Read The Lost: Book Two, The Eddie McCloskey Series (The Unearthed 2) for Free Online

almost translucent. Her eyes wide. The pupils dilated. Then, the first spasm of the lungs, sucking in water. The gulp-cough. The lungs trying to expel water and breathe at the same time. The pain of that icy water filling her lungs ...
    He shuddered because he knew exactly how she’d felt.
    He’d almost died the same way.
    In his infinite, nine-year-old wisdom, he’d decided to play on the ice contrary to his brother’s instructions. The ice cracked, and he was sucked in, but luckily he was close to shore and his brother had been able to pull him out. The rescue was eerily prescient—Tim would continue to save Eddie from his bad decisions for the next two decades, until he was murdered.
    During the occasional nightmare, Eddie found himself under that sheet of ice again and felt that water choking him. He’d wake in a sweat, hands shooting up to his throat. The summer following the near-drowning he’d forced himself to learn to swim really well, not wanting to live in fear of the water.
    But ice still scared the hell out of him, and he’d never gone skating since. He’d survived going under the ice once. He wouldn’t tempt fate and try it again.
    Eddie folded his arms. “They were ice skating?”
    Ana took another big gulp. “No.”
    “Then what were they doing?”

Fourteen
     
    An a didn’t answer right away. She moved to the middle of the living room.
    Eddie said, “Who was with Tessa?”
    “It was Tessa and her boyfriend, Mike Hollis, and the Three Musketeers or whatever they called themselves: Marty, Bernard, and Colin.”
    “Marty as in Marty Kindler?”
    “Yeah. And Bernie and Colin, the same two guys who’ve experienced a lot of activity in their houses.”
    “You called those three guys the musketeers … I’m guessing Tessa’s boyfriend, Mike Hollis, wasn’t part of the crew.”
    “Not really. Mike was the guy they brought along to make fun of, so he tells it. He was on the basketball team because he was big. They let him hang out because he’d do whatever they told him.”
    Eddie could see Ana’s silhouetted figure in the darkened room by the meager light coming from the kitchen. He could sense rather than see her tenseness as she collected her thoughts.
    Ana said, “They were playing a stupid game. You had to walk to the middle of the ice, jump as high you could, then run back to shore.”
    Eddie pictured the five of them standing on the edge of that frozen lake, teasing each other, all the guys wanting to look tough in front of Tessa.
    Recipe for disaster.
    Ana continued. “All the guys except for Mike took a turn. Like I said, he was a big guy. He didn’t want to do it because he was the heaviest.
    “They teased him. He says Tessa got in on it and really humiliated him. Called him a vi-jay-jay and all kinds of things. He claimed that Tessa said she was going to blow the other guys in front of him because she preferred men to boys. The other guys denied this.”
    Ana grew so quiet Eddie could hear himself breathing.
    Gently, he said, “Go on.”
    “She went out onto the ice. He said she embarrassed him so much that he went out too. Before he got halfway to her, the ice under them cracked. They both went in. Mike was able to hold on, but Tessa wasn’t. She went under and that was that.”
    The vent in the wall banged as the heat kicked on and it startled both of them. Ana laughed nervously.
    “She went right under?” Eddie asked.
    “No.” Ana shook her head. “She didn’t.”
    Eddie moved into the darkness of the living room and leaned against the wall.
    “Is Mike Hollis still around?” Eddie asked.
    “No. He dropped out of school shortly after and moved away. His crazy Dad’s still here, though.”
    “His Dad stayed here?”
    “Yeah. Mike went to live with relatives or somebody in Ohio.”
    Eddie thought that strange and decided to look into it. Having lost his parents at an early age, he was always amazed by families that willingly parted ways. He would have given his