MerMadmen

  “You can’t accept, Roen. Tell her no.”

  “It’s far better than watching my men suffer and slit their own throats. It’s best for your people, too.”

  Yes, but she suspected—she knew—his instincts to keep her safe had been a factor. Had she not been part of the equation, Roen might have chosen to stick to his guns and free everyone once and for all.

  “You know you can’t trust her, Roen. The minute you’re gone, she’ll change her mind.”

  He nodded solemnly, his green eyes washing over with a haze of deep pain. “Either way, I’ll be gone, which means you’ll be safe. You will serve no purpose to her, and my death will sever the bond between us.”

  No. Dammit. No. She couldn’t accept this. And she couldn’t allow him to accept this bullshit deal because of her. Her being there had made him weak, exactly like he’d said.

  She wasn’t to blame, though. No. Fact: Liv hadn’t come to the island of her own free will. Fact: the island had manipulated Shane, the greedy bastard, to steal Liv away and bring her back, likely promising to make his dream of leading come true. Fact: the island then pushed and pulled and maneuvered the outcome, every step of the way, ensuring that Liv would serve her desired purpose: to control Roen. Dana had been brought along as leverage against herself. And what did the island really want? She guessed for Roen to stop trying to change things.

  Fail. It didn’t work. Roen couldn’t be so easily swayed, which likely shifted her plans to destroying him. That’s what I’d do if I were a power-hungry demon from hell.

  Yes, the island played a mean and evil game of Battleship, and it was a consistent one. She uses love as her weapon. Not physical strength (because she had none) or intelligence (that was a giant question mark). Only love. The men’s love of their maids. Roen’s love of his people. Roen’s error had been trying to play according to a noble set of rules. Only, it seemed the island’s view into their hearts was more of a one-way deal. They couldn’t see into hers, giving the evil bitch the advantage. And she takes and she takes and she takes…

  That’s when the lightning bolt struck. Roen mentioned their scientists weren’t able to figure out how the island sustained herself, and the old bitch wasn’t giving them any help. So what if, just what if…the island’s source of power didn’t come from some unknown mystical place, but from these men? Hadn’t that old legend she’d read—about that Segar Doran guy—say these people once had the power to move oceans and control the sky and that those powers disappeared?

  Then Roen’s men revolted and the water stopped flowing. She masks it by trying to make it look like a punishment.

  Yes. This had to be it. They try to leave; Crazy Dirt reels them right back, using every weapon in her arsenal—threats. When threats didn’t work, she switched gears to promises of happy times and freedom. She’d do or say anything to prevent them from leaving.

  Could it be possible? The island is some leechlike creature and nothing more? No other explanation fit.

  The only question Liv had now was whether life on Earth really depended on her “spark,” or was that another lie meant to validate the elaborate web of deceit she’d created? Give them a purpose, something to fight for and believe in.

  It was like a goddamned religious cult, every one of the men so brainwashed and blinded by duty, tradition, and folklore they never questioned why any of them were really there. And what greater purpose is there than believing your race is the guardian of all life on the planet?

  Which meant they had way more power than they realized, because they were her fuel. I bet it’s the reason she helps them get so big. Drink your water, boys, so you grow up big and strong so I can suck the life from you. Roen was probably some giant, irresistible morsel of power she’d wanted in her stable, and then quickly figured out he was too strong. Untamable.

  And finally, it seemed odd to Liv that there were so few mermen, especially compared to the number of mermaids. If protection was Crazy Dirt’s main concern, then why allow these men to kill each other off? Wouldn’t more be better?

  It’s easier to control smaller numbers. Liv didn’t know for sure, but her head tingled like a bag of wet Pop Rocks. I’m definitely onto something.

  Liv looked at Roen and was about to tell him that her big beautiful landlover brain had figured out the island’s game, when Roen grabbed her and kissed her. His strong arms held her so tight she felt his heart plucking away inside his chest. His lips, however, moved unhurriedly over her mouth, gently sliding and pushing, allowing her to savor the silky heat of his lips. Meanwhile, his short rich-brown beard tickled the edges of her mouth, creating a kiss of tender roughness. This kiss was everything Roen. Domineering and sensual, sweet and prickly. This was a kiss she’d remember until her last dying breath, but one wasn’t enough. She wanted a lifetime of these kisses.

  Roen abruptly broke away and stared deeply into her eyes. Love. There was so much love staring back at her. Then he looked over her shoulder and nodded. Before she saw who stood there, a large hand covered her mouth, and a strong arm gripped her waist.

  “Take her to the plane,” Roen ordered. “And have Edward handcuff her to the seat. Then come back for her sister. You do not stop for anything or anyone. Do you hear me? Make sure the pilot knows to take her straight to my office in Seattle—my lawyer will take care of the rest.”

  Liv twisted and tried to yell, “Wha-ow-you doey?” What are you doing?

  Roen gazed into her eyes. “I’m sorry, Liv. Shane challenged me to the Great Swim. I only have a few hours to prepare everything to ensure you will be all right after I’m gone.”

  What the fuck?

  “No. No! I harf to ter you somming.” I have to tell you something. “Yo herf ooood!” You’re her food.

  “I know you’re upset, but I have no choice. I love you, Liv. More than you could ever possibly understand. My only regret was not getting to treat you like an animal.” He flashed a devilish smile and turned away. Somehow she knew it was only for show, perhaps meant to comfort her in some small way—to show her he’d be okay.

  Dammit, she had to tell him what she’d figured out. He shouldn’t back down. No. He should do the opposite. If Liv was right, then they held the cards. They only needed to wait it out until that bitch lost her steam.

  “Roeyy! No!” she mumbled, but he was long gone.

  The man behind her dragged her out the front door and threw her over his shoulder, placing her high above the ground. “Godfuckingdammit. What is wrong with you people?”

  “Shut the foke up.”

  Liv recognized that deep, deep voice. “Lyle?”

  “L’isle,” he corrected. “And my brother is about to die, so I really don’t want to hear any of your landlover bullcrap.”

  “Lyle, you have…to…listen…to me.” Her body bounced on his big shoulder, making it difficult to breathe.

  “No.”

  “I’ve figured out…the island. She needs…you. She feeds…off you like a giant…parasite.”

  Lyle stopped, and she squirmed and pushed with her hands.

  “Please. You need to tell Roen to hold his ground. She isn’t making water because you’ve all turned on her. Think about it. She’s like a child who feeds off attention and doesn’t want to share it with anyone. That’s why she makes your women suffer. That’s why she will never let anyone go free.”

  Lyle slid her off his shoulder. “How do you know this?”

  “I’ve been studying relationships and how they influence cultural development for years.”

  “And you think the island feeds off of us?” he said quietly, his eyes shifting from side to side.

  “It explains where her power comes from and why she does all of these crazy things to keep you near her. You’re like her food.”

  Lyle blinked his green eyes at her and that’s when she noticed they were the same as Roen’s. “We need to find Roen quic—”

  Something long and hard hit Lyle over the head.

  Liv scr
eamed and turned, terrified to find the bane of her existence standing there with a shit-eating grin. “What did you do?” She kneeled down to look at Lyle’s head. Blood flowed from a deep gash onto the stones of the walkway. “Do you have any water? He might die.” She glanced up at Shane’s triumphant smile.

  “Then he dies. A small price to pay to get what I want.”

  “Killing another merman in cold blood is against your laws. And didn’t Roen make a deal to let me go?”

  Shane wagged his finger. “Sorry. There’s been a change of plans.”

  “I knew Roen shouldn’t have let you out. And for the record, what I said to you the day we met still stands. I’d rather slit my own throat.”

  He shook his head at the ground. “Oh, Liv. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You think I really want someone like you? I’m too fucking good for you. You’re a criminal.”

  “What are you talking about?” She stepped back only to realize half of the Shane Gang stood behind her.

  “Oh, you’ll see,” Shane said. “We reserve the best punishments for landlovers like you who break our highest law.”

  She had no clue what he meant, and somehow it didn’t matter. He wasn’t there to reason with her.

  “What about Dana?” she asked.

  “Not sure yet. You, on the other hand…your fate has been sealed.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  While Roen waited in the great hall for Shane, his heart filled with relief and joy with the sound of the airplane’s engine roaring overhead. Liv and Dana were on their way home. And with him dead, Liv would be free—the island would no longer have a purpose for her, and she would not go crazy from their separation. Once one’s mate died, the bond died, too. Yes, Liv was saved—something to be proud of—and she would be well taken care of because he’d left everything to her. “Are you out of your fucking mind, Ro?” his lawyer Phil had said. “You’re going to leave your fortune to that little piece of ass? Wow. She must’ve been really great in bed.”

  Roen didn’t reply, other than to say, “Phil, you’re a pig, but you’ve been a good friend. Almost like a brother. Except you’re an even bigger asshole.”

  “Wait. So…so…this is goodbye? Are you dying? Is it cancer?” Phil had asked, sounding genuinely concerned. A first.

  “No,” he lied, “I’m fine. Just promise if anything happens to me and Liv ever needs help, you’ll do what you can.”

  “Uh—uh…” Phil had blown out a long, hollow breath. “Yeah, sure, Ro. Whatever she needs.”

  “Thank you, Phil. Now get the hell back to work.” Roen had hung up the phone and grinned, remembering every fire they’d put out and every other hurdle they’d fought over the years. He would miss that bastard.

  In the case of Lyle—his brother, his family, his blood—Roen had tried to reason with him and get him to leave with Liv and Dana, but Lyle made it clear that his only regret in life had been living so many years without his brother at his side. “I will wait for your return,” Lyle had said.

  “Lyle, you and I both know I’m not coming back,” Roen had responded. “And once I’m gone, Shane will find an excuse to kill you.”

  “Then so be it, brother. I will be here waiting all the same.”

  Roen embraced his brother quickly, regretting that they’d not once spoken about the past, including what happened to Lyle during the time Roen believed him to be dead or how Lyle came to be on the island in the first place. There was so much left unspoken between the two, but neither had been eager to dredge up the past. They’d both found peace in being reunited. Still, Roen now wished they’d had that talk.

  After their embrace, Lyle went with him to retrieve Liv. His brother would see her and Dana safely onto the plane while Roen went to meet his fate. There would be no time for goodbyes.

  Add that regret to the pile, Roen thought to himself when Shane strutted into the great hall, a smug smile stretched across his face. Naylor and ten of Shane’s men followed closely behind, in show of their support.

  I wonder what Shane promised them. None of that mattered now; the cards were dealt.

  Roen cleared his throat to address his men one last time. “Mermen, I want you to know how much I truly honor the faith you’ve put in me. And today is no different. If I don’t return, it means that Shane is the stronger merman and more fit to lead you according to the time-honored traditions of the island.”

  Unexpectedly, the one hundred and ninety fierce men—covered in tattoos and scars, some holding weapons—began chanting Roen’s name while scowling at Shane. They saw right through the lie. What could Roen do now? Let the island kill Liv or continue to punish them all?

  Shane laughed. “Well, we all know how this will end. So I’m confident in saying that when I return, I’ll restore order among us. Because I have confirmation that the island’s fears of a landlover invasion are indeed accurate. Now is the time for us to unite. Everyone should be preparing, and when I return, we will finalize our plan of attack.”

  “What do you mean?” Roen asked. “What confirmation?”

  “Ah. You see? The fact that you don’t know is proof you are unfit to lead. Not to worry, I’ll make sure the landlovers are dealt with and that the island doesn’t wipe out humanity. Because unlike you, she trusts me to take care of her.”

  Roen wanted to strangle the man. Shane wasn’t fit to lead a box of Twinkies. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself.

  Of course, only a few short months ago, when he’d come to the shores of this strange place, Roen hadn’t cared about anyone else either. He’d been a broken man, his soul coated in hate and disdain for the world. Liv, he realized, changed all that. She’d reconnected him to his heart and, through her, the rest of the world. That first day they’d met, she’d reached inside him and illuminated his soul with the simple act of opening her beautiful brown eyes and gazing right through the scar tissue. “You’re the most misjudged man I’ve ever met,” she’d said.

  Roen’s heart warmed with the memory, and standing there among these loyal men, the truth came down on him like an ocean freighter. Becoming leader of this place had been his calling, but Liv had been his destiny. And now you will die a whole man with a whole heart. He only wished he’d had the chance to thank her for that.

  “Shane,” Roen dipped his head, “I sincerely wish you luck. May you find everything you’re looking for.” Roen then turned to the men and gave them a final nod. The look of fury in their eyes pained him, but this wasn’t something he could change now.

  Roen stripped off his suede and Shane removed the cloth around his waist. The two turned to Naylor, who stood in front of Roen’s throne, looking like a desiccated version of the men in the room—thin and bony, white hair and beard, saggy skin.

  Naylor hacked out a phlegm ball from his throat, and the room fell from angry mumbles to complete silence. “A challenge for leadership of the island has been issued by Shane. Per the laws written in our ancient scriptures, a merman may challenge for leadership through use of fists, sword, or dagger. However, considering we are sons of the sea, the time-honored tradition of physical stamina may also be used to prove one’s worthiness above another.” Naylor’s cold, ancient gaze of deep green swept the room. “Two thousand miles of ocean. The first man to return alive will be our leader. The second man will be sacrificed to the maids if he has not already perished during the journey. If neither man returns, leadership will open to anyone strong enough and willing to claim it.”

  Roen’s stomach twisted into a knot. Surely the island had provided Shane the idea to challenge him this way. It was so ancient that even Naylor had had to look it up before declaring it valid.

  It was quite the genius move, really, considering the island’s motive to produce a genuine victory. Fist fighting, for example, wouldn’t have been a sure thing.

  But this… Roen loathed swimming and detested the ocean even more. Yes, he realized how odd that seemed. Nevertheless, he and Lyle weren’t allowed anywhere near it because of their mother??
?s fear of the ocean. Later in life, Roen took private swimming lessons in a pool only because he never wanted to be in a situation where he looked like an idiot. What sort of grown man couldn’t swim and had a pool in almost every home he owned? Since coming to the island, he’d been practicing a bit here and there—including diving; however, a mediocre swimmer would never make it two thousand miles.

  Naylor went on, “Each man must reach Nitrof Point on the island of Amatignak, retrieve a white pebble from its shore, and journey home.”

  Amatignak was part of the Derlof Islands in Alaska. Except for the occasional biologists or tourists, the island was completely uninhabited. Not that it mattered, because he knew he’d never make it that far. If by some miracle he did, Shane would be far ahead.

  Maybe I’ll get lucky and a whale will eat him, Roen thought, then pulled himself back. The deal had been struck with the island, and though no words were spoken, Roen understood he could not win. That was the reason the island agreed to his terms.

  “May the spirits of our ancestors be with you, mermen,” Naylor declared.

  Roen took a deep breath and headed for the shore. Once there, he gazed up at the early evening sky glimmering with flaming orange, and said goodbye to Liv one last time, wishing her a beautiful life full of hope and love and everything she dreamed of.

  I will miss you, landlover, with all my heart.

  ~ ~ ~

  A few hours after being dragged away from Lyle, an older man with long, fluffy white hair and a beard to match entered the prison, where she’d been screaming at the top of her lungs for someone—anyone to let her out. Yes, it was the same prison she’d been in earlier that day with the cement floors and twelve cells.

  “Hello, Liv. My name is Naylor, I am an elder here on this island, and in the absence of our leader, I am charged with administering the laws.”