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I pouted and then sputtered out, “R...Raven...” I didn’t want to play that card, but that had really hurt and I was feeling vengeful.
Raven had been next to the bathroom but suddenly materialized next to the bed. He reached down, grabbed Marc by the ankle, and gave a solid tug. Marc had no chance to grab onto anything, and flew off the bed, landing in a heap on the floor.
Raven stepped over him and sat on the edge of the bed. “I share with Kayli,” he said.
I grimaced, wondering if I’d gone too far. He’d just one-upped Marc in front of other guys. That was never a good thing.
Marc sat up, holding his stomach. “Shit, Raven,” he said, shock and hurt in his tone.
In an effort to save the moment, I put my feet against Raven’s back and pushed. Raven was a solid block of muscle, unmoving. Still, I tried, groaning. “No,” I said. “You guys should sleep in the whole other room that’s on the other side of the bathroom. A girl needs privacy.”
Raven reached around, grabbing my leg. Before I could pull it back, he pushed. I went sliding, tumbling toward the small bit of space between the bed and the wall. He held on, though, keeping me in a position where I couldn’t sit up, I couldn’t slide down. I simply hovered uncomfortably.
“Give in?” he asked.
I didn’t want to, but it was getting harder to sit up enough that I wasn’t knocking my head into the wall. “Ugh,” I said, reaching to hit him, but I couldn’t let go of the bed or I risked really hurting myself.
He shook my leg, threatening to let go.
“Okay! Okay,” I squealed. “I’ll share.”
Raven pulled me up until I was on the bed again. He held onto my ankle though, and put it in his lap, petting it. “See,” he said to Marc. “We share.”
Marc stood up, combing his fingers through his hair and straightening it. “Good luck with that,” he said. “She’ll probably kick you out while you’re sleeping.”
“It happens,” Raven said.
I grimaced again. “Once or twice,” I said.
Marc turned his head, a curious look on his face.
Brandon smiled, but his eyes were far off. He was amused, but he was clearly thinking about something else.
Kevin cleared his throat, standing by the door of the bathroom and nodding toward the desk. “Is that the paperwork?” he asked.
I followed his gaze to a binder sitting on the desk. It looked similar to one of Blake’s that he’d shown to me earlier. “I think so,” I said. “Someone should bring that to Axel and Corey and go over the details.”
Marc went to the desk, picking up the small black binder. He opened it, flipping through it. He looked at me and then back down at the pages. “This is quite a bit of work you’ve managed to pull together.”
“Don’t look at me,” I said. “There’s more people working here. I just asked for what I thought we might need. If I’m missing anything, you’ll have to talk to Ethan or Avery.”
Kevin squeezed past everyone and headed toward the hallway again. He looked at Marc. “Should we bring it to Axel?” He looked at Brandon. “Are you coming with us or staying here?”
“I’ve slept a little,” Brandon said. “And I’m not going to be able to sleep for a bit. I might as well get familiar with the ship. Maybe you and I can take a tour. I want to see where guests will be and I want to know all the exits and hallways we’ll be able to use.”
“Let’s drop off the binder first and see if Axel needs anything,” Marc said. He turned to me. “If you’re going to sleep, do it now. We’ll catch up on what we can.”
“I’ve got a plan A,” I said. “But we could use a plan B...and C.”
Marc agreed and followed Kevin out. Brandon lingered for a minute, sharing a short, silent conversation with Raven. I couldn’t see Raven’s face, just Brandon’s. He looked a little worried at first but then relaxed and followed Marc out of the room.
As soon as they were gone, Raven got up. He closed the door and started going over the room. He checked the vents, the light switch, the lamp. He got on his knees and checked under the bed.
“The boogie man isn’t here,” I said.
He straightened up on his knees, reaching to touch my leg. “What?” he asked. “Boog man?”
No translation for boogie man. “Never mind,” I said. “What are you doing?”
“Checking,” he said. He moved on, fiddling with the desk, opening the drawer. He even picked up the pens and inspected them.
Well crap. What was going to happen if he found Doyle’s listening devices? Well, maybe that wouldn’t be too bad. Doyle didn’t need to hear from us. I sat up and got off the bed, moving to the bathroom to use it.
Before I could close the door, Raven’s thick arm blocked it. He pushed it open.
“What are you doing?” I asked, trying to close it on him. “You can’t come in here.”
“I need to check it out,” he said. “Give me a minute.”
I groaned and let go of the door. It might be some Academy routine when they get to a place they weren’t familiar with. Or Raven was super paranoid.
And after I’d been kidnapped, I guess he had a right to be.
Raven went through the bathroom, checking the sink, including inside the tap. He turned the light off quickly, studying the mirror, probably to see if it was two-way. He turned the light back on, going clockwise around the room to inspect fixtures, pipes and even under the toilet seat. He unfolded the towels that were white and embroidered with a blue L.
Once he got to turning over the little blue and white seashell soaps, I’d had enough. “Okay, okay,” I said. “They didn’t put bombs in the soaps. Will you get out of here, now?”
“They would have in Russia,” he said.
“Then take the soaps out,” I said. I shooed him toward the door of the bedroom. “Now go away. I have to pee.”
Instead of going into our bedroom, he went through the other door. I followed, intending to close it, but Raven again shot his arm through the doorway.
“Leave it open,” he said.
“I have to pee,” I said, squirming dramatically so he’d take pity on me.
“Leave it open or I have to stay in the room with you.”
Ugh. “Why?”
“Axel said we have to stay together.”
“He didn’t mean you have to watch me pee.”
He pulled the door, but used his hand to stop it before it latched, leaving it open a little. “Leave it like that,” he said.
I groaned again, and then lifted my fist to my face and bit my fingers. It was either that or scream in frustration. I’d have to talk to Axel about Raven and his lack of boundaries.
For the moment, I settled for knowing Raven was preoccupied with looking for who knows what. I ran the water in the sink first and then I went to the toilet, sitting and hoping the sound wouldn’t carry too much.
For extra noise, I started fiddling with the toilet paper. At first, I thought the toilet paper was wrapped in blue paper. I tore off a layer and started to unroll, and found blue after blue sheet wadding up in my hand.
“Freaking rich people,” I said in exasperation.
The door opened and Raven barreled in. “What?”
I closed my legs. My knees were covered with the jeans still, so I wasn’t really showing anything. I covered my arms over my waist quickly. “Raven! Close the door.”
“I heard you say something.”
“I was just weirded out that this ship has blue colored toilet paper.”
He looked at the toilet paper and then approached, peeling off a layer and inspecting it. “Yes.”
I rolled my eyes. “Not a big deal. I just didn’t know there was such a thing as dyed toilet paper. It’s weird.”
“I thought it was a cover.”
