Chapter 41 #2
“Nick, why don’t you start? You wanted to be here too, right?” Bàba motioned to Nick, and Angie kept her posture tall, her hands on her lap, staring him dead in the eyes.
She swore Nick flinched a smidgen at her hard stare.
Good.
“So, what do you have to say for yourself after you attacked me?” He spoke with spite, but avoided her stare.
“You started it.” Angie kept her angry glare fixed on him.
“Beibei, what has gotten into you?” Bàba cut in.
“Wait, what?” Angie threw out her hands. “He was holding me down and saying horrible things in French.”
Bàba’s face remained stony. “A few other workers who witnessed the altercation confirmed Nick’s story. You attacked him.”
Angie suppressed a groan. Of course, Marc and Ian took his side.
Nick sighed. “This is what I get for worrying about you.”
“What are you talking about?” Angie’s hands balled into tight fists.
“About yesterday. I had to go out of my way to find out where you were. Make sure you were okay.”
Liar.
“I think we have seen enough, yes? Angela, I got worried about you when you didn’t show up for your shift on time.” Bàba looked at his watch, as if to make a point. “So we went to look for you.”
Figures Nick didn’t tell Bàba the real reason, that he wanted to catch her red-handed with Kaden.
He shook his head slowly, a move he was fond of when he was upset with her and Mia. “But it didn’t look like you needed help.”
The undercurrents of his disappointment in her ran deep. This was one of the few times he didn’t call her by her nickname.
He hadn’t changed in that aspect from when Angie was a child.
“But how–how did you know where I was?” Angie’s voice was small, and she hated how meek she sounded at that moment. Her posture wilted.
“That mermaid told me. Didn’t even have to force it out of her.” Nick leaned back and kicked his feet straight, crossing his ankles over each other, clearly relishing the moment.
Angie’s blood boiled.
Bàba narrowed his eyes at Nick. “So how did you get it out of her?”
“I didn’t.”
Kaden had told her that most non-royal and non-noble mer didn’t speak human languages. “But how did you understand her? I couldn’t.” Angie couldn’t imagine why Aurora would tell Nick, after his cronies killed her lifemate in front of her.
“Well, once I got her to kiss me, I could magically understand her. By the way, not a fan. Breath was a little fishy. How do you bear it with your fishboy?”
“They don’t smell fishy. You were probably sniffing your own stank breath.” Angie clenched her fists. “Wait, you kissed her before you knew about their magic?” She could kick him in the crotch again.
Nick’s mouth snapped shut, as if he realized what he just admitted.
“You went behind my daughter’s back?” Bàba asked through clenched teeth.
“N-no, I knew about the magic, I was t-taking it—” Redness crept up to Nick’s cheeks from his neck.
Angie crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back in her chair and glared at Nick.
“That’s not what you said.” Bàba pointed at him. “We’re not done discussing this, and I’ll deal with you when we’ve settled the war. But that is a separate matter. For now, continue with what you were saying.”
Nick was now the same shade as a red sea star.
“So, I realized that when that merman tried to drown me. He said a lot of awful things about humans. Oh, she got into a little fight with that merman next to her. I guess he’s some prince, or something.
” Nick pursed his lips. “So long story short, he tried to stop her, but she told him she didn’t care.
That the royal family caused her lifemate to die because of this war. So, my gain.”
Angie stared at Nick, unblinking, like Lulu had been when she saw Kaden.
“But, Angela.” The initial smugness on Nick’s face had become replaced with hints of regret and guilt.
“I wanted to believe you weren’t a traitor.
I hoped I was wrong. Yes, I told your dad that I was worried about you.
I had my suspicions for a while, though I kept them to myself because I wasn’t sure what you were up to.
I wanted to see for myself.” He turned to Bàba.
“Sorry. I should have told you earlier. Who knows what kind of information she’s given to the mer? ”
“No.” Bàba shook his head. “I appreciate you bringing it to my attention.”
“So, you ratted me out, Nick. I thought so. I talked to their Queen. I had a letter from her.” Angie spat out each word, sharp and spiteful. “She wants to negotiate with you, Bàba.”
“Then where’s the letter?” Bàba asked.
“I lost it when I was trying to stop Kaden from being shot again. But if you’re willing, I’ll find a way to relay the message to them.” She would tell Cyrus or Adrielle, but Bàba and Nick couldn’t know she was planning to sneak him out.
“Don’t blame Nick. He was trying to do the right thing.” Bàba’s timbre was so sharp it cut right through her. “I’m not negotiating with them, after they destroyed part of our docks and that merman tried to drown Nick.”
“Nick was hurting the mermaid he loved.” Angie’s shoulders and limbs shook at the memory.
Bàba held up his hands, and she stopped talking.
“They’re violent and unpredictable. And you betrayed us.
Defied my orders, which were for your safety!
For a merman?” He looked down at his hands, and took in a shaking breath.
“He could have hurt or killed you, and I would never have known what happened. I already spent too much time away from you and Mia when I was deployed. I will not lose you to our enemy.”
“Kaden would never—”
“How do you know what this Kaden will and will not do? You’ve known him for what, three months? Two months? I don’t even know when you met him.” Bàba lifted his head, and an angry flush colored his face and neck.
Bàba’s desk phone rang, vibrating on the desk.
The sudden sound broke the silence, and he picked it up, listening to whoever was on the other end.
“Okay, give me ten minutes.” He dropped the receiver with a clang, hanging up the phone.
“Trouble at the warehouse. Some supplies are missing. Now we have a thief. But we’re not done yet.
Both of you will come with me.” He motioned for them to follow, and they did.
Bàba continued once he had locked up his office.
“Angela, I don’t think we can trust you to be around here. ”
Her fingers gripped hard at her cargo pants, bunching them up.
“You’re fired.”
Two words were all it took for the blood to drain from Angie’s face and a ghostly fist to punch the wind out of her. The air around her turned to piercing ice, ripping and numbing her skin.
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I need these last thirty hours or they won’t let me start my grad program.
These last couple hundred so I have enough to pay off my entire tuition.
I have a few weeks left, there’s no way I can find another job and make that much that fast. You know that. Can’t you—”
“You put us in danger.” Bàba’s authoritative tones carried over her protests.
“Our people Nick sent to check on you reported that you told the mer-prince about us. Meeting him here, at the docks. Who knows what he’s learned while in our docks?
What you told him of our plans?” The vein in his forehead engorged.
“And you broke my trust. You knew where the fish were, and you kept it to yourself.” Bàba shook his head. “I expected better from you.”
Angie drew her head back, speechless. In the course of hours, she lost the man she loved, her job, and her family’s trust. To her, it was everything.
He continued. “Actions have consequences. You know that. And we were about to finish this once and for all. We know where their palace is.”
“How do you know that?” she whispered, fearing the answer even as she knew what it would be.
“Divers used the mer’s magic to investigate. Saw their palace. Reported it back to us,” Nick answered for Bàba.
Angie’s feet went cold.
“Oh, come back, and you’ll never see Rosie again, and I’ll make sure of it.” Nick’s self-satisfied smirk returned; his glare fixed on her.
“No, you can’t.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Mia won’t allow it.”
“You’re concerned about what Mia will think?
She’ll do what I ask her, and she’ll do anything to keep her family together.
Whose side do you think she’ll be on? Her deceitful sister who bailed out on the family as soon as she was old enough, and can’t even be bothered to return her calls the last few days while she worried sick about you?
” He put his hands on his hips, fingers tightening and forearm muscles bulging.
“Or her husband, who’s been by her side this entire time? ”
Angie bit back tears. “She wouldn’t,” she said, trying to convince herself more than Nick.
“And I will not allow it. Nick, she’s been punished. Leave her alone.” Bàba’s authoritative tone shut Nick up.
Nick grumbled, “Yes, sir.”
Bàba turned back to Angie, and his angry glare pierced into the corners of her heart. “They are starving us. Killing our men and women. Killed the mayor’s son, killed more innocents with that reckless wave they caused, and you ran into their arms?”
Not theirs. Just his. Kaden’s. Yet protesting it would make no difference, she was sure.
The slow, controlled inflection when he spoke struck Angie with dread. Bàba walked away silently, leaving her alone with Nick.
Nick folded his arms and puffed out his chest.
Angie straightened up. “What the hell is wrong with you? Threatening to never let me see Rosie again? Not telling my dad the truth about why you wanted to come with him and look for me? How about stealing that mermaid’s magic, and that your buddies shot her husband right in front of her?
Also, you cheated on my sister, you piece of shit. ”
“It wasn’t what it looked like with that fishy chick. And I’ll talk to Dad when he’s calmed down.” He waved her off.
“You’re not talking your way out of this.”
“Yeah, I will. And what does it matter to you, now that you can’t go anywhere near those goddamned fish, anyway?
” Nick’s foot made a rhythmic tap, tap, tap against the concrete.
“I could ask the same about you. The mer have killed men and women I call lifelong friends. They killed Eva, who was your friend, and left her daughter an orphan. Still, you went, what, gallivanting around with one of them?” He closed the distance between them, his upper lip curled and exposing his top row of teeth.
She held firm in her stance, even as his next words sent a sickening wave through her limbs.
“But it doesn’t matter now. We’ll hit them right where they live, and show them who the dominant species is on this Earth. ”