Catch of a Lifetime (30 page)

   Logan exhaled a long stream of water—something he didn't want to dwell on. He'd get Michael out. Then he'd take him back on land and give him the most nor mal childhood he could—find his son a two-legged stepmother, buy a dog, build a picket fence around his yard. No more of this mermaid shit.

   Hell, he'd move inland. Kansas even. Somewhere away from the ocean and the memories. Away from the possibility of any of this ever happening again.

   Angel swam around the ninety-degree turn at the corridor's dead end after the barracuda as if she knew exactly where she was going. As if they were invited guests. Not like they were here on a rescue mission that could get ugly.

   Or become a battle to the death.

   But how ironic was it that Angel, a mermaid, a mythi cal creature said to lure men to their deaths, was on a mission to save his child?

   No.

   He couldn't think like that.

   They were in this predicament
because of her, an
d he was not about to romanticize it. There was no future with a woman who was half fish.

   Although she hadn't been last night…

   Logan shook off the thought. Last night was over. Today, the future, were what counted.

   He followed her around the bend, taking note of each turn they made, identifying marks in the similarly deco rated corridors, the view from the windows, and gearing up his internal compass to keep track of where they were and how they'd gotten there.

   Lobsters lined the next corridor, antennae angled as if they were cadets offering a military salute—or making sure he and Angel stayed in line.

   "Logan, whatever you do, get Michael out of here, okay?" Angel whispered when the barracuda rounded another corner.

   "Of course I will. What are you talking about?"

   She glanced around the corner, then back at him, ten sion etched onto her face. "Just trust me. I know what I'm doing."

   "Let's move it,
Princesa." The barracuda's tooth
y snout preceded the rest of his deadly body back around the corner. "You know how she doesn't like to be kept waiting."

   Yeah, well, Logan didn't like having his son kidnapped, but then, you didn't always get what you wanted.

   But he was about to. He fingered the knife in his pocket.

   The sea monster was going to get what was coming to her.

THE CORRIDOR OPENED INTO A CAVERNOUS ROOM, TIERS OF seating descending to a stage carved from stone and marble. Massive columns held up a scallop-edged roof, sea grass or kelp or something draped from it like cur tains. One side was tied back—with an octopus? The other side flowed away from the stage in the current, and stone statues lined the concave back of the stage—

   But they weren't just any statues. No, those looked like…

   Logan blinked. Easter Island faces?

   A cloud of jellyfish circled above the statues with synchronized pulsations, their tentacles swaying from side to side as a swarm of different-colored morays dodged in and out in an other-worldly allemande left.

   A large dais made of glass sat at the center of the stage, and on it…

   On it was the most amazingly horrific creature Logan had ever seen.

   The sea monster. Only… she didn't look like a monster.

   She didn't look like anything he would have thought a sea monster looked like. Like a giant squid or some thing. Not this green-haired version of Mae West.

   A Mae West with two tails.

   
Two
tails. One green, one blue. Fins tapping against giant clamshells below the dais as if they were footstools. Receiving plates of… food… as if they were a tribute.

   She didn't look monstrous, but she'd taken his child. That, alone, put her in the death-is-too-good for-her category.

   Sharks flanked each side of the stage where she held court, and sawfish patrolled in front of her, their double sided bills looking way too lethal for his son to be near. The lionfish standing sentry on the edge of the dais didn't lessen his concern.

   Where was Michael? What had the beast done with him?

   The sea monster looked out from her throne, a hid eous smile on a face that could be beautiful, but wasn't. Bitterness chilled her eyes, and sarcasm crooked her mouth. An almost palpable anger tightened her shoul ders, causing her jaw to clench so tightly he thought she'd shatter her teeth.

   Then she laughed—a deep, husky cackle—and it skittered all over his nerve endings in an Oscar-worthy Wicked Witch imitation—an apt description. All she needed was the pointed hat and a wart.

   Too bad she didn't melt in water.

   She laughed again and, as they descended the steps, Logan saw what she found so enjoyable.

   In the depression in front of the stage—an orches tra pit if they were on land—the array of tropical fish picked up the tempo of their… dancing? Swirling so fast they should be dizzy when they finally stopped. A pair of stingrays flapped their wings, turning in circles above the fish, and crabs and lobsters clacked their pincers in a bizarre balletic choreography around the outer edge of the performance. A pair of neon green moray eels undulated across the stage, writhing themselves into and out of a series of knots.

   "Oh, cool!"

   Logan froze. Beside him, Angel did, too.

   Michael.

   "Get moving." The barracuda shoved him from be hind, then circled around to lead them down the stairs.

   Logan didn't need anyone to lead him. His son was here.

   He stepped onto one of the stone seats, trying to see where Michael was, but Angel grabbed his hand and pulled him down. Or her up. He didn't bother to figure out which it was.

   "Logan, listen to me. You can't hope to get out of here alive with Michael unless I distract Ceto. I plan to, but if you hear any rumbling whatsoever, just grab him and get out."

   "Rumbling?"

   The barracuda looked back, his lower jaw slung for ward, the spikes he called teeth glinting in the light from more of those same chandeliers as were in the hallway. Logan took a step down the stairs.

   Angel didn't let go of his arm. "Ceto was a goddess at one point, and while the gods took away most of her powers, she still retains a few—one of them being the ability to cause seaquakes. The Mariana Trench didn't dig itself, you know. I shudder to think what she could do with this building, so you have to grab Michael and get out."

   Oh he fully intended to. "What about you?"

   Angel glared at Ceto. "Don't worry about me. I'll meet up with you afterward."

No she wouldn't.

   Angel knew
exactly what would happen when Cet
o got that angry.

   But she had to fix this. She was the reason Michael was here and she'd get him out alive if it was the last thing she'd ever do.

   The reality was, it probably would be.

LOGAN DIDN'T KNOW WHAT ANGEL PLANNED, BUT HE'D MAKE sure Michael was well out of harm's way.

   "Cool!" reverberated again in the light current.

   Logan leaned off the bottom step to follow the sound and saw Michael clapping and smiling as col orful fish darted in front of him. He looked anything
but
scared and injured. Angel was right. Ceto hadn't frightened him.

   Thank God for small favors. He glanced at Ceto. He wouldn't be thanking her, however.

   The sea monster met his gaze, and an eerie smile slid across her face. She nodded to the four makos at the edge of the stage. Two flicks of their tails put them on either side of Michael.

   The witch glanced at him, her message loud and clear. Don't say a word, or she'd hurt his son.

   Logan ground his teeth and reached for Angel's arm. They had to figure out how to get Michael free before they went any closer.

   "Michael, why don't you go with my friends back to your room?" asked Ceto. "The oysters are there, ready for us. I'll be along shortly to play pearls with you."

   "Can I be a cowboy?"

   Surprisingly, the monster smiled a genuine smile and her voice even softened. "Of course. Brutus, let him on."

   
On a shark. Logan would have taken off after them t
o

intervene if the sea witch hadn't looked up at him again. And licked her lips.

   He knew that look.

   Thank God for the knife in his pocket. It was some thing, at least. But if she ordered the makos to harm Michael, he didn't know that he'd be able to get to him in time. He and Angel had to play this carefully.

   Except that Angel decided to pull her arm free and kick her tail hard enough for her wake to send him stag gering back onto the stairs as she zoomed over to face the monster.

   "Hold on, Ceto," she growled.

   Great. What was she up to?

Ha, good. Angel hid her smile at surprising the old witch but let that small victory buoy her. Gods knew, it might be the only win she got as this played out.

   Even then, success wasn't a sure thing, but she had to try something. She'd seen the expression that had crossed Ceto's face when Logan appeared. The sea monster was nothing if not predictable. Not that it was all that hard to recognize Ceto's hungry look—especially because Angel felt the same way toward him.

   So now she had two Hardington men to rescue.

   "Hi, Angel!" Michael waved as she swam closer, and Angel couldn't help but return his smile. "Look what I have! Isn't it cool?" He held something up: a four foot-long moray eel whose bite could be deadly if Ceto released it from the stupor she'd lulled it into.

   A quick glance at the smile playing on Ceto's lips and the fingers tapping on her now black-scaled hips confirmed that she would, if pushed, let the eel do it.

   Or…
would
she?

   Ceto had lost her last child in the battle with Reel. The Council had given Joey to her to keep her amused and kept tabs on her destructive activities where Humans were concerned. Angel herself had seen the reports. There'd been no "rescued" children from shipwrecks the sea monster had caused, so Ceto was still childless.

   While that made her that much more desperate, it also meant she wouldn't hurt Michael.

   Logan, however, was a whole different story.

   Oh, Ceto would let him live, but in a capacity he defi nitely wouldn't appreciate. And one Angel didn't want to imagine. She'd heard stories of Ceto's Humans and they weren't pretty—and neither were the men when the monster was finished with them.

   And she'd just left him alone…

   Son-of-a-Mer! She wasn't in the same league as the ex-goddess when it came to being calculatingly evil.

   Angel swallowed very carefully. Ceto's eyes were on her, and Angel didn't want the sea monster to see her sweat.

   She straightened her spine. Time to do this.

   "Hi, Michael." She swam up to him slowly, not wanting to let Ceto know exactly how much this child meant to her.

   "What took you so long?" Michael set the moray in the seat next to his and got to his feet. "Wanna ride a shark with me?"

   Brutus bared his teeth in a gruesome, Mer-killer smile.

   Angel wanted to drown him. And Ceto. Too bad the last wasn't possible.

   "Maybe later. Are you okay?" She couldn't help asking, though she did refrain from dragging him to her to make sure he was. He was breathing, talking, and not scared; she didn't want to jeopardize any of that.

   "I'm kinda bored. Ceto doesn't like to play hide and-seek."

   Angel did smile at that. She
bet
Ceto didn't like hav ing a child run and hide from her.

   "Or we could play baseball." He looked around, the quick motion sending him spinning. Which got another "Cool!" out of him. But then he stopped spinning, and his face fell. "I forgot my baseball glove."

   "You can play with it when you get home."

   "Okay, but you know what? I lost my hat. How am I gonna play baseball without it? Rainbow gave it to me for frembrance so I won't forget her. She said I'm the only one who's gonna frember her when she's gone."

   The woman should have thought about that before she left him. If she had, none of this would be happen ing. But Angel couldn't blame this on Rainbow. It was
her
fault for over-swimming her bounds and, therefore, up to her to fix it.

   "Michael, why don't you show your father around outside? Ceto and I have something to discuss."

   The sea monster left her cushy
holothurian
throne at that and headed toward them. "I don't think so, Angel, but nice try—"

   "Logan's here?" Michael whirled around, spinning once more. "Where?"

   "Right here." Logan appeared at the opposite end of the row, and Angel heard Ceto gasp.

   Whether it was because the monster had been too fo cused on Michael to see Logan swim across the theater or because she recognized the murderous rage on his face, Angel didn't know. Nor did she care. She'd use either to their advantage.

   But first she had to get Logan and Michael away from Ceto.

   "Michael, your father has something for you." She glared pointedly at Logan.
Get him out of here.

   "What is it?" The hopeful expression on Michael's face gave her some hope of her own. Surely the gods wouldn't let Ceto win? Ruin this child's life just because
she'd
made a bad judgment call?

   "We found your hat." Logan held it up and, like a magnet, Michael was by his father's side, shoving the cap on his head.