The Accidental Mermaid (Accidentally Paranormal Series Book 16)

by Dakota Cassidy

“Little Fish! Where the fuck are you going?” she heard Nina bellow, and gun to head, she wasn’t sure she could answer.

  All Esther knew was she had to be in the water. Now. This second. What force, or maybe even who was creating this tumultuous, aching need in her, remained unclear as she launched herself into the lake.

  She didn’t feel the cold air anymore. She didn’t feel any fear. All she felt was this wild, unspoken whisper that said to get in the water.

  Ignoring everyone’s cries from the shore, she dove—she dove deep, popping her eyes open and pushing forward until her legs melted away and her tail propelled her forward.

  As though on instinct, she headed to the same spot Tucker had taken her—the cavern, where its dark, wet stone and warm pools waited.

  The beautiful scenery she’d been in such awe of passed by without nary a glance from Esther. In her gut, as she swept past the ice-cream-colored castles and the conch shells the size of furniture, she drove forward with only one thing on her mind.

  And it popped into her head as swiftly as she’d been compelled to take her clothes off and get in the lake.

  Tucker.

  Tucker was under here. She knew it, could taste it, and as she placed her arms by her sides and pistoned forward, that feeling became stronger, clearer.

  As she careened past fish and tangles of seaweed, forced her way through strong currents and over groups of rocks, she headed straight toward the cavern.

  Tucker needed help—she knew it—and as she grew closer, her heart speeding up, she ignored everything else, all the warning signs, all the vibrations of fear, and swam her way inside the cave.

  * * * *

  “You lying bitch!” Tucker snarled, yanking at his arms, straining against the chains that held his wrists and rubbed his scales raw. He was partially submersed in the water to his waist, chained to a group of rocks.

  “Tucker! Stop antagonizing her!” Chester whispered fiercely, he, too, chained to a rock deep within the cavern Tucker had taken Esther to just two days ago.

  But Tucker was incensed; infuriated that he hadn’t figured this out sooner. That someone he loved and trusted had done this to him.

  “Yeah, Tucker,” Jessica mimicked, swimming around them, her fins flapping rapidly as she held the gun steady. “Stop antagonizing. But it won’t matter anyway. You have to die, brother. I didn’t think you’d figure it out, but you’re smarter than I gave you credit for.”

  Still, he had to know why, and in his anger, all the questions that had pinged around in his mind as Jessica had tied them up at gunpoint, spilled out. “I don’t get it, Jess! Why? Why would you do this? How did you get production to agree to this? Shelly would never have approved—”

  “Shelly was bought and paid for. It’s amazing how a little cash will make a bitch turn the other cheek. Shelly was happy to help me with that bullshit memo.”

  His anger ratcheted up a notch. “Why not just come to me? If you needed money, why not ask to borrow it from me? Why do you need so much damn money, anyway? Why kill people? Why kill Gomez?”

  She scoffed at him, her pretty features turning hard and ugly. “Well, I wouldn’t have killed anyone if they’d just stopped poking around. But that Dr. Sanchez just couldn’t quit until he found an answer. Somehow, he figured out I’d hacked into his email. Know how I know that?”

  “How?” he seethed, still in disbelief.

  “Because I know everything he did on that computer. I know everything you do on yours. All your tech—your phone, your laptop, your desktop at work—all hacked by yours truly. I can watch your every move, see every communication. Ask Chester—he’s the one who taught me. That’s how I knew you were coming to see Father tonight. That misogynistic, sexist bastard!” She waved the gun around to emphasize just how much of a bastard she thought their father was.

  Tucker swiveled his head to look at Chester with an angry question in his eyes. “Why? Why would you help her?”

  But Chester immediately cowered, his eyes searching Tucker’s, sweat beading on his brow. “I swear to you, Tuck, I had no idea this was what she was doing. Swear it! I just showed her a thing or two. How to look at a competitor’s internal memos. Stuff like that. Not in a million years would I have ever believed she’d do this! I swear on my fucking life, I had no idea she was behind this!”

  Tucker tightened his jaw and narrowed his eyes at Jessica, so irate, he wanted to throttle her. “You killed Gomez to shut him up about those bad tests. Gomez knew the water was bad. He never sent me a test that said otherwise. That’s why he called me the night everyone thinks he killed himself—because he figured it out. He figured out that somehow, your email address was involved. PrincessFish@Gmail.com! I saw the note he scribbled, Jessica. I saw it—his assistant had it! But you know that, don’t you? You know because you tried to kill Armand, too! An old man, for Christ’s sake! You knew the water was bad and you threw me under the bus!” he thundered.

  Smiling at Tucker, she winked. “Well, I didn’t know-know, Tuck. I mean, Gomez was easy. I just threw some sleeping pills in his food and it was done. But Armand? I heard about the ruckus he created the day he was let go. I have spies, by the way. Anyway, it was too much of a risk to take a chance he had something I didn’t know about. When I found out they shared another apartment together, I did what I had to do. As one does when they don’t want to go to jail for murder.”

  Christ, he’d been so stupid. So damn stupid. Jessica. His own sister had betrayed him so deeply, he felt a tear in his soul. Never in a million years would he have suspected her—which made her the most likely suspect, didn’t it? With her boyfriend’s background in IT, all of this had been a cakewalk.

  And those sneakers—those fucking sneakers. He knew he’d seen them somewhere. On his sister’s feet. That’s where. She’d snuck into Gomez’s office and rifled through his email, and he’d never once noticed it was her, dressed in a suit. But he’d known those sneakers.

  “Why?” he raged. “Why did you do this? Why would you frame your own flesh and blood for murder? Why would you let people get sick—die—for a buck? Why? You have plenty of money, Jessica!”

  “Oh, Tuck. Poor, poor blind Tuck. Here’s why—because father,” she spat, letting the word drip with derision, “would never have let me get anywhere at H2O-Yo but right where I am as we speak. I’ll always be nice Jessica, the underrated, overworked, always-trying-to-prove-herself, bullshit marketing director! Know why?”

  His eyes went wide. She’d gone mad. Utterly and totally mad, but he went along with it anyway—because he had to know. “Why?”

  “Because, you bloody fool—I’m not your sister! I’m your half-sister. The product of an affair mother had many years ago!”

  * * * *

  Holy fucking deception, Batman! As Esther peered into the cave, listening to everything Jessica confessed, her stomach churned, and if she didn’t do something fast—if she didn’t get that gun from Jessica—Tucker and Chester would be dead.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to remember how to communicate with Tucker via her mind, but she couldn’t remember if there were any details to it. So, she just kept her eyes closed and called his name.

  “Tucker! Tucker, I’m here!”

  And then, as she listened, as she prayed, hoped against hope he’d answer back, she heard nada. Not a damn thing.

  Oh, Jesus in a sardine can—what now?

  Try again, Esther. Try again. She heard her grandfather’s voice in her head when he’d encouraged her to get in the water.

  Okay, try again, she would.

  “Tucker! Tucker, listen to me. I’m here. Answer me, Tucker!”

  Clinging to the cave’s wall, she prayed harder and tried once more. “Tucker. Goddammit, answer me! I’m out here by the cave’s opening and I’m doing everything you taught me to do like a good little mermaid and it’s damn well not working. Answer me, you fathead fish!”

  “Esther?”

  “Yees!” she screamed in her mind. “Yes!�
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  “Get out, Esther! Go get help!”

  “Are you insane? She’ll kill you before I have the chance to get anyone. We have to get the gun!”

  “Esther, get the fuck out of here nooow!” he roared in her head.

  “The fuck you say,” she answered back, her chest so tight, she almost lost her breathing skills. “Shut up and distract her. Work with me, Tucker. I can help!”

  “Esther, she’s crazy! And you’re too unskilled to take her on. Just get away!”

  Unskilled-unschmilled. She’d show him unskilled—his head was on the chopping block and he was tit for tatting her mermaidness.

  Jerk.

  Hands touched her from behind—hands that weren’t unfamiliar, but she jolted anyway, spinning around, trying to keep all her mermaid balls juggling in the air at once.

  But there was Nina, her long dark hair making her beautiful face look as though it were peeking through a dark cloud. How the hell had she…

  And then she remembered. Nina didn’t breathe!

  Gripping Nina’s shoulders, she pulled her into a hug, the water between them creating a small wave. Thank God for Nina.

  She grabbed Esther’s shoulders and frowned before she pointed to the inside of the cave and motioned she’d go in first. Esther hoped she meant she was going to be Jessica’s distraction, but she wasn’t sure. However, it was a gamble she was willing to take.

  Esther nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. And then she told Mr. Critical, “Hang on just a minute longer, Tucker—we’re coming in!”

  * * * *

  As his mind raced and Jessica’s latest revelation sank in, he fought disbelief. Their mother’d had an affair?

  “How do you know Mother had an affair?”

  Jessica rolled her eyes at him and floated toward the ledge of the rocks they were chained to. “Because I found their letters, stupid. Their love letters, so to speak. It was disgusting. But you know Serafina. Always doing the right thing. She broke it off with him after Father found out. I have to tell you, I don’t really blame her for cheating. I mean, he’s a total douche. But he raised me sort of like his own—except for when it comes to H2O-Yo. Oh, that’s all pretty-boy Tucker’s baby, now, isn’t it? He was never going to let me get anywhere. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. Once you were in jail, he would have given me VP of Production. He’d have no choice anymore, because I’m the most qualified!”

  “How could I have never seen how much you hated me?” he asked, praying Esther had given up the foolish notion of tangling with Jessica and gone off to find some help. She was no match for Jessica.

  Jessica rolled her eyes and wrinkled her pert nose. “I don’t hate you, Tuck. I hate Father, who isn’t even really my father, is he? And when the opportunity presented itself, and I had a chance to show him I was worthy, you were going to nip that in the bud, weren’t you? You ass-kisser!”

  “People were going to get sick from that water, Jessica—people did get sick, one died! How could you be so heartless?” he spat.

  But she just shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Collateral damage and all. Mining from that spot in Australia was my idea, remember? The new line was my idea, and you screwed it all up. So I screwed you all up. You dig?”

  “You should have come to me, Jessica,” he said sadly. “I would have helped.”

  “Fuck you, and fuck your help! All you big corporate assholes and that damn glass ceiling! Anyway…you gotta go, brother, and so does your weasel of a friend. Sorry it had to end this way.”

  Just in that moment, as Jessica raised the gun and aimed it at his chest, there was an explosion of water so fierce, so powerful, he thought surely his father had somehow found them.

  Ah. But no. It was the vampire—with the newb mermaid hot on her heels. And him helpless to do anything to prevent their deaths.

  Shit.

  Chapter 19

  Nina flew out of the water like some kind of actor from The Matrix, her hands in claw-like position, her legs spread wide apart to help her land on the cavern’s ledge.

  Water sprayed everywhere, blinding Esther for a moment before she stood her ground and did what Tucker taught her—she rolled with the force of the water until she was just behind Jessica’s shoulder.

  And as she swam up behind her, she balled her fist, looking directly into Tucker’s eyes, filled with surprise, and let ’er rip, hurling a ball of water.

  Which didn’t go quite as planned—or at all, really. It ended up swiping Jessica’s shoulder like a water balloon—which, in hindsight, wasn’t terribly effective.

  “Little Fish, look out!” Nina screamed, diving into the water again as Jessica swung toward her and pulled off a shot.

  But Nina knocked Esther out of the way, the bullet missing her by mere inches. As they dropped to the bottom of the cavern, deep into its beautifully blue depths, Esther righted herself and headed straight back upward toward the shadow that was Jessica’s gorgeous fin.

  She propelled toward her at an alarming speed, almost losing control as she rammed into Jessica’s tail, using her own to swat at her.

  And that swat was weak and slow, but it gave her enough time to see Nina get hold of Jessica’s wrist and make her drop the gun. As they fought and fell to the depths of the lake, Esther raced upward, hoping to free Tucker and Chester.

  Just as her head popped above the surface, and the cavern became clear, in all its sleek rock and warm pools, she remembered another mermaid superpower, and she prayed it would work—because bubbles could be like bullets, right?

  As she focused on the chains that bound the men, she gathered water in her mouth, and rolled her tongue around, spitting it at the chains on Tucker’s wrist.

  “Esther, no!” he bellowed, ducking his head and wincing.

  But there was a ping of satisfaction, and as she watched the water bounce off the rock, making part of it crumble, she at least knew she was on the right track. So, she did it again in an awkward spray, managing to nail the chain securing Tucker’s right arm.

  “Well done, Newb!” he yelled to her with a proud smile as he began to pull at the chains holding him.

  “Get Chester!” she cried, before diving back downward to find Nina.

  “Esther, no! Wait for me!” he shouted.

  But Jessica had Nina, and after all the vampire had done for her, after all the coddling and soothing in her own crass way, Esther wasn’t going to let anything happen to her without putting up a fight.

  Zooming downward, she looked left and right, but couldn’t see them anywhere—and then she spotted a length of Nina’s hair, twirling in the blue water behind one of the ice-cream-colored castles.

  Without thought, she went for it, racing toward Nina and coming around the corner of the fake castle at breakneck speed.

  Unfortunately, maybe because she was nowhere near the master of deceit Tucker’s sister was, she slammed right into Jessica, who had Nina wrapped up in her tail, squeezing until Nina’s eyes bulged. Jessica laughed at Esther as Nina struggled.

  Even knowing she couldn’t drown, or maybe couldn’t even die, that didn’t stop Esther. This woman had killed her uncle. Her only relation left in the world. Had tried to kill her uncle’s lover.

  She had to go.

  She didn’t think about what she did next, she didn’t consider the fact that she’d failed miserably just moments ago in her attempt—she just did it. Esther balled her fist, swung her arm wide, and just let go.

  The result was a thunderous wave—one so powerful, it didn’t just knock Nina from Jessica’s deadly grip, it knocked over everything in its path, shooting them all forward, leaving Esther tumbling helplessly until she hit the bottom of the lake floor.

  One wouldn’t think they could crash to the depths with such force; it was, after all, just water. But somehow, she’d managed to whip up a mother of a doozy, because she fell to the bottom like a sack of rocks, smashing her back against a boulder and cutting the backside of her tail.

&n
bsp; With a groan, Esther Williams Sanchez forgot how to be a mermaid for a moment, and when she opened her mouth to cry out her anguish, she let the water in. As it seeped into her lungs, the weight of it in her chest made her eyes roll to the back of her head.

  Blood twisted and twirled upward in tendrils of crimson as her eyes began to bulge and her arms grew weak.

  “Esther!” Tucker yelled in her head. “Jesus Christ, Esther!”

  She heard him scream her name, felt his hands grip her, heard water rush past her until she almost passed out.

  And then blessed air—cold, crisp air. She sucked it into her lungs, spitting out the water packed in her chest with a garbled hack.

  “Esther!” Marty screamed, running into the water to help. She caught a glimpse of Darnell right behind Marty, splashing into the water to grab her from Tucker.

  “Take her!” Tucker ordered. “I have to get Nina!” He dove back in without looking back, and tears formed in the corners of her eyes as he went.

  “Jesus!” Marty yelped. “She’s bleeding! Help me get her out!”

  But Esther struggled against Marty and Darnell, trying to sit up and reposition herself to dive back in—one thing and one thing only on her mind.

  Kill the bitch.

  The moment she’d managed to struggle upright was the moment Jessica popped up out of the water, holding what appeared to be a passed-out Tucker by his hair. Hovering almost above the lake, she stretched her arms out, and just like her not so Fish Daddy, she did the whirling dervish thing—and in seconds, everything and everyone in her path was hit by a wall of water.

  Darnell lost his grip on Esther, and Marty flew back against the shoreline, whizzing behind them with a sound she heard rumbling in her ears.

  “Esther! No!” Darnell shouted, his hoarse voice just barely heard over the roar of the water. “Duck, Esther, duuuck!”

  Nah. She was tired of ducking. There would be no more ducking for Esther Williams Sanchez. This fucknuttery would stop now, because the guy she was really heating up to was dangling lifelessly in the air, and her uncle was dead.

  All because of greed.