Chapter 6

 

“You gonna eat that soup?” Sylvia asked as she slid the small plastic dish her way.

Penny had eaten enough liquid food to last a lifetime. It seemed to be the hospital’s answer to everything.

“You can have it,” she answered her friend. “Any more and my insides will turn into that shit.”

She’d been in the hospital for two days. Between the constant tests and badgering by her bestie, Penny thought she might go insane. Turns out a shark bite, especially in her condition, was riskier than she thought. The teeth had only broken the skin, gnawed on the meat a little bit, but other than that she should be okay. It was the leukemia that was kicking her ass.

“Sylvia,” Penny said when they were finally alone in the hospital room. “I’m not so sure it’s going to be okay this time.”

“You got a fucking bite on your leg,” Sylvia said, throwing her hand out as if swatting away an invisible fly.

“It wasn’t a mosquito bite,” Penny reminded her. “And the doctors are acting funny.”

“That’s what doctors do,” Sylvia replied.

“Sylvia…”

Sylvia looked at her and Penny knew that she was taking it much more seriously this time. Her friend’s eyes welled up with tears and she used her jacket sleeve to quickly wipe them away.

“You’re gonna be okay,” she said. “This is nothing. We still have two days left. They’ll let you out and you’ll sit on the side of the pool all bandaged up and shit, drawing all the attention of the guys, and then I’ll swoop in and take them up to my room and fuck ‘em while you get some work done on your laptop.”

Her friend’s simple explanation kind of summed up the two of them perfectly.

“Maybe not this time,” Penny said. “I don’t feel so great. I’m tired. And I have bruises in places I’ve never had bruises before. Maybe we should go home.”

“You don’t mean that, babe,” Sylvia said. “You’d regret it if we got on that plane.”

Penny’s head fell back on her pillow. She hurt in so many places. She’d dealt with the aching of her bones and the soreness of her body for so long. She’d suffered the chronic fatigue, the feeling that she might pass out at any given moment, and the results of what happened when she actually did. It came, and it went. All of it. Some days she felt fine. Like that day on the yacht. She had forced herself to stay positive and go on a date. She’d tried.

I tried so hard. But I don’t know how much I want to try anymore. I only want to sleep.

A knock on the door pulled her from her self-pity. She pulled her blanket up higher to make sure it covered the horribly thin robe they’d given her. She had no chance to invite the visitor in. He did so himself. He was incredibly tall and had dirty blond hair. He looked like he hadn’t shaven in days and his hair stood out in all directions. His messy appearance seemed accidental, but it was the look models strove for. He had rolled out of bed looking like a badass, and the long scar that ran across the left side of his face, starting at the spot above his eye socket and ending at his jawline, only intensified his natural meanness.

“Penelope Cross?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Are you a cop?” Sylvia asked. “We’ve spoken to the cops. Unless you’re planning to arrest a shark, I don’t see how…”

“…Not arrest it,” he interrupted. “Kill it.”

The guy stepped closer to her bed and towered over her, looking down at her over the dark sunglasses resting at the tip of his nose. His intensity was unnerving. He didn’t smile. His lips hardly moved at all, only opening enough to let words flow out.

“Not a cop,” he said, his Australian accent thicker than any she’d heard so far.

He was almost difficult to understand.

“It’s my duty to patrol the shore, to keep people safe, to put an end to the monsters that attacked you,” he said. “We haven’t had the chance to talk so I thought I would pay you a visit and see if you could shed some light on the sharks that attacked you.”

Sylvia chuckled.

“One of them had a mustache,” she joked.

He whipped his head around and Penny couldn’t see him, but she could see Sylvia. Her smile faded, and she knew the man had warned her with his glance. She seemed spooked.

“It…it all happened so quickly,” Penny said, bringing his attention back to her. “A guy accidentally knocked me overboard.”

“Accidentally?” he asked. “How did he accidentally knock you off the boat?”

She had no answer for that. When she closed her eyes, she could feel the impact of the man’s arm against her chest and shoulders. He’d hit her so hard that it couldn’t have been an accidental stumble, but why would he purposely throw her into the water? That would make no sense.

“I don’t know,” she said, lowering her face to her lap like an ashamed child.

She couldn’t stand meeting the man eye to eye. She felt him judging her, ready to pick apart her words and label her a liar even though she’d said nothing but the truth.

“What happened in the water?” he asked.

“She was fucking attacked,” Sylvia interrupted again.

Penny loved her for it. His questions were stupid and redundant considering she’d already answered these same damn questions twenty fucking times.

“A shark grabbed me, grabbed my leg…”

“Grabbed you?” he asked.

“Pulled me under, and kept yanking me down, until I…until I shoved my hand…”

She held her hand up in an almost duck like form, showing how she’d squished all her fingers together and poked out its eye.

“…into its eye and did this.”

She opened her hand. Sylvia winced. The man finally smirked. He seemed to like hearing about the pain of a shark.

“Nicely done,” he said. “So, we’ve got a shark out there missing an eye.”

A second knock on the door and this time, the visitor standing in the doorway was one Penny had dreamt about. The man she’d met on the yacht. The gorgeous one who’d left her to go talk to the stunning whore with the red strip in her hair. That guy. Thane. With tan cargo shorts and a light blue shirt, he seemed so much more casual than he had on the yacht.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Am I interrupting?”

The police officer, or whoever he was since he’d never really introduced himself, turned toward Thane and stuck his hands in his pockets. He rocked back on his heels, passing his instant judgment on the handsome man who’d shown up unannounced.

“Friend of hers?” the officer asked.

“Maybe,” Thane answered. “You?”

Penny saw something pass between the two men. Thane’s eyes squinted ever so slightly, and it looked as if he might be glaring at the nosy blond. She wondered if the two already knew each other.

“A new friend I suppose,” the officer said.

“Do you two know each other?” Sylvia asked, talking to the men.

She must have sensed the awkwardness too.

“I’m not sure we do,” the officer said.

“We’ve met…once,” Thane said, “but I’ve heard about the brave Boating and Fisheries Patrol officer Keelan Kane. His shark hunting skills are…legendary.”

“Well,” Keelan said. “Sometimes it takes a beast to know how to hunt one.”

Am I missing something here? What is this show of testosterone I’m seeing in front of me?

“Be careful out there,” Thane said. “Sometimes beasts bite back.”

An odd silence followed as the two men sized each other up. Finally, it was Thane who broke the silence with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Just saying,” he added. “I’ve heard sharks are great hunters too.”

Keelan shrugged his shoulders, smiled, and said, “I’ve yet to find one worthy of the fear they incite. They’re nothing but big fish really. Big dumb fish.”

“Isn’t that how you got the scar on your face?” Thane asked. “The big dumb fish scar?”

Penny noticed the flexing in Thane’s jaws and wondered if the officer had seen it too. Why was Thane so aggravated by the man? Penny didn’t know him well, but she still felt that instant connection with him. Now that he’d shown up to the hospital, she knew it wasn’t a temporary thing. He wanted to make sure she was okay. He cared about her.

“Ask where that shark is now,” Keelan said.

“I’m sorry,” the nurse said as she popped her head in the door. “Visiting hours are over. We need to run a few more tests in the morning and she needs to get her rest.”

“Of course,” Thane said.

“I can come back some other time,” the officer said.

“Are you sure I can’t stay with her?” Sylvia asked.

“It’s not a good idea,” the nurse said.

“I’ll be okay,” Penny told her. “Go back to the hotel and have a few drinks for me.”

Sylvia leaned over her friend and gave her a hug.

***

Make a fucking move. Do it. Go for that sidearm at your hip.

Keelan Kane had a pistol under his jacket. Thane could smell the dried gunpowder. He wished the man would try something stupid. Did he know that Thane was a shifter? Humans were aware of their existence. Stories of wolves and bears and even lions and tigers shifting into humans had reached every continent. Shifters were everywhere. Not in great numbers, but they were on every continent. Yet, Thane hadn’t heard a single story about an underwater shifter. At least nothing substantial. Nothing beyond the regular ol’ stories like the Loch Ness monster or tales of mermaids and mermen. But this guy wasn’t normal. The way he looked at Thane suggested he knew more than he was letting on. Had he known Bobber was a shifter?

Come on. Make a fucking move.

The desire to bash his fucking skull against the hard tile floor was almost too much to contain. Thane wanted to kill him for what he’d done to Bobber. He wanted to rip him apart to show his people that he was capable of it, but he needed the officer to make a move first.

When the nurse came in and interrupted, Thane realized he’d wasted the time he could have spent talking to Penny on this son of a bitch. This gave him a second reason to hate the officer. The laundry list of reasons to hate Keelan was growing longer by the day.

Outside the hospital, Thane watched from the shadows as Keelan offered Sylvia a ride back to the hotel. She accepted, and they rode off together.

Now was his chance to speak to Penny with nobody else around. He walked back into the hospital and made his way to her floor. The nurses weren’t around and the light to her room was off when he slipped inside. Penny was in bed, staring at the light seeping in through the window. He knew there was no way he could approach her without scaring the shit out of her.

“Hey, don’t be afraid,” he said.

She screamed. She fucking screamed and she screamed loud.

“It’s me, Thane,” he said. “I snuck in to see you.”

The nurse burst through the door and he was barely able to sneak into the bathroom on time. From inside the bathroom, he saw the room light pop on.

“What is it?” the nurse asked.

“Nothing,” Penny said. “I…I thought I saw something outside the window. I think it’s the medication.”

“The medication?” she asked. “We didn’t give you anything that strong…yet.”

“It was that tree,” Penny said, pointing out the window. “It moved in the wind and I swear it looked like someone flying outside.”

“Good God,” the nurse said. “Calm down. And get some rest.”

As the nurse left the room, she mumbled the word, “Americans.”

Finally, once the light was off and the nurse was gone, Thane stepped out of the bathroom and made his way over to her. He squatted down next to the bed and took one of her hands in his.

“My God,” he said. “I was so worried about you. Tell me you’re okay.”

“You were worried about me?” she asked.

“Every damn second,” he said. “You’re all I’ve been able to think about.”

“Why did you leave me?” she asked. “Why did you leave me to talk to that woman?”

“It’s a long story. One I can tell you some other time. Right now, we have to get you out of here.”

“Get me out of here? Are you crazy?”

“Maybe a little,” he said. “I left you for only a second on that boat and look what happened. I can’t leave you alone in here. You’re stuck with me now. Gerri knew what she was talking about.”

“Gerri?”

“The woman who set us up on the date, remember?” he asked.

“Of course, I just…I’m sorry, my mind is a bit of a mess right now.”

He gripped her hand harder. He needed to make her see what he meant. Of course, she wouldn’t understand. To her, a man could either be a friend, a boyfriend, or a husband. To him, a relationship could be so much more, and it could happen so much more quickly. She was the one. She was the mate he’d been hoping for. But explaining that to her would seem absurd. In shark form, he would simply take her. He would bite her, hold her down, and he’d fuck her until she understood. But that was the beast side of him. Shark sex was violent. It was mean. It wasn’t what he wanted with her. She was his woman even if she didn’t know it yet. He decided to go for it.

“Do you remember much about what happened on the boat? In the water after?” he asked.

“Not a lot,” she said. “It happened too quickly.”

“Axel knocked you off the boat,” he told her.

“The blond guy?” she asked. “You know him?”

“The girl I was talking to, Evelyn?” he started. “She planned it to hurt me. She knew I was already attached to you.”

“Attached to me?” she asked.

The tone of her voice was adorable, and he knew if the lights were on he would see her blush.

“I’m attached to you,” he told her. “I…I…”

Dammit, I fucking love you already. I can’t say that. That’s absurd. She’ll run for the hills. It’ll sound stupid. And I’m not even sure if love is the right word. You’re mine. No, that sounds menacing. How do I explain it?

“Remember the talk we had on the yacht?” he asked. “About paranormal stuff? About shifters?”

“Of course,” she said.

“Do you remember the tiger shark that circled around you in the water? The one who kept circling to make sure none of the others could get to you?”

She remained silent for a moment, and he felt bad forcing her to relive such a terrible memory. He hated himself for not knowing Evelyn’s intentions in time to prevent it from happening. He’d let her down, and now he was making her relive it all over in her mind.

“Yes,” she said softly.

“I was that shark,” he said. “I protected you. I should have gotten there sooner. I’m so sorry.”

He leaned down and kissed her hand, rubbing her fingers in his.

“I’m so sorry,” he repeated. “I should have known. I should have prevented it.”

“So, you did jump in to save me,” she said barely above a whisper. “I thought nobody cared.”

Letting her feel that way was something he could never forgive himself for. He stood and leaned over her bed, moving his face an inch from hers in the darkness. Her breath brushed his lips and he closed his eyes, living in the moment for a second. He wanted to climb into the bed and hold her that close forever.

“I will always care,” he said.

His lips touched hers, but neither moved for a moment. Her breath entered his mouth and his seeped inside hers. The raw emotion of being so close and refraining from the kiss was so strong. Finally, he could no longer hold back. Thane’s lips met Penny’s and he kissed her hard, working her lips between his, until her gasp invited him in. His tongue slid between her lips, found hers, and caressed it softly. Her mouth was so soft and his was so hungry. The two combined and their tongues were on fire.

Without meaning to, he pushed against her injured leg, and she whined inside his mouth, but he sucked the pain away, apologizing with his tongue, pulling another whine from her lips. She was his, and he was hers.

“Come with me,” he whispered into her mouth.

“Where?” she asked.

He pulled away from her, so he could look her in the eyes.

“Come with me to my island,” he said. “I will take care of you there. I can do things this hospital can’t. I’ll take care of you. I’m afraid if you stay here, you might be in danger. If you come with me, I’ll make sure you’re never hurt again.”

“I can’t leave here,” she said. “What about my friend, Sylvia?”

“Send her a text message saying you promise you’ll get in touch with her soon,” he said. “Tell her…I don’t know. Just make sure she knows you’re okay.”

“This is crazy,” she said.

“Let’s be crazy together then,” he said. “Trust me. I will take care of you.”

She closed her eyes and seemed to be savoring his words.

“I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for someone to say that,” she said. “Are you sure you mean it?”

“More than anything else in the world,” he promised.

“Then I’ll go with you,” Penny said.