Page 93 of Caged By the Ruthless Thief

Then there’s one from my dad. My dad who doesn’t text, doesn’t leave voice messages. I click on it.

AD, where are you? Someone bought out your uncle and gave me the deed. Did you do that? You didn’t need to do that. How did you get the money? AD, you need to call me.

That’s it. He’s a man of few words. And he always calls me AD for my initials. I want to respond to him straight away, but then I see a string of messages from Marlee.

Where are you? We came to Boston. It was a mistake. Mom’s sperm donor found us, and we panicked. We didn’t have enough money to go somewhere new. We were in New Hampshire. Do you know how hard it was to be that close to you and not see you? Where are you? Mom wants me to get a new number. Dad has money. Like a lot of money now. There’s a new private detective. They’re following us.

We shouldn’t have come to you.

We’re outside your dorm.

That one was from two days ago.

Tears stream down my face. I’m smarter than this. I should have known what he would do when he had access to lots of cash. Of course he was going to go after them.

“Belle, what is it?”

“You guys haven’t read these?”

“No, we haven’t.” Eros looks at Nico. “Some of us might have wanted to, but some of us respect your privacy.”

I nod and wander away to the sofa. It feels like I’ve been gone for months and just a few days all at once. It’s been weeks, I think. I don’t even know what day it is.

“What is it, Belle?”

“My uncle is after my cousin and my aunt. He hired an expensive detective. I think he might have them.” I pass Holter my block, and it goes dim. He passes it back and moves my finger on it, allowing him to hold it without it turning off.

“Fuck.”

“Yes.” I watch his blue eyes grow round as he scrolls through the text. “What am I going to do? I let him get to them. I should have known better.”

“It’s not your fault, Sunshine.”

“Isn’t it, though?” I was so focused on getting Uncle Russell away from my dad that I led him right to Aunt Blair and Marlee.

“We can deal with this.” Holter grasps my shoulder. “We can find them.”

“What if he’s already... what if he’s already hurt them? He was so mad when Aunt Blair left. And how she cut off all contact with him. He tried to go to a judge to make them come back. But they timed it right around Marlee’s eighteenth birthday. They’ve been on the road ever since. I left for Boston not long after they disappeared. I knew if I stayed, he would do something to me too.”

“He’s an obsessed male. I’m not going to lie to you. He might have.” Eros holds my chin up.

“But we will make him pay, and we can get them back. We still have agents in Boston.” Nico nods. He’s glaring at his own block in his hand.

“Are you messaging Castor?” I ask, and Nico grunts in reply. It’s hisI don’t want to talk about itguttural grunt. “So, yes. You’re messaging Castor.”

“My connections with the land dwellers are wrapped up in the military, which is something...” He drops his hand to his side. “I have less access to resources on land.”

“The hero of Hestertåtten. Come on. The return of Poseidon? Jump and people will have your back.” Eros slaps Nico on the back.

Nico glares in return. “I didn’t say I had no contacts. But Broderick isn’t in the Atlantic yet. And the team there, Lachlan, the commander of theOmega, is dealing with having not one but two governors on board. Fuck, I always hated having governors on board. They act like they’re in command. Demanding things, giving orders to the crew. The chain of command stretches until it breaks when governors are on board. But I’m reaching out to Lachlan, anyway. And I’m asking Castor to reach out to his brother, Nole, since he’s on board theOmicrontoo.” Nico’s digits blur across his block.

I’m the reason my cousin could be hurt. My fingers move across the cool glass. It’s a lot like a phone, but when I type, it’s not in English. I look up at Eros.

“Ah, right,” he says. “Let’s change that.” A few touches and things are looking less Cyrillic, which isn’t quite the Dorian alphabet but close.

“Thank you.” I stare at the block. I don’t have any idea what to say to either my dad or my cousin. Mermen kidnapped me, dragged me across the world, and now I’m mated to three. We live in a dome under the water. Oh, and my hand’s glowing, which means I could have a baby soon, but it’s not a baby, it’s a podlet. Oh, and I’m good. Having the best sex of my life. I definitely don’t need to be rescued. Don’t worry about me. And then end it with a string of emojis like eggplant, smiley face, mermaid, merman, trident. Maybe not a trident.

Yeah, I’m not going to write that. I look up to see Eros and Holter staring at me. “What am I allowed to say?”

---