Chapter Sixteen
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Shannon blinked into the darkness around her. The glow from the bedside clock and the moonlight through the open window mingled to cast a cool light over the entire room. Merck’s arm banded her tight against his front in his bed.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The front door.
“I’ll get it. Stay here,” Merck grumbled, pushing off the covers. As he rotated to sit on the edge of the bed, the muscles in his back rippled beneath his skin. His fingers scratched through his hair, but did nothing to tame the disheveled look. With an agitated exhale he pulled on his jeans, hooked his knife against his hip, and stomped out of the bedroom.
She buried deep beneath the covers again, using his residual heat to warm her in the super-cooled house. She didn’t want to move. She wasn’t even sure she could and was shocked at how spry he seemed.
A few seconds of him gone and she already missed the warmth of his body next to hers. Her heart kicked up, worried her father might be the one who’d arrived. The bedside clock read a little after two a.m.
“Hey!” a voice called in greeting. “You in there?” The knocking became more insistent.
She relaxed, silently thanking Eli for keeping her location secret. He just earned himself more pie.
“Coming, Danny,” Merck called out. Seconds later, he said, “Come on in. Why’re you here?”
“You haven’t answered your cell phone for the past four hours. This can’t wait.”
“I’ve been busy.” Merck’s voice came out rough. “What’d you find out?”
Shannon couldn’t make out what Danny said. She caught fragments of conversation, but Danny rapid fired, flipping between Spanish and English. Merck replied in Spanish. More back and forth she couldn’t make out. Learning Spanish needed to be a priority.
There was a pause and then Danny spoke heatedly, “You didn’t. Tell me it’s not Sleeping Beauty in your bedroom.”
No reply from Merck.
Danny asked, “What the hell is going on? You made her another one of your girls? Every time there’s a girl involved this happens.”
Every time. Her stomach dropped.
“One thing led to another. Things happen,” Merck replied. Nothing was said about her being any different than his normal. “I’m not dead yet.”
Them together, for him, was about him dying soon and going out without regrets? Maybe about thanking her for what she’d done for him? She’d fallen into his arms more than willingly. That wasn’t his fault. She’d been chomping at the bit for years to get a taste of what it’d be like with him. Every moment more than exceeded her fantasies, but this wasn’t as serious for him as it was for her. She’d really thought he had to be her destined guy. Still did. After being capable of dimension hopping and magically healing him, he had to be the one. Death date aside, she didn’t understand how he thought them together was insignificant. Just another notch on his belt or a simple distraction. Another willing bed partner.
Absurd. She didn’t buy it. Their bond was unique, but she didn’t have time to sort out his psychology or convince him of fate. Merck would come around, even if it might be too late when he did. Time for her to return home and work on finding the Trident. Maybe her father found someone she could ask. Doubtful, but she had to hope.
She pushed off the covers and hunted for her clothes, finding them in the bathroom. She slipped on her underwear and dress, then stared at herself in the mirror for a long moment, searching for and finally finding the resolve to do what she needed to do.
Her phone sat on the bathroom counter. With sigh she typed out a quick text message: Can you pick me up at the end of Merck’s road in a few minutes?
She hit send and slid the phone into the side pocket on the dress.
The guys’ argument was still going on when she entered the hallway. She did all she could to tune it out. Her heart couldn’t handle overhearing Merck explaining away what they had.
After a deep breath, she marched into the fray. The argument cut off when she became the center of both guys’ gazes. Merck looked bored, whereas Danny’s eyes blazed with anger.
“You two can stop. Sleeping Beauty is taking off. Just pretend none of this happened. I’ll go back to my life crisis and you return to yours.”
Merck’s lips thinned. “All right.”
“That’s it? That’s all you’ve got to say?” Wasn’t he even going to try to stop her from leaving?
“You need a ride somewhere?” he added.
Her heartbreak changed to anger. “I’m good. Probably best if we try to figure out things on our own from here.” She froze for a few seconds, her gaze locked on his, unsure what more she could say.
Merck remained silent, his eyes shuttered and hard. This must be his Enforcer side. Heartless.
With emptiness swelling in her chest, she walked out the front door.
***
Shannon’s name lodged in his throat. He wished he could ask her to stay, but what Danny had revealed meant anywhere away from him made her safe. The moment the front door latched behind her, his chest clenched so tight breathing became tough.
Let her go. He had few options otherwise to keep her safe.
Shaky from fighting his urge to chase after her and soothe her hurt, he clenched his hands and returned to the kitchen. His eyes caught on a fork with a few pie crumbs that hadn’t made it to the sink. She’d made him pie—damned good pie. The best pie he’d ever tasted. No one had ever made him pie or cinnamon rolls before.
As he slumped into a chair, for the first time in his life he considered giving in to self-pity over the shit that drove his existence. He’d never asked for the responsibility of keeping people safe. He wanted Shannon and everything that came with being with her—laughing and eating her home-cooked food. But being with her didn’t jive with being the Enforcer.
He cast his gaze out the window to the water, which beat at the docks as if reflecting his inner turmoil. The house was so empty without her.
He didn’t want to shake her free of where she’d lodged herself deep in his soul.
This might be love. Hell if he knew. This waxing- poetic shit wasn’t the sex talking.
He couldn’t—wouldn’t—live with himself if she died and he hadn’t done everything possible to protect her on his last day of life.
Oh, hell. He only had one more day.
Despair slammed into him. He pictured himself sliding into a puddle of hopelessness. Alone with his misery. Sounded like a sappy country song.
Enough. He put a mental lockdown on defeatism and shoved personal desires into the back of his mind. He had a job to do. On his last day he’d get it done. Doing so might save her life.
He would find the Trident for her. If he couldn’t, he’d bargain with his father as his death-day request, even though he had no negotiating power.
Danny glanced up from his phone where he’d been emailing or texting. “You look like pecked-over roadkill.”
Yeah, he felt like it. “Owen and his entourage will be coming soon. Daytime most likely.”
Danny nodded. “I thought he’d come to South Carolina for her, but the bug Chad planted in his rental picked up a conversation that revealed it’s you he’s interested in. He wants to find her, but he doesn’t know where she’s gone. He’s got no clue she’s here. Why would he want to find you?”
“Owen figured out my parentage back when his father dated my mother. Where best to search for Poseidon’s Trident than to start with his son?” The one time he’d visited his “mother” out in Los Angeles when he’d been twenty, he’d gotten into a drag-out brawl with Owen over something stupid on the beach before his “mother”, who’d been dating Owen’s father, had broken them up. The water had crept up the beach like fingers until it reached him and fixed every bit of injury from their fight within seconds. That was the danger of doing anything close to the ocean. It sought to protect him.
He’d never forget Owen’s expression. He’d ghosted white. A conniving expression passed over his face, there for no more than a few seconds, as if filing away the information for future use. If Merck had been after Poseidon’s Trident, the first place he’d start was someone he suspected to be a water god’s offspring or who had water abilities. Why he’d waited so long after Shannon got stabbed to come across the country and “talk” with him made no sense.
After years of monitoring Owen’s activities, him seeking the Trident surprised Merck. Owen might be fascinated by magic, given he was descended long, long ago from Orion, and he might’ve even dabbled in some magic, but Owen never came across as inherently evil. Merck suspected this had more to do with the necromancer and whatever sway she held over Owen.
“What are we going to do?” Danny asked.
“Let them come.”
“They’ll kill you.”
“Thanks for the faith.”
Danny twirled his keys around his index finger, a telling gesture he did when nervous. “I’m worried. I doubt he knows everything about you. I don’t even know everything about you. God knows what they’re planning.”
“I don’t want you around when they find me. I suspect he’ll be toting a necromancer with him. Anaïs.”
“I feel like a dick for hurting Shannon.” Danny scrunched up his face and gazed toward the front door. “I’m not sure you can repair this one easily.”
“I needed her to leave and stay away from me, at least for now. She should be safer with her people if she stays with them and stays low. Thanks for playing along.”
“I don’t like being an asshole, especially to a bonita sexy chica. More so when you’ve got your balls in a wad over her. I’ve never seen you so fucked up over a girl. You sure her people can protect her better than you?” Skepticism oozed from his words. “Seems like all of this is about her and Poseidon. Who better to deal with it than you?”
“I’m trying to do the right thing here, which means keeping her far away from Owen and the necromancer. They don’t know she’s here. I want it to stay that way. And I’ve got to figure out why she’s been targeted for having the Trident when she doesn’t know anything about it.”
“Women like her don’t like it when people make decisions for them. You should call her and tell her what’s going on.”
“Now you’re the definitive expert on women?”
“Unlike you, I was married for six years before my wife was killed. I think I know a bit more than you about relationships. Honesty is always the best bet, especially when emotions and sex get tangled in the mix. Otherwise it’ll bite you in the ass.”
Merck rubbed at one eyebrow. Yeah, he’d fucked up, but he’d apologize later. He still wanted her far away when Owen and cohort arrived. “What’d you find out about the Trident?”
“Most I found was about its symbology. The trinity of three—the beginning, the middle, and the end, or trinity, unity, and opposition. Or Poseidon has three sons who warred, although he really had four. Well, five if we count you. Or could be about his three weapons of warfare—shields, swords, and spears.”
“That’s scholarly crap. Anything useful?”
Danny shook his head. “The stuff I translated talked about the Trident as the symbol of his legion, his throne, and a great source of power. I can’t find anything on who can touch it or what it could do in someone else’s hands.”
“Nothing new. All right. I figured this wouldn’t be something research could figure out. I want you to keep an eye on Shannon from a distance. Just make sure she stays on the property next door. So, park it at the end of her road, but their property is protected and monitored. If you step foot close to the house, they’ll know. If she leaves, text me.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Touch base with some water friends.”