Page 185 of Forgotten Prejudice

“Andrei? What is it? Did you find him?” Ashton spoke fast.

While we searched, so did the others, including the boys and Mel.

“No, not yet, but Miles just said something about how high the waves are because of the storm, and it had me thinking, what if he’s out surfing?”

I peeked out the window, my brows pulling close. “In this weather—”

“Andrei, remember that shore I showed you last summer, the one by the cliff?” Ashton spoke over me, already starting the car.

“Yeah, Chief, I do.”

“Go there, right fucking now.”

“Why? You don’t think he’s there, do you?” I asked Ashton, whose eyes were focused on the road. “I mean, you need to be crazy to go out surfing in this weather.”

Ashton’s brows pulled into a deep frown full of worry.

“I know.”

Ash

Pulling into the parking lot of what used to be our shore, I saw Andrei’s truck parked right next to Kai’s. My heart dropped because my fears turned out to be true, and Kai was stupid enough to go surfing in the middle of a fucking storm.

“Shit,” I hissed under my breath, stopping my car and getting out. The blasting wind hit my face, the sand and salt it carried stinging my skin and getting into my eyes.

“I went down to the shore, but the visibility is terrible ’cause of the wind, and the waves are too high to see anything from there,” Andrei yelled over the whistle of the wind as I checked the inside of Kai’s Jeep.

“And he’s not on the beach?” I asked.

“No,” Miles said while trying to keep his hair out of his eyes. “Before you got here, Andrei and I walked around. He’s definitely not on the beach.”

Shit.

I glanced over my shoulder at the ocean. It was crazy out there, and I feared the worst, yet I wasn’t about to give up so quickly.

“We need to call the coast guard,” I heard Soren saying from beside me as he himself looked at the dark water.

“We don’t have time for that,” I said, already walking back to my truck.

“What on earth are you saying?” he rasped while following me.

I opened the bed of my truck and quickly pulled my wet suit. I was about to start getting undressed when Soren grabbed my arm.

“You’re not getting in there, Ashton.”

Not saying a word, I held his stare. Seeing the fear in his eyes growing by the second didn’t make it any easier, but I couldn’t just stand here and do nothing.

His brows pulled close before they relaxed with disbelief, and he gasped my name. At first, he held me tighter but then slowly relaxed his grip. I guess he knew there was nothing he could do to stop me from going in there. Absolutely nothing. Kai might have done unforgivable things to me, but he’d forever be someone I cared about deeply. My best friend. My first love. My first heartbreak.

Once Soren dropped his hand from my arm, I turned back to my car and began stripping down. I always carried my surf stuff in my trunk because who knew when you’d want to catch some waves? Andrei was the same, going with his board everywhere, but when I saw him also putting on his wet suit, I stopped.

“You’re not going in there with me, kid.”

“I’m not taking no for an answer,” he said, zipping himself up.

Okay, then.

“Ashton, please think about this a bit more,” Soren begged me as we went down to the shore.