by Devyn Quinn
Any chance he had to redeem himself in her eyes was long gone. To save his own sorry ass, he’d aligned himself with Queen Magaera.
The queen’s voice shattered his internal contemplations. “Your mind drifts, my consort. I have yet to hear your thoughts on the matter at hand.”
Jake quickly snapped back to attention. Judging by the displeasure laced around her words, he knew the queen was not pleased. Instead of focusing on the matter at hand, he’d let his memories amble on.
He looked at her, feeling an odd quiver in his gut. In so many ways she reminded him of his father. She was determined to satisfy her own whims no matter the consequences.
For one crazy moment he wished her dead. Intuition warned him that she held no allegiance to him and would discard him when the opportunity arose. It was to be expected. He was used to walking the fine line between insanity and delusion. When he fell… Well, he always landed on his feet.
That, and the scars on his own damaged psyche were too deep to ever heal.
“Forgive me, my liege,” he answered in a smooth drawl. “Like you, I know we can’t remain immobile much longer.” He forced himself to banish the old memories. The past was dead and gone. He needed to look forward, to the future. The Mer weren’t going to crawl back into the obscurity enveloping their kind for almost two thousand years. They had a place in the modern world. And it was his job to help Queen Magaera define and rebuild her civilization.
Shifting in her place, Magaera cocked her head, studying him. “I am glad you agree. It is time the girl learned her lesson.”
Aware that his pulse was beating double time through his veins, Jake stared back at her. Once again, she was sizing him up and scoping him out. “I know it is vexing that she continues to elude you. My thoughts are on how we can remedy that in the shortest time possible.”
The queen smiled, but cruelty glinted in the depths of her eyes. “Her defiance will cost her everything by the time I am done.” Her strident tone was charged with menace.
Ignoring his early feelings of empathy toward Tessa, Jake hardened his heart. At this point in his life, it wasn’t difficult to manage. He’d had a lot of practice holding a grudge through the years. “The next time we go after her, it must be with a show of real force.”
Her gaze taking on steel, Magaera nodded in agreement. “This time I will not send my soldiers.” Her full lips stretched into a self-satisfied smirk. “I will go myself.” Her mood abruptly shifted, and she laughed. “And humans will tremble in my wake.”
Chapter 3
Now that the drama of the day had come to a close, Addison sat in Harbormaster Ashford’s office. Jim Witkowsky had a seat beside her. Now and again his gaze would surreptitiously sidle her way, though he hadn’t looked directly at her since they’d returned to port with the survivors aboard.
Uncomfortable that Witkowsky kept giving her the stink eye, Addison finally had enough. Looking directly at him, she smiled broadly. “Just because you’ve seen my bare breasts once doesn’t mean I’m going to show them to you again, Jim.”
Shocked by her outburst, Witkowsky turned beet red. His head dropped. “I wasn’t lookin’ at your tits,” he muttered under his breath. “You might have given me a heads-up you were a mermaid.”
“Can it, you two,” Linda Ashford admonished from behind her desk. “Now that it’s out, we have to deal with the fallout.”
Addison pursed her lips, keenly aware that Witkowsky presently considered her to be some subhuman thing that had just crawled out of the primordial ooze. “He was going to have to know,” she said in her own defense. “Most of the people who work with me do.” On an unconscious level, she supposed the slip wasn’t just part of her fervor to prove the new guy wrong. Truth be told, she was tired of hiding behind a human façade, suppressing her extraordinary abilities in order to appear average. There was so much more she could be doing with her Mercraft. The power was there, boiling furiously inside her core.
Lacing her hands together, Ashford leaned forward. “Yes, I know. And I thought we’d agreed I would be the one to break him in gently.”
Addison stuck out her lower lip. “There wasn’t any time. I was the most qualified diver to go into the water, and I did. There’s no way a human could have handled that rescue.”
“While I am aware that your, uh, unique abilities in the water give you an advantage over the rest of us peons, Addison, I was also under the impression that we had an agreement that you would stay out of the water as much as possible. And that during those times when you had to be submerged, you wouldn’t pull out the tail. You were supposed to have the same limitations as any diver.”
Fighting the impulse not to bang her hands against her head, Addison struggled to rein in her temper. It was true that her and her sisters’ release from the A51 government compound had come with several stipulations attached. The girls would be allowed to resume their lives among the human population of Port Rock—but only if they refrained from Mer-related activities. This included not only keeping a check on their Mercraft but also rolling up their tails and keeping them tucked away.
Given her line of work, this was something Addison considered supremely unfair. Sure, it wasn’t a problem for Tessa. Now married to Kenneth Randall, she’d recently discovered herself to be pregnant—with twins, no less. Gwen, too, didn’t have much of a reason to go into the water. Her hotel on the mainland was thriving. Business was so good that she and Blake Whittaker, her new main squeeze, were scouting sites for a second hotel.
Although Blake and Gwen hadn’t yet tied the knot, they had set a date in the fall. Gwen was also busy trying out the mommy ropes on Blake’s son, Trevor. Debra, Blake’s ex-girlfriend, had recently agreed to let Trevor spend more time in Maine now that his father was in a blossoming relationship.
Addison sighed. And that leaves me. It was true she had a career of her own to look after, but her love life remained barren.
“I put on my gear before going under,” she explained in her defense. “I just forgot to put it back on before surfacing. I did have the child’s welfare on my mind at the time.”
“But she forgot to put it back on,” Witkowsky broke in. “And boy, did we get an eyeful.” His voice was so laced with innuendo, there was no doubt about the gander he’d taken, either.
Addison felt her cheeks heat. In the water, it was natural for a Mer to be as naked as the day she was born. When in her mermaid form, she’d never given her nudity a second thought. Neither did the rest of the men who worked with her and knew what she was. In their eyes, it was perfectly ordinary for her to surface in a tail.
Harbormaster Ashford shot the crewman a sour look. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Witkowsky. You’ve been a part of the team for only a brief time. There was no way I was going to fill you in until after you’d satisfied your probationary period.”
Witkowsky shook his head with a combination of hostility and suspicion. “I have a right to know what I’m working with.”
Addison’s embarrassment quickly drained away, replaced with a surge of white-hot anger. “Who!” she snapped. “I am a who, not a what.” Hands flying into motion, she pointed at herself. “I might not be human, but I have a brain and I have feelings, you jerk. So you can take your narrow little prejudices and stick ’em in your socks for all I care.”
Ashford pounded her desk to restore order. “Enough, you two. The cat’s out of the bag, and there’s no putting it back.”
“You can’t keep hiding something like this,” Witkowsky said. “I wasn’t the only one who saw her. The people we rescued got a good look at her, too.”
Belatedly recalling the one little fact, Addison felt her nerves prickle. A dozen different scenarios rushed through her mind, most of which concerned federal agents appearing to whisk her back to the A51 compound. There, she would be euthanized and picked, preserved for scientists to dissect.
That’s what they’d like to do to us, came the unsettling thought. The notion wasn’t as fa
r-fetched as it might seem, either. A couple of the Mer soldiers taken into captivity after they’d attacked Little Mer Island had come uncomfortably close to being butchered in the name of science.
Thank the goddess above that Blake Whittaker had the nerve to blow the whistle. His testimony before a closed congressional committee had really pulled their alien asses out of the fire. His bravery had cost him his government career, which didn’t seem to bother Blake at all. Though a human, he’d done the right thing.
And although the upper echelons of the United States government were now very aware of the existence of Mer in the water, it was nothing the powers that be were hurrying to release to the general public. Gwen was absolutely right when she’d stated her belief that the majority of people were afraid of things they didn’t understand. Being different and existing outside the mainstream still carried a stigma.
Never missing a beat, Ashford filled them in. “An agent from the bureau’s sciences division is on-site at the hospital now. Under his supervision, doctors have administered a mild sedative that will blur their recollections of the incident. In this instance, the sighting will be explained away as shock from the trauma induced by the accident.”
Witkowsky snorted. “In other words, their memories are being erased.”
Addison sighed. “It was my fault they saw me. If I had put on a bit of the Mercraft before I surfaced, they wouldn’t have caught sight of my tail at all.”
Another sound of disgust followed. “It’s not right to hide the truth from people.” Witkowsky paused and thought a moment. “And what the hell is Mercraft, anyway?”
Addison didn’t feel like explaining the whole complicated process. “It’s just something I can do.” She doubted her coworker could handle the truth.
Ashford broke in. “That isn’t our decision to make,” she reminded him. “For the time being, the Mer are to remain a closely guarded secret.” She narrowed her eyes. “If you can’t get with the program, you will be assigned elsewhere. I can’t promise that it will be anything you’d like, either.”
The disgruntled man glowered. “I’m not liking any of this at all,” he muttered. “The government already has too much control over our lives as it is.”
“Doesn’t matter if you like it, Witkowsky,” his boss answered. “That’s the way it’s going to be. All that matters is that you do your job.”
As Witkowsky folded his arms across his chest, his gaze sidled back to Addison. “I don’t want to work with her.”
Having been pissed on enough for one day, Addison pulled a face. Crossing her eyes, she stuck out her tongue. “I don’t want to work with you, either, asshole.”
Her boss wasn’t amused. “Can it, Lonike. The best thing we can do right now is take the mermaid out of the water. I’m pulling you off harbor patrol and reassigning you to the fire department. The only water you’ll be touching will be spurting out of the end of a hose.”
Addison’s jaw dropped. “You can’t do that.”
Ashford smiled, then pointed to the second patch sewn on her crisp white oxford shirt. “I believe this thing here means I am in charge of you.”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Addison mumbled, “Yeah, I guess so.”
“Fire Chief Williams is short a few EMTs,” Ashford informed her. “He could use an extra hand, and, until the province of Port Rock can find the funding for a few new hires, we’re swapping city personnel between departments. You’ll go where you’re needed.”
It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. Her temper got the better of her. “Why not send Witkowsky? He’s the newbie. I’ve got seniority, damn it.”
Ashford didn’t blink an eye. “Because you knew better, and he didn’t. As much as you don’t like it, Addison, you are the one in control of your own actions. You might be a Mer, but that doesn’t make you more special than the rest of us. You have to take responsibility for yourself. If you can’t play by the team rules, then you’re the one who’ll have to be removed.”
Meeting Ashford’s gaze, Addison recognized the truth behind her words. The older woman was right, of course. When she’d first joined harbor patrol as an eager young recruit with certification in hand, she’d been hesitant to reveal her true nature in the water. Once she’d become confident enough to share her secret with the people she worked with, she was adamant that she be considered no different than any other member of the team.
Her anger at the injustice of it all drizzled away. “You’re right,” she allowed. “I knew better and I screwed up.”
Ashford nodded but didn’t have a chance to answer. A knock on her office door interrupted further conversation.
A secretary poked her head in. “I’m sorry to interrupt your meeting,” she said by way of an apology, “but there’s a Captain Mason McKenzie here to see you. He says he’s been sent by the navy, and he wants to talk to Addison as soon as possible.”
The statement sparked through her ears like a hot wire, sending a surge of adrenaline straight into Addison’s veins. “Oh, shit… ,” she muttered under her breath. This couldn’t be good. She had a feeling she was in trouble—trouble so deep, not even a mermaid could swim her way out of it.
What the hell does the navy want with me?
Mason’s heart pounded hard and fast as he shut the door to Ashford’s office. Without giving away the details behind his mission, he’d requested a private place to speak with Addison alone. Ashford clearly wasn’t happy, but she’d withdrawn without argument.
Addison Lonike was waiting in the room for him. Arms folded across her chest, she crossed her legs, swinging one foot back and forth in a manner of clear agitation. “If you’ve been sent to not so subtly remind me I was supposed to keep my tail tucked between my legs, you’re too late. I’ve already had my ass chewed up one side and down the other.”
Mason had not a clue about the incident she spoke of. He really didn’t care. His first fleeting thought was that he’d just set eyes on the most beautiful woman in the world.
He stared at her, barely aware of his pulse beating in his temples. He knew he should answer her, but his senses were so overwhelmed, he could barely speak. All he could think of was that Addison wasn’t merely pretty. She was gorgeous, possessing the angled cheekbones and strong jawline of a top cover model. A mop of short red curls sticking out in every direction framed her face. Her eyes were her most outstanding feature. They weren’t just green. Their color was like that of polished emeralds; bright, vivid, almost electric in their intensity.
A strange sense of discomfort blossomed in Mason’s chest when he looked into those eyes. If a simple look made him squirm like a worm on hot cement, he didn’t even want to imagine what actually talking to her would do to him.
Every word he’d rehearsed on the flight from Washington tangled in his throat. The effort to spit them out now was like chewing shards of glass—painful and almost impossible to accomplish.
“No, ma’am,” he finally managed to answer after an infinite moment. “I have no interest in your tail.”
The words came out all wrong.
Keeping a steady rhythm with her restless foot, Addison tilted her head back and directed an audible sigh toward the ceiling. “I can always tell the first time a human realizes he’s staring at an honest to goodness mermaid,” she commented drily. “Well, if you’re waiting for me to break out in scales, it’s not going to happen.” Righting her head, she stuck out one arm. “Though if you want to see my scale pattern, here it is.” She turned her arm one way and then another. “Pretty, isn’t it?”
In other circumstances, Mason might have been inclined to agree. The arm she offered was decorated in swirls of black. Had he not known that mermaids had skin decorated in quite interesting ways, he would naturally have mistaken the design for an elaborate bit of needlework. It was certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Having served in the navy most of his adult life, he was accustomed to seeing sailors with tattoos much more striking than hers. He even had a few, thou
gh nothing quite so revealing.
Mason hurried to gather his thoughts. She was right. So far, the only thing he was managing to do was make a gaping fool of himself. He hadn’t meant to stare. And he certainly wasn’t staring because she was an alien entity. He stared because she was an eyeful and he liked nothing more than admiring an attractive woman. She looked bubbly, the kind of woman who laughed easily and liked to have fun.
He cleared his throat. If he’d believed in love at first sight, Mason would have considered himself smitten. “Uh, it’s very attractive.” Before she could respond, he hurried to add, “But I’m not here for the reasons you believe, even though I have a pretty good idea what those might, uh, entail.”
Addison let her arm drop, and, without warning, she broke into a wide grin, revealing the split between her perfectly white teeth. “Forget the tail part of me, okay? I’ve got a much nicer ass.”
Mason’s heart skidded to a stop. Once again she’d cut him off at the pass with a well-placed quip. His mouth went bone dry. Damn it, she looked absolutely adorable. And he had no doubt about her figure. The white EMT T-shirt she wore clung to her full breasts, and her snugly fitting khaki pants emphasized her flat abdomen and gently flared hips. Every curve looked perfect.
This one is trouble with a capital T, some inner voice of preservation warned. Keeping her at arm’s length was going to be hard, but he’d just have to bite the bullet and keep everything that occurred between them on a professional level.
Mason immediately forced himself to crush the attraction he felt toward Addison Lonike. She definitely had charisma, that special something that most would define as flesh impact. In the back of his mind he briefly wondered what it would be like to hook up with a mermaid…
