Free Deep Blue (The Mermaid Chronicles Book 1) by J Turbett Page B

her very human scream of frustration had an underlying tone in the language of the folk, the language she could now speak but didn’t know. Alice was telling the world to "fuck off," and this underlying tone was keeping people away. He contemplated going to her, but he had a feeling she would figure things out on her own.
                  She screamed again. Slowly it dissolved into a whimper. Touching her face, she felt the salt water there. She was crying. She didn’t know when she had started crying or when she had stopped screaming, but there they were, the tears on her face, friends she had lost long ago. Terror had been far more real to her than sadness.
                  Alice didn't know how long she was there, but she let her body wrack with her sobs in the surf, which gently caressed her with each swell. Wave after wave crashed against her knees. It crawled up to her midsection before she realized that she should get up. Her legs were stiff as she regained her feet, her shoes squishing with water. The tears had dried on her face and she knew exactly where she was going. She hoofed it up to the bar. The only thought on her mind was to drink herself stupid, drink until she puked all her guts out, whatever they were made of now. A few shots of heavy whiskey, certainly a couple of beers, too; beer before liquor, of course. She landed at a barstool, she wanted to be gone, she didn’t want to be a part of this body or this life. Why when she wanted no part of one world was she suddenly being wound into the clutches of another, it wasn’t fair and it wouldn’t do.
                  Drink her brain told her. Drink it pounded in her temples.
                  Drink until everything goes black.
     

Chapter 7
Doctor Knows Best
     
                  “Oh, hell no, I want no part of this,” Adam fumed. “How did it happen? What? Fuck!” He yelled at Finn. He spun toward the house. They were in old Mrs. Maygood’s garden. He had been performing a house-call when Finn showed up on the doorstep. “How did you even know where to find me?”
                  “Natalie.”
                  “I keep your secret, I hired one of your people, and now you have the audacity to interrupt me while working to throw your problems at me!”
                  “She’s one of you.”
                  “Apparently not anymore!” Adam ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “This is not my problem…” he trailed off, “God,” he sighed. He knew he was going to help; there wasn’t really much choice in the matter. After all, she would be one of his patients, sooner or later. He spun back toward Finn. “This is your fault; this is your job. You should be dealing with this.”
                  “We both know I’m the worst equipped for that kind of thing,” Finn said, narrowing his eyes.
                  “Donkey’s years and you still throw it in my face; I wasn’t even your doctor then. I didn’t even know then.”
                  “Your father…”
                  “Knew exactly what to do: he left. He wanted nothing more to do with any of you.”
                  “Says the man with the new yacht – bought with whose money?” Adam stared at the boy angrily. He wasn’t wrong: Adam got paid for his troubles, ten-fold. Paid for his discretion.
                  “I have work to do; I’ll find her after that. I have a feeling I know exactly where she’ll be.”
     
                  Adam blew through the coconut entrance to the bar. He looked at the bartender. He was still irked at Finn, but he tried to make himself appear as his smiling self. There was a sense of urgency to his pursuit by now. If she was bad off as he figured, she probably wasn't going to be getting home. Maybe he should rephrase that: he couldn’t let her go