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It turned out to be a redfish, one long enough for them to keep.
“I can’t believe how fun this is,” Gio said, genuinely surprised. He should have tried doing this before. Normally, when he came out with his family, he merely hung out on the boat and enjoyed their company. He’d have to fish more often.
He was helping Calder with his fish when he realized Marcello had disappeared.
“Oh shit,” he muttered just as his brother came running back up.
“He’s gone. Your friend isn’t anywhere down there. Where the hell did he go?” Marcello suddenly went pale. “Oh my God, do you think he actually went swimming? I know it feels pretty warm, but the water isn’t.”
“He was probably in the bathroom,” Gio replied quickly.
Marcello shook his head. “No, I checked. He’s not there, and I never saw him come up. This doesn’t make any sense.”
A strange barking noise came and all of them turned in time to see a seal bobbing in the water.
“What the living fuck?” Marcello breathed out. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Gio’s mouth fell open. That had to be Baer. Seals didn’t live in this part of the world. Before he could figure out how they could get the seal onto the boat, it bobbed again; then Baer’s red hair appeared. He quickly looked at his brother to find he’d gone even more pale, so pale, he seemed ready to pass out.
“He could have come back as the bird,” Wiley muttered. “Cat’s out of the bag now.”
“Asshole started shooting at the birds. I thought a seal was safer under the water.” Baer swam to the ladder and climbed onto the boat, shivering and cursing. “Should have just stayed a seal until I was up here. Damn that water’s cold.”
Calder darted under the deck and returned with a thick beach towel for Baer. The man wrapped himself in the green-and-blue striped towel while Wiley wrapped himself around his mate.
“You shouldn’t have shifted in the open! Marcello saw you.” Lucien growled and stomped over to Baer. “What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking I needed to get out of the fucking ice water.” Baer shook his head. “We need to get moving. I think the jig is up.”
Lucien froze. “You saw them? You actually found them?”
Baer pressed a kiss to the top of Wiley’s head, then nodded. “They’re holed up in a house on that island. I didn’t see the Weaver. They were shooting at anything that moved or got too close to the house. I had to turn into a damn seal and hit the water to leave. But I did get a good layout of the island before I had to run.”
“Turn into a seal?” Marcello mumbled to himself. “What the fuck is going on?”
Gio turned his brother by the shoulders and frog-marched him to the helm. “What’s going on is you’re going to take us back. We got what we came for.”
That seemed to wake Marcello up. His brother dug his heels in and tried to twist to look at him. “Oh, hell no! Not until you explain where he went and why he was just a seal. A freaking seal!”
There was another gunshot on the island, and Gio reached around his brother to turn the engine on again. They needed out of there now. “I promise to tell you everything if you promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t tell Ma.”
Chapter Nineteen
Lucien scowled. Should he call Clay? Give him the full details this time?
Fingers threaded through his, and he looked down to see Gio’s woven between his own. Lifting his gaze, he was greeted by Gio’s worried but warm smile.
“It’ll be okay,” he murmured.
That was up for debate, but he appreciated the man’s attempts to lighten his mood.
“I still think I should have told him,” Lucien said.
“About Marcello?” Baer made a scoffing noise in the back of his throat. “Nah. That would just make him grumpy and worry. What’s the point of that? It’s done. Marcello knows. He’s not gonna tell anyone.”
He couldn’t believe they’d blown their secret so quickly. Marcello had gotten them away from the island, but he’d stopped the boat well before the dock to demand answers. Oh, he got fucking answers. None that he particularly believed until Baer let out a big huff and turned into a tiger. Wiley squealed “Kitty!” and Marcello screamed. When their host stopped panicking about the tiger and magic, he was much more logical about the entire thing. All in all, Gio had handled the news much better than his brother.
Gio squeezed his hand. “He’s not going to tell. Marcello can be trusted.”
“Besides, we got bigger things to worry about,” Baer continued from the driver’s seat of the SUV. That was another argument Lucien had not been up for having, but at least the man was behaving himself and sticking close to the speed limit.
