Atlantis Riptide: Lost Daughters of Atlantis Book 1 Page 2

A disgusted snort shot out from between my lips. Sure, now the other workers showed up. Female workers.

  Compared to the mermaids, I probably looked like a drowned Floridian rat. My clothes dripped like I’d been caught in a storm. I smelled like sewer. My long blonde hair in its once-neat ponytail shed water like a dog’s tail.

  And because of the rescue my newest home might be my last.

  * * *

  Air wheezed in and out of my lungs as I rushed past the arcade and rides on the Boardwalk. I needed to get far away from the miniature golf course. Shaking, I tried to control my constant fear of being found, of being discovered.

  All the memories I’d been trying to keep down rose in my mind, like a big top rising to the sky. The pop, pop, pop of the shots from the rifle game didn’t make me jump running past because my mind was somewhere else. I had to get away. Escape.

  Like I always did.

  I rubbed my burning eyes. Burning not from tears but because I wasn’t used to the salt-scented air of the Pacific Ocean.

  Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

  Tinny music scraped against my ear drums reminding me of the life I ran from. Only, today reinforced I’d traded one bad deal for another. A hysterical laugh bubbled out of my chest. From star of the show to custodian of the carnival. And I couldn’t catch a break.

  I reached the edge of the Boardwalk and clomped down the wooden steps. Sand stuck to my damp feet and ankles. The tiny particles were like a massage on my skin as I continued toward the wide creek that flowed into the ocean. At times the creek ran fast and furious, at other times, like now, the flow was a trickle.

  My natural instincts tugged west, toward the ocean, but my instincts weren’t so hot lately so I turned toward the rugged cliff walls instead. An ancient trestle bridge crossed the chasm between the cliffs and a new housing subdivision with the creek flowing beneath. It was there I headed.

  I dropped down onto a large boulder shaded by the bridge and grabbed my head between my hands. My chest heaved in and out fighting a display of emotions.

  “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” I banged the back of my head against the rock wall. “I never should’ve exposed myself to all those people.”

  But I couldn’t let the boy drown. Not for my own selfish purposes.

  My move to southern California was to get away from the circus. To be a regular person. To find myself.

  It was not to show everyone on the west coast what I could do. To show them I was a freak.

  “A super freak.” My voice cracked.

  Saving the boy was simple compared to some of the things I’d done in the past. “I’ll pretend I was nowhere near the golf course lagoon when it happened. Maybe no one will figure it out.”

  “Figure what out?”

  “Ack!” I jumped and my eyes popped open.

  The manager guy from the lagoon stood a couple of feet away. His blue and orange striped shirt still dripped with the lagoon’s dirty water. “Didn’t mean to scare you but I heard you talking…”

  My muscles stiffened. I calculated why he was here. “What do you want?”

  He took a few menacing steps forward. “I had to track you down. Followed your footsteps through the sand.”

  I swiped my cheeks hoping tear stains didn’t show. Showing weakness never helped the situation. “Why?”

  “I’m Chase.” He stuck out his hand.

  I considered his tanned skin on long, lean fingers. I’d learned to trust no one, no matter how kind they pretended to be or how good looking. I wouldn’t tell him my name. “I appreciate your help at the lagoon. The boy is going to be fine and that’s all that matters.”

  “I can find out your name, you know. I have ways.” Chase imitated a bad foreign accent and his lips turned into an I’m-a-smart-guy smile.

  My heart pulsed in a sharp rhythm and little pains shot through my ribs. Might as well tell him, it would appear less suspicious. Standing out, being different, only caused trouble.

  “Pearl.” I stuck my hand in his.

  Our fingers intertwined and tiny tremors ran up my arm, down my spine, and to my toes. Like holding a live wire under water, which I’d done in my previous life, little zaps shocked me. I yanked my hand away.

  He held his hand in mid-air for a bit as if he’d felt the tremors, too. “Why’d you run away?”

  “R-run away? What do you mean?” The vulnerability I’d lived with since leaving the circus coalesced in the rapid beats of my heart. How could he have found out about the circus?

  “Why’d you take off from the lagoon?”

  My shoulders loosened a bit and I let out my first easy breath. He hadn’t meant run away-run away, he’d meant run away from the accident. Whew.

  “Break time.” I added a touch of bravado to my voice. Forced since birth to act, I decided to put the skill to good use. “I needed to change clothes.” Before too many other people noticed their condition.

  “So do I.” He tugged his wet shirt away from his body, before peeling it off. Then, he tossed the shirt onto the rocks.

  I sucked in a breath. His bronzed and sculpted abs made him look like a young Greek god. He didn’t just ride around on a manager’s golf cart all day telling others what to do, he must really work. Or workout.

  “Are you going to change down here?” I’d never seen a naked guy before and didn’t want to start now. The warmth in my belly contradicted me.

  “Are you?” His lips crinkled and his blue eyes widened, reflecting the Pacific Ocean nearby.

  I wanted to dive into them.

  Whoa. I didn’t even know this guy.

  “No. I just…I just…” My glance swiveled around searching for an explanation from the rocks. A gasping, hissing sound caught my ear. “Do you hear that?”

  His gaze narrowed and he tilted his head. “Sounds like an injured cat.”

  I was already scrambling up the rocks toward the sound. “Oh my.”

  In the cliff, a sea otter lay inside a small hole about the size of the over-inflated basketballs in the games section. A large rock sat on its belly and he was trapped. Green gook clung to his whiskers and covered a shiny, black nose. The otter hissed again.

  “He’s stuck.” My heart ached for the little guy. All alone like me. Possibly injured. No one to help him or hear him cry. “We have to help.”

  “I’ll call the lifeguard station. They’ll know what to do.” Chase had climbed behind me.

  “That will take too long. We have to free him now. Who knows how long he’s been there.” I couldn’t let the animal die while we watched. And since the otter wasn’t in water, I couldn’t use my special abilities.

  “Okay. Let me find a long stick or something to get the rock off.” He maneuvered around the rocks that had tumbled from the cliff, searching between the crevices.

  I moved higher, trying to get a better view. “What’s that green stuff?”

  “Looks like paint.” He tugged on a piece of driftwood. “I wonder if the paint threw off his sense of smell and he headed in the wrong direction and got stuck.”

  “But how’d he get paint on him? The spot is in a circle.”

  “Don’t know. They’re usually pretty clean animals.” Chase got the stick free and moved to the side of the sea otter. Balancing above the place where the otter was stuck, he inched the stick down. “Okay boy, I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Sweet how Chase talked to the otter.

  “How’s the little guy going to get back to the ocean?” My gaze traveled the distance of the creek. “He won’t let us carry him.”

  “Sea otters can walk on land, just not well.” He sounded so smart, like he knew lots of facts about ocean creatures.

  Chase moved the stick closer to the otter. The otter hissed. His tiny front paws tried to whack the stick away.

  “He’s trying to help you.” I made my voice soft and smooth, calming.

  The otter’s beady black eyes sized me up. His paws stopped moving. His whiskers twitched.

&nbs
p; Chase inched the stick under the rock. He shoved. The rock tumbled forward off the otter.

  “You did it.” I sagged against the rocks.

  The otter flipped to its feet. With one last long stare at me, he shuffled toward the trickle of water, and then started to follow it toward the ocean. The little guy appeared fine.

  I almost reached out to hug Chase. “Thank you for saving him.”

  “It was nothing.” His wavy brown hair touched his shoulders and I itched to run my fingers through it. “You saved a boy’s life.”

  “You helped.” Again. There’d been a lot of people playing miniature golf and none of them jumped in. Except Chase.

  “I didn’t do much. You probably didn’t even need my help.”

  True.

  “You’re the real hero.”

  “No, I’m not.” Just like last time. A bitter taste filled my mouth and my head spun like the Tilt-A-Whirl on the Boardwalk. Being a hero, being different, could get you burned.

  I wasn’t a hero. I was a freak. A circus freak.

  “I gotta go. I’m already past my break time and I still have to change my uniform.”

  “I’ll talk to your boss if you’re late.”

  I needed this new job, but I needed it without additional attention. Free uniforms. Lunch at a discount, which I couldn’t always afford to eat. No proof of age required. And I was paid in cash, which met my chief goal—anonymity—just fine.

  Pushing my shoulders back, I placed a defiant expression on my face. Chin up, mouth firm. At least I hoped it was defiant. “Thanks, but no. I don’t make excuses.”

  His smile widened. “Good to know. For when I ask you out.”

  Chapter Two

  Duh Duh Duh Date

  After changing into my second uniform, the rest of the day I kept my head low and my hat on. Rumors of the water rescue by an employee spread, but because I wasn’t on friendly terms with any of the other workers I didn’t get the full scoop.

  Which was okay with me. I knew the full scoop. Every single detail.

  Gossip I could do without. Especially gossip about me. The circus workers’ whispers still scratched down my spine like the yelp of a lion being whipped.

  After punching out, I shoved my wet uniform in a bag, picked up my backpack and headed out.

  “Pearl.” Chase strolled next to me.

  I jumped. The guy snuck up on me like he’d been waiting.

  Quit being so suspicious. He was punching out. Nothing more.

  His perfectly white teeth gleamed when he smiled. He wore an untucked, button-down plaid shirt rolled up at the sleeves and pressed Docker pants. No guy who looked like that ever waited for me. Not unless they wanted my autograph or the secret to my tricks.

  “What?” Not friendly of me, but I didn’t want to be friends. I couldn’t afford to be friends.

  “How was the rest of your day?” His smexy smile made my knees weak.

  “Okay.” I walked faster, forcing my knees to hold.

  He was following me again. “Anything else interesting happen to you today?”

  I halted and stared. “Why?” I remembered his threat from earlier in the day and a thrill shot through me that I doused. I couldn’t get excited about being asked out because I couldn’t say yes. I had to stay strong. Independent. Alone.

  “Can’t a guy make conversation, be nice? What kind of people do you hang—”

  “Don’t make snap judgments.” I held up a hand. “Who I do,” or don’t, “hang out with is none of your business.”

  “What if I wanted to make it my business?” He flashed another of those knee-melting smiles.

  “Why? I’ve been nothing but harsh to you.” Which wasn’t like me, but I had my reasons.

  “Which intrigues me all the more.” He took hold of my hand and a hot current pulsed up my arm. “You saved a boy and a sea otter.”

  “You saved the sea otter.”

  “You insisted.” He shrugged. “How about hanging out tomorrow?”

  My jaw dropped like a fish on a hook. “Like a real date?” I’d never had one of those. No time before. No chance now. And even though he’d threatened to ask earlier, I hadn’t expected him to follow up. Most guys didn’t.

  “Yeah. Like a real date.” His smile deepened and a slight dimple appeared by the side of his mouth.

  I shook my head, but it moved slower than it should have, like I wanted to say yes. Which I didn’t. “Can’t. I have to work.”

  My boss Karl had ordered me to clean the lagoon because it had to be drained after the boy’s near drowning. It sucked having my free day taken away, but I needed the money so I hadn’t complained.

  “I thought you never made excuses.” He laughed at me as if knowing something I didn’t.

  “It’s not an excuse.” I wasn’t a liar. Well, only when I had to be.

  “I checked the schedule. You’re off tomorrow.”

  “Check again.” I yanked my hand out of his, immediately feeling the loss of warmth.

  “How about dinner tonight, then?”

  “No.” I clutched the plastic bag holding my damp uniform to my chest. In the face of his persistence my resolve weakened. “Things to do.”

  “You gotta eat.”

  I didn’t. I’d skipped many meals in the past few weeks, like lunch today. Unfortunately, my tummy picked that moment to growl in protest.

  “You might say no, but your stomach says yes.” His easy laugh made me feel less threatened. “Come on. I know a great burger place right near the beach.”

  Being alone was a form of protection. No one could discover my many secrets. It was also lonely.

  Chase was cute and interested in me. Not because I could teach him a trick, or because I was the star of the show. The idea was tempting. Going on a, gulp, date would be so normal. Plus, I’d been so mean to him and he’d been nothing but nice.

  “Well.” What could a burger hurt? I was hungry. My lips stiffened flashing him a genuine smile. Obviously those muscles didn’t get much of a work out. “Your treat, right?”

  * * *

  We walked a few blocks to Barney’s, an old burger joint. Grease scented the air making my stomach rumble. Chase picked a booth in the corner with a scarred wooden table and ripped plastic benches. “The place doesn’t look like much, but the hamburgers are the best. I promise.”

  After the waitress took our orders and delivered sodas, Chase went into twenty Q’s mode. “Where’d you work before the Boardwalk?”

  I should’ve known dinner wouldn’t be that easy, but my suspicious nature had been over-ruled by my stomach. “A campground in the Midwest.”

  Needing money and a place to stay, I’d accepted a lifeguard job at a tiny campground. An unexpected thunderstorm blew in and I’d saved a pontoon boat full of campers. The story made the news so I had to move on.

  “What brought you to southern California?”

  I slouched back on the bench acting casual. “The beach. What else?” It was every mid-westerner’s dream to move to California and live on the beach, or at least that’s what one of the other campground workers had said.

  For me, it had been more of a pull or a yearning. I could’ve picked New York or Oregon or even Alaska, but my heart told me to travel to the Pacific Ocean, to Southern California. Sneaking away after my last show at the Poseidon Family Circus in Florida, I’d hopped the first bus north. Then, changed to another bus heading west. After a couple of short stops to earn money, I got off the bus in Mermaid Beach and fell in love.

  Studying me over the rim of his cup, Chase sipped on his soda. “You a big swimmer?”

  “Me?” I choked and grabbed my drink, taking a big swallow. How do I get myself into these situations? The reason I didn’t apply for a lifeguard job in Mermaid Beach was because I didn’t want anyone to find out about my special skills. A janitor job is practically invisible. “Not much. How about you?” I tried to steer the conversation toward him.

  “You dove into the small
Kingdom of Atlantis lagoon like an Olympic champion.”

  I held my breath. He’d jumped in to help with the boy, but I hadn’t seen Chase while confronting Joe. I hadn’t seen any other employees. And I hadn’t realized he’d seen me dive in the lagoon.

  “You stayed underwater for like fifteen minutes.”

  Shaking my head, I denied the truth. If the kid had been under that long he should’ve been brain dead. He probably had been brain dead, but I…well, I didn’t know how it worked but I could resuscitate people who’d drowned.

  My single breath was more than CPR.

  “Fifteen minutes is impossible. No one can stay underwater that long. In an emergency situation time seems to go slower than it actually is,” I babbled, trying to find a way to rescue myself. I couldn’t be discovered. I’d only been in Mermaid Beach a few days and already the place felt like home. “You know, like during earthquakes, you think the ground shook for minutes when actually it was only seconds.”

  “Mermaid Beach has never had an earthquake.” His brows dipped. “I checked the time after I called nine-one-one. Definitely over five minutes, probably closer to ten.”

  The waitress set our plates in front of us. A huge, juicy burger and fries. My mouth salivated and I picked up the burger and took a big bite to avoid his question and because my stomach demanded food now. The burger tasted like a five-star meal. The best thing I’d eaten in months, maybe years. In heaven, I savored every bite.

  About half-way through the burger I noticed Chase staring. I finished chewing. “What?”

  “Nothing.” He glanced at his own burger where only a couple of bites were missing. “You must be hungry.”

  My ego deflated and my shoulders slumped. Did he like his girls to be anorexic? Not that I was his girl or anything. I used too much energy not to eat. I straightened my shoulders. “Did you expect me to order salad?”

  He picked up a fry and took a bite. “I like a girl who enjoys her food. No dieting for you.”

  Except the starvation diet. No money equaled no food. It was that simple.

  “I, um, missed lunch.” And breakfast. And dinner the night before. I took another big bite and swallowed. “What do you do at the Boardwalk?”