact that I had been sent to live with Susan after he died, I had to believe that his investigation was personal. There was no way this was coincidence considering everything that had happened to my father and mother, and the fact that I was living with two of the four people who were on that open case file.

  I wasn’t much of a detective myself, but I knew enough about the work to be able to piece together evidence when I had it available, and I tried to think like my father as much as I could. I wanted to get in his head, even if he wasn’t my biological dad, and try to figure out the answers like he would have done if he was in the situation I was dealing with.

  But, if I was going to get answers, I was going to need more information. And, I had to talk to Damon. It killed me to see him so torn up about talking to his father, and I wanted to let him know he didn’t have to do that again. I didn’t want to ask him to ke
ep talking to the guy who had such a bad effect on him. I didn’t care if he was doing it because he loved me or because he wanted to have that peace of mind himself. I had to take care of this myself.

  They were my parents, after all, and that gave me the responsibility.

  After tossing for another half hour, I decided to slip into Damon’s room. Dean and Susan were in her room with the door closed, and the house was dark and silent. I slipped easily from my room into Damon’s closing the door behind me.

  “What’re you doing, Beautiful?” his voice cut through the darkness, and I smiled.

  “I couldn’t sleep, and I wanted to talk to you,” I whispered.

  “About what?” he asked.

  “About your dad and my parents,” I said.

  He drew in a breath, and I knew that was the last thing he wanted to talk about. But, I continued before he had the chance to argue with me.

  “I want to take on the job of finding out if your dad was the one who did it,” I told him. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to keep him in your life when he’s such a monster.”

  “I want to find out who murdered your parents just as much as you do, and this is for me as much as it is for you,” Damon replied quickly. “I mean, I’m doing it for you, but I want to know that I’m not the son of a murderer.”

  “Me too,” I agreed. “And I want to know who killed my parents so we can bring them to justice, but that doesn’t mean that you have to be the one who subjects yourself to talking to him when he treats you like crap every time you do.”

  Damon sighed. He knew I was right. It didn’t seem he was going to get the chance to talk to his father man to man like he had hoped, and the more he pushed it, the more likely it was for him to get hurt over and over. And, if Richard was the one who had committed the crime, then there was the chance he would get violent toward us as well.

  Clearly, the man wasn’t afraid to get physical when he was angry, and from what I understood from both Damon and Susan, it didn’t take much to infuriate him. I felt sorry for Damon having to deal with that, that was for sure, and I would do anything to help if I could. Sure, we were both in this together in different ways, but I didn’t want to leave him with all the work because it was his biological father.