Fated - A Mermaid's Curse 2 (13 page)

“
What about Jonathan? Do you think he’s gone?” I ask.

He shrugs. “I want to take you back to rest.” He pauses and hands me his phone. “Maybe you can call or send him a message to let him know that you’re sorry about tonight and that this is just not going to happen.”

I take the phone and decide to go with the message. Blake’s phone is exactly like the one he gave me and Owen showed me how to use. I find Jonathan’s name and type, “Thank you for the flowers, but I’m not available. I’m sorry.”

Blake takes the phone back and I can tell he wants to read it. “You can read it, if you want.”

He glances at the phone and grins before putting it away.

No one ever replies to the message, but not seeing a car when we get to the house is reassuring. We step out of the car and we’re just about to knock on the door when we hear another car pulling into the driveway. The windows are tinted so I can’t see anything, but as soon as I hear Blake say, “Fuck. I should have known he wouldn’t listen. The man is persistent. He probably headed back over here as soon as he got the text.”

I give Blake a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry,” I whisper.

Jonathan reaches us as the housekeeper opens the door. He looks at me.

“
You look beautiful. Are you ready to go?” he asks.

I give him a puzzled look.

“
Did you get her message?” Blake says in a frustrated tone. I see the housekeeper slowly stepping back inside and I wish I could do the same.

Jonathan smirks. “No. I called the house earlier to let you know I would be an hour late, and then my battery died.”

Blake gives him an annoyed look. “Don’t you have a car charger?”

Jonathan grins. “Of course, but I wanted Arianna to have my undivided attention this evening.”

Blake is about to say something, but I cut him off. “Actually, we just came back from sight seeing and I don’t feel well. I’m sorry.”

“
Oh, okay,” says Jonathan. “Maybe tomorrow then?” he asks.

“
I’m sorry, I have plans for tomorrow and then we’re heading back home.”

He manages to smile at me, not catching any hints at all. “Lucky for me, I have some business to tend to in your town in a couple of weeks. We’ll figure something out.”

He leans down and I freeze, then he kisses my cheek before he says bye to Blake and me, and walks away.

When I turn to face Blake, he has both hands clenched to his side.

We step inside and I look at him. “He doesn’t know about us, Blake. You can’t blame him. If he did, he wouldn’t be doing this.”

Blake sighs. “You’re too nice, Arianna. He probably still would, but I guess… maybe he wouldn’t come out as strong. Sooner or later he’ll know anyway. Mike just thought it was best to wait it out.”

I nod in understanding.

We look around and no one is at the house but us and the housekeeper. Blake locks the door and we head over to the room. Only having one pair of pajamas, I end up grabbing one of Blake’s shirts to sleep in. He smiles as soon as he sees me. I get in bed and under the covers, noticing that he is still fully dressed.

“
I’m stepping out to make a few calls, but I will be back soon,” he smiles and kisses my forehead before he leaves the room.

BLAKE

I take a deep breath and decide to call dad and get this over with.

“
About damn time you decide to pick up the phone and call.”

“
I’ve been busy helping Mike.”

“
Well, of course. Talking about Mike, I know you said he gave you no choice, but I want you to tell him that you can’t help him. That you think working our local cases here will benefit you more and that it’s what you want to do.”

“
No, I can’t do that.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
Dad, Mike was pretty persistent.”

He cuts me off, “Yeah, well, damn good lawyer you’re going make if you can’t convince someone that you want to do something else.”

“
But I don’t, dad. I like what Mike is doing here. It’s a good fit for me.”

“
I didn’t want to do this, son, but you leave me no choice. Your apartment here comes with the local job that I provide you. If you’re working for Mike and under his direct payroll, you’ll have to find your own place, and I can guarantee it won’t be as nice as what you have now.”

I can feel my blood getting hot like never before. I promised to protect Arianna and taking away my home… taking away her home… I had enough.

“
With all due respect, sir… you can keep the apartment. In fact, I’ll move my things out by the end of the week.”

He laughs. “And where do you think you’re going to live?”

“
At the island, sir.”

His laugh gets louder. “I don’t think so. The island belongs to the family and I don’t want your—” He catches himself before he says something worse, “I don’t want
her
there,” he says.

“
Dad, the island is mine, okay? It’s in my name and my name only and there is not a damn thing you can do about it!” I regret saying the words as soon as they leave my mouth. I should have just said I would find a place, especially considering that he rarely goes to the island, and probably wouldn’t have found out.

“
Explain,” he growls.

“
I bought Owen’s half of the island. That’s all there is to it.”

I hear a loud noise that tells me he threw something across the room.

“
How? You don’t have that much money.”

“
Does it really matter? I got a loan,” I lie and I know he doesn’t believe it when I hear him laugh. “Sir, what is done is done. It doesn’t matter how.”

I expect him to tell me he doesn’t want to see my face ever again or that I’m no longer to come near anyone in the family, but instead, he just says, “Very well. I guess I’ll see you when you get back. I want a full report on the deal with Mikaelis.”

“
Yes, sir.”

He hangs up. As much as I want to believe that I got lucky and that things went well, the fact that he let things go so easily worries me even more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

OWEN

I’m—well, I’m sneaking out of someone’s apartment when I get a call from Blake. Thankfully, my phone was on silent so it doesn’t wake her up. I rush out and as soon as I step into the hallway, I answer it.

“
Hey man, what is going on?”

“
Hey, Owen. I fucked up.”

I freeze. This can go so many ways… “With what?”

“
Dad knows about the island.”

“
Shit. What does he know exactly?”

“
He kicked me out of the apartment so I told him that I was going to live on the island and he said Arianna wasn’t allowed so I just went off.”

Honestly, as bad as this is and as bad as this can get, I’m proud of Blake for finally getting some balls and standing up for himself.

Blake continues, “I told him I bought it from you… with a loan, but I’m sure he knows I was lying. Either way, I managed to leave mom out of it.”

“
Well, that’s good. Look, I’ll just tell him you agreed to pay me out of your trust fund when you get it.”

“
Do you honestly think he will believe you did this out of an I-owe-you agreement?”

“
Do you have a better idea?”

“
No.”

As soon as I hang up with Blake, the old man calls.

“
Hey Dad.”

“
You little shit. I don’t know what is this deal with you selling your half of the island to your brother and you don’t need to tell me how because I will find out on my own, but I’m just calling to let you know that you have exactly one month for Blake to be done playing house with that bitch.”

And he hangs up.

I shake my head and call the number that I’ve wanted to call for quite sometime now.

“
Owen?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
Nice to hear from you.”

“
Thank you, sir.”

“
So, do you have good news?”

“
I do. I’m ready to move on with our deal, as long as Mom and Molly are protected.”

“
They will be.”

I hang up the phone knowing that I did the right thing when I first went to dad’s leader, the one who taught him everything he knows about dark magic. It was a risk, but I knew that the only way to fix this mess is to become more powerful than dad. Luckily, his leader was already unhappy with the amount of attention he was drawing to himself, which worked to my advantage.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

BLAKE

Waking up to find her in my arms and without all the drama still doesn’t feel real. I watch her for a while. After last night, I made the decision to stop worrying about everything. Between Owen and I, we can keep Mom’s name out of the island deal and that should keep her and Molly safe. For the first time in my life, things are going right and I intend to take full advantage of it.

I lie on my side and put my arm over her. She opens her eyes and smiles then she brushes her fingers against my tattoo.

“
Can you tell me about the night when you got this done?” she asks.

I wish she hadn’t asked me that. I lean in and kiss her forehead. “I’d rather not talk about it. It was a bad night for me.”

I expect her to ask more questions, but she just lays her head on my chest and wraps her arms around my bare back, pulling me closer to her.

“
I have something to ask you,” I say.

“
Yeah?”

“
How do you feel about going to live on the island?” I feel her tense. “If you don’t want to, we can find another—”

“
No, that is not it. I’m just—I’m afraid that what happened with the boat will happen again.”

Shit. I didn’t even think about that. “What if we take the helicopter?” I ask.

“
That is crazy, Blake. It’ll probably cost you a fortune.”

“
I’ll do whatever I need to make you feel safe.”

She hugs me tighter. “I think I’ll be okay on the boat, at least after a while.”

I kiss the top of her head. “You just let me know. Now, we should get up. I promised to take you somewhere and we should get going before we have to head home.”

ARIANNA

The thought of getting on a boat on those waters terrifies me. For one thing, I don’t even know what father and Bram think that happened to me… whether they think I died or that I’m still at the hospital. I can’t even imagine the consequences of them knowing that I’m with Blake again. I know that if the same thing happens again, Bram won’t let Blake go…. or even me for that matter.”

But I have an idea. I figure that if I can get Owen to go to my doctor’s appointment with me, I can ask if there is a way to use his black magic so that no one will know that it’s Blake and I going back and forth on those waters. I know that at Bram’s orders, Lyra used the same magic so the search and rescue team wouldn’t find me, so I assume the same could be done the other way around.

***

When we step into the dining area, we see Carol and Mr. Jones. They smile at us.

“
I was hoping you’d join us for breakfast today!” Carol says, happily.

Blake and I sit down and grab bagels and cream cheese.

“
So, how is your dad taking the news?” Mr. Jones asks Blake.

Blake tenses, unsure of what to say.

“
Tell me the truth, son.”

I can see the concern on their faces as if they were Blake’s real parents. I can tell they care a lot about him.

“
Well, he—”

“
This stays between us,” says Mr. Jones.

Blake sighs. “He wanted me to refuse your offer and I said no, so he said I would lose the apartment and I told him that was fine and that we’re going to live on the island.”

Mr. Jones gives him a puzzled look.

“
The island is mine. Mom helped me buy Owen’s half right after my accident, but we are keeping her involvement from him.”

Mr. Jones shakes his head. “I’ll never understand him. How is Owen?”

“
Owen is… Owen. He can hold his own.”

Mr. Jones smiles. “Good. That is really good.” He pauses. “I want you to let me know if you run into any problems with your dad as far as work goes. There shouldn’t be any, but I know your dad and I want you to come to me if anything out of the ordinary happens.”