Chapter 1

Chapter

One

BECK

“ L et’s go over the plan one more time,” Will said. “We can’t afford any screw ups on a job this big.”

Kato rolled his eyes. “Calm your shit, bro. We’ve gone over it a million times!”

“Everything has to go perfect,” Will said with a growl. “There’s zero room for fuck ups.”

My elbow bumped Will’s stomach as I walked past him on our way to the beach. “Don’t get your panties in a knot. We’ve got this.”

He wrapped his arm around my neck and pulled my head down to rough up my hair in retaliation.

“I’m your big brother. It’s my job to keep you fuckers in line. And Dad’ll kill us if we don’t get the information for Roy. You know he’s our most important client and if we do good here?—”

“We know, Dad !” I laughed at the pissed off expression on Will’s face. He fucking hated it when I called him Dad, but I hated it when he acted like him, so it’s a good trade. “If we do good, Roy will throw more business our way, which will be good for the entire shoal.”

Kato snickered at my attempt to mimic our dad’s voice.

Will looked like he was getting ready to lose his shit, so I cut him some slack. “Seriously, we got this. We’re taking the zodiac to park half a mile away from the Nova, then we’ll swim the rest of the way. The yacht will be anchored for the night, so it’ll be easy to slip on board.”

Kato picked up where I left off. “You are going to climb up on the starboard side. Beck’ll be climbing up the port and I will take the stern and then keep watch on the deck. You and Beck will split up and find the old man’s office.”

Will takes over. “Once we find it, I’ll work on downloading the files we need while you stand guard. Once we’ve got the information, we’ll get back to the zodiac and be home before morning.”

Nervous energy was building in my stomach, so by the time we reached the boat, I was amped up and more than ready to get going. Our night vision far surpassed normal humans, so we had no problem navigating in the dark. Once we’d arrived at the decided upon location, Will tossed the anchor overboard.

After pulling my henley over my head, I folded it and placed it on the bench seat.

“Ready boys?” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice.

My brothers followed suit, each of us stripping down to our boxers before changing into our other form. Jumping out of my boxers, I leapt over the side of the boat and into the cold water, swimming in a tight circle. Unlike some of my fellow mudskippers, I loved being in the water.

There was a small splash, and Kato joined me.

“I’ll race you to the boat,” Kato’s human voice sounded inside my head.

“No, you won’t,” Will stated firmly. “We are staying together.” He shifted and jumped from the boat. “Let’s go,” he said, using our mind link.

Knowing he was playing it smart, I got in line and Kato soon followed. We had work to do.

We skimmed across the water silently. Our unique eyesight made us perfect for these kinds of missions. One of my eyes focused on our destination, while the other scanned behind us, ensuring there were no predators nearby. We took turns diving under the water to make sure nothing was going to attack us from below.

Once we reached the boat, I followed the plan and easily scaled the side of the yacht. I scanned the deck, noting that there were two guards, one sitting watching an outdoor TV and another near the stairs leading down below.

“We got bad intel. Two armed guards,” I warned my brothers.

“Fuck,” Will replied. “Watch yourselves. Kato, let us know if either of them heads our way.”

Carefully circumventing the thugs on deck, I used my pelvic fins to scoot my way to the stairs and then down. There was another man across the room from me, so I stayed close to the edge of the wall and silently slunk forward, hoping that if he glanced my way, he wouldn’t look down. Most people didn’t.

“Another guard down here,” I reported. “This place is insane!”

“Stay focused,” Will replied.

“I am. But holy shit, there’s a hot tub, bar and a huge ass T.V in here.” My eyes swivelled around the space, hardly believing the opulence on display.

“Didn’t you see the pool on the lower deck?” Kato chuckled. “Don’t they realize they can swim in the ocean? And another bar. God, rich people are lazy. Who needs more than one bar?”

“There’s another bar up here. But keep your minds on the mission,” Will’s voice thundered in my head, sounding like he yelled directly into my ear.

At the first door, I peeked inside and noted it was the galley. Continuing to the next, I jumped inside the room when another armed man came out of a room in front of me. Thank God it was cracked open. A major disadvantage of being a mudskipper was having to change back to our human forms to open doors.

Fuck. I was in a bedroom.

Someone scooped me up before I could even think about finding a hiding spot. “Oh! Aren’t you just the cutest little thing?”

I almost swallowed my tongue when I saw who’d picked me up. My dorsal fins popped up without conscious thought and I preened at the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen.

“Oh shit. We need water,” she said in a panicked tone while looking around wildly. “Water. Water. Ah, here we go.” She dropped me face first into a pitcher of cold water. Half of my body was sticking out of the pitcher as she tilted it, so I was laying more comfortably.

I couldn’t help but grin when she breathed out an enormous sigh of relief. Her concern was so cute.

“Breathe little guy. I got you.” She stared at the door with a puzzled frown. “How the heck did you get in here?”

She lifted the pitcher, examining me, then let out the sweetest sounding giggle when I blinked at her through the clear glass.

“Status update,” Will broke through my fascination with the human.

“Slight problem,” I replied through our mind link. “I’m currently being held captive by a gorgeous woman in her bedroom.”

“What?” The loud yell had me wincing. “Repeat!” Will growled.

Kato’s laughter came through loud and clear around Will’s yelling.

“Well, you’re stuck here till I can sneak you outside, so I had better find a bigger container. If the guards find you, they’ll probably kill you just to spite me,” the woman said.

Well fuck. “Continue with the mission. I’m safe for now. She likes me.”

“What kind of fish are you? I’ve never heard of a fish walking onto a boat before.”

She strolled around the room with me.

“What do you mean she likes you?” Will’s exasperation is clear.

If I’d been in human form, I would have shrugged. “I don’t know. She just likes me. I can tell.”

“Oh, where are my manners? I’m Nova. What am I going to call you? Maybe Flipper? Seaweed? Ariel?” She frowned and then moved the pitcher around. My body swished from side to side as she inspected me. “Are you a boy fish or a girl fish?” she singsongs in a high-pitched voice.

She giggled again. “Who am I kidding—unless you’ve got a little fishy dick, I have no idea what I’m looking for.”

Normally, I would think this baby talk bullshit was very annoying, but for some reason, it’s adorable coming from the Goddess holding me. But thank fuck my brothers couldn’t hear the humiliation I was being put through. They’d never let me live it down.

“Found the office. Second floor. I’ll update when I’ve got the information,” Will reports.

She continued walking around with me. “Aquaman! You look like a strong little fishy.”

My dorsal fins fan out again and before I can stop myself, I give a little hop.

She jerked back, dropping the pitcher.

“Oh shit. Oh no! I’m sorry.” She scooped me back up, her head whipping around before running into the adjourning washroom and dropping me in the goddamn toilet of all places.

I blink up at her, hoping that a small part of her understands that dropping me like a deuce in the shitter was not cool.

She giggled, her hand quickly covering her mouth. “I’m…” More giggling. “So…” And more giggling. “Sorry.” And then she dropped to her knees in front of the toilet, laughing so hard tears streamed down her face. “I can’t believe I did that.”

At least the bowl was clean but come on.

“I’ll get you out of there in just a minute,” Nova said when she finally stopped laughing.

She got up and filled the fancy bowl like sink and then stared down at me.

“Well, this is…distasteful.” Her lip curled as she readied herself to reach into the bowl.

“Who are you talking to?” A gruff male voice had Nova jerking upright and turning toward the door.

“Shit. Not now.” She glanced back at me. “Please don’t splash around. I’ll come back for you. Just stay quiet.”

Heavy footsteps thudded toward us. Nova’s face turned from happy to a mask of stone before she turned back to her bedroom. The door didn’t latch shut when she walked into her bedroom.

Careful not to make any noise, I followed her to the edge of the doorway and peeked through the slit.

“Get the fuck out,” Nova yelled at the heavyset guard. “You’re not allowed in my room. Leave.”

The way the guard sneered at Nova was making me nervous. I had a feeling our mission was about to go to shit.