Deep Betrayal

pile apart.
    “What’s going on?” I demanded of Calder. “What are they saying?”
    Calder threw the car in reverse and peeled out of the gravel parking lot.
    “That Pettit kid is getting on my last nerve,” he said through his teeth, his back hunched over the steering wheel. Despite everything Jack had done, that didn’t seem fair. He was the one getting his ass kicked.
    Calder was still ranting. “He can’t keep his mouth shut. He’s going to start naming names. With me making such a public appearance, guess whose name will come up first.”
    “No way,” I said, wondering what he’d heard that I’d missed. “Jack’s messed up, but he’s not sadistic.”
    Calder shot me a scandalized look, and I thought of Tallulah.
    “That was different,” I whispered. He took a corner too fast, and I fell against the window. “So you’re running away from Jack Pettit?”
    Veins bulged in Calder’s temples, and his face flushed. “I’m not running!”
    I tugged my seat belt tighter. “Okay. You’re not running. What’s Jack fighting with those guys about?”
    “Same thing as before. The two kayak accidents from this week—”
    “So you did hear about the kayakers.”
    “How could I not?” he asked with an exasperated sigh. “Both of them reported seeing a dark shadow in the water and then bam , their kayaks turned over and they were pulled out. I expected Maris and Pavati to hunt, and I worried their grief would cause them to take too many lives in too short a time, but letting two kayakers get away ?”
    “I don’t understand. That’s a good thing, right?”
    “Wrong,” Calder said. “The worst thing. Letting a target escape is sheer negligence.”
    “You think because those kayakers have told their stories, Jack will have more fuel for his anti-mermaid crusade?”
    Calder’s fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly. “That’s part of it. For now the other guys are still giving him crap. They’re calling him a freak back there. That’s what started the fight.”
    “That’s good, then,” I said.
    “For whom?” he asked, looking quickly at me, then back at the road.
    That was a question I couldn’t answer. “You just said no one believes Jack.”
    “Not yet, but it will take only one to get it started. It’ll be like before. At first, it’ll be curiosity. Some adventure seeker will come searching the caves. Then they’ll come with underwater cameras and sonar.”
    “Be serious.”
    Calder yanked the steering wheel hard to the right and hit the brakes. I fell forward into my seat belt, and my hand hit the dashboard.
    “I couldn’t be any more serious. How can you ignore the facts?”
    “Maybe life is better for me if I do,” I said grimly.
    His eyes flashed emerald. “Don’t be a fool.”
    “Don’t call me a fool!”
    “We should have never come back to Bayfield,” Calder growled.
    “ You didn’t have to.”
    His face darkened, and his eyes turned more menacing than I’d ever seen them before. For the first time, I could see the bleakness of his soul. It coiled and curled like smoke and eels in his darkening eyes. How was it that his mind could spiral into misery so quickly? It scared me that I wasn’t proving an effective talisman against his despair. Not now, anyway.
    What scared me even more was the strange heat that pulsed through my own chest. I might not have been able to see the colors, but I could feel the burning, mustard-colored haze that hummed around the outline of my body. It didn’t surprise me at all when Calder recoiled at the sight of me. If I didn’t have enough control over my own emotions, how could I bring him back to himself?
    “I need a fix,” he snarled. “I’ve pushed this abstinence long enough. I’ve been kidding myself. If Jack wants a monster, he’s got one!” Calder hazarded another glance my way and snapped, “Because you’re certainly not helping me any.”
    I sucked in my breath and stared straight ahead while Calder added, “What is wrong with you? Take that necklace off.”
    I wheeled around on him and slapped my hands downon the cracked vinyl seat. “Why is this my fault? Why do I have to be the one to make everything all better for you. For Dad? For everyone ?”
    “No one asked you to.”
    My mouth popped open to give him the best retort I could muster, but nothing came.
    “God, Lily, you’re impossible.”
    I turned toward the window and yanked my blouse back over my shoulders. “Take me home,” I said,