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She saw the way Jeremy was looking at him. He didn’t like the guy. He wasn’t jealous, obviously. He was head over heels for the good twin. But he was family, and in this family, they protected each other. God knew there’d been plenty of need for it.
“You guys can go,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m going to insist you get checked out by a doctor,” Jones said. “Technically, I’m your boss, so I can do that. The club will pay for everything, and I’m afraid I can’t let you perform again until you get medical clearance. All right?”
Oh, thank God. No more fucking mermaiding. “Yes. All right, I mean, I hate to do that. Obviously. But if you insist, then I guess I have no choice.”
He grinned at her and got up to his feet. Coach Hannah was dressing down everyone in the room, demanding to know who’d closed the pool with a mermaid in the water. That was a huge no-no. She finished shouting and came to her side. “Are you all right, Misty?”
“I think so.”
“I’m taking her to the local ER,” Jeremy said.
“Saratoga Hospital is closest,” Coach replied. “You know where it is, Misty.”
Yep, I bet Misty does know where it is, Christy thought. Then she flopped onto her belly, and called out, “Zipper!”
“I got it, I got it.” Echo came behind her and attached a long pull to Christy’s hidden zipper. Leaning back and low, she pulled it down. Christy wriggled out then sat there in her spandex and rubbed the circulation back into her legs.
Jere reached down and she let him pull her to her feet. “Aunt Rachel thinks the owners make damn good suspects,” he murmured, leaning close enough so only she could hear. “Keep your guard up with that guy.”
She didn’t mention that she’d heard “that guy” might have a thing for Misty. No point throwing fuel on that fire.
Jeremy walked right into the locker room with her. No one else was in there, anyway. The other mermaids were already starting their part of the show. She could hear Mackey on the loudspeaker, reassuring the audience that the injured mermaid was fine, and that was the moment she realized her collision had been witnessed by everyone in the entire place.
She changed her clothes fast while Jeremy prowled the locker room, checking out its customizations as curiously as she had her first time in there. A row of lockers had been replaced by a long counter backed in lighted makeup mirrors, with stools affixed to the floor in front.
Heading to the sink, she ran cold water on a paper towel and pressed it to the gaping place welling with blood on top of her head. “Dammit, this might need stitches. Where’s Aunt Rachel? I thought she was staying.”
“Let’s talk about it on the way,” Jeremy said, but he said it softly. Then he crushed a little cold pack he’d found somewhere and handed it to her.
They headed down the back stairs to his car while she held the cold pack and a wad of paper towels to the top of her head. Jere used his phone to set a route for the hospital.
“I hope there’s a walk-in. I’m not going to an ER for a little bump on the head.” She got into the car.
Jere got in the driver’s side, looked at her, and immediately reached past her to yank fast-food napkins out of his glove compartment. “You’re bleeding right through those,” he said.
She took the extra napkins in one hand and twisted his mirror her way with the other. There was blood kind of pulsing from under the ice pack. She lifted it and shoved a fresh wad of napkins there, pressing hard.
“Maybe the ER,” she said.
He drove above the speed limit, and she felt dizzy. To keep from passing out, she asked, “So where’s Aunt Rache?”
“Same place we’re going, actually.”
A chill raced right up her spine and her eyes shot wider. “Aunt Rachel is in the hospital?”
“Not like that. She’s in the uh… the morgue. They found Eva Quaid.”
Christy’s jaw dropped. “Damn. Misty picked a bad day to be out of touch.”
Chapter 10
RACHEL
Mason spirited Jen Scott and their hospital staffer-guide away on some paperwork bullshit he’d made up on the spot to give me a few minutes alone with Eva Quaid.
I stood beside her, staring at her. That wasn’t my best method, but it was where I began. There was another table to her right with her mermaid tail laid out on it. She’d been wearing it when she’d been found, washed up on the shore of Saratoga Lake. It was every shade of blue from powder to midnight, and as bright as it had been in the photo.
