Diary of a Radical Mermaid Read Online Free Page A

slap-and-grab in the deep end. Under normal circumstances I’d have wrapped him around my little finger, drained him dry, and left him on the bottom with a silly smile on his face. But the pulse of something dark and sad inside him only grew stronger, and I went still. I shivered. Fear for him. Jordan groaned in defeat. We shot to the surface.
    “Tell me what’s going on,” I ordered. “I’ll find out anyway if you don’t. You want to tell me. That’s why I came here. I knew you wanted to talk to me. I sensed it.”
    “I lured you here. I wanted to warn you. I want you to go away. You have to leave Sainte’s Point.”
    “Are you insane? Ali and Griffin’s wedding is in a few days!”
    “After the wedding. Go. Go with the rest of the family on the wedding cruise. Leave the island.”
    I stared at him. In celebration of Ali and Griffin’s wedding, the entire Bonavendier clan from Sainte’s Point was scheduled to leave on a leisurely cruise aboard the enormous yacht of Lilith’s love, Riyad. Lilith, her sisters, their men, Ali, Griffin, even the servants. Everyone who lived on the island would be gone for at least two months. But I was supposed to stay. “What do you mean, leave the island? Lilith is planning to put me in charge of the place. Tula and I are already scheduling parties that will fill the entire mansion, and —”
    “There’s been a change of plans.”
    “No way. Lilith would have told me —”
    “She will. Trust me. You can’t stay at Sainte’s Point. Rhymer McEvers is taking up residence at the island for the next two months.”
    “Rhymer . . . Rhymer . . . Rhymer McEvers?” I had vague memories of meeting Rhymer once during a McEvers clan shindig at the clan’s drafty old castle overlooking a loch. I recalled dark hair, wonderful eyes, a great body, and a Sean Connery voice that could melt a shelelagh, but also I recalled his boring penchant for honor, duty, discipline, shooting people, et cetera. After an early girlfriend of his was killed by European gangsters he’d turned into a vigilante. Now I’m not one to believe rumors, but if one did believe rumors, one would believe that Rhymer tracked down and killed a half-dozen Landers he blamed for that girlfriend’s death. Dragged them into the ocean and strangled them, one by one.
    If one believes rumors.
    At any rate, then he’d disappointed his family by joining the British navy, thus sinking to the level of a gun-toting Lander and an Englishman. He and Jordan were both far too serious for mermen. Jordan and Rhymer had been friends since they were boys climbing icebergs in the north Atlantic. But what did that have to do with now? “Your cousin Rhymer? The Peacekeeper?”
    Jordan arched a brow. “How many other Rhymers do I know? Yes, Rhymer the Peacekeeper.”
    The Council had its own police force, you could say. Peacekeepers, they called them. Hard bodied, hard-assed cops. They were only dispatched in the most extreme cases, when Mers had turned violent or . . .
    “What have you done?” I grabbed Jordan’s hands. “Is Rhymer coming after you? I’ll stand by you. Whatever it is, you’re too well-groomed to be a criminal—”
    “For the last time, this isn’t about me, Juna Lee. All I can do is make you leave, for your own safety. That’s why I wanted you to come here today. So I could convince you. When I come back from Scotland, I don’t want to find you at Sainte’s Point.”
    “If there’s some horrible trouble that requires a Peacekeeper, and it includes you, I’m not leaving.”
    “If I have to shanghai you and send you to the other side or the world, I will.”
    I shoved him and stepped back. “Don’t even think about it.”
    “Don’t make me.”
    “What could you possibly—” I searched his mind and shivered. “Rhymer’s in trouble. That’s it. Oh, I always knew he was too stern and Lander-like. All those solemn allegiances and violent inclinations. He’s wrapped tighter than a mummy. He was