Page 103 of Ensnaring the Siren

The FBI agents shuttled over from the cutter to The Seriphus with a Coast Guard boarding team on a smaller boat. Night had fallen, but the factory ship’s deck was lit up like a football stadium, and the ladder Lorelei had thrown still dangled over the side. They used it to climb onboard.

Reid wasn’t in Coast Guard orange or blue, but he must’ve exuded some air of authority, because the lead FBI agent didn’t hesitate to approach him.

“Petty Officer Reid Kruetz,” he said, offering the woman his hand.

She shook it with a firm, brusque grip, eyeing all thirty-five members of The Seriphus’s crew, huddled together on deck. “Special Agent Clarice Sterling.”

With the help of Killian and his crew, Reid had gotten the group down from the net Nireed had strung them in and spent much of the wait delivering first aid care. Bumps, bruises, and cuts mostly, but there were a few dislocated wrists and shoulders to set, and one orbital bone fracture that needed cold compresses.

Seeing what he had onboard Gale’s Promise, the wholesale evisceration and dismemberment, these minor injuries spoke volumes about Nireed’s restraint. The ship, and the ship alone, had taken the brunt of her wrath.

“You’re the one who called Nautic’s informant.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Agent Sterling pinned him with a hard, dispassionate stare. “Why?”

“I was afraid it might be one of us.” No excuses, just truth, and for fuck’s sake keep it to the point. That much had been drilled into him since basic training. If she wanted more information, she’d ask.

Reid braced himself for a chew out.

Agent Sterling studied him for a long, agonizing moment, no doubt making him sweat, or waiting to see if he’d fill the silence. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to, rather than dial up the signature FBI glower, she eased off. “So Lieutenant Commander Griffin said. I could give you an earful about following protocol, but I’ll let your commanding officer do that. We’ve got more important work to do. Tell me, what’d we miss? Seems rather calm over here.”

“In a word? Mermaid.” No point trying to hide it, the claw marks and security footage would reveal as much, and besides, there was nothing to hide. Nireed had only been protecting her friends and had done a damn good job of it.

Special Agent Sterling arched a brow but nodded for him to continue.

“I wasn’t here when it happened, but I imagine she sung to them. It’s why they’ve been so cooperative.”

“Sung to them?” The agent folded her arms. “Siren song’s a real thing?”

“Apparently.” He’d questioned its efficacy before, the day he helped Nireed break into Nautic’s warehouse, but now he wasn’t so confident. “Nautic’s been using its fleet to capture and kill her kind—you can see their operations below decks. Have the ship’s log and buyers lists, too. They were divvying up mermaid parts onboard and packaging them for sale. Bottom half to underground restaurants. Top half to organ traffickers.”

“I see.” Disgust flickered across the agent’s features before her mask of imperviousness fell back in place. “We’re going to get these folks detained, but when we’re done, can you give me the walk through?”

“Of course.”

Reid stood back with Killian as the FBI and Coast Guard boarding team marched The Seriphus’s crew across the deck, each member still well and truly entranced. “Does siren song wear off?” It struck him that he didn’t know.

“No,” Killian answered, a little too quickly. “They have to release you.”

Reid side-eyed his brother-in-law. That was firsthand knowledge talking—Killian’s reddening cheeks and awkward shuffling signs of a guilty man—but he wasn’t going to think too hard about that, for both of their sakes.

Clearing his throat, Killian continued, “Lorelei’s going to have to snap them out of it.”

“Is she open about what she is?” Reid tried imagining his sister marching up to the FBI and introducing herself as a shoreside siren, but it just seemed too brazen.

“It’s kind of an open secret around here.” Killian became grim. “She got outed at her job, so people know, but she never acknowledges it, except with family and friends. This is an extenuating circumstance, though, so I’m sure she’ll make an exception. The crew won’t talk, otherwise, and we need them to. Plus, there’s cameras all around. I’d be surprised if one of them didn’t catch her in action. There’s no hiding or pretending anymore. Not for her.”

God, his sister had just lost what was left of her already flimsy privacy.

One by one, The Seriphus’s crew went down the ladder and into the small boat that would shuttle them over to the much larger Coast Guard cutter. And the fishermen who’d barricaded the factory ship in began dispersing, heading home, the action over.

It was well into the night when the FBI returned to do their initial sweep of the boat, taking pictures, collecting evidence, and interviewing Killian and his crew. When all was said and done, the ship would be driven to shore where the investigation would continue, but for now, it seemed like they were hitting all the obvious stuff.

Later that night, as they were preparing to leave, Special Agent Sterling pulled him aside. “Why didn’t the mermaid just slaughter everyone?” she asked, some mixture of bafflement and suspicion coloring her tone.

Reid was exhausted, going nearly twenty-four hours without sleep, and emotionally overwrought. Not even the coffee Killian brought him off The Lovely Lorelei was doing him much good, so he was a little curt when he finally replied, “Because they’re not mindless, murderous monsters. They’re people.”

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