Evermore (23 page)

“You lied to me!” Desirée bellowed at my father while standing at the head of the table. Six Council members, including my father, sat three on each side.

“We didn’t lie,” Dad defended.

“You didn’t tell me that Ash had been stalked by some assailant that tried to take her,” Desirée clarified.

A few of the men mumbled their disdain.

Girra folded her arms and glared at her mother as she sat on the couch in the corner of my parents’ great room where the rest of the mer sat. “We mojoed him,” she mumbled.

“Silence!” Desirée slammed her fist on the table. “We have a problem, Jack. This has been mismanaged and is now completely out of control.”

“We can fix it,” he said.

“Fix it?” She turned her back on us and stared out of the bay windows. “We have one guard dead and now my daughter is missing.”

“Yes, and we know an employee who works for the company. Fin just needs—” Jack started.

“Company?” She swiveled around, her eyes narrowed.

“Companies are places that hire people and make stuff,” Girra explained.

“I know what a company is.” Desirée’s chin lifted. “Are you telling me this man was
hired
to steal my daughter?”

Dad took a deep breath. “We mind-wiped the employee. Unfortunately, he wasn’t privy to where the company was located, and we’ve been looking for it ever since.”

Desirée’s eyes hardened. “Then if you didn’t find the source, the wedding should have been canceled and Ash returned to Natatoria.”

Yes, that probably would have been the best idea, but that was hindsight now. I clenched my jaw to keep from speaking and looked to the ceiling. We were wasting time casting blame.

“We didn’t think it required such drastic measures,” Dad stated. “And it was, after all, Ash’s choice.”

“You left it up to a headstrong, pregnant girl who has no idea of the consequences of our secret being discovered?” Desirée chuckled. “This is preposterous, Jack. Even for you. What makes you think you’re above the law?”

“We aren’t above the law.” I stood, my muscles strung tight. “But while we’re pointing fingers, your daughter is in trouble. I need to go to Reno now.”

Desirée turned to me as if it shocked her that I spoke. “Where is this Reno?”

“It’s an hour away.”

Her expression turned reflective, almost like she appeared to be mulling it over. “What do you need?”

“Nothing other than Jax, Jacob, and my dad. Once we find the employee, we’ll question him.” I flipped my keys in my hand and motioned we leave.

“You can have Jax, Jacob, and… Colin.” Her eyes tightened. “Jack, you’re under arrest!”

“No!” Maggie jumped up and tried to prevent a guard from grabbing him.

“This is insane,” one of the Council members said. “We need to vote on this.”

“As Chancellor Pro-tem, I must take charge,” Desirée stated. “In two short months of doing things your way and changing the laws, our secret has been exposed. You may not have agreed with how things were run in the past, but they were there for a reason, and just look what Jack’s foolish ideas of mer living with humans have given us. We cannot afford any more mistakes and at this moment I am stopping this foolishness. The Council will no longer have governing rights until Ash has been returned to us. Fin. Go to Reno and report back to me. Only me!”

I stared at Dad, torn to defend him or leave for Reno.

“Go, Son,” Dad said curtly. “I’ll be fine.”

My mother’s expression was filled with worry, but I ran out anyway, keys in hand, and rushed to the Jeep.

Badger followed behind us. “Aye, Son!”

I turned and he tossed something in the air to which I caught. My cell phone.

“But I thought—” I started, looking at it.

“I wouldn’t be tossing your technology into the drink. Now go and get our girl back.”

Jax and Jacob hopped in the back while Colin took the front.

“Oh, no,” I said. “You’ll wait here.”

“The Queen said for me to go.”

“She’s not the Queen,” I seethed.

Colin didn’t move out of the seat.

“Fine, but you’ll stay in the truck.” I threw the Jeep into reverse and spun out of my spot. We’d get there in an hour since I finally had some power underneath me.

I rolled over onto my side and clutched my stomach with one hand. The cramps had been squeezing my abdomen every so often, growing with intensity each time.

The next one hit and all I could think about was the pain. Then hot water gushed between my thighs. Holy heck. Was I going into labor? I couldn’t be. It was too early.

I panted for air. I needed help. I couldn’t do this alone.

“Ohhhh!” I groaned as the ring of fire between my legs only grew hotter and more intense, shooting pain up my back.

Then the contraction hit again, but a new urge hit me. One to push. I sucked in a breath, fighting it, but the fire spread and burned down my thighs instead and I couldn’t stop myself.

No, Joey. Stay inside. It’s too early.

Another wave hit, and I grunted through it, finally giving in. Grabbing onto my knee, I bore down. Pushing felt so good, freeing, and I had no choice but to let my body take over. Another contraction hit, and I pushed again. Then another.

After several pushes, something slipped out of me and plopped onto the white fabric between my legs. I sucked in a tortured gasp and looked down at a tuft of fiery red hair. A tiny silver tail flipped upward, then smacked the liquid.

“Oh.” I tried to reach for the child, but couldn’t with my wrists tethered.

I could feel the child wiggle against my thighs, but it made no sound. Was it a girl? A boy?

“Help!” I called out, but no one came. “I need help!”

I grunted again, trying to break free of the straps on my arms. Eventually, I just scooted my butt upward so I could see. A tiny body, small and pink, lay in the goo between my legs. A boy, my son.

“Oh, Joey.” I scissored my legs closer so they pressed softly against him to cradle him. “Mommy is here.”

But I knew something was wrong. He wasn’t moving. I tried to nudge him, but he didn’t respond.

“No. NO!” I cried out. “Please, someone help me!”

“What’s going on in here?” The dark-haired woman who’d been in my room earlier stood in the doorway, hands on her hips.

I looked over at her, desperate. “My child needs help. Please.”

“Child?” She walked over, then her eyes grew as she looked at the baby lying between my thighs. “Oh my stars!”

“Untie me!”

She ignored me as I continued to beg, and instead fumbled in the drawers of the metal cart against the wall. She pulled out a blanket, and then bundled up the child into her arms — a tiny bundle no bigger than a shoe. “Edna! Come quick!”

I tried to reach for him as another blonde woman arrived. The dark-haired nurse passed off the bundle to her, and they looked at one another. I watched Edna’s lips move and say, “dead.”

Panic overwhelmed me. I yanked my arms, jolting the bed.

“No, he’s not! I want my baby! He’s mine!”

Edna looked over at me with sadness in her eyes, but the nurse shooed her out. “Just… deal with it.”

“No! Give him to me.”

“Shhh… Now, now.” The nurse smoothed the hair off my forehead. “This will make you feel better.”

“I want my child! I want my Joey!” Something warm filled my veins, and I fought to keep alert, keep my eyes open. I wouldn’t sleep. Couldn’t sleep, not when my son was being taken away by strangers. “Give him to me, please. I’ll do anything.” My voice slurred, foreign to my ears.

But no matter how hard I fought, sleep overtook me anyway.

After just having broken every traffic law known to man, we squealed into the parking lot at the customer service building fifteen minutes earlier than expected.

“Stay here!” I jumped out and nodded at my passengers, who were still white knuckling the roll bar for dear life. Wussies.

“Sure, man. Whatever,” Jax said.

I couldn’t worry about it. Unlike the last time I’d come here, the place was a ghost town. When no one exited, I waited for several minutes, then decided to bang on the doors.

An older gentleman in a blue uniform approached, hands on his hips.

“Open up,” I sang.

He held his hand to his ear and mouthed, “Can’t hear ya. We’re closed to the public.”

“I need to get inside,” I sang louder.

He merely shrugged, then walked back to the reception desk. Some security guard. I fisted my hands and marched back to the Jeep. The guys stood around uneasy, watching me cautiously.

“What’s going on?” Jax asked. “Isn’t this the place?”

“Yeah, but…” I trailed off. How would I get inside now? And once I did, was anyone going to be there to help me?

“Why isn’t he letting you in?” Jacob shifted his stance, sizing up the door like he was ready to strong-arm it, or something.

“We should go,” Colin advised.

I stared at the shredded decorations hanging off the back of the Jeep, clenching my jaw when the idea hit. Running over, I slipped into the driver’s seat and turned the key. Then I threw the stick into reverse. I revved the engine.

The guys’ eyes widened.

“You better get out of my way,” I warned.

Jax and Jacob gave each other a look, then hopped aside, giving me a wide berth.

Without another thought, I sped backward, smashing the back of the Jeep into the plate glass window, shattering it.

“For the love of the Kraken, are you nuts?” Colin bellowed.

But I was out of the Jeep and running across broken glass to the stairwell before anyone could stop me.

Taking the stairs by twos, I bolted upward and busted into the Information Technology office. Without flinching, I hopped the counter.

“Ignore me,” I sang as I ran past the purple-haired girl and headed toward Kenny’s cubical. But it was empty

“Where’s Kenny?” I yelled to the receptionist. When she didn’t answer, I ran to her desk. “Hey!”

Her legs swiveled the chair around, her glare framed against a pierced eyebrow and heavy makeup. I startled for a moment as visions of mermaids danced in my head.

She gave me a once over, then pulled one earbud out of her ear. “What’s with the tux?”

“Uh…” I glanced at her name placard, which also had a mermaidish tone to it. “Is Kenny here, Delphina?”

“He’s off today. You late for your wedding or something?”

“Where’s his boss?” I asked, impatiently.

“Where do you think they are? It’s Saturday.” She snapped her gum and everything inside me wanted to strangle her with her earbud cord as she popped in the bud and returned to her computer monitor.

I stepped closer. “I need someone who can track down a cell phone signal,” I sang.

No response.

I pushed the monitor aside and put my face into her line of sight.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she said extra loud.

I made a motion she needed to remove her earbud, either that or I’d do it for her, and trust me, they wouldn’t work after I was finished.

“I need a cell phone traced,” I sang.

The sass melted from her face as she picked up her phone and dialed. I could hear ringing coming from somewhere behind us in the sea of cubicles. “Hey, Barney? I have someone…”

I sprinted to  where I’d heard the sound coming and stopped before an overweight man with a month’s worth of soda cups and food containers occupying every open space of his desk. He swiveled around in his chair, phone receiver in hand.

“Barney?”

He gawked at me. “Yeah?”

“I need you to pull up the location of a cell phone,” I sang.

His eyes clouded over and he turned to his keyboard, first minimizing a window of what looked like a horror movie he’d been watching. He then pulled up another window and signed in.

“Hurry,” I said.

“Going as fast as I can. What’s the number?”

I gave him the number, and he punched it in. We waited for the site to pull up the coordinates. Then a red circle appeared on a map and hovered over a building in Carson City.

“Where is that?”

“It’s…” He zoomed in. “It’s 24333 North Carson Street.”

I wrote it down on a slip of paper, then prepared to leave.

“Hey, do you have a business card?” I asked him.

He squinted. “No. Why?”

“What’s your number?”

He told it to me, and I wrote it down. “When I call,” I sang, “you do whatever I want. No questions asked. Got it?”

He nodded, eyes glazed over. “Yeah.”

“Great. I was never here.”

I took off running again, jumped the counter, and headed for the stairs. Jax and Jacob were standing in the lobby. The old guy, who sat frozen with a phone receiver in his hand, watched me with wide eyes.

“Let’s go!” I yelled. “I’ve got the address.”

“You’re free to go,” Jax said to the man, “But we were never here.”

Within moments, we were on the road back to Carson City.

“I think there’s glass in my ass,” Jax snipped.

Jacob laughed.

“Where are we headed to anyway?” Colin asked, unamused.

“Some place in Carson City. We passed it on the way,” I said. “Hold on!”

The tires skidded as I turned onto the highway. Bits of glass skittered off the back of the Jeep like falling stars. All I could think about was Ash. She needed me. I just knew it.