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“I don’t know if I can handle it,” he said. He took his phone out of his pocket and then checked the screen. “It’s too late now. They say Avery’s expecting the first guests at any moment.”
“Already?”
“Two called ahead and said they were on the way. We don’t have much time, and we may need to skip the tour for now. I want to spend as much time as possible on this Nightingale group.”
I paused in the hallway. “Are we ready for this?”
“Almost,” he said, stopping to face me. His eyes kept going down toward the skirt. “I need to talk to Blake and Doyle.”
“Blake might be more accessible than Doyle,” I said. “Doyle’s more or less out of commission in the morning from what I’ve heard. He might not be up yet.”
“Then I need Blake.”
I hesitated. It was tempting to pretend I didn’t know where he could be, and delay them meeting until we had left port. I don’t know why, but it seemed like a bad idea. Like Blake could say the wrong thing and set Axel into a tirade and we’d be leaving the ship.
Though, there wasn’t much point in being here if they weren’t going to get along, anyway.
I looked around the hallway, at the fancy carpet and the wall sconces and then looked at the map of the ship. “I might be able to get us to his room.
“How do you know he’ll be there?”
I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly between my lips. I might as well tell him everything. He’d find out sooner or later. “He’s probably listening. Either him or Avery. They’ll get the word to each other.”
Axel frowned. “He can hear us right now?”
“If he is listening at all. Doyle’s rigged the entire ship.” I tried to recall our conversations. We had been careful with not mentioning the Academy, even if Doyle and Ethan and the rest knew about it anyway. I wasn’t sure how much Axel or the others talked since we’ve been here, but I was sure they knew better than to just openly talk in any location. Raven had proven they could be paranoid enough to inspect the rooms.
Axel nodded slowly. “You mentioned, although in the beginning, I’d thought it was Ethan and Avery. I don’t really know who might be worse.”
“Maybe Ethan had it done originally but Doyle taps into it. If you just ask for Avery, he’ll hear you and will make an appearance.”
“How can they listen to everything going on?” he asked. “That’d be a mess.”
I shrugged. Tech wasn’t my forte. “You’d have to ask Doyle that one. Or Blake.”
Axel turned down the hall. “So he can meet us somewhere?” he said a little louder.
“We’ll find out,” I said.
We stopped by the bedrooms we were staying in to drop off the clothes before I wandered around on the decks below. I got lost and opened two other storage rooms that weren’t the right ones before I realized I was on the wrong floor.
At the third storage room door, I knocked gently, about to open the door again when it opened quickly, almost knocking me in the face. I slid back, bumping into Axel. He remained steady, holding me up.
Blake stood in the doorway. He wore a loose grey canvas shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and another pair of designer jeans. This time he wore blue dock shoes. Casual yacht fashion. He noted Axel and then smiled at me. “You’re looking much better. So the medicine did help?”
“Thanks for helping her, “Axel said before I could say anything. “And I apologize for Brandon attacking you. She was in a pretty vulnerable position before and he’s gotten protective of her.”
Blake nodded slowly, the fox smile slipping onto his lips. “I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking advantage.” His eyes turned to me again, catching the skirt and then sliding up to the glasses. “I love this outfit. Very fetching.”
Axel turned, looking at my face. “It suits her, in a way.”
I could have burned up where I stood from the awkward attention. The fact that I didn’t like it and they did made me feel conflicted. “Can we just get to business?” I asked. I slid my loafers along the floor. I could fall on my butt in these things on the marble up in the main staircase.
“I agree,” Blake said. He stepped aside, holding the door open to let us come in “Come in. We don’t have much time.”
Axel and I stepped inside. The room was chilly and the bed had been slept in.
Axel scanned the room. “Did Avery not set you up with a regular room?”
“Actually Doyle and I gave up our rooms,” he said. “For you all. Plus we didn’t want anyone in the crew to come across the information we’ve dug up.” He pointed to the long table. The stool was positioned next to the laptop which was now open. “They won’t be cleaning the rooms we’re in. They shouldn’t be in here for any reason.”
Axel went to the table. He picked up one of the binders and opened it up, turning the pages. “Meeting notes?” he asked.
“I’ve read them,” Blake said.
Axel put the binder down and then looked at a notebook. “What’s this?”
“It’s a list of folks known to have guns in their homes—registered or not. I check-marked the ones who would most likely carry one onboard. Normally there’s pretty tight security for a ship, but according to Mr. Murdock, they don’t do this with their own CEOs. I was going to show it to you all if you decided to stay.”
“That would be helpful.” Axel looked over the other contents of the table.
“Why do the CEOs get so many special privileges?” I asked.
Blake shrugged. “It’s how the old Mr. Murdock did things. Ethan said he’d make changes later, but for now he didn’t want to alarm anyone by suddenly asking for hiked up security when they’d been allowed to carry previously.”
“It’ll be good to be aware,” Axel said. “Hopefully this will be a peaceful endeavor. I don’t expect to be confrontational on the ship. So, you’re comfortable with us helping out?”
“Actually I was hoping,” Blake said. He folded his arms over his chest, and shifted his weight to one leg. The way he stood made me notice his slim hips and the shape to his butt while emphasizing his biceps. “Ethan and I could have handled it, but more hands and eyes are always better in this sort of thing. Believe it or not, I actually feel I can trust you all.”
“I believe it,” Axel said. He met Blake’s eyes. “And you listen in on Kayli? You’re able to follow where she is around the ship?”
I gritted my teeth. There was suspicion in Axel’s tone.
Blake shrugged. “It’s not really that sophisticated. Most of the hallways, and a few of the larger rooms are currently wired, mostly public areas. The guest staterooms are rigged. We aren’t listening in on all of them right now, just focusing on the prime suspects we’ve got our money on. Nightingale, of course, and a few dozen others. Everything else is just being recorded so we can listen in later if we need to.” He pointed to the tablet on his desk. “Avery’s got an ear out for his name and in your rooms just to check in on if you need anything. He’s got Ethan’s room and ours rigged up as well so we can just call for him if we need him. But he lets me know if Kayli’s asking for me. Or you, for that matter.”
“He’s got an earpiece?” Axel asked.
“It’s just a little Bluetooth device that streams from points around the ship.” He fiddled with the black box connected to a cord around his neck. “Most of us carry one of these. It helps him find us anywhere on the ship.”
“GPS?”
“Custom for the ship,” he said. “Something Doyle picked up from our German friends, only more sophisticated. It can pinpoint our location at any given moment.”
“Can you get us some?” Axel asked. “Can he track all of us?”
Blake’s head bent forward but his eyes remained on me, devilish. “Sure. I had one prepared for her, but wanted to wait. For now, we could listen and figure out where you are, but we might not be able to later with so many people on board if we split up more.”
I bit my tongue, not wanting to ad
mit I was feeling strange they could listen in on us at any point. It just struck me how that this morning, someone had been listening in on us, enough that they could tell I was sick. Was it Avery and he mentioned it to Blake? Or was Blake listening more than he cared to admit? It would be very useful. I would simply have to be careful what I said where. It would be difficult to be more conscious of that while trying to spy on other guests.
