Mermen

  The doctor told her assistant to call nine-one-one then turned her attention back to Liv. “Try to breathe, Liv. Just try to breathe. An ambulance will be here in a few minutes,” Dr. June said.

  Liv gasped and held her trembling hand over her mouth. She knew. She somehow knew what had just happened. It was a beacon.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered. They know. And now they’re coming for me.

  “Liv, just try to breathe slowly.”

  Liv heard the sirens off in the distance and sat up. An ambulance wasn’t going to help her. Nothing could.

  “No. You lie still.” The doctor gently pushed back on her shoulder, but Liv didn’t want to be put in the position of being asked anymore questions.

  “I’m fine. I think it was just a panic attack or something.”

  “Liv, you looked like you were having a seizure.”

  Liv got to her feet. “I’m fine. I promise.”

  “I can’t let you leave here like this.” The doctor crossed her arms. “You said you saw mermen. You said you think they’re coming for you.”

  Liv laughed. “I didn’t mean literally. I’ve been having these nightmares. That’s all. I’m really, really tired.”

  The doctor stared at her. “I’m not letting you get behind the wheel of a car. I’d be a poor doctor if I did.”

  Two female paramedics burst into the room. Of course, they didn’t see anyone who appeared injured or sick, so that made them pause.

  “Liv, let them check you out.”

  “Or?”

  “Or I’ll tell them to put you under psychiatric evaluation.”

  Liv wanted to strangle the damned woman, but what choice did she have now? “Fine. I’ll go with them.”

  Dr. June smiled. “Very good, Liv.” She turned her head toward the paramedics. “My patient seems to have experienced a seizure. Please be sure they look her over thoroughly.”

  After five hours of blood work, a CT scan, and heart monitoring, the ER doctor—an African American woman about the same age as Liv, with a petite frame and short dark hair—came by to check on her. Liv was doing her best to stay calm so she’d be released quickly, but it felt like a giant target had been painted on her back and the clock was ticking.

  Where would she go? Would they come after her family, too? Perhaps she should get out of town, but that wasn’t easy given how far Wrangell was from just about anything. One hundred and five miles to Ketchikan and about two hundred to Juneau or Naukati Bay. Of course, those routes were by plane or boat because driving to or from Wrangell was impossible.

  Another goddamned island.

  Liv gave it some thought and decided it was better to risk bumping into press at the local inn than jeopardizing her family. In the morning, she’d figure something out.

  “So…Liv. I’m Dr. Fuller.” The woman flipped through the charts. “Everything’s come back normal—no signs of hemorrhages or tumors. And the nurse said you haven’t experienced any head trauma.”

  Sitting up on the bed, Liv rubbed her hands over her face. “I’m fine. Just tired, that’s all. Not getting a lot of sleep since…you know.” It wasn’t like there were any secrets in this town.

  “I can give you something to help you sleep, but please make an appointment with your regular physician next week for a follow-up.”

  Liv nodded. “Thanks. I’ll do that.”

  “That’s odd.” The doctor’s eyes stuck on the final page of whatever lab reports she was looking at. “You’ve got some…” The woman paused and scratched her cheek before looking at Liv. “Ms. Stratton, have you taken any illegal substances?”

  “What? No. I don’t do drugs.”

  “The pathologist commented that there’s an unknown compound in your blood.”

  “Like what?” Liv asked.

  “You’re sure you haven’t taken anything, been exposed to any chemicals?”

  Liv shook her head. “No. Nothing.”

  “It’s probably a lab error. Happens sometimes.”

  Liv shrugged, trying not to draw suspicion.

  “All right, Liv. See the nurse on the way out for your prescription. If you start to feel worse, don’t hesitate to come back.”

  Liv got up from the bed and put on her jeans, red sweater, and boots. Her head tingled, and she felt a mild burning sensation in her veins. The doctor’s comments about finding something in her blood hadn’t shocked her one bit. She knew something was inside her—that damned water—and it scared the hell out of her.

  It was almost eleven o’clock when Liv left the ER, planning to walk to the inn over on the waterfront, but the moment she exited the building, an extremely tall, very muscular man in a black suit, standing next to a black SUV with tinted windows, stopped her in her tracks.

  Oh shit.

  “Hello, Ms. Stratton,” he said and dipped his head of long, dreaded black hair.

  Liv didn’t reply. Should she run? Should she go back inside and ask for help? They can’t help you and running won’t do any good.

  “That was fast,” she finally said.

  The man, who she knew for sure was one of them but didn’t recognize, opened the passenger door. “Get in.”

  Liv’s boots stuck to the ground.

  “Don’t make this any worse than it needs to be,” he warned.

  Liv nodded solemnly and slid into the backseat. Once the man was behind the wheel, starting the engine, she asked where they were going, but he wouldn’t answer.

  “Okay. Then you might as well kill me now because I won’t go all the way back to that island just so you can do it there.”

  The driver flashed a quick glance at her through the rearview mirror. Even in the dark, those green eyes were unsettling. “I am not taking you to the island. Roen is in Seattle, attending to business.”

  Roen was off the island? Ohmygod. Ohmygod. The relief was immeasurable. Liv placed a fisted hand over her heart. Thank. God. But why hadn’t he contacted her?

  Doesn’t matter. If he was all right and safe and…alive, then everything she’d suffered through was worth it.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It was two in the morning when Liv arrived at the skyscraper apartment building in downtown Seattle. The flight on Roen’s private plane had felt too surreal for words, partially because it was difficult imagining the man she knew living this other life—luxury, wealth, power. More difficult to reconcile, however, was that Roen had made it off the island but was still involved with these men. It didn’t make sense.

  When her “escort”—the man who’d picked her up at the hospital—opened the limo door, Liv couldn’t contain her happiness. Seeing Roen again was the only thing she’d thought of for eight weeks. It had carried her through the unbearable chaos that had become her life.

  The man walked Liv into the brightly lit lobby with gleaming black marble floors and a glass pane sculpture in the middle. Water sheeted silently over both sides of the glass, reflecting the lights above, making the space feel like one of those viewing rooms at an aquarium.

  After signing them in, the security guard directed her and the escort toward the stainless steel elevator doors to the penthouse. As the elevator rose to the thirtieth floor, Liv felt her hands and knees shake with anticipation. What would she say to him? Would she tell him that not a second went by these last few months when she wasn’t thinking about him or regretting her decision to leave him? Would she tell him that resisting the pull to go back to him felt like having her body torn in two, piece by piece, cell by cell? No, he’d think she was crazy. They barely knew each other.

  Don’t say that. Loving someone isn’t crazy. Liv stepped from the elevator and froze. Oh crap. I love him. She knew she cared and felt an insanely strong attraction, but the love thing had snuck up on her. She’d never loved a man. Not like this.

  The driver hung back and watched her approach the door. “He’s expecting you. Go in,” the man said.

  She reached for the handle and then paused. What if this was a trap? W
hat if she didn’t find Roen behind that door, but another one of those cruel men—

  The door flew open and there stood Roen in an elegant, charcoal gray suit. His skin looked darker, like he spent his days outside, and his hair had grown out quite a bit, reaching his jawline, giving him a slightly more rugged look. It too seemed darker than before, more of a rich brown versus his caramel brown. Liv’s eyes ran up and down his sleek, muscular frame, taking him in. Roen appeared to be a few inches bigger in each direction—taller, broader shoulders, and slightly more muscular, but still not as large as those tanks who called themselves mermen.

  Despite the shocking changes, Liv had never seen a more beautiful man. Not even Roen’s airbrushed cover photo for Sexiest Man of the Year had looked as stunning as he did now.

  Roen stared down at her with cold eyes, those slightly full lips in a straight line, framed by a thick covering of facial hair, the length somewhere between a beard and overgrown stubble.

  “Ms. Stratton, it’s nice to see you.” His voice was barren of any real welcoming, immediately setting the tone. He stepped aside and gestured for her to enter, but she hesitated. His tensing jaw and rigid posture, almost like a soldier in formation, told her he was holding his rage at bay.

  Liv instinctually stepped back.

  Roen continued staring with those icy, displeased eyes. “There’s nowhere you can hide. Not from me. Not from them.”

  “So you’re going to hurt me.”

  “You broke a promise to the island, Liv. I’m the only thing standing between you and hurt. So I suggest you come inside.”

  She hesitantly moved past him, and he closed the door behind her. The penthouse had an open floorplan—living room, kitchen, dining room in one space—with simple yet sophisticated furniture, mostly brown and black colors with white walls.

  “Why don’t you take a seat?” He gestured toward a set of light gray sofas that faced each other over a glass coffee table. A low flame flickered away in the gas fireplace just to the side of the table.

  “Thank you.” She sat at the end of one couch closest to the fireplace and focused on her breathing—a better option than her trembling hands or pounding heart.

  Roen walked to the kitchen area—with glass cabinets, stainless steel everything, and a large granite island in the middle. He poured two glasses of red wine and walked over to the sitting area, handing one to her.

  “Here. You’ll need this,” he said.

  She stared up at Roen’s imposing frame, trying not to acknowledge the conflicting feelings he brought out in her. Half of her heart buzzed with joy at the sight of him. The other half felt terrified.

  He won’t hurt you, Liv. Just stay calm. That’s what she told herself, anyway. Truth was, she had no clue what he planned to do with her.

  “So.” She cleared her throat. “How did you get off of the island?”

  Roen slid off his blazer and folded it neatly over the arm of the sofa opposite her before taking a seat.

  “Turns out…” He began rolling up his sleeves, exposing his thick forearms. Yes, he’d definitely grown, but was still lean and predator-like. Not a rhino like the other men. “Turns out there are about fifty or so large yachts on the island. Along with a small plane and a landing strip.”

  “Why didn’t we see them?”

  “The island didn’t wish us to see them.” He finished rolling up his sleeve and leaned back.

  “So it just let you leave?”

  “I’m not a prisoner, Liv. I lead the island because I want to.”

  Liv didn’t believe that.

  “Once you left and I was free of distraction,” he continued, “Lyle was able to help me truly come to understand my purpose—what I must do.”

  She stared expectantly.

  “The island requires assistance,” he elaborated, “and I plan to give it.”

  “Assistance.” She repeated the word, hoping she’d misheard him.

  “She won’t stay hidden from the world forever, and the island needs better defenses, which means modern equipment and people with training.”

  Liv shifted on the couch, trying to process what Roen said without automatically jumping to any conclusions. Because despite the impossibility of it all, Liv had seen and felt things that proved there was much more to that island than dirt and rock.

  “Okay,” she said. “But what about your company and your life?” What about me? she thought.

  “My company doesn’t need me anymore—it will do just fine being run by the capable people I’ve hired. And I can be involved when necessary. As for my life, I never truly had one. Now I do. And I have my brother back.”

  Liv sensed that was a load of BS. Roen had said his father was one of them and that they’d had to run from him. He’d also said he didn’t want to ruin Liv’s life in the same way. But couldn’t he see that he was ruining her life in another way? Maybe she could get him to see that staying on that island would make all of his fears come true. That place was insanity.

  Liv cleared her throat again. “I can’t say I understand your attachment to that frightening place, Roen, and I’m beyond relieved you’re okay, but please don’t tell me you condone what’s happening to those women.”

  He didn’t speak, but instead responded with that fierce gaze.

  “You can’t be serious,” she scoffed. “You turn them into vicious animals.”

  “They are not animals. They are sacred guardians of the island’s waters.”

  “I watched them eat a man alive.”

  He stared at the floor for a moment and nodded his head. “Well, I’m sorry you had to see that.”

  “Sorry?” she seethed. “You’re sorry? Roen, what’s being done to those women is a crime. They’re taken against their will and—”

  “You’re a landlover, Liv. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “I understand perfectly fine. You’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid, and it somehow enables you to justify some pretty horrific stuff.”

  “There’s no room for morality in this story, Liv. It’s about survival. We do what we have to do.”

  “That’s not a reason, Roen. You know it’s not,” she seethed.

  “That island is alive, Liv. It thinks, it sees, it feels. And it’s our job to protect it. She is the ocean’s heart. She created all life and every life since then.”

  “The island is God? Okay.”

  “Not God. More like…an energy. But hers enables life to exist. Her water, her blood, flows into the ocean, and each and every drop of water on the planet holds a tiny piece of her. Which means she’s a part of every living animal on this planet.”

  “You’re saying we’re all infected?”

  “If being alive is considered an illness, I suppose, yes.”

  Liv simply looked at Roen, wondering what happened to him after she left the island. It was abundantly clear that he believed every word of what he’d just said.

  Liv cleared her throat again. “Let’s assume for a moment that I believe you, and the island is keeping us all alive—”

  “No. She doesn’t keep us alive. Think of her water as a catalyst that creates a spark in the early stages of life—at the point when cells form into the heart muscle. But to get that heart to beat, it needs a jolt of energy. From her.”

  Liv reached forward, grabbed her wine, threw it back, and then set it down again. “Uh… Okay… That’s a very different spin on the whole reproduction thing.”

  “Think what you like, but without her, there would be no life on this planet. No humans, no animals. Nothing.”

  Liv’s mind tried to digest the possibility that the island was some sort of microscopic defibrillator. Fact was, she already knew there were examples—many—of things in this world that existed, yet couldn’t be seen. Love was one of them. So maybe, just maybe, what Roen said wasn’t so crazy. Sure, some might call what he described the hand of God, others might call it nature’s divine wisdom or biochemistry—didn’t really matter. Something flipped the sw
itch and turned us from a cluster of cells into a sophisticated organism with a beating heart. All that said, she still didn’t want Roen to be a part of that place. He was a good man who deserved a home and love and…

  Me.

  “Did the island tell you all this herself?” Liv had a very difficult time imagining the two of them just sitting around, chatting about molecular biology over a cup of coffee.

  “My people keep records and several world-renowned scientists live on the island to study her and help keep her healthy, which grows harder to do every year. The oceans are growing toxic, and every year she produces less and less water.”

  Liv would need a very, very long time for any of this to truly sink in and decide how much she believed. Nevertheless… “None of what you said explains what you’re doing to those women.”

  “They’re insurance, Liv. The island is afraid, and when people are afraid, they do what they must to survive.”

  Liv rubbed her face and sighed. “I still don’t understand.”

  “Neither did I at first, but this is what I’ve been doing these last few months. Understanding, sifting through centuries of legends and folklore to get to the truth.”

  “Which is?” she said.

  “It all has to change. That’s why I’m really there. Our ancestors once lived exclusively in the ocean. Then one day, they grew tired of watching after the island and decided to explore the world. Our folklore says the island brought them back, then took away their fins and gave them legs to keep them from leaving. Soon after, they learned to build boats and tried to escape again. The island had to come up with another plan. She knew that the men of our kind were fiercely protective of our women and would never leave them willingly. So she changed the women back into creatures of the sea, this time making them nocturnal, unable to endure exposure to sunlight. Without the ability to swim in daylight, the women can’t get far and must seek shelter from the light in the underwater caves that run beneath the island.”

  Liv blinked at Roen, trying to take it all in. Don’t start crying hysterically. Don’t start crying hysterically. Maybe Roen isn’t crazy… Fact was, she’d seen the women’s reaction to the sun—like damned aquatic vampires or something—but there’d been one who hadn’t reacted to the light.