by Elsa, Sandra
“I haven’t noticed any nudists since I’ve been here.”
“That would be because we tend to put a little effort into blending, when we get out of the water.”
“So you live in the water?”
“Yep.”
“Guess that’s why Jamison couldn’t find you.”
Poppy wriggled and Paul said, “Ask him.”
She spun over to Leo and chittered at him. He looked from her to Paul. Paul said, “She wants to know if she’ll be safe if she approaches you. She says you smell like a predator but she’s fascinated because you’re different.”
“She said all that?”
“And then some.” Poppy’s tail swished a jet of water at Paul. He splashed back at her and said, “You know you talk too much.”
She chittered again and Paul said, “She’s still waiting for permission.”
“I won’t hurt her, if she won’t hurt me.”
Poppy scooted over next to him and butted him lightly. Her nose went all over. He only rebelled when she stuck her head between his legs.
“She won’t hurt you,” I told him. “When she did that to me, she wanted to take me for a ride.”
Poppy backed away in a tail-stand, bobbing her head, chirping happily.
“I don’t swim that well,” Leo protested. “If I hadn’t been a member of the president’s security team I would probably never have learned to swim.”
“You’re in the water now,” Paul said. “Let her take you. She won’t drop you off and make you swim back. Just grab her dorsal fin and throw your leg over her back.”
Paul did as ordered and Poppy slowly started to circle. As he gained balance, she picked up speed. She only went a little ways before returning to deposit him back where they started from.
“You have the Poppy seal of approval,” Paul laughed as Poppy leaped out of the water and raced back to the pod. They all swam away, putting distance between themselves and the other swimmers. I glanced back at the beach to see Wally and Rollick standing there wearing their HQ blue uniforms.
Chapter 26
I grabbed Harrison and tugged him toward the beach.
Leo promptly joined us. “Something wrong?”
“Probably saying goodbye.” I turned around to look at Paul. “Don’t go anywhere, we’ll be right back.”
“I shall await thee, lovely lady.”
“Remember, I met Jesse in the park this morning.”
“Doesn’t change the fact you’re a lovely lady.”
I splashed water at him and he chuckled and dove below the surface.
As we got close to shore, Wally’s eyes fastened on Leo. “Sorenson?”
“Can I help you, Sergeant Wallin?”
“No. Sorry. Just surprised to see you here, President Drover pulled out ten minutes ago. Kinda out of uniform aren’t you?”
“Pretty sure I’ll get used to this uniform. I’m no longer employed by President Drover.”
“He let you go?”
“I quit.”
“You planning on staying here?”
“For awhile. Put my life in some new kind of order.”
Wally turned back to the water. “Your other friend doesn’t want to come in, Frankie? He‘s not afraid of the watch is he?”
“No,” I grinned, “he’s naked.”
“The three of you might as well be.”
“What, you don’t like this look?” I took the last step beyond the lapping waves.
His eyes, which had looked anyplace but at me, finally shifted my way. “I like this look.” His voice was low and husky. His gaze remained studiously fastened on my face.
Harrison and Leo both moved closer. A nearly inaudible rumble issued from Leo‘s throat. I don’t know if he acted more like an animal because his secret was out, or if I just noticed it more.
“It’s all right, Leo. Wally and I are old friends.” Of course Harrison wasn’t doing any better on my other side. “Did you need something, Wally? Or is this goodbye?”
His attention diverted to Leo again, but he spoke to me. “President Drover told us you were down here. Figured we’d say goodbye.”
Rollick’s gaze traveled lasciviously head to toe. He came back to my face and laughed. “Never thought I’d get the chance to return the favor, Frankie.”
I returned his easy laughter. “I’m not quite as naked as you usually are.”
“Close enough.”
“Didn’t think you noticed me ogling you.”
“Hard not to notice. If I wasn’t happily married I’d have been chasing after you.”
“If you weren’t happily married, I’d have been more discreet about watching you change. How is Tina, by the way. Pregnancy going smoothly?”
“She’s doing good. Hasn’t been a single problem. Three more months.”
“Great! Give her my best. I suppose it was orders that brought you down here, but it was good to see you.”
“Hortimus called for volunteers. When we heard you’d been shot, half of HQ stood in line to come along. Sarge would have broken a couple of legs if he had to, to get his name on the roster. Fortunately for working relations with the other guys, President Drover handpicked us.”
“No matter how you got here, I’m glad you came. You better send me some pics when your pups are born. Do you know how many?”
“Two. And there’ll be so many pictures you’ll be sorry you ever said that.”
I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Have a safe trip home.”
“You take care of yourself, Frankie. Sorenson, I’m glad you’re staying. Keep our girl safe.”
“They’re both more than capable, from what I’ve seen.”
“Never hurts to have one more gun.”
“As long as they don’t mind me hanging around.”
I turned my attention to Wally who waited patiently while I spoke to Rollick. His eyes never wavered from my face. “It was good to see you again, Frankie. Thought I’d die when word spread that you’d been shot. I had to see for myself that you were alive, and to tell the truth, I had to be sure you were happy. Now that I know you are, maybe I can move on with my life.”
“I hope so Wally. I hope you find someone who deserves you.” I leaned over to kiss him on the cheek but he turned his head and softly kissed my lips. I was stunned. Not sure what reaction to give. I turned my head and broke off the foolhardy kiss, trying for a middle-ground that told Harrison I didn‘t invite this, but I wasn‘t angry with Wally.
He stumbled back, head bowed as a yellow wall of energy sprang up between us. Harrison’s magic crackled and snapped. I decided Leo’s way was probably better than Harrison’s. Probably would have even kept Wally alive if Harrison had struck.
Wally reached out and touched the shield. “Sorry, Frankie. It won’t happen again. I’ve been in love with you for so long, I just had to know if your lips were as sweet as I always dreamed they’d be.”
“Don’t do it again,” Harrison ground out between clenched teeth. “You’re fortunate Leo reacted faster than I.”
Wally took his hat off and spun it around twice. Harrison grounded the energy he’d called up and wrapped himself around me. Leo’s shield held firm. Wally turned to stare at Leo and slowly spun his hat around again. “Are you a null too?” Wally looked worried, he was a one trick pony, but his trick usually worked pretty well.
“If he was, would the President give two shits if I lived or died?” I snapped.
“If he needed a female null he wo…“ Rollick raised his nose and sniffed. “That scent that makes me want to attack you…that’s not so strong because you own a houseful of cats. Is it?“
”Nope,” Leo shrugged. “President Drover never wanted it known that I was Were. Guess it doesn’t matter who knows now.”
“But you have enough talent to be part of the president’s security team.” Rollick scratched his head.
“The whole team isn’t talented. And not all Were are created equal.”
“Good. I fe
el better about leaving Frankie, if you’ll be here. I know she and Harrison are both capable, but with the number of folks who have taken a swipe at them, I’m worried.”
“As long as you keep the ones I give you caged up, we’ll be good,” I said.
“We’re taking Flanders and Girlo back to HQ. Flanders has been charged with treason. Girlo’s got so many charges against him it’s unlikely he’ll see the outside of a jail cell for the next fifty years.” Rollick had effectively turned everybody’s attention from Wally’s foolishness. “The locals who attacked you, will stay here until trial. Most of them will be shipped to Fourteen-seventy-three”
“How many did they ever end up catching?” Leo asked.
“Thirty-seven.”
“Since the initial count?” I asked. “Or is that including those taken the first night?”
“Those are the ones we caught.”
“So…over a hundred people? Seems a bit excessive.”
“I doubt we got them all. And yes, quite excessive. Wish we knew why they wanted Harrison so bad.”
“Nobody talked?”
“If the mage had lived he might have known, but the rest were hired thugs. They didn’t know anything.”
“Flanders?”
“The problem with charging him with treason is that he can’t get a lesser charge by giving us any information. He has nothing to gain.”
“Well, that’s stupid.”
“That’s the law.”
“What happened to Susie,” Harrison asked.
“She told us everything she knew about her father’s business dealings and friends, then we sent her home. Nobody believed she had anything to do with it, but she did give us a couple of names President Drover believes are involved. We’re a long way from done investigating.”
“Good to know,” I said. “But now, I have somebody waiting. Be careful, both of you. Girlo gave up way too easy not to have a backup plan.”
“We’ll call when we get home, Frankie,” Rollick said.
Wally had been quiet since his talent failed him. Now he joined Rollick in farewells and they left.
Back in the water, Harrison said, “Thanks, Leo. What sprang into my mind to do to him might have landed me in jail along with all those people who wanted me captured or dead.”
“I noticed. Not that I wouldn’t have done the same if she was my wife. Well…I’d have done my version of strike and destroy anyway. Yours is flashier, but mine is just as effective.”
“You wouldn’t have worked for my father if it wasn’t.”
Paul and Poppy returned. We spent the next hour in the water until my father and Nan showed up.
We bid Paul farewell, but he grinned, “I’ll see you there.”
“Cool.” We walked on shore and Harrison glanced around. None of his friends were near. Jerry was down near the pier and I was pretty sure Greg and Larry were with him.
“Let us just go tell Jerry--” Harrison started.
“We already told him we were kidnapping you,” his mother said.
“All right then, we need to get a shower and some clothes. How about if we meet you there?”
“Would you like us to check on Jeffrey?” Nan asked.
We started toward the boardwalk. I shook my head. “He’ll still be sleeping”
My father sucked in his cheek and remained silent a moment, then asked, “You know where we’re going?”
“I can get within a half mile,” I said.
“Fifteen-eleven Park Street.”
“We’ll be there.”
My father turned to look at Leo with a frown. “Will you be bringing your new friend?”
“You’ve just told him where we’ll be.” I stopped. “I’m sorry, Dad. Didn’t mean to make it sound like it was your fault. If he’s determined to know what we’re up to, I’m sure he’ll figure it out whether we bring him in or not.” I hesitated, unsure how much I felt comfortable trusting Leo with. “I don’t plan to abandon him unless he proves himself untrustworthy…but the secrets we‘ll discuss today aren‘t just our--”
“I don’t need to go Frankie,” Leo interrupted my dithering. ”We’ve had this discussion. When you trust me, you trust me. Until then…I completely understand your caution. You’d have to be a much bigger fool than you are, to not suspect ulterior motives.”
“Thank you.” I turned to my father. “Leo will not be going with us.”
We picked up our belongings and headed toward the Jonah hotel parking lot where we’d left our car.
Leo stopped us before getting in it and checked over it. I was familiar with the process and I bore it with my usual genteel manner. “Did you do this every damn time Jordan Drover got in a car?”
“Sorry. Habit.” He apologized quickly before answering my question. “Yes, we did this every damn time Jordan Drover got in a car.”
“Well, get out of the habit. Anybody would have to be a complete fool to try to do something to us right now.”
“When we first met, you did the same thing, Frankie.” Harrison had to put his two cents in.
“When we first met I didn’t know who you were or why the hell you’d break into my house and Rollick was playing games trying to scare me into Wally’s arms. I was a lot more nervous then.”
He wrapped his arms around me. “Over a hundred people just tried to kill us and you were more nervous then?”
His lips brushed my neck and I almost laughed. “Soothing the savage beast?” Didn’t let it stop me from being ornery. “Damn straight. Then, I had secrets.”
“A few minutes for caution, doesn’t hurt.” His thumbs brushed the sides of my breasts.
Leo slammed the hood of the car and opened the door to get in the back seat. He grinned at Harrison. “We’re good. As long as you tolerate my presence, Frankie. I’m going to do my damndest to see you survive. I won’t apologize for that.”
Chapter 27
Clean and changed we gathered in the living room. “So what are your plans for this afternoon?”
Leo glanced around the house. “Reckon I’ll catch up on sleep.”
“Look through ads on the net.” I told him. “Unless you want your own house, look for a four bedroom we can rent when this one’s monthly contract expires. In fact…if you want, you can call our landlord, see if he has anything else we can move into without waiting for the end of the contract.” I searched through my phone and found the number then wrote it on a piece of paper. “Of course if you just want to relax, don’t worry about it. We can get to it tomorrow, but it’s you who’s going to sleep on the couch.”
“I can pretty much curl up and get comfortable anywhere. Cats don’t let much bother them. But I suppose a bedroom would be nice. This house is three bedroom. You have another boarder?”
“That’s called storage; and it’s jammed full. We’ll see you later.”
“Later, Frankie…and Harrison…thanks for giving them your address as a residence.”
“It was nothing, but you’re welcome.”
#
The front door at fifteen-eleven was securely locked with an electronic system that obviously required fingerprints and retina scan. I figured there were probably some less obvious security features in place as well. We pushed the buzzer and the door automatically opened. I glanced around for the cameras. Nobody stood inside the room we entered but a, you-are-here sign stood in front of us. As we looked at it, green arrows illuminated a path through five floors of what, from the outside appeared to be a one story building.
Left, then straight ahead to a staircase. We took stairs down two floors, then walked down a long hallway taking two right turns, then another stairwell for one more floor. The maze continued until we were on the fifth floor, which proved to be little more than a space to stand in front of huge metal doors that opened to reveal an elevator. When we entered the elevator there were no buttons to push. The door slid closed and the car started moving in an upward direction.
A slight surge of adrenalin hit
me as the car stopped, moved horizontal fifty feet, then started to drop.
By the time we’d descended the first set of stairs we’d been below sea-level. Now five floors down and continuing, I wondered what the outer walls of the building consisted of. After what seemed forever, but was probably only a couple of seconds the car eased to a halt and the double doors slid aside.
My father and Nan stood beside shotgun-dude from the park, leaning over a desk and reading from a huge handwritten tome.
Jesse greeted us with a smile. “Sorry for all the security, but the building used to belong to NASA.”
I didn’t know the acronym but I recalled Paul saying some of his ancestors had done work trying to change peoples’ genetics to permit long-distance space travel. I assumed it had something to do with that. At points in our history, people had been stridently against tampering with human DNA, even for things that could improve quality of life. Maybe these security measures had been installed to protect the scientists from the zealots.
An immense tank of water with clear sides and a chrome railing around the top, took up a third of the room, a three foot round pipe bisected the room, fastened to the tank on both sides. A grate covered the ends of the pipes. One of the grates swung open and Paul slid into the clear tank wearing his mer form. His green tail shimmered iridescently. He turned to check out who was in the room and I hurried over to gawk at him. He grinned and flipped his tail, splashing drops of water at me. I suspected only the expensive electronic equipment kept him from soaking me.
I spun to Jesse. “Does your tail look the same? I’m sorry. Is that rude? It’s just the first time I’ve gotten a good look at his natural form.”
“I’m surprised he didn’t invite you to ride on his back instead of Poppy’s,” she said with a wry tone. She knew her partner well and apparently trusted him in much the same way Harrison trusted me.
“If he had, they might have had a fishfry on the beach,” I said.
“Only if you had agreed,” Harrison smiled at me. He extended his hand to Jesse. “I’m Harrison.”
“Jesse,” she said, shaking his hand. “And no it’s not rude to ask what color my tail is. It’s pink, sort of a salmon color. She slipped over the chrome rail and splashed into the pool, displaying a stunning fin as her bathing suit settled to the bottom. She dove down to collect it, then shifted back and gracefully slid back into the skimpy suit and out of the tank. A drain kept the water from running along the floor, and a gust of warm air circulated the room, drying her before she stepped away from the tank and close to the electronic equipment.