Blood in the Water

by Cleo Peitsche

They were surely heading for the exit. Well, he knew a circuitous route to it, which he took at a sprint. They were up to something, and he hoped to overhear a useful tidbit.

  But apparently that sort of thing only happened in the movies.

  They went outside without another word that Koenraad heard.

  The outside door was too large and heavy. He wouldn’t be able to open it unobserved, and he couldn’t hear a damned thing through it.

  But then another thought occurred to him. His car was parked outside of the parking lot specifically because he hadn’t wanted anyone to see it and wonder who was in the aquarium and what they were doing.

  Taking a deep breath, he opened the door and slid out.

  They were in Darius’s car.

  And Koenraad realized that Darius’s contingent of bodyguards was nowhere in sight. That was twice now that Darius had gone somewhere without them.

  Whatever he was doing, he didn’t want witnesses, and he didn’t trust the shifters who were already privy to all his shady dealings.

  The convertible’s engine started up with a low hum. The moment it turned onto the street, Koenraad was racing across the empty lot, then down the little beach access road he’d parked on.

  He swung open the door and turned on the engine. The tires spun on the sandy surface as he floored the accelerator, and the car’s jolting surge forward helped close the door, which he’d left open.

  Tailing someone as naturally paranoid as Darius wasn’t easy, but Koenraad had one advantage: no one knew the car he was driving. It was a rental, and it looked like a rental: reliable, practical, inexpensive.

  At all times, he kept several cars between himself and Darius, but the longer they drove, the more the traffic thinned out.

  That was fine. By now he knew where they were heading, and he had no desire to return to the compound. It seemed like every time he went there, he got more bad news. In any event, he wasn’t prepared to confront Darius about his activities at the aquarium.

  Koenraad made a U-turn and headed back toward the secluded house, to Monroe.

  Now that he wasn’t focused on trying to remain unobserved, it freed up his attention to think about other things.

  Like how he was going to break the bad news to his mate.

  She wasn’t a shifter, so being apart wouldn’t be the agony that it would be for him. She’d miss him the way humans missed people they cared about.

  For him, though, having mated and claimed her, it was going to be gut-wrenching. Shifters sometimes went insane when a mate died prematurely.

  At least he’d only known Monroe a few weeks. Everything he looked at, everything he came across, wouldn’t make him think of her.

  On the other hand, living as a shark in the middle of the ocean wasn’t exactly the sort of activity that would be distracting. He loved the ocean, but he loved human civilization, too.

  He was really going to miss television. Radio. The internet. Without phone or internet, he’d have no way to stay in touch with Monroe.

  Damn, he was going to miss her. Their “honeymoon” on The Good Life had been one of the best weeks of his life, even with all the complications and problems dangling over their heads.

  He thought about what Victoria had said about the bodyguards not being able to protect Monroe. She planned to attack Monroe despite the promise she’d made, and Darius clearly knew all about it.

  Once Monroe was back in New York, then what? Koenraad could easily pay for a lifetime of round-the-clock security detail, but he would worry nonetheless.

  His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

  He didn’t want to let her go, but he had to be fair.

  He parked the car and was getting out when he saw Monroe, flanked by the bodyguards, walking toward him. One of them carried her suitcase.

  “Monroe?” he asked, confused.

  “We have to talk,” she said.

  Koenraad knew those were supposed to be awful words for a woman to say to a man, but Monroe didn’t seem the least bit upset.

  He felt a rush of relief, and then guilt; he should want her to leave him. “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “To pick up my mom,” she said. “She’s only staying one night, and I don’t think bringing her out here is a good idea…”

  No, it certainly wasn’t. Even without the post-storm destruction, it wasn’t an ideal place for a guest on vacation. The lack of a second bedroom was one major factor. The lack of things to do was another. The nearby beach was hardly picturesque.

  “Then I’m coming with you,” he decided. “We’ll rent a suite.”

  Monroe’s smile was like a sunbeam cutting through the clouds. “It’s a deal. But we have to get moving. Dunphy says the airport is forty minutes away, and Mom’s flight lands in thirty minutes.”

  “Dunphy?”

  “You know. The bodyguard.”

  “I know his name,” Koenraad said, but he was irritated. He didn’t like the idea that the bodyguards were talking to Monroe. There were things about shifters that he’d glossed over a bit, and sharks like Dunphy and Theodore lived those sorts of rough lives.

  But in the end, what did it matter? He was heading for the open ocean, and Monroe was going back to New York, or to wherever she wanted to live on the millions he was going to give her.

  Because even though he couldn’t keep her in his life, he was still going to make sure that she enjoyed as many material benefits of being his mate as possible.

  She would always be his mate. Nothing could change that.

  She was heading for the pickup, but he steered her toward the rental. “You ride with me,” he said. “Dunphy can follow in the other one.”

  He would have liked to send the bodyguards away for a few hours so that he and Monroe could have some time together, but after what Victoria had said, he didn’t dare.

  In fact… “Dunphy. I want two more guards.”

  “Instead of us?”

  Koenraad shook his head. “In addition to you. Victoria doesn’t think…” He decided not to repeat what she’d said about the bodyguards not being an obstacle. It was the kind of insult that could make a shifter like Dunphy kill her just on principle.

  On the other hand, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. But if anything happened to Victoria before Koenraad left, he might get detained for the investigation. He had to admit he would surely be the prime suspect.

  Brady wouldn’t survive being abandoned at the aquarium. Of that, Koenraad had no doubt.

  Dunphy apparently knew better than to expect an explanation… or for Koenraad to even finish his sentence.

  “I want the other two to hang back,” Koenraad said. “I don’t want anyone watching to know they’re there. They exist only in case of emergency.” He reached for the suitcase. “And I’ll take that. Stay out of the way as long as I’m around. We don’t want to freak out Monroe’s mother.”

  Theodore’s gaze flickered quickly to and away from Monroe’s.

  Shaking his head, Koenraad put the bag into the trunk, then got into the car, where Monroe was now waiting.

  “You shouldn’t get familiar with the bodyguards,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “You’ll distract them.”

  “Or maybe, if they like me, they’ll work that much harder to keep me safe,” she said smugly.

  “Believe me when I say that nothing on this earth could make those shifters work harder to keep you safe.” He felt her shiver even though he kept his eyes on the road.

  “Well, then think of it like this. If I like them, I’ll work with them, not try to get away.”

  “You…” He shook his head. “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  He pulled over and waved for Dunphy to go first. If Victoria expected Monroe in the pickup, her attention would be on that. He didn’t get the impression that she planned to attack in the next day—she’d be on her best behavior until he talked to Kendra, which he now had no intention of doing—but he wasn’t g
oing to take any chances.

  He’d patrolled Tureygua. He knew that disaster was opportunistic, and a moment of carelessness could lead to catastrophe. Victoria was nothing if not opportunistic.

  “What did you want to talk about?” he asked.

  “Brady,” Monroe said. “I was thinking—”

  “No, Monroe. It’s not your battle to fight. He’s my kid, and figuring out the best solution is my problem.”

  She placed a hand on his knee and squeezed hard. “I know. And I know what your solution will be. So… I’ll go with you.”

  “With me?”

  “To the middle of the ocean,” she said.

  He took his eyes off the road to stare at her. “You want to live on a boat?”

  She sighed, then pressed her lips together. “I can’t lie to you without you knowing, so I’ll admit it wasn’t on my bucket list. But it’s what you need to do, and if our family is gonna be a houseboat family, that’s how it is.”

  “I don’t think you understand. It’s not a houseboat. It’s the ocean. There are storms. Huge waves.”

  “Those are details. If you’re there, I’m there. I’ve been thinking about it ever since I talked to Spencer, and I’ve made up my mind.”

  “Spencer?”

  “Don’t get mad at him. I asked him what’s the best solution for Brady, and he said that it’s pretty much the only solution. So I’m going with you. And I have it all figured out. I’ll learn to captain The Good Life. Obviously I can’t survive on the ocean’s bounty or whatever, so I’ll come to shore every few weeks for fresh supplies.”

  Koenraad didn’t trust his voice. Never in a million years would he have guessed that Monroe would volunteer to come with him.

  He wasn’t sure if he should selfishly accept her offer, or if he should do the right thing and talk her out of it.

  Accept. “Thank you,” he said. Then he forced himself to add, “I’ll think about it.”

  Chapter 15

  Monroe’s palms were damp. She guessed that Koenraad thought her coming along was a bad idea. Well, he might be right about her physical limitations as a human, but this wasn’t his decision to make.

  … Unless he didn’t want her…

  “What about your life?” he asked. “Your career?”

  “Grad school,” she said.

  He glanced at her. “Grad school? I thought you were interested in real estate. It won’t be easy to show houses from the middle of the ocean.”

  “Actually, it was always on my wish list,” she said carefully. She had to word this perfectly because it was the biggest point in her favor. If she could convince him now, she would win. She decided to take a moment to formulate things just right.

  “No, it wasn’t,” he insisted. “Yesterday you put yourself forward for a job with an agency.”

  “How—”

  “You do realize that Dunphy and Theodore work for me, don’t you?” he said, his voice teasing.

  “Well, I admit that’s all true. But that was yesterday, and today things are different.”

  “Meaning that it’s not your dream.”

  “Meaning that I thought about things. You have to understand that I’m still paying for my undergraduate education. Loans. The second mortgage my mom took out. If I’d come from a wealthy family, I absolutely would have gone to graduate school. It was just so farfetched that I never mentioned it. And now that you…” She swallowed. “Now that you’ve made it clear that we’re sharing bank accounts, I can afford it.”

  It was a huge concession. She’d fought him about the shared money, but she was prepared to fold.

  “To study what?”

  Monroe took that as a sign that she might have a chance to win him over. “I’m not sure, but you have to remember that when I thought realistically about grad school, it had to be in terms of furthering my career. That’s no longer a concern. Now I can study whatever I want, and there are so many things that interest me…” She licked her lips. “My only request is a reliable internet connection, both for class and for staying in touch with my friends and family. Also, long-distance degrees usually require a few weeks of residency per year, so I’d have to do that, of course. So… what do you think?”

  “I think if you want to go back to school, you should do that. I don’t know anything about long-distance degrees, but I bet they’re for people with full-time jobs.”

  She licked her lips again. “So?”

  “You don’t need to work, so it would make sense for you to go to school full-time, on campus.”

  Damn. This wasn’t going how she’d imagined, mostly because Koenraad was raising points she hadn’t anticipated.

  She decided to throw her strategy of being rational out the window. “Fine. There’s another reason I want to come. I want to be with you. That’s what it boils down to. And nothing you can say is ever going to talk me out of that, and if you try, I’ll… I don’t know what.”

  His response was to cover her hand with his.

  It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t a no, either.

  That was fine. She wasn’t done yet. There were a lot of tools in her arsenal.

  Her mother’s plane landed a bit late, and Monroe got to the arrivals area just as the first passengers, weighted down with suitcases and with winter coats stuffed under their arms, staggered through the doors.

  When she saw her mother, Monroe’s eyes filled with tears. Her mom’s face was pinched, and she looked like she hadn’t slept in a week.

  Yeah, that was probably about the last time she’d been able to rest, and it was all Monroe’s fault.

  She was going to fix that.

  Waving and smiling, Monroe stepped forward, and her mom’s eyes jerked to her. Immediately, the older woman’s face smoothed, and her smile erased the years. Monroe and her mother had the same facial structure, and they were the same height, though her mother had always been much thinner. Her mother wore her long hair in a sophisticated bun.

  After a hug that Monroe had to fight not to cry through, she led her mother outside to where Koenraad was waiting next to the car.

  He’d taken her suggestion and wore sunglasses. As Monroe made introductions, she realized the glasses were a mistake.

  Sure, they hid his eyes with their enormous shark pupils, but leaving them on made him look like he was trying to hide something.

  Which technically, he was.

  As he placed her mom’s bag into the trunk, her mother turned to Monroe with a little frown.

  Monroe pulled her own sunglasses over her eyes. “It’s bright out today, huh?” she said cheerily. It was, in fact, a bit overcast. “I hope you have sunglasses, Mom. If you don’t, I’ll give you a pair.”

  Was she overdoing it?

  Her mother had always been able to see right through her.

  Monroe checked that her long hair covered her back—and the scars—before getting into the car.

  Monroe suggested they find a restaurant with a view, and that they eat on the patio. Any excuse to keep the sunglasses on.

  Many places were closed between lunch and dinner, but Koenraad had made a call to someone who’d called back with reservations at three restaurants. Monroe’s mother had looked surprised.

  This place was a little fancy, and Monroe felt underdressed, but no one seemed to care.

  So far, things were going well. She could tell that her mother wanted to like Koenraad.

  The waiter came by with the check, which Koenraad grabbed.

  Her mother reached for it.

  “Let him, Mom,” Monroe said. “You don’t even have Tureyguan guilders.”

  “Tell me what Monroe was like as a kid,” Koenraad said as he smoothly handed the check and some crisp bills to the waiter.

  “Monroe was studious and well-behaved,” her mom said as she forked up a bite of mango cheesecake. “Never gave me a stitch of trouble.”

  Monroe shrugged with a smug smile. “Told you,” she said to Koenraad.

  “Sometimes th
at worried me,” her mom said. “I used to worry that you weren’t thinking for yourself.”

  “Surprise, I’m engaged to a man I’ve only known a couple of weeks!” Monroe said. Her eyes went wide. She couldn’t believe that had just popped out of her mouth.

  “Yes,” her mother said. She addressed Koenraad. “You seem like a very nice young man, and I’ll admit that you aren’t what I was fearing…”

  “But I hardly know Monroe, and you think this is slated for disaster.”

  “It could be,” her mom said as she adjusted her glasses. The bifocals, which had previously made occasional appearances, seemed to have taken up permanent residence on her mother’s nose over the last few months.

  “I’ve never jumped into a relationship before,” Monroe pointed out, “and neither has Koenraad. We’re not impulsive teenagers.”

  “I suppose not. But I’m your mother. It’s my job to worry.”

  “Mrs. Tyler,” Koenraad said sincerely. “I love Monroe. Have you ever met someone, and I don’t necessarily mean a man, and immediately known that person would be part of your life?”

  “Yes!” Monroe squealed. She immediately toned it down. “Annette, one of the neighbors,” she explained to Koenraad. She turned to her mother. “The first time you met, you said afterward that you felt like you’d known her forever. And you were right. The two of you are best friends.”

  Her mother sighed. “You’re an adult, and I can’t honestly think of a single reason to object, other than how fast things are moving. And it is fast. When’s the wedding?”

  “We haven’t set a date,” Koenraad said. “We’re not in any hurry.”

  We’re not? Monroe wanted to ask, but she held her tongue; she knew what Koenraad was doing, and she appreciated that he was smoothing things over.

  Her mother looked dubious, and Monroe knew exactly what she was thinking: Koenraad could change his mind about getting married at any time, and Monroe would be stuck in a foreign country and no support network.

  The possibility of Koenraad leaving her was so far from the truth that it was laughable.

  So she told her mom about the plans for grad school while they finished eating their desserts.