27. Grayson

27

GRAYSON

" F uck, yeah. Look at her tits." Miller thrust his hips forward, his half-hard boner at eye level, and that was a view I'd be happy to never see again.

"Fuck off. Get your dick away from me. And why the fuck are you streaming your shit porn to the communal TV? Go and play it in your room." I swiped the remote, flicking off the TV and cutting off the loud, fake moans coming from the speakers. Porn was hot, but it needed to be the right kind. I was a connoisseur. A porn-oisseur. A hot girl with a guy with a similar build to me, so I could put myself in his place. Both looking like they were actually into it, rather than faking it. Sometimes I hit up the threesome or group categories, if I was in the mood for something a bit different.

I adjusted my stirring dick, which hadn't seen any action other than my hand for way too long. Maybe I needed to call one of my past hookups, someone who wouldn't expect anything more from me?—

"Looks like you're the one with the dick issues." Miller leered at my crotch, and I flipped him off. He laughed, leaning in to ruffle my hair. "C'mon. I know what you need—other than to get laid." After a dramatic pause, during which he spread out his arms and widened his eyes, he finally spat it out. "You need to help me plan the Halloween party. This is gonna be the social event of the year, bro."

I groaned but clambered off the couch, following him into our large kitchen where he jerked his head toward the kitchen island as he headed over to the fridge.

"Take a seat. Want a Gatorade? Or water, or Prime—no, fuck that asshole Tony. He took the last Prime, I know it. The fucker's always stealing them."

"Water's fine," I said. Maybe this was what I needed, to take my mind off everything else. The note I'd received was still stuck in my head, but nothing else had happened since, other than what I thought I might have seen at the game, and I was beginning to wonder if that had been my imagination. Our search for missing or deceased people hadn't turned up anything yet, and every day that went by, the more the doubts crept in. Had we really seen a hand in the water? Or had it been something completely innocent we'd mistaken for a hand? Was the bump we'd felt really a rock beneath the surface? Was someone just fucking with us for a laugh?

Rubbing my hand across my face, I groaned again. I was sick of thinking about this. This was supposed to be a good year. Win the conference title, hang out with my teammates, party, hook up with hot girls… Y'know. A good time.

"Hey, if you don't wanna do this, I'm not forcing you." Miller slid a bottle of water across the island to me, his brows pulled together.

"No, it's not that. Just got shit on my mind. Nothing important." Uncapping my water, I took a swig. "Tell me about this party. What's been planned so far?"

Truth be told, I should be involved in the planning since it was officially hosted by the Blackwell Lake University Barracudas and I was the captain. So I listened as Miller gave me a rundown of everything that had already been organized, throwing out my own suggestions every now and then. Smith and Johnny wandered into the kitchen in the middle of our planning session, which somehow ended up with everyone piling into my SUV to go on a supply run. The party wasn't happening for another week, but they were all so excited, and I found myself getting caught up in it all. Their excitement was contagious, and after a while, I realized I wasn't having to fake my happiness. It felt like a ton of weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Fucking around with the guys in the Halloween store, picking up all kinds of random crap that I'd never have been able to get back in the UK, trying on creepy masks and daring Miller to buy and wear a sexy nun's outfit for the party…

For that brief moment in time, everything was good.

Back at the house, we pulled into the driveway and unloaded our bags, dumping everything in the garage for now. As we entered the house, my phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out, swiping my thumb over the screen absentmindedly as I continued my heated debate with Smith about whether we should serve pumpkin spice ice cream at the party—it was a no from me.

A loud gasp came from my teammate and my body jerked, my gaze flying to my screen.

What. The. Fuck.

"You got people sending you porn?" Smith peered at my phone, his brows raised, and I fumbled with it, frantically hitting the button to turn off the screen and nearly dropping it in an effort to shove it in my pocket as quickly as possible.

"It's not porn. I'll be back," I muttered, taking off for the stairs at a jog. In the safety of my room, I opened the message again.

It was from an unknown number.

A different number to the one that had sent the previous messages, but with the same pattern, and my hand shook as I read the words on the screen.

1…2…3…4…

See what happens behind closed doors.

The video attachment I'd inadvertently opened made my blood run hot and cold simultaneously. It was only a five-second clip, a little shaky and grainy, like it had been taken from a distance and zoomed right in. There was a slight reflection of a window in the foreground.

The clip was of Ava and Micah. Together. Properly. Nothing like the kiss Ava had shared with me in the library. This one was hot and urgent and full of passion, like they were devouring each other. From what I could make out, Micah had his hands up Ava's top, and when she arched back, I could see the outline of Micah's erection.

Fucking hell. It was so hot, seeing them together, and very fucking scary, because it meant…

It meant that someone was watching them. Someone had been close enough to film them undetected and was now taunting me with the footage—or us—if the others had received the same message.

"What do I do?" I whispered into the empty room, feeling completely useless and so helpless. As I gripped my phone tightly, breathing in and out rapidly, it vibrated again.

Another message.

This one was a picture.

It was the outside of my house. The house I was in right now, although the picture had obviously been taken on a different day because the sky was dark and foreboding, rather than the weak sunshine currently dipping behind the clouds.

My phone buzzed again.

A pumpkin emoji.

Then a message.

Happy Halloween, Grayson.