Chapter 3

Brynley

“He shouldn’t be such a giant pussy,” I snip at the same time I dump the bucket of food into Steven’s secluded area where he’s currently being held. “ I did his job, remember?” Shaking the stuck contents out is followed by flashing Calen Connelly, my closest colleague and one of my best friends, a smug smirk. “And you never saw me file an official aggression complaint when that monk seal went all Deep Space Mine because she thought I was standing too close to her pup.”

“ True. ” A small chuckle is attached to a halfhearted shoulder shrug. “However, let me remind you – once again – that not everyone loves your boy Steven as much as you do.”

“I understand not everyone is as incredible as me.” Post my favorite water gossiping pal presenting me a fin wave of agreement, I turn to face Calen. “You know what they say. With great power comes great tits.”

Another round of chortles is expelled. “That is not how that quote goes.”

“Pretty sure it is.”

“It isn’t.”

“Uh…which one of us is engaged to a comic book aficionado?”

“Which one of us knows that that quote you just butchered was Voltaire basically immortalized by Spiderman, not Batman?”

“Which one of us should watch more Star Trek and less webslinger?”

Loud laughter echoes around the room prompting me to beam brightly.

What can I say?

I’m gifted with words.

Backing up to add the dirty bucket to the collection that needs cleaning is accompanied by me beginning again, “The point I was trying to make-”

“Oh, there was one?”

He’s flashed my middle finger, which sparks more snickers. “The point is Steven deserves to be loved and cared for and not bullied. It shouldn’t matter if he looks a little scarier than the others-”

“He acted scarier than the others.”

“He acted out of instinct.”

“He tried to attack a small child.”

“He tried to eat her toy!” Clamoring noises from the bucket precede me further snapping, “Those stupid neon colored squid toys were a terrible fucking decision.”

“Kids love them.”

“Yet you get your panties in a twist when Steven does.”

“Because he was the one who tried to eat it!”

“If not food…why food shaped?”

Bewilderment bursts through his green gaze. “ Fucking…really, Bryn? ”

“We both know how close to feeding time it was, which is why he was so easily excited, and made the very painful mistake of ramming his face into the glass that child was standing next too.”

“You’re blaming the kid?” His head tilts sarcastically to one side. “ That’s the route you wanna take?”

“While I do like sharks more than children, no. ” An unexpected churn to my stomach has me placing a palm on it in question. “I’m blaming our piece of shit merchandizing department.” Sharp twists cause me to slightly wince in pain. “Those toys are clearly a neon-colored lawsuit waiting to happen.”

Rather than focus on that statement, he kicks his chin at the other subject. “You okay?”

“I think-” my balled fist rushes to momentarily block bile from leaking out. It takes more energy and effort than I expect to force the burning back down to my stomach, yet the instant it’s returned to where it rightfully belongs, I grumble, “I think you made a terrible choice bringing us waffles from that discount diner.”

“It’s not a discount diner,” Calen poorly argues. “I got a discount at the diner because I took my car to his brother’s mechanic shop, Roscoe’s Wheels however, I’ll take somewhat skittish.

Not quite the nervous shark – a species of the requiem shark – around humans but nowhere near a whale shark.

That whole Raggedy Insane situation left a bad taste in my mouth – lame joke totally made on purpose. Learning the how and why she set me up, to everything about her connection to my new step-dad – Mom and Clark are currently away on their honeymoon – gave me answers as much as new trust issues in all things Wilcox related. And while my fiancé loves to remind me the threat has been eliminated – since he literally banished her from the states for whatever remains of her Bride of Chucky life – I can’t help the nagging thoughts that her attack was more of a first, rather than a last.

Maybe she won’t strike again but someone else she knows or who has the same mindset just might.

Especially now that we’re constantly in the spotlight.

I swear every week there’s a new mogul or media or model out to strike.

And because of how cleverly camouflaged our last predator was, I have no choice but to be overly cautious of everyone that isn’t directly Mom or Wes related.

Even Calen and Vanessa have had thorough background checks done on them since the incident.

Not sure they know.

Damn sure not gonna tell them if they don’t.

“Winters and Connelly,” an unseen voice says through the small corner intercom, “report to the R however, I do my best to keep them completely sincere.

Truth is…I’m no longer drowning in debt.

Due to my Bruce Wayne living up to his nickname, I went from sympathizing with why the earliest versions of Selina Kyle had sticky claws to being someone she would absolutely try to steal from.

And he wasn’t even remotely subtle about the whole thing.

I came home fuck early on a Tuesday from Michigan – where we had been meeting with their team to see about possibly transferring our rescued sea turtles to their facility – to discover my debt in its entirety had disappeared – including some bad living situations with lingering resentment – that I had a brand new car in my name and a penthouse apartment downtown – a whopping ten minutes from work – that was in both of our names.

On one fin, I thought I had just smelled too much cleaning solution in a short time frame and was hallucinating.

And on the other, I swore he was about to see Hamilton for a visit regarding how to surgically remove his balls from his belly button because I am not anyone’s charity case.

I have never and will never be.

I can handle myself.

I can take care of things myself .

I didn’t and don’t need someone to toss on their heavy ass leather cape – that may occasionally now be used for sex stuff – and swoop in to damsel in distress save me.

He thought all that shit was sweet.

I thought it was controlling.

And that’s how we ended up in a shouting match so loud security was called to referee.

Compromise is – to no surprise – still our biggest struggle; however, I like to believe we’ve made progress.

He paid off my debt, so I pay to have cookies delivered to his office weekly.

He bought me a new car, so I pay for detailing services when we’re not at the estate.

He paid for our penthouse and the furnishings, so I decorated it in nerd memorabilia.

Our style could easily be labeled as chic Comic-Con.

Upon entering the office of Raquel Lane, our boss, we’re immediately given a lifted index finger to instruct us to wait until her call ends to speak.

Calen immediately twitches me a glare in warning knowing there’s a sarcastic snip right on the tip of my tongue.

Maybe it’s rude to get lippy with the woman who decides on how many zeroes get to be on your paycheck, but I think it’s rude to take a phone call when you’re expecting employees that you’ve summoned.

“What sort of extension can you provide?” Her sun-kissed fingers fidget with the ends of her stringy hair. “No, I understand that. It’s just-”

The pressing of her lips tightly together indicates she was the one interrupted, an action that threatens to have the corners of my lips curling upward.

I hate her.

I – honest to Spock – come in every day hoping she’s been fired.

Look, I know everyone tends to hate their boss in some fashion.

I’ve had enough jobs, in enough places, with enough different types of individuals to know as well as understand this, but Raquel is different.

Like send her to the seventh circle of hell reserved for those that participate in shark finning and purposely make babies cry level of different.

Out of all the people who work for her, it’s me she gives the most shit to.

Calen gets his shirt soaking wet during the day, takes it off like some sort of merman Magic Mike, and she praises him for his dedication to the institute.

The rescues get a little excited during playtime, my shirt gets drenched, and she chews my ass out like I was trying to start at wet t-shirt contest on the clock.

Initially, I thought it was just double standard bullshit – you know hot guy gets away with murder, hot girl gets penalized for simply existing, type of nonsense – but when I witnessed her gushing over Stephanie Edwards – a chick who can’t even remember to wash out the food pails – I realized nope.

It’s just me she hates.

Why?

Could be because I don’t “need” this job like others.

Could be because I’m happily engaged and she’s in the midst of a bitter divorce.

Or it could simply be because The Captain of the sky blessed me with great tits while she had to pay for hers.

“Understood,” Raquel murmurs into her cell prior to ending the call. Afterwards, hazel eyes I hate looking into meet mine. “Where’s Steven’s daily status report?”

“In progress,” I professionally reply, folding my hands politely in front of me, executing the less defensive based technique I owe Evie for teaching me.

“Why isn’t it completed?”

“Protocol dictates we wait until after an injured creature has finished feeding,” Calen swiftly explains, tone calm and even. “We are simply following procedure.”

“You always do, Connelly,” she coos in his direction before glaring in mine. “And if I were to ask you for a quick assessment regarding his temperament? Could you provide it, Winters?”

The answer to that is the same answer to the question “could she provide me with more reasons to despise her?”.

Fighting the instinct to sneer is masked by a single teeth suck. “ Yes. ”

“And?” She leans back into her squeaky brown office chair. “What is it?”

“Playful.”

“Not lethargic?”

“No.”

“Any swimming changes due to his injury?”

“No.”

“And the injury itself?” Raquel shifts her stare back to Calen. “How’s it healing?”

“Well.” The smile he offers is reassuring. “No permanent damage to his vision has been detected.”

“Good. ” Her curt nodding is followed by a Lex Luthor here to scare Batman type of head tilt. “This morning a female scalloped hammerhead was rescued close to the coast from an attempted finning. She sustained quite a number of injuries, all of which I have been told are minor. She was brought back to the Research and Rescue division of K however, if her injuries are as minor as they believe, they would like to hold her for breeding.”

Any ability to speak is severed.

“And since K&T is a larger, more equipped, and much higher funded institute that is built for longer term species reproduction, we’re interested in transferring Steven to their facility for mating.”

I swear I spot the faintest twinkle in her eyes over my inability to respond.

“Given his already isolated nature and the aggressive incident filed-”

“But that wasn’t his fault!”

Calen places a supportive palm in the middle of my back to wordlessly encourage me to regain my composure.

“ Given these current circumstances,” Raquel hisses like the Wicked Witch of the Water that she is, “we believe a move would be beneficial for all parties involved. You two will be accompanying Eoghan to K&T to observe the female’s behavior and provide any insight that may be useful in helping him during his evaluation of the potential relocation.” She villainously steeples her hands together in front of her. “ You leave Friday. ”