Chapter 17
Kiora
THE ONE AND ONLY TIME I had flown on a plane, I thought I died inside. But today? Waves have mercy, that was terrifying. Mermaids did not belong in the air.
On the bright side, I felt this cautious excitement at the idea that I wasn’t alone. Troy had come with me, and he hadn’t left me in the caves to do it alone. He was staying. He was also helping in ways I never could’ve imagined, and he wasn’t the only one. He had friends willing to drop what they were doing to help just because he asked them to.
Troy lifted my bag from where Azar had left it, presumably to bring it deeper into the cave, but in actuality, he just stood there, staring at it. “Are you carrying bricks in this thing?”
“No, just my kettlebell,” I answered, pleased beyond belief that Azar had thought to bring my things. I had left them behind because I didn’t want to look suspicious hauling that giant bag through the whole town.
“Right. I think Myrtle mentioned something about it the first time I came in to fix my questionnaire.” He frowned, but this time, it didn’t seem to be directed at the backpack he was still holding. “Your eyes were green in the profile photo.”
“What?” No. I wouldn’t have messed up that badly. No way.
I pulled out my phone and went to the app to check. Sure enough, my eyes were green. Had I forgotten to wear my contacts the day I had taken it?
When had I taken this photo, anyway? Oh, right, it was two weeks ago. I had my obligatory days off, and the truck stop was right next to the state park. It didn’t look like I’d run into anyone there, so I had given my eyes a break. Had it given me away?
“Don’t beat yourself up over it. Mistakes happen,” Troy said as he finally walked into the living room and put my bag next to the sectional I was sitting on.
“I have been on the run for years. So far, I’ve only had two close calls, but never this close. I fucked up, Troy. I fucked up bad enough I’ll have to start over.”
He sat down next to me, then scooped me up and put me on his lap. “You’re still free, and you’re not alone now. I’ll never let those assholes get their hands on you.”
“I can’t just stay here with you, not as long as they’re still after me,” I pointed out the obvious problem.
“Just because they’re relentless doesn’t mean they’re unbeatable. A lot of people are working very hard to take them down.”
That didn’t help. At all. It might take another decade to take them down, considering how long they had already been around.
“In the meantime, I need to get a new identity.” And a new style of clothes. Maybe I need to get a beauty mark in a different place from the one I had before. With all my savings, I might even be able to get a nose job.
“No. You know what those assholes hate? People with teeth and claws who would fight back. And you? You have more than just your own teeth and claws—you have mine, too. No one is taking you from me. No one. Understand?”
I buried my face in his neck and inhaled, letting his scent calm me. What he was saying seemed impossible, but maybe he was right. Maybe I didn’t have to keep running.
He squeezed me tighter, then relaxed his grip on me. “So, you want to tell me why you have a kettlebell in your bag?”
“So, I can swing it at people’s heads when they try to grab me, obviously.” I kissed his cheek. “Sitting in one spot all day hurts my back unless I exercise. Someone recommended I keep a kettlebell around because it doesn’t take much space and you can do a lot with it, so that’s what I got. So far, it works.”
“I figured you worked out by swimming laps around your truck.”
Considering my truck no longer had a roof, I actually liked the idea of driving it into a lake and swimming around it in celebration. “I wish.”
“Do you like driving for a living?” Troy’s eyes were so full of understanding, like he already knew the answer but wanted me to admit it so he could talk me into staying with him.
“I’m just driving out of spite because my English teacher told me I couldn’t make a living staring out of the window.”
Troy cracked a smile. “I get that, but can you at least semi-retire?”
Oh, my waves, not the puns. Not the puns!
I tried not to laugh. I really did, but it bubbled out of me like I was a can of soda on a bumpy road.
“You don’t get it. If I retire, how will I ever enjoy sea-nic routes? Besides, I feel like I’m really making waves in the trucking industry.”
“Damn, for someone who complains about puns, you sure know how to use them.”
And Troy sure knew how to distract me. I felt so much better already. “All jokes aside, I’d love to settle in a town like Whynot, I just don’t know if it’s possible.”
“It’s possible,” he assured me, then lifted my chin and gave me a quick kiss. “Just trust me, okay? I’ll make it happen.”
I nodded, but I still wasn’t sure I could actually stay. Before I could voice my doubts, though, a loud thump came from the mouth of the cave.
“You two had better be decent because I’m barging in,” Azar said as he strolled into the living room. Living cave?
I still couldn’t believe I was in the mountains in a cave, and I wasn’t completely freaked out by it. The cave was so nice it didn’t even faze me, although air was a bit thin up here.
“Is that food you have there?” I asked, eager to dig in since I hadn’t had breakfast yet.
“It is.” He handed me a tin that looked very pie-shaped. Smelled like one, too. “Liora made this for you.”
I peered inside to find a perfect apple pie with golden crust, the smell of cinnamon and just complete and total perfection. “This looks so good. Thank you and give Liora my thanks.”
Azar grinned at that and pulled out a giant basket of fruits and veggies. My mouth watered just looking at them.
“What are these alien-looking things?” Troy pointed at the strange pods that had caught my attention the first time I had seen them.
“Winged beans,” I answered.
Troy’s nostrils flared. “Do I smell fish?”
Azar opened a cooler to reveal fish, still alive and thrashing. “Got it from The Phantom Angler.”
That woke Kitty up. She crouched like she was ready to pounce on the fish, and I couldn’t blame her. We’d never had fish this fresh.
“Go ahead,” Azar said to me, waving at the fish. “You won’t offend my sensibilities. The last time I went hunting, I...”
Before he had a chance to finish his sentence, I’d already grabbed the biggest fish and sank my teeth in it. The scales didn’t taste good, but everything else more than made up for it.
Azar laughed. “You eat like a selkie.”
Kitty growled at him, but her growl came from my chest. Oops.