Chapter 17

Long after everyone had gone to bed, Tucker stared at the computer screen, replaying the fucking video until his eyes burned, but he’d be damned if he could figure out where he’d seen those sneakers.

Taking care not to make noise, he slid his chair back and stood up, noting Esther had fallen asleep on the couch with Carl’s head in her lap. They’d decided he should stay here, for his own safety, in case the police went looking for him at his place, but he was uncomfortable as hell putting everyone in jeopardy. The press already knew about this place and Esther, why wouldn’t the police?

Looking down at his phone, he reread the texts from his mother, Chester, Jessica, all wondering the same thing. “Where are you?” and “The police were here, asking questions, looking for you.”

And the worst: “Someone from the family of the man who died called the police and wants to know why you haven’t been arrested. Please call me.”

But long before he’d gotten the texts, he’d already decided—tomorrow, he’d go to the police. Whoever had done this, whoever had killed Gomez, would come looking for him, and he didn’t want these decent people in their path. But he also knew, realistically, the police were going to at least want to question him. Christ knew they had plenty to build a case on. He couldn’t keep ducking them anymore. Especially with Esther involved.

Though, when he figured this out—and he would if it was the last thing he did—he was going to kill the motherfucker. Not just because this person had wreaked havoc in his life, but because he’d killed someone—two someones—and for that alone, whoever this was would beg for their death when he was done.

Stretching his arms, he padded out into the living room and smiled at Esther, her arm around Carl’s shoulder, her head flung back, exposing her long, creamy neck.

Tucker Pearson was hot for Esther Williams Sanchez, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it, and the only reason he hadn’t taken things further tonight was because his future was so uncertain.

But he’d like to have been afforded the time to show her not all relationships had to end up in mediation. She was skeptical due to her job and in spite of her family’s successes in the marriage arena, and he got that. But what he was feeling for her, beyond his desire, was real…and if he could prove they weren’t hysterically bonding, he’d show her there was true chemistry there.

He a little more than liked everything about her, from her sense of humor, to her thoughtful words, to her curvy hips and her super-hot tail. As a mermaid, she was incredible—stunning. But he also liked her kind heart, and how easily she’d rolled with the punches in terms of turning into a mermaid.

Now, as he stood watching her sleep, he wished he’d already told her as much. So whatever happened afterward, she’d at least know his intentions were very real.

Running a hand through his hair, he fought a yawn and paced to the front door. So far, since Darnell had cast some kind of demonic spell to keep the press at bay beyond the edge of Esther’s property, they hadn’t run into them anywhere else, but that, too, wouldn’t be far down the pike, if someone was asking why he hadn’t been questioned.

Leaning his head against the wall, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the few moments of freedom he’d likely have left for a very long time sink into his soul.

That was when everything clicked.

When he opened his eyes and looked down at the shoes by the door, all neatly lined up in a row on a blue throw rug with splashes of red. In particular, Carl’s sneakers.

And the letters of that email…

And one by one, he put the pieces together before he went back to the table and grabbed his phone, texting his father and ordering an Uber, before he grabbed his jacket, threw it on and headed outside to wait for his ride—to wait for the end of this nightmare.

* * * *

Esther slipped from beneath Carl’s gentle grasp, rubbing the crick in her neck. Somehow, she’d fallen asleep on the couch after they’d read together. Tucking the blanket under Carl’s chin, she brushed a lock of his hair from his forehead and dropped a kiss on his cheek.

Scooping up Mook, she clucked her tongue softly at Marsha so she’d follow her into her bedroom and padded down the small hall, noting everyone was fast asleep. Even Nina, who’d chosen to share a room with Archibald, snoozed peacefully.

Thinking about how much she loved having her house so full as she pulled down the cream and white comforter on her bed and threw the throw pillows in red and turquoise to the floor, she paused and looked around.

Where was Tucker?

“Tucker?” she hissed, returning to the kitchen, dark but for the small light under the microwave. “Tucker!”

Spinning around, she scanned the living room again, even though she’d just left it, her heart beginning to throb in her chest. “Tucker!”

“What the fuck, Little Fish?” Nina asked, scaring Esther and making her jump.

“Where’s Tucker? He didn’t go home, did he? I thought the plan was for him to stay here tonight, just in case the police have begun asking questions. I fell asleep on the couch. I haven’t seen him since I went to read with Carl.”

Nina’s eyes narrowed, the charcoal depths glimmering. “That was the plan,” she answered, stomping to the front door and throwing her work boots on. “I’m gonna kill him if he’s off doin’ somethin’ stupid.”

She flung open the door, with Esther hot on her heels. “Maybe he just went for a swim? Do merman need to swim like you need blood or Marty needs to shift?” She’d never thought to ask, but maybe that were true. She had experienced that strange call to the water tonight. Maybe he had, too?

Nina shook her mussed head and clenched her fist in anger. “How the fuck should I know?” she asked, flying out to Esther’s small front porch and peering into the darkness.

Esther tucked her sweater closer under her chin and shivered. Damn, it had gotten even colder since they’d been out earlier practicing. “Tucker!” she called into the wind, now fully panicked.

Nina stopped all motion then, lifting her nose to the night air, her nostrils flaring. She spun back around and narrowed her eyes as she made her way back to the front door. “He was out here—definitely recently. I can smell it.”

“Where could he have gone?”

“Goddammit. Why doesn’t anyone ever fucking listen? If he went to the police, I’ll rip his face off!” Nina yelled, stalking back into the house.

Esther followed, her heart pumping at an alarming rate as she shut the door to find everyone awake.

“What’s going on?” Marty asked, pulling her bathrobe tighter.

“Tucker’s gone,” Nina growled as Wanda wandered out into the living room.

“Where?” she asked sleepily, her normally elegantly styled hair smashed to one side of her head.

“We don’t know!” Esther responded, grabbing her phone to see if there were any texts from Tucker, but there was nothing.

“Hold up,” Nina said, grabbing her phone from the kitchen counter and scrolling until she pressed a button. “I’m calling Sam, we’ll get him to track dumbass’s phone, and when we find that moron, I’m going to rip his thick head off his shoulders.”

As Nina paced the kitchen, her footie pajamas scuffing softly on the hardwood, Esther’s panic rose. Where would he have gone so late at night, and why?

Wanda gripped her arm as she fought to catch her breath, her worry and fear rising with each passing second.

Fifteen minutes later, she heard Nina say, “Dude, I almost like you today. Thanks, man. Tell Phoebe and gang I love their little fucking guts.” She ended the call and looked at everyone with a deadpan expression. “He went to the lake.”

“So late?” Marty crowed the question, pulling her robe off and heading back down the short hall to the guest room. “I feel like we should check on him. Just in case. I’m sure he’s perfectly fine. He’s probably with Jessica, but it can’t hurt to be sure, can it? And where’s the damn aspirin? Why can’t I ever find that stupid bottle?”

Arch appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, his aging brow furrowed, half-empty aspirin bottle in hand. “Mistress Marty, I worry about you. This bottle was almost full. I truly think you should see a doctor about these headaches.”

She held out the palm of her hand and stuck her tongue out at Archibald. “It’s just a headache and some aspirin. It’s not like I’m popping Vicodin. Though, with this damn headache, I wouldn’t mind some,” she joked, and dropped a kiss on Arch’s cheek. “I’m fine. It’s just stress from this merger. Now scooch. I have to get dressed.” She closed the bedroom door, leaving the rest of them to sort through what to do next.

“Do you think she’s right? Do you think we should go to the lake?” Esther asked, now in full-on worry mode, already halfway to the door.

Wanda shook her head, stuffing her hands into the wide pockets of her baby-blue bathrobe. “I don’t know, but how can it hurt? In the meantime, let’s text him and see if he responds. I’ll get my clothes while you do.”

“The fuck you will,” Nina said, planting her hands on her hips, slim in the blue onesie. “If shit’s not right, we can’t take a chance you’ll get hurt. Go back to bed and let the non-knocked-up handle this shit.”

Wanda rolled her tongue in her cheek and rasped a sigh. “I’ll stay in the car. Swear it. But you need a lookout if we’re going to the lake where the community is gated and guarded by security. Also, I’m not exactly helpless. I’m crazy hormonal, which packs a mean punch. Besides, we don’t even know if anything’s going on.”

Nina stuck her finger in Wanda’s face. “You leave the car, I break your skinny chicken legs. Got it? Then you won’t be going anywhere until this kid’s born. Now make yourself useful and text Darnell. Tell him to meet us at the lake, just in case.”

Wanda pinched her friend’s cheek and blew her a saucy kiss. “I’ll be ready in two seconds.”

As Esther waited for Tucker to text her back, she fought a nagging feeling. Why would he have gone to the lake after what happened the other night with his father? And why had Tucker gone without somebody with him? He might have super strength under the water, but he was just your average guy on land. If he’d gone off to investigate on his own, and he ran into trouble, she’d kill him herself for leaving without a word.

As she gathered her jacket, she checked her phone again. Nothing from Tucker. Dead silence. She’d also texted Jessica, but silence from that end, too.

“You guys ready?” Nina asked, her eyes intense as she held the door open.

“Yep,” Esther nodded, even if her voice sounded shaky. “Ready.”

“We’ll keep the midnight oil burning,” Archibald assured, hugging the women one by one, giving Esther an extra-long hug she burrowed into, inhaling the scent of warm cookies still lingering on him. “Be safe, precious ones.”

Nina kissed him on the top of his head, and headed out the door into the frosty night with the rest of them in tow.

As they climbed into the big SUV, Esther said a small prayer, her stomach twisting and churning. Please let him be okay. Please.

* * * *

Esther’s pulse raced in a tidal wave of sound in her ears. “How the hell are we going to get in here? Like Wanda said, it’s a gated community.” She hadn’t given that any thought as they drove over, but now, looking at all the lights surrounding the lush homes, and the guardhouse with a guard, not to mention the big iron gates, she had no idea how they’d get inside.

Nina draped an arm around her shoulders and popped her lips as they stood on the outskirts of the mermaid compound beside the SUV. “Oh, Little Fish, you’re such a newb. Get on my back.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Get the fuck on my back and hurry it up. Big Fish is in there. I can smell him. So, I wanna know what the hell’s going on. If he’s just seeing his sister in the wee hours of the fucking morning, no harm, no foul.”

After everything she’d seen, after a tail and fins and fangs and more hair than a zoo full of big cats, she suddenly felt afraid. “Get on your back? Wait… Do you turn into like a bat or something?” Oh, my God. Could she fly? Did she turn into a winged creature?

Nina flicked her arm—hard.

“Ow! Quit hitting the fish!” she squawked, rubbing her stinging skin with her palm.

“Then stop being an asshat. I don’t turn into a bat. Get on my back before I doubt all this credit I’ve been givin’ you and let’s beat feet.”

“You got her?” Marty asked, rolling up her sleeves and pulling her long hair up into a pony.

Nina nodded, pulling her hoodie on. “I got her. Wanda? Stay the fuck put. Promise on Charlie’s life.”

Wanda’s eyes went wide as she swatted Nina’s arm. “I will not swear on your child’s life. There will be no swearing on anyone’s life. You’ll just have to take my word for it, you overgrown bat!”

Esther’s finger flew up in the air in a shot. “You do turn into a bat!” she accused, now the one doing the flicking of arms as she pinged Nina’s rock-hard biceps.

Nina rolled her eyes as though she’d just suggested madness. “I do fucking not. Wanda, stop scaring her and stay the hell put in this damn car. When Darnell gets here, send him the fuck in. Now, you. Get. On. My. Back!” she whisper-yelled.

Esther didn’t question her this time. Instead, she hopped on her back, wrapping her legs around Nina’s slim waist. As Nina pulled back on her foot like a slingshot, she said, “Hold on. Do not let go, or who knows where the fuck your uterus will land.”

Her uterus? How had her lady bits gotten in the middle of this? Nonetheless, she tightened her grip around the vampire’s waist and neck.

Marty looked at Nina with a cheeky grin, rocking back on her heels. “You ready, Dark One?”

“Like a Kardashian in front of a fucking camera,” Nina replied, grinning back at Marty.

“Then onward ho!” Marty whispered into the velvety cool of the night.

After that, the only thing Esther was even capable of thinking about were Nina’s words, and how many uteri had been lost before hers.

* * * *

Nina grunted as she dug her heels into the hard ground to stop herself, their landing only a little bumpy as she came to a screeching halt in front of the big maple tree at the lake.

Esther—dazed, wide-eyed, freezing—silently screamed when Nina dropped her on the ground, where she crumpled against the tree in a heap.

Marty was just a hair behind them, skidding to a stop just inches from Nina, who slapped her friend on the back. “Slow as molasses uphill in the winter, werewolf.” Then she cackled softly.

Marty flipped up her middle finger, bending forward at the waist and putting her hands on her knees. She gasped for breath. “Fuck off, Elvira,” she hissed, making Nina laugh harder.

“And I had the mermaid on my back to fucking boot.”

But Marty didn’t answer, instead she kept breathing hard, making Nina stoop down. “Hey, you okay?” she asked softly, pushing a strand of Marty’s loose hair from her face.

“Just gimme a sec to catch my breath. I’m just tired from work. I’m fine,” she rasped, gripping Nina’s fingers.

As Esther watched their exchange, her hand immediately went to her belly. Well, it felt like her uterus was still intact. And then it all came back to her. Nina, jumping the fence like some kind of superhero, then running through the woods at the speed of light, branches swiping at her cheeks as she ducked and dodged tree limbs. The ground, swelling up at her and virtually disappearing as Marty followed close on her heels, her puffs of air low and feral.

And here they were. At the lake, which, by the by, was dead silent. She used her body to inch her way up the trunk of the tree and refocus her still wobbly vision.

“You okay, Little Fish?”

Esther smiled, starting to come to grips with this latest leg of her journey. “I’m fine. My uterus is fine. I might have lost an ovary, but who needs one of those?”

Nina gave a soft chuckle before she scanned the lake and said, “We need to snoop around a little. Sam’s tracking bullshit doesn’t always give specific locations. Maybe he’s up at Fish Daddy’s house and they’re makin’ nice? Or at his sister’s?”

Marty, breathing regularly now, planted her hands on her hips. “I don’t see or hear a damn thing. You smell anything?”

Nina pushed her hoodie from her head and shook it. “Nope. You smell anything?”

Marty wrinkled her nose and spun around slowly. “Nope. Esther, check your phone in case you got a text while we were getting in here.”

Pulling her phone from her jacket, Esther scrolled it. “Not a thing but from Wanda, checking in. Oh, she also says Darnell’s on his way. So, what do we do now?” she asked on a shiver.

The lake was calm tonight, without the activity of so many mermaids swimming about. The surrounding areas, thick with various types of trees, sat ominously silent, their branches shedding piles of leaves.

“Y’all okay?” she heard Darnell whisper as he made his way toward them out of the inky blackness.

Esther smiled at him. She had a real affection for this big demon who grew each time she encountered him. “Hi, Darnell.”

“Hey, little one. You okay?” he asked, pulling her into a quick hug, one she welcomed with a happy sigh. Darnell was the snuggliest demon ever.

“I’m fine. We haven’t seen anything so far, but thanks for coming.”

He grinned down at her, his wide smile a beacon in the dark night. “Always.”

“Okay, let’s scout this shit out. The shoreline’s pretty long. I say we walk it and look everywhere,” Nina suggested. “You stay near me, Little Fish. Got that? D, Marty? Pair up. Let’s find us the other half of this surf and turf”

Just as they were about to split up, Esther noticed the edge of something under one of the picnic tables that looked out of place.

“Wait. Look under that table.” She ran toward it, dropping to her knees and reaching underneath. Her fingers felt nylon fabric, like a backpack, maybe? Grabbing hold, she pulled it out onto the dying grass and looked closer. “It’s Tucker’s!” Then she reached under farther and pulled out a pair of sneakers and Tucker’s boots.

Marty scratched her head. “Tucker doesn’t wear sneakers, and I’m pretty sure Fish Daddy only wears chain mail, so what the hell?”

Esther gripped the sneakers, her heart in her throat. “Sneakers…” she whispered.

Nina pulled the backpack from her hands and unzipped it, sticking her fingers inside to root around. She pulled out his phone and pressed the button along the side. “Thank fuck he doesn’t password protect,” she muttered, scrolling the phone, the light from the face illuminating her concern. “He texted his father like a half hour ago and said he had to meet with him. Says it’s something important. Then he grabbed an Uber. So maybe he is at Fish Daddy’s house?”

“But which one is Fish Daddy’s house?” Esther wondered out loud, looking at row after row of lush houses.

“Fuck!” Marty swore. “There are ton of houses. Though, I suppose we could go sniffing, right? We’ll be able to smell him somewhere in mermaid suburbia?”

As Marty spoke, and her lips moved, all sound stopped for Esther, making her cock her head. Everything in front of her eyes swirled in circles, blurring and fading in and out, until all she saw was the water in front of her.

A vibration, low and deep, pooled in her belly, and the sudden, undeniable need to pull her clothes off compelled her to spring into action.

She thought briefly, just before she ran toward the water, almost totally naked but for her bra and panties, how funny it was that she felt compelled to take her clothes off in front of everyone.

As in, strip naked.

Like that had ever happened before.