Catch of a Lifetime (32 page)

   All thanks to the woman who was down there, facing God-knew what. He wanted to go back. But the sharks… Michael…

   No. She'd given up her freedom—possibly her life— to save Michael's; Logan wouldn't jeopardize that. Angel wouldn't want him to.

   But he couldn't just leave her there. "Can you distract the sharks?"

   "What?" The captain's toothy grin opened in shock.

   "Can you distract the sharks? And take my son to safety. I'm going back."

   The captain closed her mouth and nodded. "We can, and we'll protect the child. It's a very courageous thing you're doing. Thank you and gods-speed, Human."

   Logan didn't want to leave Michael, but what choice did he have? He couldn't leave Angel down there.

   He wrapped Michael's arms around a dorsal fin. "Hold on tight, okay?"

   "Okay. Are we gonna race?"

   "In a little bit. There's something I have to take care of first. Now hold on, I'm counting on you." He tucked Michael's hat into the waistband of the boy's shorts, then dropped a kiss onto his temple. "I love you, son."

   Michael's smile appeared, the gap between his teeth reminding Logan of the discarded shark teeth Angel had found and what she was facing. He definitely couldn't leave her to the sea monster's mercy.

   "I love you, too, Log—Dad."

   The dolphin arced then, tail rippling the water, and Michael headed to shore with half the contingent, while the other half took off back toward the palace.

He'd finally gotten the Dad. And Angel wasn't around to hear it.

"HOSTAGE?" CETO TAPPED HER FINGERNAILS AGAINST HER lip, her tails now alternating between red and orange.

   Well, at least Angel had brought the threat level down. A red tail wasn't much of an improvement, but it beat black. A black sea-monster tail was never good.

   "You know, that could work." Ceto started circling her. "Although I did try that with your brother, but he and his
Human
managed to get away."

   Angel had heard the story enough times that she knew it by heart. She also knew she was signing her own death warrant by saying what she was about to, but she had to do this to save the men she loved.

   "You put Erica in a regular room, Ceto, not a cell. She was able to get out and free Reel."

   "Yeah, who knew a Human had that many smarts?" Ceto's tails flared, then went back to being black. "I'll never make that mistake again. I had a new bedchamber specially made when The Council and I hammered out the deal about Joey. He hasn't gone anywhere."

   According to Erica, Joey's ex-girlfriend and Reel's wife, it wasn't a surprise that Joey hadn't, nor, frankly, anything to be upset about.

   "So, you're suggesting I hold
you
for ransom until The Council permits me to procreate again?" A sooth ing aquamarine color panned across Ceto's tails, and her curls relaxed to soft ringlets around her shoulders. The sea monster almost looked pretty.

   Then she turned sharply and the curls sprang back into tight coils, the tails went dark purple, and her eyes narrowed. "How long do you think that's going to take? Rod is one stubborn Son-of-a-Mer and I'm not exactly a fan of having another female around."

   "I'm sure Rod will want to meet with you as soon as he learns what's happened, Ceto. But you have to let Logan and Michael go. What's one child in the face of being allowed to have as many as you want again?"

   This time, when everything softened on the sea mon ster, she did look pretty. "Oh, to hold one again, to feel its soft, cuddly body against me." She smiled, and for the first time since Angel had known her, it reached her eyes. "There's nothing like it. Nothing at all. Their un conditional love…"

   She sighed, and her tails turned the palest shades of pink and blue. "Children are one of the things the gods have managed to do right. They don't judge you or care what you look like or what other people think. Everything is new through their eyes, everything such a wonder and so exciting. Anything is possible. They bring such hope. Hope for a better world. Hope that you can do some good yourself, you know? That you can love them and guide them, then set them forth in the world to carry a part of you with them, biologically or otherwise. They have the possibility to do and become so much. To touch others." She leaned back against the stage, her flukes fluttering. "There's nothing like having a child, Angel. Nothing at all."

   Ceto closed her eyes, and her arms cradled an imaginary infant, and for a moment, Angel felt sorry for her.

   "But those bastards took that away from me."

   There went that moment.

   Ceto's eyes flew open as her tail turned as black as the deepest part of the deepest ocean, her eyes as hard as cooled magma, and her hair as twisted as any whirlpool she'd ever spun in her Bermuda-Triangle mood.

   "Yes, I do think your ransom idea has merit, Angel."

   "So you'll let them go?"

   "Let them go? Come on, Angel, I may be a softie when it comes to children, but I'm not stupid. The only way to ensure your compliance is to keep them locked away. Once I get what I want, you can have what you want. If I don't get it, well then sorry, you don't either."

   "You old bitch—" Angel lunged toward Ceto, but at that moment a tiger shark zipped into the room.

   "My Goddess! It's Brutus. He's been knifed!" The shark was practically in a frenzy.

   "Knifed?" Ceto growled.

   Knifed? Angel felt a glimmer of hope.
That's
what Logan had grabbed from his tackle box.

   "Yes. In the corridor. And the prisoner has escaped with your child."

   Escaped! They were free! Angel wanted to twirl, she was so giddy.

   And then suddenly, she
was
twirling. Only this time, it wasn't because she was giddy.

   No, this time, it was all Ceto's doing.

Logan heard Michael's squeals of laughter as the dol phins carried him toward land. Thank God his son didn't have a clue about what he'd just gone through. He should come out of this unscathed.

   Provided his father could bring Angel—and himself—back.

   He was halfway to Ceto's palace when the first rumble shook the sea.

   Two more kicks, and the dolphins who'd gone ahead of him reappeared. "Human, we have to evacuate!"

   "Evacuate? Are you crazy? She's still there!"

   "There's nothing you can do. You have to come with us! That was Ceto and you have no idea what she's capable of!" The captain motioned toward the surface. "Come on!"

   "But Angel—"

   "The princess is fully aware of what's happening down there. There's nothing more you can do for her."

   Another rumble sounded, and the water began churning.

   "Human, you don't have much time. You've heard the stories about the Triangle?" Logan nodded. "Well, now you're seeing it in action. We need to go now if we hope to outswim it. Hold onto my dorsal and I'll get you out of here."

   Logan stared at the palace, then at the dolphin. The calm captain had a wild look in her eye… and Michael was still in the water.

   He had no other choice.

   He reached out for the captain's fin. "Let's go."

   The dolphin kicked them toward the surface, angling back toward the coast as another rumble sped through the sea, this time bringing the water with it and circling around on itself.

The beginnings of a giant whirlpool.

   They cleared the surface then, and another dolphin swam up next to the captain. "Hang on to me, too!" he called and they took off with Logan between them.

   Logan couldn't look back. He'd failed her. She'd given up so much for him and Michael and he hadn't been able to save her.

   What was he going to tell Michael?

   How would his son deal with this?

   How would he?

"WHEN IS SHE COMING BACK?" IT WAS THE SAME QUESTION Michael asked him every night.

   Logan set the beers down on the hall table out side Michael's bedroom door. His son shouldn't see him drinking.

   He shouldn't
be
drinking.

   But it made thoughts of her so much easier to take.

   No. Not easier. Less difficult. Bearable.

   Almost.

   "I don't know when, Michael." That was the same answer Logan gave him every night. "Do you want to talk about it?"

   Michael slouched further under his covers, the stuffed raccoon falling on his head from atop the pillow. "I dunno."

   Which meant
yes
in kid-speak.

   Logan pushed the door open and walked over to Michael's bed, nudging his son's legs over so he could sit. "I'm sure she's fine, Michael."

   "Do you think Ceto put her in a cage like Joey?"

   "Joey was in a cage?"

   Michael had told him about the friend he'd met there, this Joey, but this was the first he'd heard about any cage. It made him shudder to think of what he and Michael had narrowly escaped.

Only… Angel hadn't.

   "Yup. It was a big room with a bed and everything, but with handcuffs on the bed and bars on his door. He kept asking me to get him out, so I don't think he liked being in there."

   Logan didn't know which revelation to react to first. A bed with handcuffs was not an image he wanted Michael to have in his head. Logan hoped Michael would forget about it after a while, but Logan wouldn't. Ceto was one sick son-of-a-bitch. No, scratch that. Make that one sick bitch.

   And he'd left Angel down there.

   "Angel said being in a cage would be yucky, so I hope Ceto didn't do that to her."

   Logan did, too. But, God, this was just tearing him up. He'd left her in the depths with that sea monster. In a whirlpool that had sucked everything around it straight down.

   She couldn't have survived that… could she?

   And if she had,
was
she a prisoner?

   "And A.C. was in a cage, too."

   As far as Logan was concerned, the damned shark that started this nightmare could rot in that cage for all he cared. Hell, that was too good for the fish, but Michael had cared about the shark. Had sung the hammerhead's praises about finding Angel until Logan couldn't bear to hear anymore.

   They'd had several chats about not accepting rides with strangers—or sharks. Logan had considered tak ing Michael to see someone professional about the or deal, but who'd believe him? Worse, they might find something wrong with
his
parenting skills and he'd end up losing his son. No, so far, Michael seemed to have adjusted well—other than pining for Angel.

   "I know you miss her, Michael."

   "She promised she'd stay with me," Michael said half under his breath.

   "I know. But sometimes, even when we want to, we can't keep our promises. She might not be able to come back." Logan didn't want to contemplate
why
she wouldn't be able to.

   "Like Rainbow?"

   Another woman he didn't want to think about. His re lationships needed a serious overhaul. A flighty woman with zero parenting skills and a mermaid. His life was as much a circus now as it'd been growing up.

   He would probably do best by his son to remain sin gle. After all, he hadn't exactly had the best role models and would probably do a better job alone than Goran and Nadia had done together. As long as he stayed away from mermaids…

   He squeezed Michael's leg through the covers. "Rainbow will come back someday."

   Probably when Michael turned eighteen and was an adult who'd be able to support her, but Logan realized he was going to have to hunt her down before that. She couldn't abandon their son.

   Michael reached for Rocky and tucked him against his chest so tightly that if the animal were real, he'd suf focate. "Nuh-uh. Rainbow said she couldn't come back. That's why she gave me the hat. For frembrance. 'Cause she had to meet someone."

   "Meet someone? Who?"

   "I dunno, and she didn't want to talk about it. Mr.

Ray said it was about a big sea and Rainbow didn't really want to go. Then he laughed, but it wasn't a funny laugh. When Angel comes back, can she live in Rainbow's sea? That's why I wanted a mermaid for my birthday, so Rainbow would have a friend."

   Logan's blood ran cold. "She had to meet someone about a big sea?"

   "That's what Mr. Ray said."

   The big… C?

   Oh, God. He'd misjudged her. Christine hadn't abandoned Michael out of selfishness, but self
less
ness. She'd spared their son the agony and worry of watching her go through cancer—and dying from it, by the sound of it.

   She'd given Michael to him because she wasn't going to be around.

   Logan blinked back the wetness that sprang to his eyes and inhaled a deep, shaky breath.

   Hell. He'd misjudged her. And Angel, too. Badly.

   Logan cleared his throat and leaned over to kiss Michael's forehead, putting the baseball cap back in place afterward. "I think Angel would love to live in Rainbow's sea, son."

   If she'd somehow survived Ceto's.

   He had to find out. He had to give Michael something to believe in. Both women couldn't be lost to his son. Or to him.

   "Night, Logan."

   
Logan. "Dad" had lasted until Angel hadn't show
n up that next day.