“No.” She took my hand. Her fingers felt so fragile, her skin too cold.
Neither of us spoke after Jeb left. As the silence stretched, it grew more strained. An apology sat on the end of my tongue, unvoiced. For what exactly, I wasn’t sure. But the way she was looking at me made think I needed to say something. She beat me to it.
“Is that how you feel when I sing to you? Mind-raped?” Her eyes were two moons, round and so impossibly far away. I considered lying for about half a breath.
“I did. The day I heard you the first time, the kiss, the crabs. I vowed to hate you. That didn’t work out very well.”
“So at what point did you know you didn’t hate me?”
“The day the bird scared you and you fell in the tank. As funny as that was, the thought of you being scared, of you being hurt, kinda tore my guts out. Still does. I don’t know if it’s this whole frequency thing or if I would still feel this way without it.”
“Frequency thing?”
“Yeah. Kind of how it feels sometimes, like our minds are on the same radio frequency.”
“Evidently Sol’s is too, which sucks.”
“I meant what I said. I won’t let him use you.”
“I know, but I’m not sure it’s up to you.”
I opened my arms and she came so willingly my legs felt weak. For a minute I’d thought she’d be afraid of me. I finally let out the breath that had been lodged in my throat for the last twenty minutes.
Something caught my eye over her head. A lone figure stood in the tide, nothing but a shadow against the moon-bright sky. My skin pricked with awareness.
Athen Kelley.
I wondered how long he had been standing there watching. He dipped his chin, whether nodding his approval or permission, I didn’t really care. I didn’t need either.
“I don’t want you to be disappointed in me, in who I am.” Her warm breath tickled my chest. I closed my eyes.
“Caris, I could never be disappointed in you. Even though your brother is a dick mitten.”
Thank God she laughed. Relief flooded my blood and slowed my racing heart.
“Yeah, he is, isn’t he?” She lifted her head and peered up at me. “I’m just disappointed. I thought he liked me more than that.”
I let out a long breath and said, “He does like you. He just doesn’t know how to show it.” I was such an idiot. What were these words coming out of my mouth? I’d had a knife to his throat fifteen minutes ago, and now here I stood defending him. But then, he was her brother. I knew what having a brother meant, and I wanted her to have that.
“We don’t have to do this tonight if you’re not up for it.”
“We are absolutely doing this tonight,” she said, tucking her hand in mine.
“All right, Bonnie. Let’s go.” I kissed her. “We have a dolphin to liberate.”
When I looked back, her father was gone.
* * *
“How exactly are we going to pull this off?” Caris asked as we stared down into Ellie’s tank. I stood behind her, chin on her shoulder, hands around her waist, Ellie swimming impatiently. I rubbed my hands up and down her arms. She was still tense, her mind restless.
“We carry her.” I pressed my lips to the back of her head. “Actually, I carry her. Your job is to keep her calm, maybe open the back gate.”
She tilted her face up to mine, her expression clearly skeptical. “You’re going to carry her?”
I hoisted her in the air, caught her as she came back down, settling her against my chest. “Are you questioning my super human strength?”
“No, but she might. She’s got someone else to think about.” She kissed me so fast I almost missed it.
“Yeah, another reason we need to get her out of here.” I dove in the tank, deciding to get this done fast. Then maybe we could get back to talking about the sex we both wanted to do. With each other.
The only part of my simple plan that gave me the slightest pause was actually getting Ellie out of the tank. I had an extra five hundred pounds to propel out of the water and some momentum would be necessary. I worked up what I thought would be enough speed before coming up underneath her. I grabbed her under her belly with both arms, and jumped. The platform buoyed hard when I landed, but I managed to keep my balance despite stumbling a few steps. When the water settled, I smiled at Caris with Ellie perfectly curled on my biceps and forearms.
“Yeah, you’re my freaking hero,” she said and I wanted so badly for that to be true.
All that stood between Ellie and freedom was a hundred-yard walk.
“You good?” Caris asked as I passed through the gate she held open. I had to turn sideways so I could carry Ellie through rostrum to tail and managed to make it with only one slight bump.
“Yep.” Short strides. Breathe deep. Nothing to it.
Security was minimal at best. I knew where the cameras were, mostly positioned by the larger exhibits, set up more to deter vandals than for real surveillance. Easily avoidable as long as we stayed away from the few scattered lights.
We were about twenty yards from the gate that led out onto the beach—halfway between it and a door that opened to some of the offices—when said door opened and Jax stepped out. Caris and I froze. It was dark, but not dark enough we wouldn’t be seen, and I could hardly dive for cover. I had no chance, but Caris did. I scooted a couple of steps to the right, blocking her from his view.
Jax looked up, a startled expression on his face. Once the surprise wore off, a wide smile spread over his lips. He started laughing, clapped his hands a couple of times like I was part of a comedy show. Or a damn circus.
What were the odds? “What are you doing here, Jax?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing. Except it’s kind of obvious.” He sidestepped, trying to look behind me, as if he knew Caris was back there. “You trying to steal one of my dolphins?”
“Can’t steal what doesn’t belong to you.”
“I doubt my father would agree with you. Or the law for that matter.”
“I don’t care. She’s leaving,” I huffed.
“What’s the matter, Noah? You sound strained. She heavy?”
Perfect. No doubt he was getting off on having caught me.
“A little.” I jerked my head back. “You mind getting the gate?”
“As a matter of fact, I do mind. Put her back and I might let you walk out of here without calling the police.”
Now it was my turn to laugh. I was walking out of here all right, and not empty-handed. “Nah, don’t think so. I figure you owe me,” I said. “I did save your life and all.”
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought that up. It was obviously still a sore spot.
“This is stupid, Jax,” Caris said, stepping out from behind me. “You don’t really care about her. Let him walk out of here.”
Jax’s eyes lit up the minute they landed on her. “God, Noah you always make this so damn easy.”
“Caris, would you go? Please,” I said, knowing this was going nowhere good fast, and I was severely limited in my options at the moment.
“Oh no, Caris, please stay. You might be able to talk me into a deal.”
Here we go again with the idiot pranks. This didn’t feel like a prank to me, though. It felt personal. For some reason with Jax it always did.
“What kind of deal?” Caris asked, her hand in constant contact with Ellie. Thank God she was cooperating. It was hard enough holding a still dolphin. If she got irritated and started squirming we’d be in real trouble.
“No one’s making any kind of deal,” I said. “Caris, would you leave?”
They totally ignored me.
“Noah walks out of here with his cargo. No police,” Jax said to her.
Which was pure bullshit. He wouldn’t call the police. This was about me and him and the fact that he wasn’t like me, something his daddy’s money couldn’t buy.
“Come on, Jax. Quit being a douche. This is serious. She needs to get to th
e water. Now.” For the second time tonight I was about to lose my shit.
“Yeah, Noah, it is serious. I don’t think you realize how serious I am.”
“What is it you want, Jax?” Caris’s tone held a note of capitulation.
“A token,” Jax said around a smarmy smile.
If every muscle in my body weren’t already flexed to the point of bursting, I would have tensed at his use of the word “token.”
“What does that mean?”
“I want your hair,” Jax said to Caris, keeping his eyes on me. He smiled, only it looked more like a grimace, and I wanted to make him eat his teeth.
“No,” I said, and took a quivering step toward Jax.
“We walk out of here. Ellie goes free. Nobody gets in trouble,” Caris enumerated as though she were actually considering his bogus offer.
“Caris. No.” My teeth ground together. The thought of him touching her made my stomach lurch. Jax, in his own crazy-ass mind, fancied himself some kind of warrior, and this was his way of counting coup. No other purpose than humiliation. And this wasn’t just about the hair. It was so much more than that.
My arms were starting to shake, sweat popping out on my forehead with the effort I exerted holding Ellie. She felt it too, my complete agitation. I didn’t have time to stand here and argue with Caris about whether or not she should sacrifice herself. She shouldn’t even still be here.
“That’s right.” Jax cut his eyes at her, practically salivating. “Your boy here can’t stand there much longer. Come on, baby. It’s just your hair.”
“Fine. Take it,” she said, stepping away from me and toward Jax and his damn haughty eyes that communicated more than she would ever know. I wanted to rip them out of his head.
“That is not happening, Jax,” I said, frustration making my voice shake. Could I be any more helpless? “Caris, you are not letting him do this.”
“Yeah, I am.” Her eyes locked on mine and for a second I was so confused, unable to decipher her expression.
She had never looked at me like that before. I’d seen her wary, hurt, sad, and lost. But not this hard crystalized look. She was angry—at me.
And she was actually going to let him touch her. He already had his knife out and his hands were in her hair, fingering through the fine strands. He gathered it off her neck, and with his eyes on me, he bent his head, pressing his mouth to the nape of her neck. She jumped, and tried to squirm out of his grasp, and I hoped to God Ellie could forgive me because I was about to spill her right here on the ground.
“Sorry, sis. I’m with your boyfriend on this one.”
I closed my eyes for the briefest moment, because son of a bitch, I was glad to see Sol. I swallowed the burn of humiliation, even as the tip of Sol’s blade fixed under Jax’s ear. Jax’s face fell into hard lines, eyes going from triumph to pure hatred with one blink. I could just make out Levi lurking behind Sol. I didn’t question why they were here. It didn’t matter. Jax stiffened, his eyes widening in fear when he caught sight of Levi in his peripheral vision. I almost felt sorry for the guy. Almost.
“This is what comes of not taking care of your shit in the first place, Noah,” Sol said. “Go on. Before you bust a blood vessel or get a hernia.”
“Don’t do anything stupid,” I said and turned for the gate. My arms had gone numb and they quivered uncontrollably. All I could do was concentrate on breathing and putting one foot in front of the other.
“What? I don’t even get a thank you?” Sol yelled at my retreating back.
Caris rushed ahead of me to open the gate.
Once we were on the beach, I trotted over the sand, huffing and sweating like a tubbed out lander. Ellie and I sighed when I collapsed in the water. When it took her weight, my arms and shoulders screamed in relief. All I could do was float while Caris turned her attention to Ellie. That couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes, but I was totally wrecked.
“She good?” I managed to dog paddle my way out to them.
“Yep. She’s fine.” Caris wouldn’t look at me. She leaned in close to Ellie and crooned, “Aren’t you girl? Look at all this space.”
We spent about a half hour with Ellie, an awkward half hour of not looking at each other, not touching each other, a current of tension building. The longer the water worked on me and the better I felt physically, the more enraged I became. At Jax. At Caris. At myself. Because if Sol hadn’t shown up this whole thing would have been a disaster. And now I owed him.
Satisfied Ellie was comfortable, we tracked down a small pod. What should have been a happy moment, a moment I had been working toward for weeks, ended up being rushed. Executed in the most clinical way just to have it over and done. The pod took to her immediately and within a matter of seconds it was over. They were gone. Ellie was on her way to freedom.
Caris floated a few feet away and I heard the melancholy in her Song as she stared out into the emptiness. Then, without even looking at me, she darted off, leaving me to chase after her.
* * *
Caris gained land behind her house, stalking out of the water, anger making her strides long. I followed on her heels, half expecting her to just make a run for her house. I wasn’t sure what I had done to make her mad at me. I had only wanted to help Ellie. And then Jax had shown up and I had only wanted to get Caris as far away from him as I could.
She rounded on me so fast I almost ran right into her. “What was that back there?” Her eyes sparked with challenge, and when her hand shot out to poke me in the chest, I caught it and held it between us.
“I could ask you the same thing. Why did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Offer yourself to the likes of Jax Harrison.” I hadn’t been mad when we’d taken to the beach, but just thinking about Jax’s hand on her hair, his mouth close to her neck, had my blood thrumming.
“What are you talking about?” Her gaze fell to where my hand had slid up her arm. “Let go. You’re hurting me.”
I dropped her arm. “He wanted to humiliate you. Degrade you. In front of me. And you were going to let him.”
“I don’t get it, Noah. It’s hair.” She closed her eyes and ran her hands down her face in exasperation.
“I know you don’t get it, which is why you should have done what I said. You told me you would, and the first chance you got, you ignored me.” I paced in front of her, my feet sinking into the wet sand.
“I didn’t want to leave you there. I didn’t want to leave Ellie.” Her eyes followed my movement. Back and forth. Water licked at our feet. I didn’t want to argue with her. I wanted to go back to where we were before. Before Sol. Ellie was free. We should have been happy.
“I don’t need you to take care of me. Or Ellie,” I said, tight-lipped, doing my best to keep my voice under control, knowing to her my anger was unjustified. How could she know what Jax had really meant to do?
“Oh, you don’t? What was your big plan for getting us out of there?”
“I would have figured something out.”
“Right.” She laughed at me. “If I remember correctly, you had your hands full.”
“What do you want me to do? You want me to apologize for not wanting Jax to put his hands on you? I wanted to kill him for even asking to take your hair.”
She took a step forward and looked up into my face.
“And that doesn’t sound just a little bit…”
“Don’t you dare say crazy.” My head reared back.
She narrowed her eyes at me and damn if she didn’t say it anyway.
“Crazy.” Right to my face, her eyes bold as brass.
Yeah, it was crazy the way I wanted to crush my mouth to hers and smack some sense into her at the same time. Not that I would ever lay a hand on her like that. But she might as well know the truth.
“Well, you know what? I am crazy when it comes to you. So out of my fucking mind.” The confession didn’t come easy, and for a few seconds, while my heart pounded, I held on to the
hope I hadn’t actually said the words out loud.
“Don’t say that,” she whispered, her eyes searching my face.
I wanted to argue that she’d said it first, but I clamped my mouth shut. She looked truly horrified at the idea. At me. All the fight drained out of her and I wished I could take it back, whatever I had said to put that look on her face. She looked scared—of me. I preferred her fighting mad to this beaten look she’d adopted. I hadn’t seen her look like this since that first night she’d discovered what she was. Lost, almost desperate.
Curse the Deep.
Why had she picked me? I wasn’t good enough for Caris. I wasn’t helping her. This had to be tearing her up inside. She was becoming a different being, and not just physically. Mentally the toll had to be just as hard, if not worse. Add to that, she was special, something I had to admit now. She had abilities I would never understand. Abilities that could be used in the same way Sol had so casually used her tonight. And yeah, the thought drove me nuts. I had spent months in the Deep for the sole purpose of not feeling, and then she’d called me back and I’d done nothing but feel since I stepped foot on the beach and found her. But I was beginning to think it was me who had been found.
“Do you remember the night you found me with Jax and you asked if it was some sort of a game?”
She lowered her hands, her eyes still moist and her voice barely heard above the wind. “Yes.”
“It started that way. A game among ourselves, but for some reason a group of landers got involved. I don’t know, maybe it made them feel superior to take something like that from us. The problem is, we are superior. At least in strength, and it wasn’t as easy as they thought. So they started preying on the weaker of us. Some of the younger boys. Some of the girls. There was one girl. Her name was Talia. They got to her one night.” I paused, took a shuddering breath, the images still so clear in my mind, my whole body shook with renewed rage.
“I found her on the beach. I heard her weeping. They had taken her hair, shaved it clean off. And that’s not all they took. There had been three of them. When they were through with her, they just left her on the beach, broken and bleeding.” I remembered clearly her whimpers, the way she’d cried out when I’d picked her up. I’d taken her into the Deep. Held her while she cried, while she healed, physically at least. That had been a mistake in hindsight, left little proof to her story, but all I had wanted to do was stop her from hurting.
Waterborn (The Emerald Series Book 1) Page 28