Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
JAX
Iwas reaching my breaking point. There's only so much loss a person can take before they wonder why they allow anyone close to them in the first place. Morgan's tendencies to distance himself made more sense now that I was experiencing much of the same.
When I lost my mom, I thought I'd never be able to survive without her.
My sister and I clung to each other and became each other's rock.
My dad was in his own head and spent more and more time working.
He felt he owed it to my mom since ocean pollution is what caused her illness that turned into constant lung infections.
Now my sister was facing the same fate, and my dad's intensity since my mother's death made sense. Our people were slowly dying because of carelessness.
I pulled into the parking lot of the underground facility and looked over at Riley in the passenger seat. She'd asked a lot of questions about it at first—mostly about the people who worked there and what they did— but fell silent during the ten-mile drive through the tunnel.
"I know you said you'd be fine, but I can take you home if you don't want to come with me." I gripped the steering wheel and hoped that wasn't the case. I wanted her with me today.
"It's just a lot to take in." She unhooked her seatbelt and turned to face me. "The last time I was down here I was passed out."
I frowned and shut my car off, staring out the front window. "I wish that wouldn't have been your introduction to our... your world."
She put her hand on my arm. "I know, but it happened, and I wonder if I'm safe."
"I won't let anything happen to you, you know that right?" I looked at her and took her hand, bringing it to my lips and kissing the palm.
She was quiet for a moment and my heart sank into my stomach. With everything that had happened since her birthday, we hadn't really had it out about how much of an asshole I had been.
"I'm not angry anymore, but there's still a small part of me that worries that things could change in an instant." She let go of my hand and touched the pearls I'd given her. "What do these mean?"
My face heated and I looked away. Damn, I'd really stuck my neck out there. Making her the necklace with Blake and Morgan had been a risk. We had been wanting to talk to her about it, but the timing was never right.
She took my chin between her thumb and forefinger, like I often did to her, and made me look at her. She searched my eyes and smiled sheepishly. "You're embarrassed?"
I snorted. "Me? No." Yeah, I was a little bit. "When a triton male finds a woman he wants to court as a mate for himself, he finds the best pearl and gifts it to her."
"But there are three pearls here. Does that mean you all..." She looked down at it and then back at me. "Why didn't you tell me what it meant?"
"It never felt like the right time. We've been meaning to sit down and talk about where this is going, but every time we plan to, something happens." My phone dinged with a message and I looked at the screen. "Case in point... It's our appointment time."
She blew out a breath. "I'm as ready as I'm going to be."
We got out of the car and I took her hand as I led her to the security checkpoint. The facility had to always be top notch with security. If one thing went wrong, the entire operation would sink, quite literally.
The ten-mile tunnel had several security scans along the way and places where the tunnel could be shut off to limit damage.
The parking lot was a completely separate area from both the tunnel and the facility.
The facility remained closed off besides the brief moments the doors opened to allow access.
We walked into the security area and two guards scanned us with their wands before the door buzzed and opened, allowing us into another tunnel.
"This is crazy." Riley squeezed my hand as we came to another door that buzzed before letting us into a reception area. "This really makes me wonder what the government has in terms of secret facilities."
"Very similar, just not underwater." I waved to the receptionist, who buzzed us into the medical wing. "It takes a lot of work to keep a place like this secret."
The medical smell always made me inwardly gag; it was a mixture of saltwater and cleaning solution. It was a smell I was becoming all too familiar with. First with my mom, and now with my sister.
We entered my sister's room, and I breathed a sigh of relief that she was still floating in her tank. My worst fear was coming to visit her and her just being... gone. I knew eventually the time would come when my dad would finally decide to let her go, but he wasn't ready yet and neither was I.
"This is how you should have met her the first time." I put my hand on the glass. "Riley, meet Olivia."
With tears in her eyes, Riley put her hand next to mine and let out a shaky breath. "Olivia is a beautiful name."
We stood there for a few minutes in silence and then I pulled two chairs over so we could sit. "My dad won't let her go."
She took my hand and threaded our fingers together. "I imagine that's a really hard decision for a parent to make."
I scratched my jaw, willing myself not to break down in tears.
I'd cried so many tears since it happened that I could have filled a tank.
"For a while, I thought she'd come out of it.
She was young and healthy. There was no reason for her to get this sick.
Others who were older with other health problems recovered just fine from the same thing. It's not fair."
She was quiet, and I looked over at her to see tears streaming down her face. Fuck. I bit my lip and reached with my free hand to wipe her tears.
"I'm sorry." She sniffled and wiped the other cheek. "I'm so sorry my family did this."
I pulled on her hand and guided her to sit on my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck as I buried my face against her. "Your father did this and he's paid the price."
It had been so easy for me to get caught up in seeking vengeance for my sister that I had ignored my brain telling me Riley had nothing to do with the pain I was feeling. Hurting her to try to get to Robert was one of the worse decisions I'd ever made. Order or not, there was always my free will.
We stayed a little longer and then left the room. We were almost to the exit for the medical facility when an alarm sounded and secondary doors slid shut throughout the facility, closing off all patient rooms from the hallway.
"What's happening?" Riley was panicked as I pulled her to a stop to wait for direction. "Are we stuck in here?"
"Just certain doors and areas lock down. The beep is a panic beep. It means we need to wait for instruction. Most of the time it happens when a ship gets too close or something like that." I heard the medical personnel at the end of the hall talking, but they didn't sound frantic.
A loud boom shook the floor and the overhead lights flickered. Riley clung to me and I moved us back to the door of my sister's room. The door was still sealed, but through the glass it looked to be business as usual.
The loud noise sounded again, and this time the lights went out and the emergency lights turned on, casting a red glow down the hallway. The main power had been compromised.
"All nonessential personnel, please evacuate immediately through the escape pods and tunnels," the prerecorded voice blared over the loudspeakers. What the hell had happened?
"Fuck." I took one last look in my sister's room and then grabbed Riley's hand, running down the hall.
We were the only ones in the corridor since all medical personnel were essential and we were the only guests that were in the hall when the rooms locked. I didn't want to leave my sister behind, but the security doors wouldn't open without an admiral overriding them.
"Jax, I'm scared." Riley was already shaking as I opened the escape room door. I knew she hated the escape pod, but it was the only way we were getting out of the facility.
The ground shook again with what I could only assume was another explosion, and I quickly pressed the button to ready a pod. In an emergency, access cards weren't needed to evacuate. The pod didn't open, and I pressed the button again.
"Motherfucker!" I went to another pod and then another, none of them functioning.
What the hell had exploded and caused the pods to be compromised? The escape path had to be blocked by something because they would turn on otherwise.
"Riley." I turned to her and shut my eyes for a moment, trying to stay calm. It was hard when the woman you had just promised to protect was in danger. "We're going to have to go without a pod."
"What?" Her voice was an octave higher and it made my head go fuzzy.
I rubbed at my temple and blinked several times, clearing the disorientation. The last thing we needed was for me to be incapacitated or confused.
She backed up and ran into a pod, nearly falling over it. She was starting to breathe heavily and brought her hand to her throat. I didn't exactly know what happened, but I was fairly certain she had just used some siren mojo on me.
"I need you to stay calm so that doesn't happen." I kicked off my shoes and started yanking off my socks. "Strip down."
"Strip down?" She had rested her ass against a pod and bent over to put her hands on her knees. "I don't know if I can do this, Jax."
Another boom exploded, and the emergency lights went out. My eyes instantly adjusted, and I touched Riley's arm so she'd know where I was. "I need you to get undressed. We can't risk you shifting with clothes on."
We both finished undressing. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked around the room. I didn't know how well sirens could see or if she even had that capability yet.
I took her hand and led her to the door leading to the emergency exit. Once we were inside, it sealed shut and we went through another door, which did the same thing. The room started filling with water and I pulled her against me.
"It's going to come in fast in a second, and once the room is full, the outer door will open so we can get out of here." I kissed her gently. "Can you hold your breath for thirty seconds? That's how long it should take me to get us to the surface."
"I think so." She buried her face against my chest. "What about the pressure of the water?"
I sometimes hated how smart she was. "I don't know. We're going to have to take the risk. If you were human I'd be worried, but you aren't."
The intercom system made a horrible squealing noise, and we both covered our ears. "This announcement is for someone special. He's coming for you."
I didn't have time to say anything as the water rushed into the room. I shifted and grabbed Riley around the waist as the outer doors opened.
I could already see the tunnels the pods shot through were damaged and didn't waste any time heading to the surface. I had no time to look back to see what was happening, but in my periphery, I caught a flash of an explosive leaving a submarine.
My heart raced as we neared the surface. Riley's face was straining from holding her breath. She just needed to hold on for a few more seconds.
Something hit me from the side, and we tumbled in the water, my arms trying to hold onto her, but the hit was too hard. I recovered quickly and an eardrum-shattering sound hit my ears. I covered them and looked around frantically for Riley.
A flash of purple caught my attention and Riley slammed into me just as a shark—definitely not Bubba— came at me with open jaws.
Her eyes were wide and panicked. Sharks were circling us, and she clutched onto me.
She opened her mouth to speak and then slammed it shut when the high-pitched noise came out of her mouth.
She'd told us her mom spoke normally to her underwater, but she didn't seem to have control over her siren's voice yet.
The sharks had quickly surrounded us, and we didn't have a way to escape. I could still hear the faint booming of explosives and my own panic spiraled out of control inside of me, thinking about my sister.
"Riley. Come to me and this can all stop." The voice was distorted and coming from the direction of the submarine, but I knew immediately who it was.
I glanced over at Riley, who was gritting her teeth like she wanted to say something. Her siren form was something I'd not thought much about. She mentioned her mom had a purple tail, but that was it.
That wasn't it.
Her hair fell down her back in a glistening wave of brown that was laced with purple. Her skin was clear, and her eyes were the color of the greenest emeralds. Her nipples were covered with patches of purple iridescent scales that matched her tail, which started just below her belly button.
"What are we going to do?" she whispered.
Her voice had taken on a seductive quality and my eyes felt heavy hearing it. She mouthed sorry and turned in a circle, trying to find an exit from the shark whirlpool we were stuck in the middle of.
"Is that a seal?" She pointed to the left of us, squinting.
I turned and looked, and racing toward us was Cecilia, with Bubba not far behind. They stopped before they got to us and Cecilia held out her paw.
"What the-" Bubba opened his mouth and chomped down on her foot. "Bubba!" I went to swim forward and Riley grabbed me with more strength than even a triton had.
All the sharks stopped circling and their eyes went to Cecilia, who was bleeding from her front foot. She started swimming away, with Bubba right behind her. I wasn't happy with their ploy to help us, but it worked. The sharks took off after them.
"Why would she do that?" Riley's voice returned to normal and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"They're trained to protect us. Even if that means doing stupid shit like that." I swam in the direction of the house because there was no way I was going to risk Dylan turning his fire on the city.
We weren't safe anywhere now.