Page 40 of Surge

Chapter Twelve

Blake

Riley made no sense to me. One second I was seriously entertaining the idea that she had siren in her ancestry, and the next, she was freaking out over falling in the water. As I watched her sleep, I couldn't figure her out.

I had wanted to kiss those pouty lips of hers so bad, but knew if she did have siren blood, that I had to tread carefully. I saw how the other two reacted to her when she was near. It was like watching two love-sick puppies.

Two love-sick puppies who were tormented by what we were doing to her. We couldn't defy an order from Jax's father, though. He was an admiral, and someday Jax would take his place with us at his side.

I sat at the edge of the bed and turned back to look at her. She slept peacefully now after her nightmares. Her hair fanned across the pillow in thick brown waves. It was getting harder for me to ignore the fact that I was attracted to her.

Sirens were supposed to be extinct. It was possible a few had escaped and found a life on land, but they would have been easy to detect. Sirens were lunatics, and once they knew they had power over men, they used it to excess.

Poseidon had managed to control them by gifting them knives that calmed their urges. He also gave them free rein to do whatever they wanted to men who didn't have the best intentions at sea.

I stood and stretched before grabbing a pair of sweatpants and my phone. I slipped out of the room, shutting the door softly behind me just as Morgan was coming out of his bedroom.

Our internal clocks were nothing if not accurate. We woke at six o’clock every day, not a minute earlier or later.

We walked down the stairs shoulder to shoulder and then he shoved me against the refrigerator. “Did you-”

“Even if I did, I’m not like you and go around bragging about it.” I pushed him off me just as Jax walked into the room. “What does it matter? Both of you have already made out with her.”

“You kissed her?” Jax put his hands on the edge of the island and glared. “I told you, she’s mine.”

I ignored him and pulled ingredients out of the refrigerator to make breakfast as Morgan started making coffee. “Have you two considered that it’s possible your attraction to her isn’t normal? That maybe she's causing it?”

Morgan made a disgruntled sound and got a mug out of the cupboard. “We would have noticed her before if she was what you are insinuating.”

“Not necessarily.” Jax sat on a barstool. “We’d never talked to her or been around her enough. She doesn’t sing, does she?”

“Maybe we should ask her.” I started mixing dough for biscuits. “I don’t think the secret she thinks she knows is the one we fear."

If she did know about what we were, we’d have to contact the admiral about how to proceed. Humans weren’t allowed to know about our existence. There were a few exceptions, but they had to be approved by the admirals.

“The last thing we need is for her to sing and put us under a spell.” Morgan took a drink of his coffee. “There is something about her though… maybe it’s the fact that she's sexy as fuck and smart too. She also has that whole damsel in distress thing going on, which means she'd be just my type in the bedroom.”

“She's only a damsel because of us.” Jax stood. “When we find that fucker of a father of hers, I’m going to gut him from dick to throat and let Bubba feast on his intestines.”

I put the biscuits I had just cut onto a tray and put them in the oven. “You would feed Bubba spoiled meat?” I laughed at the thought of the shark turning his nose up. "He'd hate you for feeding him such low-grade meat."

“You have a point.” Jax sat down on the couch and turned on the news.

Morgan and I frowned at each other. Jax tortured himself on a daily basis by watching the round the clock coverage of the oil disaster. It was like he wanted to feel the pain every day to remind himself what our mission was.

Find Robert Kline and deliver him to the admiral.

It hadn’t seemed that difficult when he’d assigned the task to us, but now it seemed impossible. Riley was either telling the truth or was motivated in some way to keep his location a secret.

In our world, fathers didn’t leave their children. It was different with humans, but Riley’s mom had never held a job. The money was coming from someone to pay for their townhouse that was walking distance from the beach, her and Riley’s cars, and their lifestyle.

We’d done our research. Riley’s mother, Natalia, was getting money from Robert. She had to be.

Morgan leaned against the counter as I cracked eggs in a bowl. “Do you think her mom really went on vacation?”

“No.” I dug in the drawer for the whisk. “It doesn’t make sense for her to run, unless she ran with Robert.”

“Do you think Riley’s considered that?” Morgan frowned into his coffee. “She’s smart. She has to wonder.”

“I think she only sees what she wants to see.” I flipped the bacon and then poured the eggs in another pan. "Just like all humans."

I just wished she’d see that we weren’t going to stop until we got what we wanted.

---