Page 17 of Shark’s Rise

“Yes. And his team.”

“His…team?”

I couldn’t decipher her reaction as incredulous or impressed, so I just went on. “He has a small but trusted corps that he works closely with in LA.” I phrased everything carefully. “But there’s something that’s happened…beyond what they’ve dug up.”

Abbi swiveled to face me more fully. Her reaction was surprising. I expected a jolt forward followed by a demand for every last detail. Instead, she watched me closely while waiting patiently.

At last she asked, “Something…how?”

“Baby? Do you want to go back inside? Are you feeling okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m just tired. Please…just tell me what happened.”

Mentally, I vowed to call a doctor once we got back inside. My sister, at the very least. Something was definitely wrong with my woman, aside from typical stress about a situation like this. But she wasn’t being honest with me—and likely herself—about it.

So maybe piling more weirdness on her wasn’t the best call at the moment.

I was on the brink of vocalizing exactly that, when Abbigail compressed her lips and stated, “Damn it, Bas. Just tell me. Don’t treat me like a fragile child. Please!”

With a heavy sigh, I gave in. I figured I always would with this woman. “Terryn’s…been acting very strange.”

A dozen tense lines of her face evaporated. She chuckled with gusto. “Sebastian, that’s not breaking news.”

“Normally I’d agree with you.”

“But?” she filled in the word that my tone implied.

“Yesterday morning, she came into my office acting squirrelier than normal. To be honest, I was actually uncomfortable about it.”

Abbi narrowed her gaze. “Why?”

“Well, she had a gift for me.” As soon as I put air quotes around the word gift, she straightened.

“A gift?” she charged. “Okay, what was it?”

“A keychain.”

She knitted her brows. “Like…a souvenir or something? Did she go on vacation? Or make it in some kind of arts and crafts—” She interrupted herself at the start of my “get real here” look.

“It had some charms dangling from it,” I explained. “Seems harmless enough, right?”

“That depends,” she said slowly. “What were the trinkets, exactly?”

“One was a shark’s tooth.” I rolled my eyes. “Really original, right?”

Abbi barely cracked a smile. She was really invested here, despite my attempt at dry wit. “And what were the others?”

“The second one…is a carved piranha.”

“A…what?” Abbi bugged out her gaze. I would’ve been surprised if she hadn’t—but her uptick of distress had me scrambling to play down the disturbing implication of my revelation.

“If it weren’t so creepy, it’d be awesome. I’m serious.”

She eyed me like I’d just confessed to liking anchovies straight out of the can. “Oh, I can see that.”

“The artistry of the thing is amazing.” I held my fingers up to estimate how small the charm was. “Anyhow, Elijah is researching the last charm now.”

“Which was what?” she prompted.