All the Secrets We Keep (Quarry Book 2) Read online

  He wasn’t expecting the push of water being displaced by something swimming close to him. Close and big. Really big.

  Ilya had been confronted with sharks, barracuda, and stingrays as big as his entire body. Ugly, aggressive electric eels. But all those creatures were in the ocean, where you’d expect to run into them, where you’d be on guard for them. Nothing like that should be down here. There were quarries that supported fish. Carp, pike, perch, and bass. In the plans he’d looked over from this development corporation, there’d been information in there about seeding the quarry with “fishable wildlife,” but he and Alicia had never done that.

  Another push of water swirled around him. Something flickered just out of view on the other side of the car. Impossibly, the car itself vibrated, like something was rubbing against it. Something big enough to shift it.

  Ilya had been diving for years. He’d taught hundreds of classes, certified hundreds of divers. He knew the dangers of panicking and how to avoid it, but here he was with his breath coming swift and shallow as he flailed in the water, trying to get away from the car. Another thrum came from the Golf. A looming dark form showed itself through the windows, unclear but shimmering.

  Nothing that big should be down here. Nothing that could swim or move, nothing that could start toward him. Ilya heard the rush and swoosh of blood in his ears. He knew to stay calm, but right then, all he could think about was getting away.

  Despite himself, a shout lurched out of his mouth around his mouthpiece. Bubbles. The feeling he could not breathe. He spun in the water, kicking.

  In seconds, firm hands gripped him, and he was pulled gently to the surface, where they broke the water, and he tore away his mouthpiece to gasp in gulps of air. Something brushed his legs, and he screamed hoarsely, jerking them upward while Deke shouted in response. Patty had not surfaced with them but broke a second or so later.

  He was going to drown, Ilya thought. He was going to get pulled under and eaten by it. The stories he’d been telling for years were true.

  “Chester . . . ,” he managed to say.

  “C’mon, man.” Deke took him under one arm and got him swimming toward the end of the dock. It was only a few feet, a few minutes, and by the time they got there, Ilya was already remembering how to breathe.

  Embarrassed, he shook off Deke’s help getting up the ladder. He tossed off his mask and sat on the edge of the dock, looking over the edge, convinced he was going to see the gaping maw of an overgrown, mutant goldfish devour Patty. He didn’t breathe easy until she was up the ladder, too, kneeling next to him and squeezing his shoulder.

  “You okay?”

  “I saw it.” Ilya looked at her confused expression and started to laugh. “All these years, all the stories—hell, I made most of ’em up. But I saw it.”

  Patty looked confused. “You saw what?”

  “The goldfish. Chester.”

  Patty snorted laughter. “You’re full of it. That was just something you spread around to get people to dive here.”

  “No. I saw it. It’s enormous. It’s almost as big as I am. It was behind the Golf.” Ilya turned his head and spat. “Shit. I think I almost blacked out.”

  Patty sat back. “That’s crazy.”

  “I saw it once,” Deke said seriously. “Oh, back about seven years ago. I was out with one of the night classes you guys used to run. I was over by the copter. Had my flashlight. I shone it down, you know, just to see if I could get a glimpse of the bottom, but you can’t there—it’s what, seventy, eighty feet?”

  “Something like that,” Ilya said.

  “What the hell are you both talking about?” Patty asked.

  “Back in high school, we all went to the carnival together,” Ilya said. “Played that game with the Ping-Pong balls and the goldfish, you know? Jenni Harrison won a fish. A big, fat orange one. She named it Chester. But she got tired of taking care of it, right, because goldfish are dirty. Their tanks are always gross. So she brought it out to the quarry, and she threw it in. And he’s been here ever since. Growing.”

  Patty pursed her lips. “Hmmm.”

  “There was a dude in France,” Deke said solemnly. “Pulled a thirty-pound goldfish out of a lake.”

  Patty rolled her eyes. “You’re both so full of it.”

  “I saw it on the Internet, it’s true,” Deke said again. “And I totally saw the one Ilya’s talking about once, right in my flashlight beam. Huge goldfish, swimming away like it didn’t give one good goddamn.”

  “It was a story we told people, but I’ve never . . . I never saw him. I mean, I didn’t really think . . .” Ilya let himself fall back onto the dock, staring up at the sky.

  “Now the goldfish on your logo makes a lot more sense,” Patty said. “I always figured it was just a fish because, well, water.”

  “No, it’s the carnival goldfish named Chester that Jenni threw in the quarry.” Ilya shuddered and ran both hands through his hair. “It was huge. It was real. I didn’t imagine it.”

  Jennilynn had gone and died, changing everything, and the fish had lived.

  “I believe you,” Deke said. “But next time, do me a favor and don’t lose your shit over it, man. You scared me. Even if it’s really big, it’s still only a goldfish. Right?”

  It was more than that, not that he’d ever be able to explain it to Deke. Or to anyone. Not even to himself.

  “I was stupid,” Ilya agreed. “Sorry.”

  “It can happen to anyone. That’s why you don’t dive alone.” Patty slapped her thighs with both hands and then shaded her eyes to look across the water and the parking lot to the construction. “That’s where they’re going to build the condos, huh?”

  Ilya had taken enough deep breaths by now that he was a little calmer, at least about the goldfish. The idea of the condos had his chest going tight again. “That’s the plan, apparently. They don’t have to ask my permission.”

  Patty gave him a sympathetic smile. “It might turn out okay, Ilya. I mean, maybe seeing Chester after all these years when you thought he was just a story . . . maybe that’s a sign, right? It’s all going to be okay?”

  “Sure. Maybe.” Ilya had been raised by two women superstitious enough to have put the belief of signs into him. The question was, What did it mean? “You guys going back in?”

  “Nah. I gotta get going. But hey, man, about the Belize trip.” Deke hesitated. “I know I said I was interested, but I can’t make it. It’s a lot of money, and I’m trying to save up for a new truck. And umm, well . . .”

  “We’re getting married,” Patty said matter-of-factly. “So I told him that maybe we can go next year, but this year we have a lot of bills. Sorry, Ilya.”

  There went two of the four who’d expressed an interest. That was it. He was screwed.

  “Mazel tov,” Ilya said anyway. Just because he could be a dick didn’t mean he always had to be.

  Far out in the water, something splashed. A glint of orange flashed. They all looked, but nothing was there.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  It would take more than a few days for Theresa to fully settle in so she could feel like she lived here and wasn’t merely a houseguest, but it helped that Alicia had been spending a number of nights out with Niko, so Theresa often had the house to herself. Theresa had insisted on talking over everything with her new landlord/roommate—who’d be responsible for what chores, what Theresa was expected to contribute to the household, whether or not it was cool to drink the other’s milk without asking. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was find herself homeless again because she’d crossed some line she hadn’t known about.

  Tonight, Alicia had gone out with Niko to the movies and dinner. She’d told Theresa not to expect her home until around midnight. Theresa had spent the day pursuing leads and checking in with a few new contacts she hoped she could connect with an architect who was interested in turning an old power plant on the outskirts of town into upscale apartments. There was money in that deal—a