Five. That was the number of people who stank of military that I saw trying very hard to keep a low profile while they watched Sandro’s garage. As if I was stupid enough to slip up by coming here in a form that they could recognize. Well, unless they considered stray dogs to be possible sources of valuable information, they were going to be shit out of luck.

Yeah, I’m a bitch. While at any other time, this might be humorous, I needed to check on things here and make sure the loose ends had been cleared up, and this was the most subtle way that I could think of doing that. After I had woken up, eaten, and checked in with the family, it took me half the morning to find a female mutt that I thought might work with my mass restrictions and to get close enough to pet her. Then it took another hour in my hotel room to learn how to move somewhat properly in the form.

Now I was cooking from all this fur in this godforsaken heat, hungry, and I had no idea how I was going to get a vehicle with enough trunk space for my arms deal later tonight while Carmichael’s errand boys were watching the garage and the few of Sandro’s vehicle pick-up points that I knew about. So, I was feeling a bit bitchy while I did my reconnaissance. Thankfully, the garage was closed up tight, so it looked like Luis had taken my warning seriously and made a run for it.

Before collapsing into bed to sleep last night when I returned to my hotel after slipping through Carmichael’s fingers, I had retrieved my encrypted phone from the safe and called Sandro’s number. Sandro had been right to suspect something fishy and had left his phone with his right-hand man when he left for the party and warned him that I might call if there was trouble. Luis had been sleeping when I called but he was very awake by the time I finished telling him how things had gone to shit.

After telling Luis how his boss and cousin had been double-crossed and murdered, and just who was involved, I told him to destroy the phone, sim card, and the papers that Sandro had him keeping safe. I also told him to grab what money he and Sandro had stashed away and make a run for it, and to tell the other members of their gang to do the same. I had a feeling that bribes were now off the table, and anyone caught and suspected of having ties to us would be taken somewhere out of the way and rigorously ‘interviewed’.

If they still had that many people watching the garage, they were likely hoping that a big fish might still show up. I could only hope that meant that Luis had managed to slip out of Havana and was well on his way to somewhere safe. Speaking of getting somewhere safe, I needed to do that myself, now that I had scoped out the situation.

With that in mind, I continued on the street before turning at the next intersection and once I was out of sight, I backtracked to the quiet alley where I had hidden the ratty backpack that contained some dirty clothes and a small amount of cash in a cleverly concealed pocket. Keeping myself well hidden behind the dumpster, I quickly changed my form and then my clothes. Careful to ensure that the waifish Hispanic girl didn’t resemble any of the other disguises that I had used too closely, I went off to catch the metro bus that would take me back toward my hotel.

After buying, and then eating, enough food to feed three people, I changed my disguise back to Jessica once again and retrieved the keycard for my hotel room. I planned to spend the afternoon resting in my native form and rehydrating in a nice air-conditioned room. Then I would have a nice dinner ordered from room service, and when the sun finally set, I would leave the hotel again to prepare for my arms deal.

General Warren Carmichael fumed as Frost’s yacht made its way back into Havana Harbor. “Danica Holmes,” he thought angrily. The name alone was enough to re-stoke his anger, despite his fatigue. Somehow, that girl had managed to not only fool Frost, the other guests, and his men into thinking that she was some drunken socialite idiot, but she had fooled him as well. Even worse, the thrice-damned imposter had somehow managed to determine that it was a trap as well and had slipped through his fingers, and the only man who seemed to know anything about her was dead.

From what Frost had reported, she had been far more sober than she had any business being after drinking as much as she had, and she was strong and ruthless too, just like the young woman who had taken down the team sent to retrieve the MacArthurs’ daughter. She had left Frost alive to deliver him a message but had killed one of his best marksmen and escaped. Where did those mercenaries find these mere girls that could outclass his men so easily?

Somehow, on a goddamn boat in the middle of the ocean, with his best men waiting to cut off her only viable escape route, she had managed to vanish without a trace. He would have thought that she was saved by those damn mermaids, but the boat that he had following the yacht had assured him that their sonar detected nothing of note in the area. Unless she was saved by a goddamn dolphin or something, she had to have blended in or hidden on the yacht somehow.

He had his men do a deck-by-deck search, confirming every guest and checking everywhere that she might hide, yet despite searching all night and all morning, she was still nowhere to be found. He even had divers searching on the off chance that she had been shot and fallen overboard, but there was no body in the water and no sign of any blood that couldn’t already be accounted for. That girl would regret making a fool out of him, even if it was the last thing that he did. He would find Holmes and the MacArthurs, no matter what it took, and then he would enjoy getting them to reveal their secrets.

It would be easier if he could find the mermaids, he was sure they would lead them straight to the mercenaries, but so far, the search of possible locations and watching potential suppliers had turned up no leads. Harris said that the creatures emitted some type of unusual energy, but the man was a biologist, not an engineer and no progress had been made on detecting it yet, despite the bright minds that he had assigned to work with the fool. For now, it looked like he would have to do it the old-fashioned way, with boots on the ground and solid intel.

It was twenty minutes before midnight and I was parked outside of a rundown warehouse, waiting for my contact to show up. The vehicle was stolen, of course, one of those Chevy trucks from the early fifties that had been hot-rodded. It was sturdy, ran well, and I would probably be able to get all of my purchases in the truck bed. I didn’t even feel bad about stealing it since the owner had been a particularly handsy pimp who was trying to add me to his stable of girls. I guess that was what I got for going this the waifish local girl look while searching for a car to steal.

He had been following me for a while in that truck and I finally allowed him to ‘corner’ me in a dead-end alley. Let’s just say that once we were alone, I changed his mind about recruiting me with a little mood music. Now he was going to be working very hard to make it up to the girls that he had mistreated, beaten, and turned into addicts. I hoped that they could turn their lives around.

Currently, I was shifted into my Xenya Li form, dressed casually in dark clothing, and had any valuables that I hadn’t left in the safe in my room in a waterproof money belt that I had bought earlier. It was well out of sight beneath my clothes and the duffel bag with Aguila’s money was on the seat beside me. I wanted to finish this deal and get the weapons back to the villa.

It wasn’t just so the weapons were there in case Carmichael’s goons decided to pay us an unexpected visit, there were other reasons too. For one, I hadn’t been able to spend much time with my family, or my mate, over the past few days. I just wanted to spend a night snuggling in the pool with Kara as I drifted off to sleep and know that my family would all be close by when I awoke. Yes, Kara and I could always speak through our mental link, but it just wasn’t the same as being held in her arms.

Another reason was that I was worried about my sister and Natalie. Kara and I had spent most of the afternoon and evening while I was resting in my hotel room speaking with one another mentally. During that time, she had informed me that the more obvious physical changes had begun in both Maddie and Nat that morning. Their legs were beginning to fuse into tails, their gills had formed, subtle changes were starting in their faces and upper bodies, and their hair was starting to grow out and change color.

With their gills now formed and the outer changes beginning, Kieshala estimated another three days or so before their changes would be complete and we could wake them up, or they would wake up on their own as their new metabolisms rendered the drugs Mom was administering to induce a coma ineffective. Mom had moved them into the pool since they could breathe water now and it would make it easier for one of us Naethari to maintain contact until their changes were complete. I couldn’t help but feel that I should be there with my sister as she went through the last stage of her changes and when she woke up.

I was pulled from my thoughts by a pair of approaching headlights. After taking a deep breath, I shouldered the duffel bag and stepped out of the vehicle to approach the car that was now parked by the warehouse door. The man who stepped out of the car wasn’t Aguila, but I did recognize him. It was Enrique, the man who had searched me and escorted me to Aguila’s office back at the club. I wasn’t really surprised and imagined that Aguila was probably making his presence known inside his club at the moment, just in case something went bad with this deal, and he needed an alibi.

It was a smart move, and frankly, I didn’t care who would be making the exchange as long as I got what I came for. Enrique was careful to merely greet me and not invade my personal space after the threats I had made during our last meeting. In fact, he was all business and quickly unlocked the warehouse doors so we could go inside to look over the merchandise, count the payment, and make the exchange.

Despite my worst fears, the exchange went smoothly. Everything that we had agreed upon was there in carefully packed crates; semiautomatic handguns, assault rifles, RPGs, explosives, grenades, an M134 Minigun, and all of the associated ammunition that I had requested, plus my gift for Maddie whenever she woke up. Enrique even had the guards who were watching the warehouse help us get it all loaded in the back of the truck.

I was pretty happy with myself as I drove back to the villa, but not happy enough to make mistakes. I had the crates covered with a tarp, I kept to the speed limit, and I made sure to take a route that would avoid any cameras. Even when I got it home and unloaded, I didn’t have time to do more than hug my parents and Aunt Carmen, who had helped me to quickly unload the goods.

As much as I didn’t want to, I still had to go back into Havana to dispose of the truck somewhere and grab my things and my car from the hotel before I could finally come back to the villa and relax for a bit. I tried to make that trip as quick as possible, while still being cautious though. By two o’clock, I was back in my pink sports car and driving back to the villa and my family. It was nice to have a night where things ran smoothly for a change.