Chapter 37
Thirty-Seven
At daybreak, Angie and Bàba stood at the broken gangway with Bàba’s lips thinned, eyes narrowed and hands stuffed into his pockets as he shifted his weight from one leg to the other.
His mouth was set in a grim line, gaze stuck on the wrecked gangway before him. “This is a huge mess. With this, and how to deal with the mer attack. I’ll have to call in contractors, we can barely afford to pay them. I’ll have to ask Beau to help.”
Angie rested a hand on the back of his shoulder. “I can make a few calls for you, take some of the work off your shoulders. Just let me know who. Or anything else I can do to help.”
He hmphed. “Beibei, I have a lot to do. I’m keeping Nick in charge of the docks and dealing with the mer. I need you to continue following his orders, okay?”
Angie reeled as if he had slapped her. He hadn’t even considered her offer to help. “You’re leaving him in charge? You really trust he’s not going to do something reckless?”
“I know you and Nick don’t always see eye-to-eye, but I trust you will work together. I’ll still step in periodically, but he knows what he’s doing.”
“That’s not a great idea.”
He looked her square in the eyes. “Angela.” He bore down sharply on her name, and Angie knew his word was final.
“I need you to trust me on this. Please.” She said nothing and walked next to him when he made his way back to the dock’s main area.
“Beau and I are still in talks with other cities to get us some help.” Bàba rubbed his chin where he had grown a short beard.
He stepped over a piece of wood from the gangway.
“Now with the trashing of our neighboring port, they could have killed more innocents. Thankfully, that port was empty. And Emily and Beau demand we step up our efforts to destroy the mer for the harm they’ve done. ”
“What are you going to do?” Angie jittered a foot against the floor.
“Keep working with them. They’re going to increase our funding.” He gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze. “Nick will take care of things here.” He looked to his right, and Angie’s stomach performed a somersault. “Looks like we spoke you into existence.”
“You did.” Nick slapped Bàba’s shoulder with a hearty laugh, and Bàba thumped Nick’s shoulder in return. “Talking about me?”
“Yes, I’m bringing Angie up to speed.”
“I’m still here.” She hated it when people talked about her like she wasn’t standing five feet away from them.
“Sorry, Beibei, but yes, now that you’re all filled in, I have to get started on the long list of things I have to do. Nick, watch over her, okay?”
Angie blanched, and Bàba took his leave.
“Oh, I will.” Nick said the words in earnest, but Angie caught the smug smirk when he turned back around to her.
The smirk disappeared once they stood face-to-face.
“Oh, Angela. An unfortunate day may come when Bàba isn’t here anymore, and then you’ll have to listen to me.
Why don’t you make the transition a little easier and learn your place now? ”
She kept her gaze averted from him.
A wide grin spread over his face. “You can start by scrubbing. There’re dried and leftover blood stains on the floors and walls from the mer we’ve killed so far. But we’ve been too short-staffed to sterilize it. Lots of the cleaning crew are gone. Taken by the mer, those slimy fucks.”
Angie glared at him. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope.” He pulled a sad face, and she knew he was mocking her. “You’re also going to help the cleaning crew dispose of the dead mer. You can do whatever you want. Burn them, cut them up, leave them by the coast for the mer to see, feed them to the sharks for all I care.”
A web of ice spun through her body, her heartbeat slowing to a crawl. Most of all, she knew Mer-King Aqilus’s body was amongst them, and she couldn’t bear the thought of throwing Kaden’s father away like a piece of trash. “No. That’s not what I’m here to do.”
“Nobody else refused because they all know we need to work together. What’s the matter, Angela? Afraid of a little mer blood? You shouldn’t be, given your close bond with them!”
Her cheeks froze.
“Yeah. I know about Kaden. And Adrielle and Cyrus. That you and my family had a nice little meetup with them recently.” Nick moved closer so he was inches away, his mouth upturned into a snarl. A blast of overpowering peppermint struck her nose from the gum he was chewing.
“W-what are you talking about?” Angie’s mind raced, racking her brain as to how he knew. She hadn’t seen anyone else around, made sure of it.
Rosie could have slipped.
Or Mia.
No. She loathed to think of that possibility.
“Don’t you know my wife tells me everything?” He jerked toward her, his posture threatening, and backed away, leaving Angie shaking in her boots. “I suggest that if you don’t want your father knowing what you’ve been doing, or for us to hunt down your lover and his family, you’ll do what I say.”
He spun on his heel and stormed away.
Angie stared after him, holding her head. “Why, Mia?”
She grew hot as her temperature climbed. Nick knew because Mia told him. Begging the question of what else he knew and wasn’t telling her. She replayed his words over and over in her head, and she never felt so exposed and vulnerable.
8:15 AM
Mia: Hey Angie, you okay? Call me back when you get this, okay?
*Beep*
1:05 PM
Mia: Uh hey, it’s me again. Angie, seriously, you good? Everything okay? Call me.
*Beep*
4:27 PM
Missed call from Mia.
Angie listened to their landline’s voice messages, for the third day in a row since her confrontation with Nick. She picked up the phone, finger hovering over the numbers, starting to dial Mia’s number. At seven in the morning, she would be home getting ready for work like Angie.
She stopped dialing and hung up the phone before completing the number.
When evening came around, Angie stood with six other workers at the main gangway. The sun still beat down on her head, and she took her sunscreen stick out of her pocket and applied another layer over her face.
The dead mer lay in a pile, and a male worker tapped his foot on the ground. “What should we do with them? Nick said we can do whatever we want.”
Angie looked to the mer-king’s corpse. A pain in her chest flickered. She hadn’t wanted to throw him away with the others. At the very least, she could give him a decent burial on the beach.
“We could bury them,” she said, looking at the other workers.
“Gross. Why?” A female worker wrinkled her nose. “You know how much time that’s going to take? I’m exhausted. I want to get away from the water and go home.”
“I’m not even getting overtime pay for this,” the male worker grumbled.
“Yeah, like we’re going to stand even closer to the water and dig their graves. Great idea.” Another female rolled her eyes at Angie, and then walked closer to the mer. “Let’s just throw them back in.”
“I agree,” another male worker chimed in.
Angie didn’t think she would get any help from them, so their answer didn’t surprise her. Maybe that was for the best. The mer could find his body and bring him home to their proper cemetery.
She stepped forward and helped push the mer into the water.
“Angela!” Nick’s voice boomed in her direction not a minute after she stepped foot onto the docks.
Angie clenched her jaw. “What, Nick?”
“You’re not easy to find.” Nick panted when he caught up with her.
She stared at him like he had sprouted an extra pair of eyes. “I’ve been at my station all day.”
“Oh!” Nick slapped the back of his hand to his forehead in false surprise. “I figured you might be hanging out with the mer again. Maybe even plotting against us, your own people. I went down the seashore to see if you were hiding there.”
No surprise that he had to jab at her. He had been doing it nonstop the past three days. “What do you want?”
Nick’s expression sobered. “Do you know how to spearfish?”
“Yes.” She put her hands on her hips.
“Okay, good. Because you’re going with some of my divers to go mer hunting.”
“Now?” She straightened up.
“No, tomorrow.”
“It’s not safe to bring boats out. There might be mer around who could ambush you.” She vocalized the first reason that came to her head to dissuade him, futile as it may be.
“That’s the point, Angela. And not to worry.
” He waved a dismissive hand at her. “We found a safe route. These boats are as quiet as they come. Plus, you’ll be wearing some nifty equipment on your wetsuit that’ll block electrical waves.
” Nick threw her a look of annoyance. “Have you forgotten you still need to follow my orders? I promise you’ll be safe.
I wouldn’t put my precious sister-in-law in danger.
” The mocking tone when he said sister-in-law grated her nerves.
A sense of unease made her skin prickle. “No, I’m not proficient enough with a speargun to catch them.” She stared him down in defiance.
“Is that so?” Nick’s foot tap, tap, tapped on the ground. “Then you better learn, fast! You’re a smart girl, aren’t you?” He raised his voice so it thundered over her head, and nearby workers stopped to stare.
His tone sent a shock winding through her veins.
Nick waved the other workers away, and they scattered.
“Be up bright and early tomorrow morning. Nobody is to come back without at least one kill or capture. We’ll show those fish that they can’t attack us and think they can get away with it.
” He threw her one last pointed glare before he checked his watch and jogged off.
She had to do something. A plan began to take hold in her mind, and she walked in the opposite direction of him and made her way to the warehouse, where the spearguns were stored. After a glance around to make sure she was alone, she made quick work of jamming the safeties.
Tomorrow, the divers, and likely Stefan or Ken would inspect the spearguns before they went out, and finding them out of order, would delay the hunt while they worked to procure more.
It was futile to think that it would cause Nick to call it off, but at the very least, it would give her time to think of something else in the interim.
Angie leaned against the railing by the shoreline later in the evening, staring out to the open sea.
The destroyed gangway below was under repair, but the construction crew took their time.
Only a smattering of gangplanks had been put down, filling in the broken spaces closest to the docks.
She wasn’t to meet Kaden today, but she still hoped he’d come by so she could tell him about tomorrow, and he could give his people fair warning.
He never came.
“Look who washed up from the high seas.”
Stefan approached, and her wide smile conveyed her happiness as she slapped hands with him in greeting. “We’re going to run into each other every time we’re in this spot, huh?”
“Yep. One of my favorite places to go. Best view from the sea is from here. Before the mer tainted it, I mean, but it’s still beautiful.” Stefan shrugged one shoulder.
“Came for another stroll?” Angie cast a sideways glance at him.
“Well, Nick asked me to come out on this hunting trip tomorrow morning. I got here an hour ago making sure there was enough gear to go around. Make sure the suits were fitted with the electrical impulse inhibitor. This way nobody has to bring anything tomorrow. We got some extra funds from our mayor, so we could get some upgrades and newer equipment.” He rolled his shoulders out and shifted his weight from side to side.
“Was about to head out, but I wanted to check out the view. Happened to see you here.”
“You decided to go out too?” She squeezed her hands tighter together, cracking her knuckles.
“I didn’t want to.” Stefan sucked in a breath and clenched his fist. “I never like taking lives. Especially something so human like the mer.”
“Then why do it?”
“Why are you going?” His voice raised a notch, a slight tremor arising.
“I didn’t have a choice. Nick said he needed my help. I couldn’t say no,” she muttered.
“I wasn’t thrilled, but Ken persuaded me. We can’t keep letting the mer push us around like this.”
“Yeah, okay. Um, look, I have to get going. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Angie choked out, keeping her head low and taking her leave.
She quickened her pace to make the ferry, and her stomach clenched and contracted, threatening to upchuck the tea and half cup of bitter melon soup she had for lunch.