Chapter 6

Pumping her legs harder, Esther gripped Mooky’s leash and ran, trying to pace herself and remember she couldn’t run away from everything that had happened if she ran faster.

The idea that her uncle had taken his life because his work had hurt someone, astounded her. But she wasn’t ready to address that just yet.

Last night had still been quite clear in her mind this morning when she’d awakened to find not just the women in her house, but two more people added to the mix. A zombie named Carl, the sweetest soul ever, who’d thumped her on the back and given her an awkward hug. Then she was treated to the best eggs Benedict she’d had in her life, made by Archibald, who, according to the ladies, was some kind of master chef wannabe and, surprisingly, human.

And if his eggs Bennie was any indication, he had her vote for chef of the universe. She’d eaten the decadent treat as though she hadn’t eaten in a week, and thanked him from saving her from another bowl of tasteless oatmeal.

Now, as she took her ritual morning run with Mook, she finally had a moment alone to think about what to do next. Because what did you do when someone told you your uncle screwed up some tests he’d allegedly done for years and had somehow made a bunch of people sick?

Tucker had spat those words at her last night as though she knew thing one about what her uncle did or didn’t do, but Nina, sensing how tired she was, had sent Tucker and his sister and her boyfriend on their way, and instructed them to come back tomorrow, when they could all sit down and iron out the details of her mermaid-ness.

But he’d had something to do this morning, and Jessica was in an important meeting about this issue with their water.

So, she’d decided to take a run to help clear her head.

Stopping to catch her breath, Esther stared off into the choppy water and asked Mooky, “What do you suppose Grandpa would say to this, buddy? He’d probably laugh that his only granddaughter is now forced to literally sink or swim, huh?”

Mooky sat beside her in quiet reverence, leaning against her calves—which in doggie speak meant, “Whatever you say, Boss. Just keep the canned food and pizza crust coming.”

Her grandfather had tried everything and anything to break her fear of the water. He’d taken her to a swim class when she was twelve, only to have the teacher tell him Esther was uncooperative. He’d even paid for private lessons, to which Esther had responded by playing hooky.

She wanted nothing to do with the very water her grandfather and her father loved so much. Both swimmers in high school, her father Eduardo had almost made the Olympic swim team.

In fact, as outrageous as it sounded, her father had chosen her name because he’d literally had a crush on Esther Williams as a kid. When everyone else was hanging up Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul posters in their rooms, Salvador told her, her father’s teenage crush was Esther.

The day was gray and full of a heavy mist that hung low over the ocean, leaving her hair plastered to her head. As the tide rushed in along the shore, she skipped backward, trying to avoid the swell of frothy water.

But then she remembered what Tucker had said this morning when he’d dropped by to check on her. “You only have to worry if you’re fully submerged in water—like in a pool or something. You can still take a shower, get caught in the rain, etcetera. The movies make it something it isn’t. Not totally, anyway.”

As her dreams of going on a cruise with her friends went down the drain, and she’d listened to him tell her the very basics of her new life as a mermaid over a cup of coffee, she fought the intoxicating scent of his cologne and her body’s reaction to how attractive he was—maybe more so in the cold morning light, if that were at all possible or fair.

Though, as quickly as he’d arrived, he left, telling her he’d see her later. Now, as her head swirled with information and fear and wonder, she considered her uncle and his death.

According to the police, her uncle had definitely committed suicide. The proof, they claimed, was in an identical email he’d sent to his assistant and two of his colleagues, a vague and very brief email. Though, when the police had informed her of his death, they hadn’t given her any further information and she hadn’t asked.

It had almost felt like she was invading his privacy to ask to see the email, she knew so little about him, and when the police asked if he’d shown any signs of depression, she couldn’t answer because she didn’t know.

And now Tucker was saying her uncle had approved water for them that was tainted. She knew little about Gomez Sanchez, but she did remember her grandfather telling her how meticulous he was in everything he did.

Sighing, she decided it was time to go back to the cottage and face the music. And somewhere in there, she was going to have to tell hunky Tucker she didn’t know how to swim.

Turning, she meant to take off, but lost her footing when her sneaker sank in the wet sand. Of course, she did this just as a wave rushed to the shore, knocking her feet right out from under her.

As the freezing salty water hit her tracksuit, she fell forward, still clinging to Mooky’s leash as the tide tugged her closer to the water.

In an instant, that same panic, that same flood of helplessness from so long ago assaulted her, and she began to flail, not even thinking about the fact that she was now submerged fully in the ocean. The icy water sloshing over her body like stinging pricks to her skin. As she reached out toward the shore, another wave crashed over her, the water invaded her mouth and eyes and made her lose her grip on Mooky, who barked playfully.

Anxiety settled in within seconds and Esther forgot everything but the fact that she was in water—cold, harsh, unforgiving. Her heart began to race as it engulfed her, swishing over the top of her head and knocking her around until she swallowed more of the salty brine and lost her breath.

When the tide pulled her back under again, swallowing her whole, she began to flail her arms as she tried to think about what Maurizio had said yesterday in that class she took—about how she had to move with the water, not against it, but her terror took hold, preventing her from remembering much else.

So she began to scream, sputtering and coughing as her lungs filled with the ocean. “Mooky!” she managed to yell, her pulse pounding in her ears in time with the roar of the waves. “Get heeelp!”

Mooky knew the water well. He loved the water. He loved to play ball in the water. If nothing else, he could draw attention to her, but she couldn’t see him anymore.

And then it happened, that heavy weight replacing her limbs, dragging her lower body down, down into the murky depths of the ocean. Her head suddenly felt heavy as the length of her hair flourished, the heavy ropes only making everything that much weightier as it twisted around her body and covered her eyes.

She began to sink with the heft of her tail, coupled with her hair, and the more she panicked, the more she knew she was panicking, the harder it became to keep her thoughts clear.

Just as water began to fill her lungs, someone latched on to her, someone with a grip like steel, and dragged her upward.

“Esther!”

She heard her name, felt that someone was trying to help her, but in her panic, she forgot those were good things, and she began to thrash against the very hands that served to save her.

Hauling her upward and dragging her body a short distance through wet sand and water, someone yelled again, “Esther! Stop fighting me!”

She stiffened as a wide hand she could just see through the wet mass of her hair, pushed the thick strands out of her face. That’s when she realized it was Tucker.

“Esther! Are you okay?” he huffed, his jeans and jacket soaking wet as he pressed her body to his and pulled her to shore. “What the hell are you doing?”

She began to cough, not caring that she was naked from the waist up or that she was in the middle of a public beach with a tail. Tears stung her eyes as she gasped for breath, heaving and coughing.

Tucker flopped down beside her, pulling his wet jacket off and gathering her to him. “Cam down. What were you doing out here?”

Running a shaky hand over her face, she pushed more hair from her eyes and fought to catch her breath. “I suppose you’ll never believe I was surfing.”

He threw his head back and laughed. “No. But boogie boarding? Eh, maybe.”

“Sunbathing?”

“Still cheeky,” he said, obviously fighting a chuckle, from the looks of the deep grooves on either side of his mouth.

“Oh, fine. I tripped, and then a wave rolled in and knocked me down, and I was out so far I couldn’t get my bearings.”

“Out so far?” he asked, tucking his jacket under her chin and peering into her eyes.

She made a face and coughed again. “Well, yeah. Didn’t you see? I was in pretty deep.”

He nodded his head, the overcast day making his skin ruddier as droplets of water glistened from the ends of his dark hair. “Esther?”

“Yes?”

“Look up.”

She did as instructed, following the line of his finger to the sand at their feet. “What am I looking at?”

“The shoreline.”

“So? What about it?” she asked on a violent shiver, the wind picking up and clawing at her upper body.

“You were, tops, two feet from it when I scooped you out of the water.”

Oh.

Shit. She’d panicked. She’d done that before on more than one occasion. Hell, she could panic in a puddle.

Esther let her head hang, though she didn’t have much choice because her hair was so heavy. But she felt very defensive now that he’d put her on the spot. This was a sore subject for her—her inability to swim—and today had proven she was going to be the suckiest mermaid to ever suck.

On a sigh, she gave him her guilty stare. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I should be sorry. I mean, you’re the one who did this to me in the first place, but I’m sorry you got all wet saving me.”

Tucker stared at her as though he were thinking before he said, “Care to tell me what that was about? Why were you fighting as though your life was on the line in a foot or less of water?”

“Nope,” she responded, her teeth chattering. Nope, she sure didn’t want to tell him what a complete fool she was, or what her reasons were for being one, either.

He put a hand on her shoulder, a hand that made her tingle. “Esther, you must be more careful. If you reveal yourself to humans, who knows what could happen to you. I don’t want something to happen to you.”

Humans. She almost snorted. “But I am a human, Tucker Pearson.”

He eyed her critically and nudged her with his broad shoulder. “No, you’re half human now, and you have to be very, very aware that not everyone thinks a real live mermaid is just a pretty creature. If someone who wished you harm got their hands on you, they’d turn you into a government science experiment. But you wouldn’t just risk your own life, you’d risk the lives of those in the pod.”

The pod. Who and where was this pod? Every time she heard that word, all she could think of was Invasion of the Body Snatchers and pod people. She loved a good horror movie. She just didn’t want to play a part in one.

“Hey! Chicken of the Sea, what the fuck?” she heard a husky voice call.

Nina came to a halt in front of them, her hair whipping in the wind around her pale face. She threw a blanket at Esther and knelt, wrapping it around her tail and up along her shoulders, handing the wet jacket back to Tucker. “What the hell are you doing? I thought you were going for a run?”

“I tripped,” she murmured sheepishly, which sounded ultra-lame even if it was true.

Nina’s eyes held skepticism when she tilted her dark glasses downward to get a good look at Esther. “You tripped, huh? You could’ve fucking drowned, you moron! Jesus, look at you. You’re gonna freeze to death. C’mere,” she ordered, rubbing Esther’s arms.

“Drowned?” Tucker repeated, his brows pushing together in a frown.

But that’s when Esther realized she didn’t know where Mook was. Immediately, she tried to stand, forgetting about her tail. “Where’s Mooky? I have to find Mooky! I lost his leash when I was in the water. Mooooky!” she hollered into the wind, terrified she’d never find him.

“He’s fine,” Nina reassured, tucking the blanket around her waist. “He’s the one who let us know you were out here splashing around.”

She breathed a sigh of relief on another shiver. “Oh, thank God. Now,” she waved her hand at her tail—her beautiful, shiny tail, poking out in places beneath the blanket from her couch. “What do we do about this?”

“We wait,” Tucker said, crossing his broad arms over his chest.

“Wait?” she almost screeched, then covered her mouth with her hand, lowering her tone and looking around to make sure the beach was still deserted. “We can’t just sit here on the beach and wait, Tucker. What if someone comes and sees us?”

That panic she’d felt earlier set in once again, making her stomach threaten to heave the lovely breakfast she’d had less than an hour ago.

“We’ll tell them you two like to fucking role-playing,” Nina cackled, pulling out a bottle of sunscreen and applying some to her nose.

“So…vampire, eh?” Tucker commented, gazing at Nina. “Can’t say I’ve ever met one before.”

“Half vampire, half witch, to be exact,” Nina corrected with a saucy smirk. “Wish I could say I’d never met a merman, but here the fuck we are.”

Tucker didn’t appear offended at all at Nina’s words. Instead, he nodded. “I can certainly understand that. We don’t make a point of announcing our existence.”

Esther reached a trembling hand out to Nina, touching her arm with concern. “You go back inside. It’s pretty cold today. I don’t want you to get sick because of me.”

She shrugged beneath her hoodie, tucking her hands inside the pockets. “Doesn’t matter, I can’t feel it anyway and I don’t get sick. You just shut up and think about your freakin’ legs. I’ll stay till you Free Willy,” she joked with a grin.

Esther’s heart warmed. She felt safe with Nina—with all of them—and right now, as precarious as things were in her life, safe was good, and they were all she had.

Just then, someone called Esther’s name from behind them—an unfamiliar voice with a heavy New York accent. “Esther Williams Sanchez? NYPD. I have some questions for you!”