by Kira Barcelo
If only he could remain in one world or the other. But he knew that could never be the case. For a short while he was free to be what he was: a merman.
He didn’t comprehend that himself, but it was true. It had been true ever since right before he’d hit adolescence. And if he didn’t understand it, how could he expect anyone else to comprehend it? That remained another reason why he could never have Sadie.
Pushing aside the turbulent emotions inside him, he swam into a large oncoming wave and disappeared beneath the water’s surface.
* * *
“Sadie, come on downstairs for some breakfast!”
“Coming!” she called back, turning around and bending slightly at the waist, inspecting herself in the dresser mirror. Her mouth opened wide in astonishment before she stage-whispered, “Yee-ouch!”
She had to be quick about it, too. At any moment Dan could come up those stairs and catch her. After all she’d been through over the past few days she was pretty sure she’d die of embarrassment if he walked in on her while she had the skirt of her dress hiked up and her panties pulled down, the mirror framing her well spanked bottom. It wasn’t the shade of a fire engine anymore, but it was still red enough, with both handprints and tattoos left by the switch.
Knowing that she couldn’t take too long upstairs, Sadie gingerly pulled her panties back up, wincing as she eased the skirt back down. Getting back to her room at the boarding house wasn’t going to be easy, particularly considering she was still wearing the same dress she’d worn the night before when she’d stepped out for the evening. Fine—let those wallflowers all gossip about her. She didn’t care; she had more pressing matters to think about.
Like…what in the world was she going to do with all those feelings for Dan, every last one of them relatively new, that she was experiencing?
“I—I can’t stay long,” she said upon entering the kitchen. “I have to get back to Miss Johnson’s. You know…”
Dan paused while pouring them each a glass of orange juice to look up at her. “Yeah, I know. That’s okay, Sadie. Muffins okay?”
“Muffins? You made muffins?”
He smiled back at her. “I didn’t make them. You wouldn’t want ’em if I made ’em. I picked them up from the bakery. But I’m talented enough in the kitchen to slab some butter on them for you, if you’d like.”
She giggled. “I could do that myself. The coffee smells good.”
“I’m glad. I’ll get you some. Have a seat.”
“Ohhh, I—I think I’ll stand.” Dropping her gaze shyly for a second, she looked back up at him from under the veil of her lashes. “My—you know—I can’t sit down right now.”
“Oh.” He nodded. “That’s all right, baby. You can stand. I’ll get the coffee.”
Sadie watched him step back to retrieve the coffee pot from the stove. That wasn’t so bad, certainly not nearly as embarrassing as she thought it would be. Dan had been sweet about it, even gentle, rather than teasing her about being so sore she had to eat her breakfast standing up. Suddenly she sniffed.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“What’s what?”
“That. It smells like the ocean in here.”
Dan returned to the table, pouring coffee into a cup for her. He sniffed, then shook his head. “I don’t smell it.”
“Well, maybe it’s my imagination. I don’t smell it now, either.”
She was fibbing. The aroma of the ocean was faint, not at all overpowering, but it was there, as if they were situated closer to the beach and the sea air was wafting in through the open windows.
“Hey, maybe it’s wishful thinking,” he suggested with a playful smirk. “Maybe you’re thinking about going for a walk on the beach today.”
“I wasn’t, but…are you inviting me out for a date?”
This was the off-duty Dan McCallister. He was wearing his casual pants, no suit and tie, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up. He seemed relaxed although rather fidgety, like he wasn’t sure what to do with his hands. Was she the reason for his unexpected bout with nervousness?
“I don’t know, doll. How badly would you turn me down if I was?” Dan hadn’t pulled out a chair for himself. He remained on his feet, standing to stir some sugar in his coffee, drinking it black. He was going to stand to have his breakfast, so that she wouldn’t feel so awkward. “Do you still blame me for what happened? You know, uh, before?”
“Oh…we don’t have to talk about that now.”
“I know we don’t have to, but why don’t we? Let’s clear this up between us once and for all.”
What was she supposed to do with this man? She wasn’t used to dealing with this side of Dan. He wasn’t this tough guy detective, whom she knew had been rough with some of David’s men to get them to talk. He wasn’t being confrontational with her, just totally honest, dispensing with the games.
Sadie swallowed the nibble of muffin in her mouth to respond. Her voice sounded small and unsure, even to herself.
“I thought you would protect me. I thought you took what you wanted from me and then you threw me to the wolves.”
“Sadie, I tried to see you when you were in there. Twice. You told the guards you didn’t want to see me.” His voice cracked on the last few words. “Does that sound like somebody who used you and forgot about you? To be honest, it did start out that way. I thought of you as just some party girl, and I could use you to get to O’Keefe and his gang…”
“That’s right. You did come back to see me! I forgot about that.”
“That’s all right. I shouldn’t have made promises to you that I couldn’t keep. Especially with a D.A. who wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Well, don’t beat yourself up over it. That was a long time ago anyway.”
He turned to her, an expectant look on his face. “So does that mean you forgive me for that?”
“I don’t know if there’s anything to forgive, really. I guess you were just doing your job—”
“But I didn’t protect you. I couldn’t. And that’s where I wronged you. I’d like it if you knew I never meant that to happen. ’Cause I really did want to protect you, Sadie.”
That man was going to be the end of her. Either he was being sincere or he was a better actor than that Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca. As for her, why was she being so easy on him? David was no angel—it was his fault she’d landed in trouble in the first place—but David always said you couldn’t trust a cop, and a detective was just as shady a character.
David’s fault. Wasn’t that what it all boiled down to? She’d been so busy blaming Dan that she’d let her boyfriend off easy. Some of the responsibility was hers, as well. Though David hadn’t been forthcoming, she’d eventually learned the truth about him, including what he and his “business partners” really did to bring in all that money they loved to flash around.
It was a “business” that consisted or robbing banks at gunpoint and an illegal gambling network. She’d known about it and yet she’d blindly protected David because of the control he had over her. But in truth, the man had been both emotionally and sometimes verbally abusive to her.
“Like I said, you were just doing your job. And you did it well. You got your man. So—so I’m not gonna hold that against you anymore.”
How bad could he be if he was regarding her that way, like she’d just lifted a burden off his shoulders? Was this the same man she’d spent night after night ruminating over in her cell, despising him for wronging her…as she’d believed he’d wronged her?
“Thanks, doll. That means a lot to me,” he admitted hoarsely. “You’re a terrific lady. I always knew you were, too.”
Guilt jabbed at her. “Oh, I’m not that great. And I’m no lady.”
“Yes, you are. That’s why I stopped you last night.”
“Because I can’t go out dancing and have some fun?” Sadie couldn’t keep the resentment from her tone.
“No, you can. But you went there without an escort, and—”
“So if I went there with a fella, it would’ve been okay?”
Sadie watched his reaction. He smiled but shifted his weight from one foot to another.
“Yeah, that—that would’ve been fine,” he replied. “Look, uh, I was never much one for dancing, but I could take you out sometime. If you want.”
Sadie ventured a few inches closer to him. “Dan, you aren’t exactly what I thought you were. Are you? You’re not anything like you seem.”
“I guess not. I guess I might come off differently to people. And there’s something about me that you don’t know, Sadie. Something that you might not understand.”
“Try me.”
There she was, falling for a man’s charm again. It was almost like there was a magnet between them, drawing her closer to him. Only a short little distance more and their mouths would melt in another kiss. Though kissing Dan again would only bring more trouble.
Sadie knew that. But how could she resist? Almost in the same exact words that reporter Eddie Gage had used, he was letting her know that there was more to him than met the eye.
The telephone in the living room rang, stopping them before she could share another kiss with him. Dan scowled in irritation, yet there was something else reflected in his eyes. Pain that she’d never seen there before.
“Excuse me.” Stiffly, he walked out of the room.
Lord, hating him was easier than this. Sadie washed another bite of her muffin down with a gulp of coffee, trying to eat quickly so that she could leave. It seemed the longer she stayed there, the more confused she became. She didn’t know what to think about Detective McCallister, but she knew she had to get away from him for a while. Maybe she could sort things out. Hopefully, she could discount those feelings as just infatuation.
He was talking to someone named Ruby. Though she couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, she got the gist of it, hearing Dan consoling the woman and telling her Martin was going to be fine. Her attention was drawn by an object hanging from a nail by the rear door.
It was something she might not have noticed, except it was so curious, just a necklace dangling from the nail. As if it were something, like keys, that Dan would remember to grab before running out the door. It appeared to be very old; the chain link might have been very fine at one time, but it looked corroded with something. Maybe water? In contrast, the blue stone that dangled at the end of it—what was that called? An aquamarine?—was large, beautiful and clear. It caught the spectrums of light coming in through the kitchen window and exploded in a tiny kaleidoscope of colors within its facets.
“That was my secretary,” Dan was saying, his voice growing louder as he approached. “She’s worried about Martin. I told her I’d meet her down at the hospital during visiting hours.”
“I have to be going anyway. Thanks for breakfast.” Was there any harm in bringing it up? If nothing else, it would satisfy her curiosity. “That’s an interesting necklace.”
Dan glanced behind him at the item on the wall. “Oh, that thing.”
“Yeah. What kind of stone is that?”
“That’s an aquamarine. It’s a real old one, too. From Brazil. I’m told that’s where the best ones come from.”
“Where did you get it?”
“My dad gave it to me when I turned thirteen.” Dan’s lips curved into an enigmatic smile.
“So do you ever wear it?”
“I do. Just not all the time. I wouldn’t want to lose it.”
Confused, she shook her head. “But why would you put it—never mind. I should mind my own beeswax. I’d better go.”
He stopped her with a hand on her arm, though not roughly. “Do you really have to?”
Sadie looked up at him. She wasn’t some wide-eyed girl next door. Unfortunately, her life had been harder than that, almost since the day her mother, who’d had her out of wedlock, dropped her off at her grandmother’s. Her virginity gone at the age of fourteen—or rather, taken from her forcibly—she was, in most men’s eyes, damaged goods.
But Dan McCallister was looking at her like she was the most perfect and desirable girl he’d ever laid eyes on.
“It’s best that I leave,” she half whispered.
He smelled so good. No cologne; Dan wasn’t a cologne kind of guy. But he smelled like he’d stepped out of the shower not more than an hour ago. And his hair smelled like the sea.
How strange!
Sadie couldn’t resist reaching up on tiptoe and kissing him squarely on the mouth. It was supposed to be a chaste goodbye kiss, nothing more. But then he pulled her in close and parted her lips with his, his tongue claiming hers in another of his tasty kisses. One kiss would inevitably lead to another, and that one did. It also sent currents through her, along with thoughts that being in that gorgeous hunk’s arms made her want to do more than just kiss him.
He ended the last one reluctantly, huskily telling her, “You know what they say about the aquamarine?”
“No. What?”
“That it’s a mermaid’s treasure.”
She giggled but stopped. He’d smiled at her, but he opened his mouth to say something, then stopped.
“I’ll drive you back to Miss Johnson’s,” he offered.
“No, that’s all right. Go see your partner. I hope he’ll be all right. Miss Johnson’s place isn’t far from here. The walk will do me good.”
Chapter Four
“…and of course, Martin called this morning,” Ruby Thornburn added at the end of a list of phone messages for Dan. “Actually, he called a couple of times. He didn’t say so in so many words, but I guess he wants to make sure you and I are doing okay minding the store without him.”
Instead of taking offense, Dan chuckled. “I’m almost tempted to tell him we’re at our wit’s end without him around.”
“Me, too!” the secretary gleefully agreed.
“That’s not a good idea, though. He’s liable to roll out of that hospital bed and drag his ass in here.” Remembering his manners, he told her, “Eh, I mean his butt. Sorry, Ruby.”
“Oh, but you’re right about that.” Ruby paid no attention to his cussing in front of her. She was too busy, anyway, threading a blank sheet of paper through the typewriter’s carriage and cranking it through. “That might just be the case anyway. His wife called to say he’s coming in a lot sooner than the doc wants him to, just because he doesn’t want to see you carrying the whole load while—and I’m paraphrasing Martin—he lies on that bed all day, with his bedsores getting bigger every day.”
“Aw, geez! The man hasn’t even been in there long enough to get bedsores!” Dan lamented. “Ah, well, what’s the use? He’s not gonna change.”
“Would we want him to?”
He winked at her. “Nah. Look, Miss Ruby, I’d better get to some of these calls. And then I have someone I need to see. A lead I have to talk to.”
Closing the door to his office, Dan made a mental note to also pass by Barrett’s Drug Store sometime that morning. He didn’t want to intrude on Sadie’s first week at work, but he would drop by and check on her, make sure she was doing all right. Besides his role as her self-appointed guardian, he had to admit to himself that he missed her. He’d given her some space, a couple of days since that morning when they’d had breakfast at his place, but now the yearning to see her again was more potent than ever.
It smells like the ocean. That was one sticky moment. Then there was the matter of his necklace, the one he wore out at sea, mostly for the sake of the private craft owners and their guests and the crews aboard commercial fishing vessels. That necklace, slipped around the neck of a human, had rescued many a human who’d fallen overboard from drowning.
Dan had been tempted to tell her right then. He’d come close to revealing the secret that neither Martin nor Ruby, nor most of his friends and associates knew. His father had given him more than that necklace. His mother was a human being, through and through. Nothing unusual about her in any way. It was his fath
er who’d belonged to the merfolk. As far as Dan knew, his mother had only learned that he was a merman some years into their marriage, right before their first and only child was born. That was when his dad had had no other choice but to tell her the truth, knowing she would find out eventually, when the child began to show an unusual—and sometimes unsettling—obsession with water.
Maybe he’d never get around to telling her. Unless there was a repeat of the behavior that had ensued at the nightclub, Sadie would come to a point where she wouldn’t need anyone to protect her. He would be out of her life forever and there would be no reason to tell her the truth about himself. He felt his throat constrict and had to catch a breath.
It was difficult to concentrate when all he wanted to think about was Sadie, Sadie, Sadie. That girl had some kind of hold on him that made him feel vulnerable, and yet more alive than he’d ever been before.
The phone on his desk jangled, bringing him back to the sanctuary of his pleasantly cluttered office.
“McCallister,” he greeted the caller.
“Dan? Listen,” the man on the other end went on without identifying himself, and his voice sounded muffled, “that girl you’ve been seeing, the Francis girl. I think you should know she was just spotted going into the Tribune. Makes you wonder what business she’d have there, eh?”
His brow furrowed. “Who is this?”
There was a mean-spirited laugh on the other end before the line went dead.
* * *
Ed Gage hadn’t changed at all since he’d covered the story about David O’Keefe and his gang, who’d been apprehended by the Tate & McCallister Detective Agency. Sadie recalled that, though Gage had given the detectives their due, crediting them with doing what the state police and the FBI couldn’t, he’d also made cracks about them in private…and about Dan, in particular. Gage had called him shady and an unsavory character, as bad as the criminals he chased.
At the time, especially after her arrest, she’d commiserated with the reporter. Now, in light of what had happened over that weekend, Sadie felt uneasy just being there.
