Page 34 of Get Kraken

Chase barely remembered Carol opening the door.

It was a blessing, perhaps a natural defense mechanism. He knew that victims of traumatic events could have memory loss of the incident, and if his mind never reconstructed the last moments of his friend’s life, he’d be grateful for it. He would remember her at her best, not at her end.

Chase saw Olivia shiver as she looked out into the ocean. “He’s coming. I know he is. We would feel it if he were dead.”

Chase’s heart sank, thinking about how she must have felt when she thought he was dead. He pulled her close, rubbing her arm to warm her. “You were so fucking brave. I was so damned proud when I found out what you were doing.”

Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “You were?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I was. Just, uh, don’t ever do it again, please?”

She laughed a watery sound. “I promise I won’t be in a mood to go hunting baddies for a while.” She leaned her head on his chest and sighed. “I just want to know what’s taking Mike so long.”

The bunyip had been so quick, so clean, that he’d been able to kill one member of the AILE, and badly injure another, while their backup had been less than five minutes away.

When Mike’s scarred face finally came out of the water, Olivia ran to him, and Chase followed close behind. He was moving slowly as a result of what looked to be multiple injuries, as well as the fact that he was hauling the lifeless bunyip behind him. “I had to shift so I could grab this fucker. No way I was letting him drift off.”

Chase and Olivia didn’t care, as long as he was there with them now. The Scotland team rushed forward, taking the bunyip corpse, which gave Olivia and Chase a chance to celebrate.

With the surf cascading over their feet, Olivia threw her arms around Mike and kissed him on the mouth. She pulled back, giggling as she commented, “You taste salty.”

“Better than blood,” he replied.

Chase clapped him on the shoulder. “Well done, you must be beat.”

“Thank you for saving me,” Olivia said, taking both of their hands and pulling them away from the water.

“Thank you for staying alive.”

Chase knew that Mike likely felt as he did, and wanted nothing more than to take Olivia in their arms and hold her tight, but he could see she was leading them to the paramedics. He would have protested, but he was just as worried about Mike as Olivia was, so he sat dutifully and allowed them to check him out.

Olivia sat between her mates,holding both of their hands.

And in that moment, she was exhausted.

It was as though everything had suddenly caught up with her.

It all happened so fast, and now that the adrenaline was over and done with, she felt sucked dry.

Entirely drained.

“I can’t believe you said this might have lasted for years.” She inhaled deeply, then let her breath out slowly. “I’m so glad that it’s over.”

She felt Mike leaning in close. His lips touched her damp hair. “There’s still more to be done, darlin.”

“We still have quite a bit of paperwork,” Chase commented. “Still have to see if he’s connected to any of the other open AILE cases.”

She frowned. Even if the killer in this area was over, there were still cases open, still murderers out there. She watched as the Scotland team took photos and notes, documenting the bunyip’s carcass. It had stayed in its shifter form, so the investigators would have to do some digging to figure out who this person was in their non-shifted form.

As far as Olivia’s role in it all—she was done. She’d played bait, and come through.

“I guess we need to start with checking in with Jack,” Olivia reasoned. “He’ll need to know about Carol.”

“He will,” Chase confirmed, sadness in his voice.

Something occurred to Olivia. “Does the bunyip have tentacles? I didn’t see any, but all the victims had sucker marks on them.” It was the reason they’d thought it was a kraken shifter.

“Not tentacles like yours,” Mike said, pointing to the carcass. “But the ends of his fingers on each arm appendage ended in a sucker.”

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