Dark Abyss by Kaitlyn O'Connor (classic novels for teens .txt) 📕

“You didn’t feel that?” Anna gasped, looking around the house wildly. “It’s an Earthquake!”

“It isn’t an Earthquake!” Simon said testily. “We don’t have a fault line within miles of us.”

He’d barely gotten the words out when they all heard the distinctive scream of grinding metal.

“Oh my god! The house is going to fall!”

“It’s alright, Anna,” Ian said soothingly. “Just sit down.”

She stared at him. “I think we need to leave. I really do! I can feel the house shaking! Put your feet on the floor! There’s a strong vibration running through the floor.”

Simon glanced at the others and gave up. “It’s alright, Anna. It really is. The workers are just attaching a new unit to the house.”

Anna blinked at him in complete confusion. “A unit?”

“A modular unit. An addition,” Simon clarified.

Anna looked like she didn’t know whether to believe him or not. “You’re adding on to the house?”

“That’s all it is, baby. Honestly,” Caleb said.

She turned to look at him. “Why didn’t you just tell me that?” she demanded in dawning anger. “It scared the hell out of me!”

“Because it was intended as a surprise,” Ian said dryly.

Anna turned to look at him. “A surprise?”

“For you.”

“For me?” Her face reddened. She still looked more frightened and angry than thrilled, though. “You’re adding on to the house for me?”

Simon studied her speculatively for a long moment. “We leased it. We figured since you were going to be here a while it would be more comfortable.”

“Leased?” she echoed. “Oh … like another bedroom, you mean?” She frowned.

“Wouldn’t it have been cheaper just to lease a bigger place until the trial was over? You said the trial would start week after next.”

Simon shrugged. “The government works in mysterious ways,” he said dryly.

“Why don’t you sit down? It’s perfectly safe or we would’ve moved you to another location during the attachment. When they’re done and it’s been pumped, we’ll take you down to look at it.”

Anna settled on the couch again, but reluctantly. She still jerked every time there was another unfamiliar sound and she inched closer and closer to Ian until he finally pulled her onto his lap and cradled her against him. She looked unsettled by that at first, but she was clearly too unnerved by the noise and the movement to worry about it long.

She burrowed against him and clutched at him as if she expected to be thrown to the floor any minute.

Sighing, Simon finally yielded to the angry gestures Caleb was directing at him and got up to follow Caleb and Joshua into the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” Anna gasped suspiciously as soon as they got up.

“To the kitchen,” Simon said shortly. “Are you hungry?”

She shook her head, but he could see she suspected it was a ruse to abandon her to her fate and bail out the emergency exit just beyond the kitchen.

“That went well,” he growled as soon as he, Caleb, and Joshua had gotten to the kitchen.

“Why the hell did you tell her it was a lease?” Caleb demanded indignantly.

“And then suggest that the government was picking up the damned tab?” Joshua seconded him.

“Because it occurred to me that we might not look like completely besotted simpletons if she didn’t know we’d just about spent our last cent buying it for her! And because we can’t tell her that we bought it because we’re hoping to make this arrangement permanent!” He thought it over. “Well, not this precise arrangement. I’m not too keen on standing around with a hard on while you and Caleb make time with our woman and I don’t think Joshua is either!”

“You got that right!” Joshua agreed, glaring at Caleb. “Although I’m damned if I like the idea of not taking any credit at all for the gift when I just sank ten years savings into it!”

“Well, if you want another ten years to work up another bankroll, you might want to consider it! The governor just chewed me a new asshole two days ago because he’d gotten wind of it and he made it damned clear that all of us were going to be looking for work if we screw up this trial! I told him that we’d been planning it a while, that it was just coincidental that Anna was here.”

“What the fuck did you tell him that for? Why tell him anything at all?”

“Because there have been complaints from the other colonists, that’s why. They seem to think we’re trying to make points with Anna while we have her in custody. I can’t imagine where they would’ve gotten the idea, can you, Caleb?”

Caleb flushed faintly. “I was discreet, god damn it! More discreet than you were! What if she decides to thank the governor? Did you think about that?”

Simon paled. “No, I didn’t think about that. Unlike some people, lying doesn’t come that god damned easy to me!”

“What the hell do you mean by that wise-crack?” Caleb demanded angrily.

“Take it anyway you like,” Simon snarled.

“Well, you’ll have to take it outside!” Joshua said pointedly. “Anna’s in the other damned room.”

Caleb and Simon glared at each other for several long moments. Finally, Simon forced some of the tension from his shoulders. “I wasn’t suggesting you were a liar,” he said irritably. “Only that I’m not. I suppose I should’ve been prepared for it, but I wasn’t. It was the only thing I could think of to cover our asses.”

Caleb relaxed. “Yeah, well it would’ve worked better if you hadn’t turned around