“I’m not speaking to you,” she said coldly, “but if I was, I would wonder how you explained King’s neck being broken by a merman.”

“We don’t know anything about that. We didn’t see what happened. Maybe he slipped. Maybe one of his mob buddies came back and paid a visit. All we know is that he tried to kill a couple of people, we ran away, and he’s violating about a thousand EPA regs. He’s dead, so I don’t give a shit. Let the cops and the bureaucrats sort it out.”

Thomas sounded pretty cold during his little speech, and Fred suppressed a shiver. “What are you so mad about? Which is what I would ask if I were speaking to you. Which I am not.”

He had leaned in to look at her pupils, but suddenly his gaze shifted and he was seeing her, not her eyes. “Fred, he shot you! If Artur hadn’t broken his neck, I would have stuck my knife into more than his kidney. He just stood there and shot you. And then I had to dig my knife into your shoulder while Artur held you down and you screamed the place down and cried and begged me—God!” He ran shaking hands through his dark hair, making it stand up in wild clumps. “For putting all of us through that, I could kill him right now all over again.”

“Well, all right, calm down. It’s no big deal. It’s all over. Bad guy’s dead. We win. Drinks all around.” She started to sit up, grimacing. “I’d kill for an aspirin to work, there’s no doubt about—oof!”

Thomas had put a hand on her chest and slammed her back down. “You stay down,” he said.

“Don’t push your luck,” she warned him.

“Stay,” he said again. “Do not make me get Artur in here to make you lie down, Fred. You won’t like it and neither will I.” He got up and started to pace, looking like he was going to leap out of his skin.

She watched him, amazed. “Thomas, what in the world’s gotten into you?”

He whirled on her, dark eyes flashing. “What’s gotten into me?”

“Well, yeah, that’s kind of where I was going with my whole ‘what’s gotten into you’ question.”

“How about this? I love you, you silly bitch, and thanks to that fucker King I had to hurt you. Not exactly all part of my plan for a romantic goddamned evening!”

“But—you—but you don’t even—we haven’t even known each other a week!”

He plunked down in the chair opposite her and waved away her objection. “Oh, hell with that. I knew the minute I saw you in the tank. Of course I love you. How could I love anybody but you?”