Night sounds creeped over me as I stood, allowing my eyes to adjust to the gloom. That the noise and light from the cab hadn’t brought Harlow running wasn’t a great sign. I crossed to the van and found it empty, as expected. I checked the handle. The door was unlocked. I used the step and braced a knee on the front seat to get a look around. A pair of lime-green skate shoes sat on the front passenger seat, but her cellphone was nowhere in sight. I peered into the night through the windshield.

“You shouldn’t be out here alone.”

My head popped up and smacked the ceiling of the van. Rubbing the sore spot, I climbed out and slammed the door hard enough the vehicle rocked. Graeson stood cloaked in shadow.

“What’s wrong?” I grimaced. “Afraid Charybdis might nab me before you get the chance to toss me at him?”

Graeson stepped from the trees into the parking lot, and moonlight kissed his bare skin. He was naked. Fully nude. Not a scrap of clothes on him. I’m not proud of how long I struggled to drag my focus from his navel to his gaze. A few inches lower, and I would never be able to make eye contact with the man again.

“My plan involves a team operating in a controlled environment where you’re kept perfectly safe, not rushing into the unknown without backup.” Another step closer. “I would never allow you to be harmed. Not even to capture him.”

Except he already had, whether he knew it or not, by pretending to be interested when all the while he was sizing me up for other reasons.

“You seem to have lost your clothes,” I pointed out, voice higher than usual.

“I heard you tell the cabbie where to take you. I shifted and followed. It was fastest.” He frowned at his body, as if not seeing the problem. “It’s too dangerous for you to be out here alone.”

“I’m not alone.” My traitorous gaze dipped to his collarbone before I caught it sliding south and jerked it up to his jawline. “Harlow is out here somewhere. Her belongings are still in this van.”

He tipped his face into the wind. “All the scents here are hours old.”

“Then where is she?” I turned back to the van. “Her shoes are in there. She can’t have gone far without them.”

“You’re assuming she was on two legs. She is a mermaid…sometimes.” He hesitated as if her dual nature confused him too. “She might still be in the water.”

Foreboding slithered down my spine. “Her team wouldn’t have left if she was MIA.”

“Are you sure?” His tone made it clear he figured the marshals for deserters.