Why was her partner being so nice to her? She’d just murdered a man.
“You’re okay.” Olivia started crying as she held Bel’s face with such care. “You had to do it. You had to shoot him. If you hadn’t, that cage would’ve decapitated Ondine.”
“Oh my god!” The teenager sobbed harder, her arms choking Bel’s immobile body with renewed gratitude until the detective’s skull rattled with confusion. The sheer thankfulness in this teen’s hug. The kindness in her partner’s eyes. Why weren’t they terrified of her? Why hadn’t Gold handcuffed her for murder?
“Bel,” Olivia whispered her name as she wiped more blood from her face with the tenderness of a mother. “You’re in shock, but it’s okay. You’re okay. If you hadn’t shot him when you did, Ondine would’ve died. You saved her. You’re a hero, Isobel Emerson.” Olivia pulled her into a hug, but Bel couldn’t move. She wasn’t a hero. She’d killed a man because she wanted to. Because hate told her to.
But Ondine had yet to release her, and Olivia hugged her with all the love housed in her body. The second mermaid sat in shock a foot from them, but she was alive. They were all alive. Bel had saved them… only she hadn’t done it on purpose. Her actions had been evil. She’d blocked out their cries for help when she pulled the trigger. She hadn’t known the missing Mar girl was seconds away from a horrifically bloody death.
“Thank you,” Ondine whispered, her arms suffocating in their tightening hug, but Bel was thankful for their rigidity. They were holding her together, keeping her from falling apart. She was frozen where she sat, her hands disconnected from her body as they shook uncontrollably, but suddenly they weren’t shaking alone. Olivia folded them into her grasp, protecting her unsteadiness with her stability.
“You’re okay,” her partner repeated. “I know you’ve never had to shoot to kill, and I can only imagine the emotions, but you are okay.” She leaned forward and pressed a sweet kiss to Bel’s soaked forehead, and if Bel weren’t so numb, she’d sob. She’d been waiting for Olivia’s love to return for over six months now, yet her affection felt like an accusation. Olivia thought she was a hero. Olivia thought she’d nobly fallen on the sword to save them, that she’d accepted the guilt so the child curled in her lap wouldn’t die horribly, but that wasn’t the case. Bel was no better than Eamon. She’d let the beast in.
“Isobel!” Eamon’s roar shattered the silence, and his mass exploded into the basement. “Isobel?” His voice turned panicked when the scent of blood flooded his senses, and like a demon possessed, he charged for her immobile body. “What happened?”
“She’s okay.” Olivia jumped to her feet and headed him off before his panic terrorized the young mermaids. “Thanks for the heads up. They tried to detain me at the aquarium, but your tip made me ignore their requests. I got here in time, but Bel had to kill Triton to save the girls. She’s a hero. The way she didn’t hesitate. Her aim was perfect, and if it weren’t for her, these girls would be dead. I’d probably be dead… but she’s in shock. She’s never killed anyone on the job.”
“Isobel.” Eamon crouched before her and cupped her face, his thumbs brushing the blood aside, and even though she stared right at him, she couldn’t see him. “I smelled your bloodall the way upstairs. You scared the hell out of me.” His deep voice caused the mermaids to recoil, and he noticed the naked girl in her lap for the first time. He cursed as he ripped off his dress shirt, wrapping it around Ondine, and following his lead, Olivia pulled off her lightweight summer blazer and draped it over the second mermaid.
“Detective?” He recaptured Bel’s jaw in his broad palms. “What’s wrong with her? Why is she like this?”
“She just killed someone,” Olivia cried. “She’s human. Killing affects us, but she was so brave.”
Eamon studied Bel’s emotionless face. He knew her too well. He could read the wrongness in her features, but he said nothing, opting to pull her into his arms, Ondine and all. “Whatever happened, you’re okay,” he whispered into her ear. “I’m here now. Tell me what you need.”
But Bel couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She could barely think. All she could do was remember the way Triton’s head snapped backward when she killed him.
“Hey, kid, can you walk?” Eamon asked Ondine.
“I think so.”
“May I?” He gestured to the bruises already blooming from where the chains had dragged her to her near death.
“Yeah.” Ondine shoved her bare legs out at him, the first hints of the tattoo peeking out of the oversized shirt drowning her body. “Ow!” She recoiled back into Bel’s motionless lap.
“I know it hurts, but it doesn’t feel broken. Can you walk on it?”
“I think so. Are you a doctor?” Ondine scanned the shirtless Eamon with apprehension, her time with a predator granting her the sight to recognize another one.
“No,” he said. “I just know what broken bones feel like. I called Griffin on my way here.” He aimed the comment at Olivia.“When she hit the panic button, I knew she’d need the entire force.”
“If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t have made it in time,” Olivia said. “Triton set up a block to stop me, but I knew to ignore it… Maybe you should get me a necklace too.”
Eamon cupped Olivia’s head and then plucked Ondine off of Bel’s lap. “Can you help the girls outside? Isobel might have a concussion, so I’m going to carry her out.”
“Is that why she’s acting like that?” Olivia gathered Ondine and the second mermaid into her arms.
“Maybe.” He scooped Bel off the floor, and through her haze, she could tell he knew the head wound wasn’t the only thing paralyzing her, but forever on her side, he kept his mouth shut. He carried her into the sunlight, the abandoned building suddenly a swarm of activity, and after checking in with the sheriff, he led the way to the paramedics.
“Are the girls okay?” Griffin asked when he doubled back to the ambulances after directing Lina Thum and a deputy toward the hidden basement.
“Physically, they’re stable?” an EMT said.
“And my detective?” he asked, staring at the watery blood dripping down Bel’s emotionless face.
“She’ll be fine,” Eamon answered for the paramedics as he wrapped her in a blanket. “She is fine.”
Griffin cursed, cupping her cheek, but she barely felt his touch.
