“Gotcha.”
“Gotcha what?” Shalie asked but it was all happening too fast to explain.
The sharks were in range of his rifle, but Callum couldn’t shoot until they were past the perimeter of the marine preserve. Which meant they had to be pretty damned close to the park. Too damned close for his taste.
“The grates won’t hold, Callum,” Shalie, very unnecessarily warned him again.
He knew all too well if those bull sharks got into the forward grotto what havoc they could generate.
Callum kept his eye glued against the sight. He watched as the distance meter ticked down. One hundred yards. Ninety yards. Eighty yards.
He had to wait for seventy yards. Once the marker crossed that line, Callum pulled the trigger.
God help him.
He hit the lead shark in the flank. It was barely a scratch but that’s all he needed. Once that blood hit the water, his companion shark gave up the chase and turned on him. The two leapt out of the water as they fought, crashing back down again.
As the jet skis raced into the lagoon, the other sharks on the east side of the island were banging into their gates, trying to get to the blood and the feeding frenzy. They were denied that pleasure though. The strong iron grates held.
“Close the gates!” Callum ordered as the last of the jet skis made it safely into the lagoon. He charged down the stairs nearly as furious as the storm around him. There were two more innocent sharks, dead because of the park.
He hit the deck at a run, arriving at the jet skis at the same time Jack climbed out with that bloody shit eating grin of his. Oblivious to the consequences, Callum cocked back his arm and punched the shark hunter in the face.
Jack grabbed his nose as it squirted blood. “We got that on camera!”
“Good,” Callum hissed. “Because I want the authorities to know where we stand.”
From out of nowhere Knightly appeared. He seemed to have a nose for trouble, especially if it involved the park.
“You are going to pay for any fines we incur!” Knightly shouted above the wind. By now they were all getting soaked.
“It’s not about the money,” Callum said.
“Oh, it is always about the money,” Knightly retorted. “And any structural damage caused to these jet skis are going on your bill as well.”
Nick nodded. “Of course. We’ll pay for everything.”
“Don’t you bloody speak for me,” Jack spat at his companion.
“Again, I truly am sorry,” Nick directed to Callum.
At the least the movie star had the good sense to be contrite. Not Jack. He still stood there with his jaw stuck out, as if he were asking for another punch. However Dillon had grabbed Callum’s elbow.
“Not worth it, dad,” he said.
His mom must have been a really great mother to raise Dillon so well.
With a sigh Callum put down his fist.
“That is it, for both of you. You are under room arrest. To your room, to the dining hall and back. That’s it.”
Nick nodded quickly, but Jack went to open his mouth.
“Please, Jack, give me another excuse.”
Jack thought about it for a moment, then turned away, talking to his film crew.
“Shalie, can we spare a few robots to guard Jack’s set of rooms?”
“For him, I’ll make sure we can.”
CHAPTER 13
Nami awoke to the sound of her name. It was her dad knocking on the closet door.
“Nami?”
She rolled over to face him as he opened the door. “What?”
“Time to get up sleepy head,” he said looking a bit flushed.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. She knew that look on his face. It usually looked like that right after a fight with her mother. “Did mom call back?”
“No, sorry.”
Of course not. She’d just left her mother a panicked, “I’m about to die” voicemail. Why in the world would her mother respond?
“Look, reception is crappy,” her dad said, still covering for her mother. “She might be trying to call and we wouldn’t know it.”
“Yah, that must be it,” Nami said as she pushed herself up from the couch cushions.
“Why are you in here?” her father asked. “You’ve got the shutters down.”
Nami cringed. She really didn’t want to hear about her phobia. Even with the metal shudders down, it was still freaking her out that fish were right on the other side. How a closet door made that any better, Nami didn’t know. You’d have to ask her phobia.
“So what’s for breakfast?”
“I hear they’ve got chocolate chip pancakes,” her dad mentioned.
“Chocolate chip pancakes?” Nami asked. “Sign me up. Let’s get room service on the horn!”
Her father grinned. “Sorry, they only serve them in the main dining room.”
From nearly touching the sky to falling down to Hades, Nami frowned. “That was just mean. You know I won’t go in there.”
“There’s no shark in the enclosure so you won’t have to risk seeing one.”
Please, she just spent the night in a closet so that she didn’t have to even think about guppies, let alone sharks. “Sorry, go ahead if you like.”
“Want to prove to me you don’t have a phobia? Come to the shark-free breakfast.”
Nami really, really wanted to prove that, however, she did in fact have a phobia. She just didn’t want to have to go to shrink to talk about it. They’d gone around that tree a few times and it was never fun.
Wait, maybe that was a good idea.
“No therapy for a month,” Nami offered. “If I go to this lame breakfast.”
Her father smiled. “Deal.”
What was wrong with him? Something was off. Way off.
“You sure nothing happened?”
Her father shook his head, spraying her with salt water. “Really? Because that brine in my eye says differently.”
“You want a month off of therapy?” her dad challenged her as he pointed to the door. “Then get to brushing your teeth so we can get some chocolate chip pancakes.”
Nami studied her father’s face. Something had clearly happened but by the set of his jaw, she knew he wasn’t going to tell her. Or he’d tell her it was adult business. She would be too young to understand.
Yah, right.
No, get a few mimosas in him and see how he stood up to her questioning then.
She jumped past him toward the bathroom. “You know it.”
* * *
Nick chuckled to himself as Nami set a record pace to the dining room. Whether it was to avoid eye contact with the fish or she just really, really wanted those chocolate chip pancakes, he couldn’t be sure. He was just glad to see her out and about.
He should have thought to bribe her with getting out of therapy before. Letting her skip out on her sessions in exchange for real world progress would probably do her more good than the therapy itself. If she could make it through breakfast with fish, there might be some actual hope.
Not if she knew what had happened a half an hour ago of course, which she would never, ever find out. Unless she caught it on reruns on Animal Planet, but he was pretty confident that Nami wasn’t going to be tuning into “Jack the Shark Hunter” any time soon.
They reached the door to the dining hall. Already, this early the place was packed. There were only a few scattered empty tables in the place. Nick put his hand on Nami’s back to guide her in, but her feet stalled at the doorway.
“I’m not so sure…”
“No shark, promise,” Nick tried to encourage but he’d felt that tension in his daughter before. It usually proceeded the girl bolting. “Remember we agreed to a whole month off…”
“Yah, that was before I saw the eels and squid.”
“Six weeks then,” Nick offered.
Nami eyed him. “42 whole days without a single therapist or shrink or an ‘emotional check in’?”
“Yah, right,” Nami snorted. “But for six weeks, I can do it.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “Guide me in, Daddy.”
“My pleasure.”
Okay, so it was a little odd escorting his eyes shut daughter into a restaurant, but you know what? He’d take it because it was an underwater brunch. He was so proud of her.
It really was too bad she couldn’t enjoy the view. It truly was worth a hundred grand for the weekend.
Fish seemed to explode out of nowhere swimming in huge schools, crisscrossing in front of the acrylic, darting this way and that. But that was nothing compared to the activity of the coral reef. Every organism seemed to be greeting the new day in splendor. The sea cucumbers were resplendent in their greens and yellows. Which were in perfect contrast to the orange and pinks of the anemones. Crabs were out in force, waving their claws in the air. Nick was sure there was a dance rap song in their somewhere. Although after a rather disastrous rap karaoke session that hit YouTube, he was banned from ever rapping again.
“Here you go,” Nick said, guiding his daughter into the chair. He made sure that she was faced completely away from the glass. She sat down with a sigh, bit her lower lip and opened her eyes.
“Not bad, Dad, not bad at all.”
Nick smiled at his daughter. “Now let’s get you those chocolate chip pancakes.”
* * *
Dang those pancakes were good, Nami thought. Not good enough to get her out of her room, but pretty dang good. Every time she thought of the fish behind her eying her, spying on her, she thought of the glorious forty-two days of therapy-free existence. No more “visualization” homework. No more exploring her feelings around her mother’s disinterest. No more having to lie about the nightmares.
“Nick?” a voice asked from behind Nami. She did not turn around to see who it was. Besides, she had a pretty good guess. And if she hadn’t already, by the way her father popped out of her chair, Nami would have known it was the good doctor Hofstrum.
“Shalie,” her father stated, then cleared this throat. “I am so sorry about last night and then it was so hectic…”
“Yes, I can imagine, stealing all the jet skis must have really booked out your day.”
“What is this about jet skis?” Nami asked. She kind of liked the doctor’s spunky attitude.
“Nothing, really nothing,” he father reassured.
A look passed between her father and the doctor. Something was up. That was the patented adult glance, “let’s not worry the child about this.” Oh, now it was game on. Nami was totally finding out about the jet ski incident of 2013.
“Would you like to join us, Shalie?” her father asked.
The doctor looked around the dining room and found little refuge. “If you don’t mind, I’d love to.”
Nami waited until the doctor was seated before starting her questioning. After Shalie took a bite out of her omelet, Nami felt it was fair game time.
“Have you ever done heroin?”
Shalie nearly spit out her eggs. “What?”
“Better question. Have you ever been to Amsterdam?”
Shalie looked to Nami’s father then back to Nami before answering. “Yes, yes I have been to Amsterdam.”
“Okay so question number one answered. You’ve done heroin.”
“No, I haven’t,” Shalie protested.
Nami’s eyes narrowed. “Then what were you doing in Amsterdam?”
Shalie straightened her napkin on her lap. “I was speaking at a robotics conference. I don’t do drugs.”
Nami found that hard to believe. That was like finding another virgin at her high school. “None?”
“No,” Shalie stated. “I don’t think that I’d like the lack of control. I cherish my higher brain function.”
Her father leaned forward. “All right, Nami, I think that is enough for one meal.”
She gave him her patented, “oh, I have barely gotten started look.”
“I’m sorry,” her father said. “As you may know I am married.”
Shalie nodded.
“What you don’t know and we’d like to keep the world in ignorant bliss for just a while longer is that I have been separated for a while now and am filing for a divorce on Monday.”
“Oh,” Shalie said. Nami could tell that the woman didn’t quite know how to take that news. “And?”
“And, given my extremely poor taste in women up to this time, my daughter had taken it upon herself to develop a screening system of thirty questions --”
“Forty nine,” Nami interrupted.
“Forty nine questions to determine your character, virtue and honesty.”
“And sexual preference,” Nami added. That one was super important.
Shalie wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin then set it down and put her hands palm down on the table cloth. “I see. Shoot.”
“Really?” Nami and her father asked at once.
“Go for it,” Shalie said. “I’m game.”
Nami rubbed her hands together. This was going to be fun.
“Okay, let’s go back to your college days. Any experimentation?”
“Not really, I was studying,” Shalie said. “And I’m afraid that is going to probably be my answer to anything between the ages of fourteen and thirty two.”
Nami couldn’t be so sure of that. “Ever kiss a girl and like it?”
Shalie laughed, then seemed to get the fact that Nami wasn’t kidding. “No. Never.”
“Never?” Nami asked.
“Nami…” her father warned but she ignored him.
“Nope,” Shalie confirmed.
Nami cocked her head. “Heck, I’ve kissed a girl and it wasn’t half bad.”
“Nami!”
“What?” she shot back. “I’m just being honest.”
Those truth or dare games could get pretty dicey in eighth grade.
Shalie patted her father’s arm. “It’s okay, really. I have nothing to hide. And I am sorry to disappoint, but apparently I had a far tamer childhood than you, Nami.”
Good to hear.
“Alright, let’s dig into your financials then…”
* * *
Dillon stood, rooted in place. There she was. His shark-phobic angel. What was she doing out of her room? In the dining area no less?
He nearly dropped his tray loaded with chocolate chip pancakes. He’d been hoping to see her again, but couldn’t think of another excuse to bug her in her room. Coming with food once was charming. Twice felt a little stalker-ish.
But here she was.
Would he be brave enough to go over and talk to her? Just watching Nick chat up Shalie, making her laugh and tilt her head to the side as she twirled her hair gave Nick strength. He could do this.
“This seat taken?” Dillon asked as he approached the table.
Nami looked up and smiled at him. It was like the heavens opened up and manna fell upon him. He’d always heard the term “head over heels” but never believed it. He’d thought guys were being sappy when they waxed on about a girl.
Now though? Now he was thinking about taking that online Shakespeare sonnet class. There had to be at least lines about the color of her hair alone to justify a poem.
“No, not at all,” Nami said then pulled the chair back a few inches, patting the seat.
Dillon sucked in a breath, trying to act all casual and all and took the seat.
“I see we have the same taste in pancakes,” Nami said indicating to her plate. She too had loaded up on the breakfast foods.
“I guess so,” Dillon said, reaching for the syrup, but accidently knocking over his water.
The table rushed to help him clean it up. “So sorry,” he murmured knowing that by now the tips of his ears were burning red.
“No problem,” Nick said as the table settle
d back down. “You may not know it but you have the misfortune to have sat at the Spanish Inquisition table.”
“I’m sorry,” Dillon commented. “But you’ve lost me.”
Shalie was the one to answer, “It appears that I am being vetted as a possible romantic partner for Nick here.”
Nick nodded. “And I feel that turnabout is only fair.” He glanced to his daughter. “Let you feel what it is like,” he said to Nami.
Nami crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back in her chair. “Go for it. I can’t wait to hear.”
Nick looked to Dillon. “All right. First question. Have you ever done pot?”
“Not really,” Dillon said.
“And what is that supposed to mean?” Nick asked.
“Well, I was at a party once, back in Montana where some kids brought in pot. They passed the roach around, but I only pretended to take a hit and then act all hungry afterward.”
“So what you are trying to say is you didn’t inhale?”
“No,” Dillon clarified. “I’m saying that I didn’t even put it to my lips.”
Nick Flack, The Nick Flack glared at him like he was an extremist terrorist. Dillon didn’t flinch. He may not be able to look his daughter in the eye, but Nick he could handle.
“Okay, fair enough,” Nick said. “Moving on. Ever any hanky panky in the boy’s locker room?”
* * *
“Oh my god, Dad!” his daughter protested.
“See?” Nick challenged her.
“No,” Nami stated. “I don’t care about the question, it is just called ‘on the down low’ now. If you are going to do this, do it right.”
Nick grinned at her. How many fathers were given carte blanch to quiz a prospective boyfriend?
He was about to start again when one of the robots walked up to the table, bearing a tray filled with food.
“Enjoying the repast?” the robot asked.
“Great, great pancakes, Quax,” Dillon said, stuffing in another bite.
“Ah, if you like those, you are going to love these…” the robot showed them tray. “Chocolate chip cookie dough cannolis.”
“What?” Dillon blurted. “Get out of here.”
“You do not want any?” the robot asked, clearly confused by the teen’s statement.
“Want some?” Dillon queried. “Give me two plates.” He then thought and looked to Nami. “Would the lady like some? I didn’t mean to hog.”
Apex Predator Thriller Series Collection (Including the blockbuster new shark park thriller, Salechii) Page 16