Mad Sea (9 page)

“Guttenberg,” I shout out, my fists clenching. “Steffan Guttenberg.”

He laughs coldly, and I stop about twenty feet from him. “And your friends led you right to me. I played them all so easily with this ‘deal.’ Now you’re going to die, asshole.”

Smirking, I cut my eyes to Jagger, and then to Cassius. I know where my loyalty lies. “What do you want?”

I hear the crunch of gravel as the two men approach. Both of my boys are tense beside me. One false move and there’ll be a bloodbath. The older one, with dark reddish hair, glowers at me.

“You stole her from us,” he practically spits out at me.

I raise a brow at him. “Hali does what she wants. You can’t stop love, man.”

The black-headed younger man growls. “She’s supposed to be mine. I’m the rightful heir and she was to be my wife. Then, some fucker swoops in and steals her. This shit ends tonight, and I take her back with me.”

At this, I laugh. “Ain’t happening, Zee.”

His dark eyes widen at the mention of his name. “What the—”

“This is nonsense. Steffan, take care of them.”

“What’s the matter, Hayden? Can’t do your own dirty work? What’s the offense of our people if one attempts to murder the king?” I question, my voice calm and collected. “Oh, that’s right, death by drowning. Pretty fucking awful way to die for a merman.”

Zee and Hayden exchange horrified glances.

“How do you even know about this? This is ridiculous,” Hayden barks out and glances nervously at Cassius, who remains as still as a statue, completely unfazed by talk of mer people.

“What? You afraid these boys are going to tell on you? Rat you out to the government or something? Turn you into lab animals?” I ask, shrugging my shoulders. “Nah, these are my brothers. They know everything. A nice dinner at Mama Constance’s earlier and everyone is up to speed on all of your bullshit. You will
not
be taking my wife. You will
not
be killing me. And you all
will
fucking take your bow to your new King. Including you, dear brother. Rules are rules in our community.”

I give my command with such a thunderous power, all three of them fall to a knee. Hayden’s face is so red it looks like it might pop. Zee looks positively disgusted. And Steffan, that psycho, isn’t angry at all. He’s the one I keep my eye on. Unhinged motherfucker.

“You’re not Zadden!” Zee bellows. “Zadden was weak!”

Storming over to him, I grab him by his neck and haul him to his feet. I bare my teeth, getting right in his face. “Do you feel the way my hand could crush your windpipe with one squeeze? I’m fucking dying to do it. It’s taking all of my strength
not
to kill you. Zadden may not have fit your perfect mold. But, Madden ‘Mad Dog’ Finn will pull your spine out through your throat and make fucking wind chimes out of your vertebrae to give to his mother,” I mutter with a growl. “Not weak at all, brother.”

When I hear a hateful roar behind me, I don’t have time react and see what the commotion is about before shots ring out in the air. Hayden crawls away, toward the vehicle, as the guns pop off like firecrackers in a bucket. I toss Zee out of the way of the gunfire. With a twist, I yank my pistol from my belt and swing it toward Steffan. But, as quickly as it started, all that’s left are echoes in my ears. Cassius and Jagger stand over Steffan’s lifeless body with their weapons aimed at him.

“I’m getting too old for this shit,” Jagger grumbles and tucks his gun into the back of his jeans.

Cassius slaps his shoulder. “Should I off you now then, fuck face? Go ahead and take my place as prez?”

Jagger shoves him. “Fuck off, Cass. I ain’t too old to kill your slimy ass.”

Gravel kicks up as Hayden and Zee tear out of the parking lot in their vehicle.

“Run!” I call out after the taillights. “Pussies.”

Cassius chuckles from behind me. “You don’t fuck with the Southside Sinners. I don’t care if you’re a goddamned-stupid-ass-wannabe-king mermaid or some shit. Sinners don’t play.”

I smirk. “Merman, asshole. Mermaids, are the chicks.”

“Well, by all means, go get your little mermaid, Mad Dog, and do marital shit. Whatever the hell that is. Cass and I will get rid of the body,” Jagger grunts.

Cassius groans. “Fuck that. Call Steam. Fat boy could use the exercise. What’s the point of being prez, Jagger, if you don’t boss some poor fuckers around and make them do your dirty work?”

Shaking my head, I hold up two fingers in a peace sign. “I’m out. See you on the flip side.”

“Pussy-whipped motherfucker!” Cassius calls out, and then laughs.

I laugh all the way to my bike.

Time to go get my girl.

As soon as the rumble of my bike cuts off, the sound of the chimes fill the air around me. Mama Constance loves those fucking things. And quite frankly, I love them too. The haunted musical sounds tug at memories from my toddler years. A woman, with hair as black as ink, singing to me as she rocked me. I don’t have pictures of my birth mother or much to go on, but the wind chimes remind me of her.

When I walk into the house, my adoptive mother is sitting at the bar with her reading glasses at the end of her nose, staring at her laptop.

“Hey Maddy,” she says, her eyes still glued to the screen. “Looks like they caught the next flight back to Cape Town. We can all breathe easy again.”

I saunter over to her and kiss the top of her head. “They can have their life there. And now that everything is out in the open, I think we’ll live ours here.”

She smiles and pats my arm. “And your people?”

“My people are here. I think Hali feels the same.”

“Good,” she says with a sigh. “I want my boy close by. And little Hali’s quite a catch, son.”

I laugh. “Yes, she is. Speaking of,” I question and look up toward the dark windows, “where’s my sea angel?”

She waves toward the ocean. “Doing what our people do best. Now, if you won’t mind me, I’ll be retiring early tonight. This old woman has had enough excitement for a decade. But don’t you two dare go anywhere tonight. I want to cook my son and his wife a congratulatory breakfast.” She stands and presses a kiss to my cheek. “I’m sorry I sheltered you your entire life. I simply wanted to protect you from them.”

“I know, Mom,” I tell her. “Thank you for that. I love you, you know?”

Tears well in her eyes. “I do know. I feel it every day. Love you too, Maddy.”

Once she’s gone, I head outside. I make my way down to the beach. In the moonlight, I see a pale figure swimming out beyond the waves. Hair silky red and blonde, a beautiful mix. I’m desperate to touch her. I start ripping off my clothes as quickly as I can. I’ve just shoved my boxers down, when two slender wet arms wrap around my middle.

Twisting in her arms, I pull her to me in a tight embrace. “Thank hell you’re okay, beautiful. God, I’ve fucking missed you today.”

She giggles and looks up at me. Her green eyes shimmer with love. “I missed you, too. Your mom is awesome. I think I love her.”

“She’s the best,” I say and press a kiss to her lips. “And that’s why I’ve been thinking. Now that everything’s out in the open, I thought maybe—”

“Yes. I want to stay here. Close to Constance.”

My heart swells, and I tangle my fingers in her wet hair. Our lips crash together as we kiss each other with desperation. She grabs onto my shoulders and practically climbs me like a tree. Sliding a hand to her ass, I help her slide down onto my cock.

“Yes,” she moans once she’s fully seated on me. “Make love to me.”

I stride over to a soft dune of sand. Lying her down on her back, I never lose stride and continue fucking my woman. Her moans are loud enough to wake the neighbors, but thankfully my mom’s wind chimes drown out our sounds.

“You’re my queen,” I tell her.

She smiles against my mouth. “So Constance tells me. Guess now you should worship me.”

With a growl, I nip at her ear and then her neck. Her fingernails dig into my shoulders as I pound into her. My body never seems to be close enough to her. Or deep enough. Or our physical union, long enough. I’d die happy, if it meant I could stay like this with her forever.

“Madden!” she gasps when my fingers find her clit.

I massage her until she’s careening off the figurative cliff. Her pussy clenches around my cock, and then I’m a goner. She and I are all that remains—the world has become nothing but a blur around us, as I fuck my climax into her. She’s slippery and tight and hot as hell. Fucking heaven, this woman.

“We’re going to be poor,” I tell her with a laugh. “I can’t ever see myself being able to part from you long enough to hold down any respectable job.”

She grins. “We’ll figure it out. We’ve done a pretty damn good job at it so far.”

I pull out of her and then scoop her sandy ass against my chest. With her squealing in my arms, I charge for the ocean. We’re not done yet. I think I just saw a couple of voyeuristic dolphins. And we all know what that means…

A year and a half later…

“H
ALI!!!!”

Madden’s horrified yell from upstairs has me hurrying to the front door. Becky, my store helper, already went home for the night so I flip the sign to closed, throw the deadbolt, and then charge toward where he’s still screaming my name. My heart thunders in my chest with worry that something’s happened. With each step toward our apartment above our store, my blood seems to grow colder and colder.

I push through the door and head straight for the bathroom.

“Mad,” I shriek, “is Lene okay?”

The first thing I notice upon entering the bathroom is there’s water everywhere. My eyes flicker over to my baby with the greenest eyes you ever did see and wild black curls. She flashes me a toothy grin. “Momma!”

Madden, bless his heart, is soaked. His black Metallica T-shirt sticks to his muscled torso, and I bite my lip to suppress the urge to attack him. Pregnancy makes me super horny we’ve learned. And this tiny baby, already growing in my belly, is no different than the last one. I jump him every chance I get.

“What’s going on—oh!”

Lene makes a splash. With her tail. “Fish!”

My eyes meet Madden’s freaked out ones. Our baby has changed for the first time. Her pudgy little legs are now hidden beneath a cute sparkly green tail.

“Fish!”—splash—“Fish!”—splash—“Fish!” Her giggles are too cute.

I lean over the tub and ruffle her curls. “That’s right, baby. You’re a mermaid. Can you say mermaid?”

“Mer-may!”

“That’s right!”

“And so it begins,” Madden say, stress straining his voice. “What if people find out? How will we protect her? If someone tries to take her, so help me I’ll put a bullet in their goddamn sk—”

“We’ll protect her. Stop your fussing. Finish cleaning up downstairs and I’ll take care of it from here,” I instruct.

All I get is a growl and a pop on my ass before he leaves.