SeaChange (26 page)

“I arranged for some personal leave starting Friday,” Steve
said. Today was Tuesday. “Told them I was going fishing with some friends down
near Cabo. Didn’t say what we’d be fishing for.”

“Good,” Jake replied. “You get to be first mate of the new
boat when we find one.” Like Jake, the wizard had worked at a variety of
careers around the Pacific for the last several decades. Steve was more than
capable of operating anything in the water.

“Oh goody,” Steve mused. “Do I get the cool hat and
everything?”

“Get us to a restaurant soon and I’ll buy it for you myself,”
Heidi laughed. “I’m starving.”

“First mate
and
chauffer,” Steve said with a bow. He
nodded at his car, parked just a little way from the dock. “The limo awaits.”

They all packed a couple nights worth of clothes first, then
checked in to one of the harbor-side hotels before they actually found
themselves at a casual Italian restaurant. Leta was anxious to try more varied
human cuisine, so they skipped the seafood for a change. After dinner, Jake and
Heidi lounged in the hotel’s courtyard spa for a bit, while a reluctant Niko
escorted Leta to the on-site nightclub.

“We should go up to the room before the others come
upstairs,” Heidi murmured. Her head rested on his shoulder as she gazed up at
the stars.

“I checked with the concierge,” Jake replied as he trailed
his fingers lazily up and down her arm. “The walls are soundproofed. You can
scream all you want.”

“Mmmm.” She rubbed the back of her head against his chest while
her fingers on his thigh began to inch upward toward the hem of his swim
trunks. “Nice.”

“Upstairs,” he managed, stopping that soft, questing hand
with one of his own. “King-sized bed. Six-hundred thread-count sheets. Champagne
from room service.”

A giggle sounded from the pool area, separated from the hot
tub by just a screen of plants.

“And glorious privacy,” she added, scooting away from him to
stand. “What are we waiting for?”

“You,” he said as he took her hand and they speed-walked
toward the elevator, wrapping the hotel robes around their damp swimsuits as
they went. “All my life, I was just waiting for you.”

For the first half of the next day, Heidi visited Brad in
the hospital while Jake paid a call on his salvage broker. It was great to see
Brad sitting up under his own power, now that he’d been moved from the ICU to a
regular floor. He still had a private room though. Heidi didn’t ask if that was
because of his parents, or if it had to do with the off-duty cop who still sat
outside his door. While Steve had said he was fairly sure that all of Velasquez’s
contacts had been rounded up, he still didn’t want to leave his star witness
unprotected. That thought brought a moment of panic. Heidi would have to
testify too, wouldn’t she? Oh hell, that was going to be a nightmare.

However, she was here now with her friend, they were both
alive, and that’s all that counted, she reminded herself. On the up side of
things, now that their son was out of danger, Brad’s parents had left the
hospital, only stopping in for a few minutes each day.

“You look a hell of a lot better than you did the last time
you were here,” Brad said. “Looks like hanging out on a boat with your
bodyguard agrees with you.”

Heidi felt her face heat. “Yeah, I guess it does.”

“And I’m guessing it’s more the guy than the boat,” Brad
added. “You look happier than I’ve seen you in years. I’m glad, Heidi. Just be
careful, okay? If this guy is just a boat bum, he may not be sticking around
for the long haul.”

Long haul? If Brad only knew how long Jake had been bumming
around, as he put it. Heidi repressed a bubble of hysterical laughter. “I’m not
jumping into anything without looking,” she promised her friend. “As for right
now—yeah, it’s pretty serious. But I’m not sure at all where it’s going yet.”
It killed her not to be able to tell Brad the whole truth.

“Could you close the door for a minute?” Brad said a few
minutes later, his voice soft and tentative. “There’s something I want to ask
you about.”

Heidi closed the door, then pulled her chair up closer to
the bed before sitting down. “Go ahead.”

“I know when you found me, they had me pretty doped up,” he
began. He scrubbed one hand across his pale, freckled face, then looked
straight into Heidi’s eyes. “So anything I saw had to be just a really weird
trip, right?”

A knot of panic tightened in Heidi’s gut. What had he seen?
What could she say? She just shrugged. “I’d guess that depends on what you
thought you saw.”

Brad slowly shook his head. “Some pretty unbelievable stuff.
But the guys who were guarding me? There were four of them. And I swear to God,
H, I don’t think they were human.”

Heidi froze. The coyotes! She swallowed hard and tried to
sound skeptical. “What makes you say that?”

Brad took a deep breath. “I think I saw two of them change
into wolves.”

“Coyotes.” The word was out of Heidi’s mouth before she
could stop it. In his drug-filled haze, Brad must have seen a couple of the
coyote shifters shift and he’d mistaken them for wolves. Of course he had.
Legends and pop culture were full of werewolves, but who’d ever heard of a
were-coyote?

“Fuck.” Brad regarded Heidi intently. “How do you know that?”

Heidi’s hand had flown up to cover her mouth. “I—umm—just
thought they—umm…” What the hell was she supposed to say?

“No. Don’t even try to deny what you just said. You
knew
about this, didn’t you? Did you see them change, too?”

She shook her head. There was no way she could look her best
friend in the eyes and lie to him about this. She just couldn’t do it. “No. But
one of the men I was with told me that’s what they were. Wolves are a lot less
skanky, I think.”

“And you believed him.” Brad’s intent gaze didn’t waver.

Heidi nodded. “There was a wizard in the house too.”

“And you know this because…”

Her shoulders slumped. “Because one of the good guys is a
wizard too, and he told me so.”

“Oookay.” Brad nodded and leaned back against his elevated
mattress. “How much of this story has to do with the hottie who rescued you?”

She squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip. “All of it.”

“Can you tell me?” His voice was soft and gentle—full of
understanding not judgmental at all, though she could see his need to know more
about what he’d seen in that compound.

This was
Brad
. Her best friend. The only family she
had left. She wanted so badly to share this with him. He was the most
closed-mouthed person she knew. He’d never reveal any of this, never take the
risk of compromising Jake or his family and friends. “It isn’t my story to
tell,” she whispered finally, her heart breaking.

Go ahead
, came a soft voice somewhere inside her
mind.
It’s all right, Freya. I trust your judgment.

“Holy crap!” Her eyes flew open and she stared at Brad.

“What?” Brad eyed her quizzically.

“Just a second.” She closed her eyes and focused inward.
Jake?

I’m here. Your distress was powerful enough to reach out
through our link. I guess in the last few days it’s grown, from empathic to
telepathic.

Where are you?
She wondered if he had to be nearby
for it to work. This was incredibly cool—and incredibly unsettling. Would it
always be like this? Even if they…broke up some day?

It probably will, goddess. Though like I told you before,
I don’t know any couples who have broken up after the bond was formed.

And where are you?
she repeated.
Are you in the
hospital?

No. I’m in the rental car on my way to the bank. Damn
near ran a stoplight when I first felt your pain.

Sorry.
She swallowed a moment of panic that she didn’t
want to pass along to him.
Brad saw the coyotes shift.

I heard. Go ahead, sweetheart. If you think he will
believe, and understand, then tell him. He’s your family. He would have to know
eventually, anyway. Just be careful that no one can overhear.

She knew he felt her rush of gratitude and love over the
link.
I’ll be careful. Thank you, Jake. I love you.

Love you too, Heidi.
Then he slipped silently out of
her mind, though she could still feel him there as an emotional presence, his
love and strength supporting her.

She turned back to Brad and gave him a shaky smile. “Jake
says I can tell you everything. You ready to be wowed?”

“He just told you that?” Brad tipped his head and settled
back into his pillows with a wide grin. “Yeah, I think I’m ready for the whole
shebang. Dish me, girlfriend. This is gonna be good!”

* * * * *

“I feel like such a peasant,” Heidi whispered to Jake a few
hours later as they followed the boat salesman onto yet another yacht in the
very upscale marina they’d driven to in La Jolla. “I keep expecting to get
thrown out, or told to use the servants’ entrance.”

Jake chuckled. Her insecurity when it came to money was kind
of cute, given that she’d taken on coyote shifters single-handedly. “There’s no
servants’ entrance on a boat, my dear. Everyone uses the same gangplank.

She punched him lightly on the arm. “You know what I mean.”

“Relax. It’s only money.” If she was going to stay with
him—and he sure as hell hoped she was—she’d have to get used to having the
stuff anyway.

“This one has six luxury staterooms, and room for a crew of
eight,” the broker was saying. “Also a fully equipped gym and the on-deck hot
tub.”

The last one had had eight staterooms, a video screening
room and a salon the size of Texas. This one was actually a little smaller.
Still, Jake shook his head. This was exactly the kind of boat the pirates would
target. He wanted to take them on at the island, not set themselves up as bait.

“I think we’re looking for something just a little smaller,”
Jake noted. “Not quite so well equipped.” All they really needed was a bunch of
bunks and a decent engine.

The salesman wrinkled his nose, but nodded. “There are a
couple of lower-priced vessels available at the other end of the marina. If you
insist.”

Finally, three boats later, Jake found what he was looking
for. It wasn’t huge, wasn’t ostentatious, but it had beds for twelve, eight
guests and four crew, and had smooth running engines and big fuel tanks. The
slightly older boat had been the toy of a dedicated fisherman rather than a
dilettante’s party cruiser, so there were no ballrooms or gyms, just good,
functional space.

He dickered with the broker more for form than anything
else, but was unsurprised when Heidi entered into the negotiations. When he
walked away with the ownership papers in his hands, Heidi was grinning like a
shark and the broker slunk off to his Porsche, looking like he’d been hit by a
truck.

“Remind me to stay on your good side,” Jake said as they
strolled back to their rental car. “You drive a mean bargain.”

“Hey, just because you have money doesn’t mean you have to
throw it away,” she said, then laughed. “God, I’m channeling my grandmother.
Next thing you know, I’ll be fussing about taking a hot dish to the neighbors.
What’s our next stop, boss?”

“Steve and Wen are handling the hardware,” Jake said. “Wen’s
also got someone arranging passports for my mother and her crew. The only thing
left on our agenda is getting what we need in the way of diving equipment.”
Jake wasn’t going to be able to shift, so he’d need equipment, as would Heidi.
Steve could just teleport and Wen, well, he could do whatever it was that Wen
did.

Finding gear was handled easily enough. Dive shops dotted
the landscape along the coastal streets as they made their way back toward
their marina. They both picked up some new high-speed flippers, black full
wetsuits, and oxygen rebreathers, which would allow them to dive for long
periods of time without producing telltale streams of bubbles. The
backpack-style rigs were light enough for easy movement, and Jake made sure to
purchase everything they’d need for maintenance as well.

“Brad wants to come too, you know,” Heidi said as they left
the store and climbed back in the car. “Once I mentioned that your mother’s
friend can do magical healing, I could see the wheels starting to turn in his
brain.”

“But Aella isn’t here in San Diego,” Jake pointed out. “And
how would you explain his sudden recovery to the hospital staff?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Heidi said. “Couldn’t Steve
arrange for him to be transferred somewhere? For home care or something? Then
once he was there, no one would know the difference.”

“That would probably work,” Jake agreed. “Now that his
infections have been dealt with and it is just a matter of knitting bones and
mending injuries, it would be easy enough for a healer to deal with. If there
is one in the Catalina settlement, that is. We can ask Leta.”

“And you don’t mind him coming with us?”

“He can drive a boat, yes?”

Heidi nodded. “And he’s as good a diver as I am, maybe
better. And a good shot too.”

Jake shook his head. “I don’t know Heidi. The longer I think
about it, the more I’d like you to stay behind on the boat when it comes to the
actual mission. I’ve been trained for this, along with Steve and Wen. With
luck, we’ll have Miguel and some of his men with us. My mother’s guards are
trained warriors. You are not. You’re brilliant and strong and courageous, and
you can handle a gun, but you’re not a trained commando.”

Heidi bit her lip, but he could see she was actually
considering his arguments. “So why’d you buy the second set of equipment?”

Jake shrugged. “Just in case, I suppose. Or for recreational
use at a later date. Anyway, better to have it and not need it than to need it
and not have it.”

“If we’re taking the new boat out to Catalina tomorrow, this
might be our last chance for an evening alone,” Jake said as they drove back
toward the hotel. “I thought we could do something weird like get dressed up
and go out somewhere nice—just the two of us.”

“That sounds like fun,” she said, leaning her head back
against the sedan’s leather seat. “Leta and Niko will be okay on their own?”

“Steve’s taking them to a movie,” Jake replied. “And to one
of those Mongolian restaurants where they cook the food on those big, open
grills. That should keep Leta entertained for hours.”

“I don’t really have any dress clothes,” Heidi mentioned a
few minutes later. “The few I did have were in the closet in my apartment.”

Which meant they’d been destroyed. Jake reached out and
squeezed her hand. “Will you let me buy you a dress?”

Heidi shook her head. “No. I’m not broke, you know. But if
you’re nice, you can help me pick something out.”

“I can be nice. Do I get to pick out what goes underneath it
too?”

Her laugh filled the car, and his heart. “Only if you’re
really, really good.”

* * * * *

Jake’s idea of really good and Heidi’s weren’t exactly the
same. Her insurance company had assured her early in the day that the check for
replacing her damaged belongings was in progress, so she decided to treat
herself and went to a store that was a little more upscale than where she
normally shopped. Jake didn’t just sit in a little chair and give his opinions,
like most men would have. No, he picked through the racks, holding up garments
and critiquing them with a determination that made Heidi laugh and confused the
saleswoman.

“This one,” he finally said. It was a simple black sheath
with a low back and a diagonal hemline.

Heidi wasn’t sure it was big enough, but she tried it on.
When she emerged from the fitting room, the look in Jake’s eyes told her all
she needed to know.

“I’ll take it,” she told the clerk.

“I don’t believe it,” the other woman said as she rang up
the purchase and swiped Heidi’s credit card. Heidi was sure she was smiling at
the hefty commission she’d earn—the dress wasn’t cheap. “When he picked that
one up, I thought he was crazy. I’d imagined it on someone petite—kind of
Audrey Hepburn-ish. But it’s perfect on you. If he ever needs a job—”