MERCILESS (The Mermen Trilogy #3) Read Online Free PDF

away from me and my family or I will fucking kill you.”
    “Liv!” her mother gasped, and her father pulled her away from the swarm of intruders. “Let’s get you home.” They dragged her into the small terminal and outside to their old gray Subaru parked in the front, shoving her into the backseat.
    The reporters were relentless, screaming at her as the car pulled out of the parking lot.
    Driving away wouldn’t do any good. Wrangell was a small island and the town was even smaller. There was absolutely nowhere to hide in this place.
    Worried as hell, Liv drew a sobering breath, realizing she needed to stay calm if she wanted to find Dana.
    Of course, this meant that going back to that hellhole, El Corazón, needed to happen yesterday. Dana had to still be there. Please let her be alive, too. Please. But first, Liv had to get her story straight. She couldn’t tell her parents any more than she’d told the paramedics and the forest rangers who found her just a few hours south of Anchorage. Yes, Anchorage. Far enough away from civilization for Shane to keep her hidden, but close enough that he’d have access to supplies. The new carpet in the hallway should’ve been a dead giveaway that they weren’t too remote. Not like Carpeteria made house calls by dinghy or Shane would’ve laid the carpet himself.
    “Mom? Dad?” she said calmly from the backseat. “I’m so sorry, but I don’t know where Dana is. I don’t remember anything. I just…woke up on the beach outside that cabin.”
    “Was it the cabin where you were being held?” her mother asked.
    “I don’t know. I can’t remember. But when I looked inside, I spotted blood all over the kitchen. Then I saw a cell phone on the counter, so I grabbed it and ran.” That would not give her parents any peace of mind, but her story would be out in the news by now. And the flight attendant on the plane ride home told her that the police had already found the beach house despite Liv’s attempt to misdirect them. She’d had to explain where she’d gotten the phone, but didn’t want them running off and finding Shane’s place containing a rather deadly and hungry mermaid. Regardless of her efforts, however, there weren’t many homes in that area, so they found the house. Just like she’d said, there was blood in the kitchen. Thankfully, the maid had seen to it that there was no body.
    Her father turned left down the street where they lived. The reporters were already behind them. “The police said it was some sort of animal blood. They couldn’t say which kind, though.”
    That was because it was merman blood.
    “We’ll find her,” Liv said quietly, trying to hide her utter panic. “I turned up. She’ll turn up, too.”
    Dear Lord, I hope.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    After a few hours with her parents, where she was re-interviewed by the state police, who still had a manhunt going for Dana, Liv borrowed her mother’s laptop and went into her room. She tried not to think about how she’d just lied to the world, to the very people who were trying to help, and to her own family. But what other choice was there? Send them all to El Corazón?
    Sitting in her room and scrolling through news articles, Liv chewed on her thumbnail. Where was the island?How could she get there? It wasn’t too far from where she’d been rescued the first time by a cargo ship that belonged to Roen. Someone had to know where that spot was, like the captain of that ship.
    She would call Roen’s office as soon as they opened in a few hours. No, no one there knew about her relationship with the boss, but they knew who she was. Maybe she’d tell them she was writing a book about being lost at sea.
    Fiction, of course. Because her story had tailless mermen in it.
    She then did a quick search for any news having to do with Roen, hoping there might be something, anything to indicate he was alive.
    Nothing.
    He’s not dead, Liv. He’s not dead and neither is Dana.
    So how would she be