After overhearing his conversation with Alex the other night, Harper had become convinced that she couldn’t be around him anymore. She couldn’t become involved with him, not right now when so much was going on with Gemma, and it wasn’t fair to lead him on like that.

But more than that, things were becoming increasingly dangerous for everyone around Gemma. Harper had seen what the sirens could do, and she had a feeling that if they did find Gemma, and Harper and the others couldn’t stop them, the sirens would seek vengeance on all the people who had tried to help Gemma. That included Daniel.

Or it would, if he stayed a part of Harper’s life. It would be much safer for him if she stopped talking to him.

So today she would just check on him, and maybe tell him good-bye. No, definitely tell him good-bye. She just didn’t know how to word it yet without it sounding weird.

As Harper walked down the docks to where Daniel’s boat was moored, she tried to go over what she planned to say to him. Red, white, and blue flags tacked onto the docks’ posts waved wildly in the wind, preparation for the Fourth of July celebration this weekend.

When she reached Daniel’s boat, she was surprised to see a flyer taped onto the side, right next to the boat’s name, The Dirty Gull.

It was warped and faded from the sun and water splashing on it, even though it had only been there for a few days, but the words Have you seen me? were still legible above a large picture of Gemma. Alex had printed up a bunch of flyers and hung them around town.

Harper leaned over and grabbed on to the boat with one hand. She had to get the flyer down. For one thing, she didn’t want the reminder of Gemma being missing, but more important, she didn’t want the sirens to spot the connection between this boat and Gemma.

She grabbed one corner of the flyer, and had just started to pull when a boat zipped by, creating a wave that made The Dirty Gull rock hard to the side.

“Oh, no,” Harper groaned.

She gripped the boat tighter to steady herself, but that only succeeded in causing her to lose her tenuous foothold on the dock. She tried to wrap her arm around the railing so she could hang on, but she couldn’t get a handle on it.

Just when she was about to slip and splash into the water, Daniel’s arm appeared over the railing and grabbed her.

“I’m seriously starting to wonder how you survived without me,” Daniel said, grinning down at her.

“Much better, actually,” Harper said as his strong hands held both of her arms. “I wasn’t always trying to climb onto boats, so I very rarely fell into the ocean.”