Ocean's Surrender

by Denise Townsend

  Fen, feeling River’s emotions shift, looked up to see her watching Leo. She reflected the concern she felt, and he knew she was fussing internally over their involvement in the Rick situation.

  So Fen reached out, and took River’s hand where it rested on the table.

  “We’re here for you, River, because we want to be. Not because of any other reason. We want to be here.”

  Leo looked startled for a split second, until Fen pointedly looked at River’s free hand. Leo cottoned on quickly, and a shiver of pleasure traced up River’s spine at the touch of the paramedic’s callused palm fitting into her own.

  “Yes,” Leo said, that affectionate smile returning to bow his full lips. “We’d be here no matter what the problem.”

  “I don’t know if I deserve that,” River said. She included both of them in her words, but Fen knew she was really talking to Leo.

  The paramedic only squeezed her hand in his. “Nonsense. We’re friends, River.”

  Horrified, but unable to control her reaction, River felt tears well up in her eyes.

  Saved by the bell, she thought, as her phone rang. She reached for it with grateful alacrity, flipping it open with a practiced motion after she noted who was calling.

  “Sheriff White?” she said as greeting, hoping it was good news. Maybe the Walton family lawyer had finally convinced Rick to leave, and move back home to his parents in their main house in Boston.

  “River. I’m calling to give you a head’s up. Rick slipped his tail. We’ve got no idea where he is right now, so watch yourself till we track him down.”

  “Oh,” River said, feeling fear’s cold knife plunging into her breast.

  “I don’t want you to panic. We’ll send Tyrone over to your shop, and another deputy over to your brother’s day care. Why don’t you give him a head’s up too, so that he doesn’t get too excited when my deputy arrives.”

  “Good idea, I’ll do that. Thanks for calling.”

  “No problem. Don’t worry, we’ll find Rick shortly. In five minutes, all of Eastport will know to call me if they see him.”

  “Thanks, Sheriff,” River said, noting with detachment that her lips felt numb. Then she flipped shut her phone, turning to her bodyguards.

  “Looks like you two might earn your keep,” River said. “Rick’s missing. He got away from his police guard and nobody knows where he is.”

  Immediately the two men dropped their relaxed airs and snapped to attention.

  “What? When?”

  “Just now. I’m supposed to call Jason at the day care. He should be there by now.” River said that as much to calm herself as to be informative. After all, she’d only gotten to work about twenty minutes ago, and she and Jason left at the same time. Meanwhile, the walk to the community center housing his day care was another fifteen minutes longer than hers was to work.

  He would have made it way before Rick got loose, she told herself. If he left on time. If he didn’t sleep in. Or have an extra breakfast. Or…

  River cursed herself for not insisting they take him directly to day care, as they’d tried to do. Or at least made him leave with them, so they knew he got off on time and they were with him half the way. But walking himself places was one of her brother’s biggest responsibilities, and therefore one of his most fiercely guarded pleasures.

  Rick and Trevor had already taken so much from Jason that taking away his morning walk when Rick was safely being watched had just seemed cruel.

  Ignoring the fact her hands were trembling, River scrolled through her phone contacts till she found the center’s number. She pressed send, and waited.

  “Hi, Daisy? It’s River. Can I talk to my brother, please?”

  Fen and Leo leaned in to listen, concern tracing over both their faces. They’d been part of the decision to let Jason walk to day care alone, and they were also regretting it.

  “He didn’t come in? Are you sure? Look, I’m sorry, this is very important, but you have to be sure… Yes, please check the building.” River’s eyes flashed up to meet Fen’s, then Leo’s.

  “Daisy doesn’t think he came in, she’s checking… Daisy? Yes, I’m here. Are you sure? Okay, listen, please call the police. Tell Sheriff White that Jason didn’t show up. Tell her we’re going back to the house to look for him. Rick got away and… Yes, exactly. Thank you.”

  River flicked shut her phone, standing as she did so. Leo and Fen were already on their feet, and Leo had his jacket on and the keys to his car in his hand.

  Looking back on that day, River would never be able to remember walking to the car. Instead, one minute they were in the shop and the next minute she was in the front seat, with Leo leaning over to buckle her in.

  “Just drive,” she wheezed. Fen tried to calm her with a mixture of an empathic wave and reaching forward to stroke her arm from where he sat in the back seat. But River wasn’t to be calmed, at least not until she saw her brother, safe and sound, in front of her.

  Leo peeled out of his parking spot across the street from her shop, heading at a sharp clip towards River’s house. It was only a few minutes away by car, but River had never felt time move so slowly. Once they were on their way, Leo reminded River of the obvious, which she had forgotten in her panic.

  “Try his cell,” Leo said, his voice calm but firm.

  “Of course,” River said, fumbling open her phone with numb fingers.

  Scrolling through her numbers again, River found Jason’s seldom-used cell, and tried that.

  “It’s ringing,” she told the men. That was good—chances were usually fifty-fifty that Jason’s phone hadn’t seen a charger that week, or even that month.

  “Voice mail,” she said, and then swore vehemently.

  “Try your house,” said Fen, his turn to state the obvious.

  River did so. “No one’s answering.”

  “Still want to head there?” Leo asked.

  “Yeah. We’ll start at the house and work our way out, if he’s not there.”

  And already, they were close. Close enough that Fen…

  “Wait, stop,” the selkie said, sharply.

  “Stop the car,” Fen repeated, putting the force on an empathic shove behind his words.

  Only then did Leo do as Fen requested, and pulled to the shoulder of the road. They were only a few driveways away from River’s own home, although with the size of the lots that meant they were still a safe distance away.

  “River,” Fen said, radiating calm, “Rick has Jason.”

  “How do you…?” Before River could finish her question, Fen was already answering it.

  “I can sense both of them.”

  “Oh my God,” River said, leaning back in her seat, her face drained of blood.

  Leo, meanwhile, was looking at Fen like he was mad as pancakes.

  “What’s going on?” The paramedic asked, trying to keep his voice neutral.

  “It’s a long story, Leo, but you have to trust me. I can…sense things. And right now I know that Rick has Jason, and that they’re at River’s. We have to get there now, but not by car.”

  “How do you know that, exactly?” Leo asked, unable to believe that Fen could know something for which Leo had seen no proof.

  “Leo,” River said, turning to the paramedic. “You just have to trust Fen. Trust us. If Fen says Rick has Jason, then he does.”

  Everything in Leo’s training, which demanded hard evidence before any procedure was done, went against what his instinct was telling him: that Fen was telling the truth.

  But River trusts him, Leo thought. And the paramedic knew, then, what he was going to do, even if he didn’t understand why.

  “All right,” Leo said, moving his car another few feet off the road before switching it off. “What’s the plan?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Only Leo’s hand gripping her arm kept River from running headlong into danger at the sight of Rick holding a gun on her brother.

  They were right inside the living
room, in front of the open sliding glass doors that led into the backyard. Jason was lying on his stomach on the ground, Rick’s foot on his back and a rifle pointed down at Jason’s head.

  River, Fen and Leo were safely hidden in the line of trees dividing the backyard from the beach, where they could watch unseen by Rick.

  “Stay calm,” Fen said. “We’ll get him out. Just give me a second.”

  River emitted an almost imperceptible whimper, and Leo gathered her to him—partially to comfort her but also to make sure she didn’t bolt towards the house.

  Meanwhile, the paramedic watched Fen curiously. Leo had no idea what the blond man was up to, but he was obviously doing something. Fen had his eyes shut and his hands extended, as if they were feeling for something, or serving as antennae. Eventually Fen started to speak, although his voice was so eerily distant it caused Leo to shiver and pull River’s soft warmth closer to his chest.

  “So angry, but also so lost. Not caring anymore, just wanting it to end. Everything unfair, everything dark…”

  Fen’s voice trailed off for a moment, then resumed.

  “Love twisted to anger twisted to denial twisted…”

  Suddenly, Fen shook his head sharply, as if coming back to himself.

  “Such pain,” he summarized, looking out at Rick with a mixture of pity and dread in his eyes.

  “What’s going on?” Leo whispered, suitably freaked out even if he didn’t know what the hell was happening.

  “River, do you have your key?” Fen said, focusing in on the here and now.

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Give it to Leo. Leo, can you sneak around front, and go in that way? I’ll confront Rick directly, but we may need someone in the wings.”

  “Are you sure, man? He could just shoot you.”

  Fen smiled. “Have no fear, Leo. Mortal weapons do not threaten me.”

  As he spoke, Fen straightened, and for a second Leo saw another Fen, lying beneath the surface of the surfer-boy he pretended to be. This Fen was as golden as the sun, his hair a nimbus of light flowing upward like a crown, and his eyes as ageless and powerful as the sea.

  Leo blinked, and Fen was himself again.

  “Okay,” Leo said, filing away about a hundred questions to ask after this was all over. “I can do that, no problem. But should we wait for the police?”

  “No,” Fen said. “We must hurry. If we wait for the police it will be too late.”

  “Why?” asked River, scared by Fen’s adamant tone.

  “Rick is not well,” Fen explained, trying to articulate what he felt from the boy. “He feels his world has been taken from him, and he’s obsessed with revenge. But he’s also ready for it all to be over…”

  “Oh, shit,” Leo said, realizing where Fen was going, but River looked confused.

  “Suicide by cop,” Leo told her, knowing she needed the truth.

  Fen nodded. “That would be an apt description, yes. He plans on taking out you, your brother and whomever else he can before they kill him. The only reason Jason is still alive is that Rick wants an audience, as well as an executioner.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” River breathed. “How can we stop him?”

  “I have a plan,” Fen said. “Rick’s world was turned upside down and he believes nothing is fair anymore. He doesn’t want to live in a place like this, but he’s wrong. What happened does make sense, he just needs to see that.”

  “And you can make him see?” River asked.

  Fen smiled at the woman, letting her feel his calm, his strength.

  “I believe so. But we must go now.”

  River handed Leo her keys, and the paramedic took off. Meanwhile, Fen kept a firm grip on River with his left hand, keeping his body in front of hers in such a way that he shielded her even as Rick could see she was with him.

  And then they approached the house.

  Jason’s fear and confusion were overwhelming, and Fen ached for him. But the selkie was also relieved–Jason’s already heightened emotional state would make Fen’s job easier.

  Rick had immediately spotted them, meanwhile, and had adjusted his position. He now faced the open door, holding the gun tight to the back of Jason’s head.

  “Stop right there!” Rick shouted, when they were about halfway across the lawn. But Fen kept walking.

  “I said stop!” the boy cried.

  “If we stop here, we can’t talk,” Fen said, calmly. The truth was really that the kind of empathic magic that Fen wanted to work required they be in closer proximity to Rick and Jason.

  “I’ll shoot him, you motherfucker, so stop walking!”

  “Just a few more feet,” Fen said, raising his free hand in a placating gesture.

  When Fen was in range for what he wanted to do, he stopped.

  “Who the fuck are you?” Rick demanded. The boy’s arms were trembling alarmingly, considering the loaded rifle he was aiming at another person.

  “I’m Fen. I’m friends with River and Jason.”

  “Those fuckers don’t get to have friends. Not anymore.”

  Fen could feel Rick’s anger ratcheting even higher, and the selkie began to put his plan into effect.

  The first step was to keep Rick focused on Fen, and to get him more empathically open. Unfortunately that meant getting him even more emotional.

  “Of course they get to have friends,” Fen said, calmly. “They’re nice people.”

  “They’re lying fucking murderers,” Rick shouted, digging the gun into Jason’s skull in a way that Fen imagined was very painful. River dug her nails into Fen’s forearm but the selkie ignored her.

  “No, they’re good people. People who have suffered enough because of you, and because of your brother.”

  “Trevor never did anything! They murdered him and no one cares, because of their lies. He was a good man!”

  “He was a monster, Rick. And from your own behavior, you’re becoming one too.”

  Fen could feel two things happening. The first was that he could feel Rick’s anger not only increasing exponentially, but dividing itself between him and Jason. He could also feel Leo’s presence in the house, and knew the paramedic was closing in on Rick.

  “Your brother attacked someone he professed to care about, and now you’re attacking your neighbors, Rick. Who does that? Are you really going to shoot them? Are you going to shoot me? You don’t even know me.”

  “Trevor was not a monster. And you’re protecting them, so you’re the monster.”

  “What happened to the two of you?” Fen asked Rick, changing track.

  “What?” Rick asked, confused. He’d also let up the pressure from the rifle on Jason’s head.

  “What happened to the both of you, to damage you so much?”

  Fen knew he’d hit a nerve, as Rick’s emotions began fluctuating wildly. He was nearly where Fen needed him.

  “Was it abuse?” Fen asked, trying to translate Rick’s emotions into words. “Yes, I think it was. But who abused you? Was it someone abusing you both, or was Trevor born a monster, and you were his first victim?”

  Under normal circumstances, Fen would never treat such subjects as a weapon to be used against another. These circumstances were far from normal however, and Fen was willing to do what he had to in order to get River, Jason and Rick out of this alive, despite Rick’s worst intentions.

  “You know nothing about me, stop talking like you know me!” Rick shouted, finally raising the gun from the back of Jason’s head to point it at Fen. Meanwhile, Rick’s emotions hit crisis point, and Fen had Rick right where he wanted him. But so did Leo.

  At the same second, both Fen and Leo attacked–Leo physically, and Fen emotionally.

  Swooping in from behind, Leo grabbed Rick in bear hug that immobilized his arms, and caused him to drop the rifle. It fell right next to Jason’s hand, but the young man didn’t even bother to push it away. Instead, River ran forward to grab it.

  Rick, however, wasn’t even struggling in Leo’s g
rasp. Instead, he was staring forward, his eyes gone glassy. River noticed that Jason, lying still on the carpet, was immobilized with the same expression. Fearing something had happened to him that she hadn’t seen, River dropped to her knees. Her brother didn’t respond when she shook him, but he was definitely breathing, and his pulse was thundering in his neck when she felt for it.

  Both Leo and River started when Jason and Rick cried out simultaneously, a howl of torment so scared and broken that it came from their souls. Leo looked at Fen, alarmed, but the blond man was unmoving–his hands raised as if he were holding something they couldn’t see together.

  For that’s exactly what Fen was doing. Using the strength of Jason’s fear to plunge into the young man’s memories, Fen had looked for what he knew had to be there. An event as traumatic as seeing his sister nearly murdered, and his having killed a man, must have left the kind of trauma that an empath like Fen could use in a situation like this. And Fen had found exactly what he’d been looking for–a moment of time, imprinted like a strip of film, in Jason’s emotional core.

  Using Jason’s own emotions as a conduit, Fen fed that memory to Rick. That’s why the selkie had needed Rick emotionally volatile. Volatility inevitably meant vulnerability, and Rick’s fresh anger had opened the boy up to Jason’s memories. Unfortunately, Fen had to see what Rick did, as well…

  Moving in a body bigger than his own, both taller, and clumsier, but tightly controlled because we know we break things or hurt things if we let ourselves go…

  We catch a glimpse of our self in the windows of the shop next to our sister’s, and we smile. We’ve worn our hat, and River will be happy, because she worries about us getting cold.

  But River’s front room is dark, and the door is locked, and that’s not right. She leaves it open, this is Eastport and no one comes in and why is it locked? Fumbling for a key we never use, figuring out which one it is, as keys are fun to collect and what if we throw one away and it’s important? This is the one, door is unlocked, that’s when we hear noises.

  Shop front is dark and back door to storage room is open only a crack but that door is really never shut why would River shut it? And what’s that sound, like a dog that’s been hit by a car like we heard that one time when the neighbor’s dog ran into the street, and another sound, someone moaning. Jason’s more than old enough to know those moans, and know that sound and their father had explained what all of that meant and that it was natural for boys in private, just not to be done in public, so why would that sound be in River’s back room?