Page 15 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

“As much as he would let me.”

“But you did?”

“Yes, and not really.” Because yes, I killed the viperfish, but from what I know about them, they are drawn to the gasses thesoloemits. If thesolohadn’t been there, the damn thing might not have shown up. Granted, my shining the light where I thought he would find the trident should have helped. But then the area below couldn’t have had any light, and he found his way through that. And I can never ask him. He didn’t know it was me. And I’m sure he’s gone.

“How do you not know?” Her face is tilted up to mine, her hands clenched at her side.

“Because he swam into a tube at the bottom of the chasm. It was too small for me to go in with mysolo.”

Her chin juts out. I’m not sure if she’s being defiant or on the verge of tears. She clutches the frying pan to her chest. “Why? Couldn’t you have swum after him?”

“No.” Me getting out of thesolowould only have had us both dead. “Nico wouldn’t have wanted the help.”

“Sure, he... you’re probably right.” Her arms cross over her chest again. “Do you think he’s gone?”

“I can’t say. I don’t know.” More like I don’t want to say. I strip my shirt off. I’m a stinking mess from sitting in that tinysolofor so long. Her eyes drift down to my abs. I’m not above a little distraction to keep her preoccupied. I pull off my pants as well. “I understand, Sunshine, but sometimes ‘I don’t know’ is the answer. I’m going to go take a shower. Can we talk about this when I get back. Unless you would like to join me?”

“What? No. I need to get to Holter. He must be upset. Not knowing.”

“I can’t let you do that.” I turn and stride to the bathroom. She’s reaching for me to stop me, and when she does, her hand grazes my rear end. Fuck, my cock goes instantly hard. “Sunshine. Is there something else I can do for you right now?” I turn, and I’m pointing at her. I’ve been on enough trips to land to know that humans, or at least Americans, have a thing about nudity. But Annabelle isn’t shying away from it now. Her mermaid is taking over. I’m gross, and as much as I want to touch her, run my hands through her long unbraided blonde hair, I’m not going to do it.

Bam.Something large hits the side of my dome.

“Again?” Annabelle sounds exasperated.

“What the hell? Stay away from the glass, Sunshine.” Another thud hits the window. But Annabelle runs straight to the window and moves the blind. It’s a shark.

8

ANNABELLE

Mickey is outside. “Don’t do that, Mickey! You’re going to hurt yourself.” I put my hand on the glass, and he runs the side of his body along the window, flicks his tail against the glass. Behind me, Eros clears his throat. “How did he find me?”

“I don’t know. It shouldn’t be possible. You haven’t been out in the water, have you?”

“No.” I tap my lips. “But I was upset—no, I am upset. I understand that you think I’m in danger, but—”

“We have an agreement.”

“I remember the agreement, that I would think about adding you to my pod. And I’ve done enough of the cultural lessons of the Dorian while I was on theCentaurito know that a mermaid doesn’t add to her pod without talking to the other pod members first. Which I can’t do from here, because they aren’t here.” I’m shaking inside.

Bam. Mickey smacks his tail against the window again. This time he whacks the edge of the metal rib, a buttress for this little dome, and it shakes.

“Sunshine, you need to calm down before your little pet breaks his way into the dome.”

“Calm down. When in the history of anyone has telling them to calm down worked?” I hold my hand up to him.

“Never. You know, you remind me a bit of my sister.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

“No, I love her. And you . . . I . . . I love Marina like a sister.” Eros shakes.

“Uh-huh.” I suck in my breath at him telling me he loves me because that’s a lot. A lot, a lot. “You were going to tell me about Nico, everything that happened in the chasm.”

“I believe I was going to shower and invited you to come to hear about Nico.” He does a crisp pivot and heads back to his bedroom, somewhere I meant to go today to sleep, but the library kept me busy all day.

Eros’s shower isn’t anything like how Nico had his set up on theCentauri. No, the one here is easy to use. Like a high-end spa. I think it’s even nicer than the one in Kai’s old bedroom at the Drakoses’ high-end apartment. After relaxing with his premium bath products, I fell asleep for a few minutes at the desk before becoming overwhelmed with the volumes. The banging on the glass started an hour ago. I’d been working up the courage to look outside of the curtains, even though Eros had told me not to.

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