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Even though it was warm, I pulled the jacket closer around my body. I wasn’t usually so self-conscious, but this was just plain awkward. I didn’t belong in a fancy rich person hotel-mall-cruise ship.
I followed Avery up the stairs, catching more of the surroundings as we went. On the second floor was a help desk, and then gift shops, a wine bar, an internet cafe and an art gallery. There was more beyond all that. Doors went on and on down large hallways, beyond my line of sight. Yup. The second floor felt like a fancy mall, like one of the ones I’d visited downtown in Charleston, but had decided not to do my pick pocketing business in. Too much security. Too out of my league. Misdemeanors could turn into felonies if I happened to pick up a wallet with a whole lot more cash.
On the third floor, off to the right, there was a balcony overlooking the other floors that was set up as a lounge area. The blue and white pattern continued on the carpeted floor and everything else was glass or polished wood. There were thick leather sofas and settees and low coffee tables between them. The sofas had pillows that were covered in a blue and white soft material. The windows looked out toward the water on one side, and at the far end was another bar, a smaller one, and a bakery on the other side. That was like four bars since I walked in. I couldn’t imagine the rest of the ship.
My eyes went everywhere, to every corner, every shadow. I thought I saw figures in doorways and then would focus and there was no one there. I eased closer to Avery as we walked on, gritting my teeth. I trusted him, but I was wanting to back myself into a wall, and scout the layout. There was simply too much to this large ship and my paranoid brain was vibrating at every little thing, trying to be aware of danger that wasn’t there.
I put a hand inside my jacket, over my heart. I was being ridiculous. Unfamiliar territory wasn’t a reason to flip out. Trust Avery. He wouldn’t bring me into danger.
In the very least, though, if I was done in by invisible foes, maybe my body would warn the guys to stay away and they would be safe.
How morbid. I refocused, forcing my brain to stop thinking so much.
At the far end of the room, there was a large television tuned to a news station embedded into the wall, and a settee nearby. Sitting on it was Ethan Murdock. While his attention was directed at the screen, I studied him. His curly, pepper graying hair was a little frayed on one side, like he’d been rubbing his hand through it. There were fine wrinkles around his eyes, and he had a pleasant smile on his face. His face was still, but his eyes flickered from the television in front of him to the tablet in his lap I spotted as we got closer. He was reading at the same time as he watched the news...and quickly. He thumbed through pages within a few seconds of glancing at the screen.
Speed reader. Multitasking. Was he really listening or was the news background noise while he read? No, when his eyes lifted, he was reading the changed headline text. The news anchor talked and he seemed to know instantly when the text below her headshot changed. Perceptive. How was he doing that? I suspected he was a robot. Or alien. Or robot alien. No wonder he was so smart to build an underground cell phone service...in his spare time.
“Mr. Murdock,” Avery said softly.
This drew Ethan’s attention and his eyes adjusted, focusing first on Avery and then on me. He smiled, placed the tablet on the coffee table and stood. His slacks shifted around his legs, but the small winkles in the fabric were stiff. He’d been sitting there for a while.
Unimportant detail. My brain was simply hyperactive, trying to be aware of everything and focus at the same time.
“Welcome, Kayli,” he said, in a cheerful tone. There was a croak in his tone and he coughed once to clear it. He held out his hand in offering. “Welcome, welcome.” He wore a light blue shirt and grey slacks, shiny leather shoes. Not exactly loungewear.
I reached out, putting my palm to his. He squeezed it instantly and shook it. Confident, yet excited about something. “Hi,” I said, unsure what else to say and feeling completely out of place. I was still holding onto the glass of water, too, and unable to mask my clothes in some way, not that it would help.
Ethan didn’t appear fazed at all by this. He bobbed his head in an excited nod and then motioned to the settee. “Please, sit.”
I did, sitting on one side of the sofa, close to the arm. When Ethan continued to stand, I wished I’d taken longer to sit. It was an uncomfortable moment where I wanted to continue to study my surroundings but both Ethan and Avery blocked my ability.
He looked at Avery. “And Fancy?”
“She’s with Marc and Raven, who accompanied Kayli,” Avery said in a much more formal tone than I’d expected from him. What happened to him? “I suspect they won’t take long.”
“Then we better get to the point quickly,” Ethan said. He finally sat down beside me and reached for a remote on the coffee table, turning the volume of the news down. He looked at me for a long moment and breathed out between his lips in a puff. “Kayli, I’m sorry. Please, I don’t mean to rush you.”
“Rush?” I asked.
“I know Fancy asked you for a favor, but really, it was on my behalf.”
My pulse quickened and my eyes were drawn to the other side of the ship, down into the lobby and shopping areas of the second floor. A secret meeting at a boat? Tricked into coming? This wasn’t some fun night to catch up. Warnings flashed in my head, and I almost stood, checking the shadows around us again. “Is something wrong?” I asked. “Is it your dad? Is he back?” Avery should have warned me. We should have waited for Marc and Raven.
“Not at the moment,” he said in a low tone, breaking the cycle of paranoia from me. He glanced at Avery. Avery walked the long way around the coffee table and sat in a nearby chair, putting his glass of water on a coaster on the table. Ethan redirected his attention to me. “We actually need your help.”
I settled slowly back into the sofa, putting my palm on the smooth leather material and feeling the coolness. I held to it, steadying my nerves. “With what?”
Ethan grimaced. “My father...he wasn’t exactly...” He stopped, pursed his lips and then glanced at Avery.
“It’s okay. I’ve got this,” Avery said. He leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped. “Kayli, there’s more bad guys inside Ethan’s company. He needs help taking them out quietly.”
I should have been surprised, but I wasn’t. It made sense. Ethan’s father didn’t seem like the type of guy who ran an up-and-up type of company. After the last catastrophe, I wondered why the company hadn’t been all over the news for the latest scandal. I’d suspected the Academy kept it on the down low because they had their people involved – but then I wasn’t really aware if the Academy had that kind of pull. “Who do you think the bad guys are?” I asked.
“We don’t exactly have a list,” Avery said. He pointed to Ethan’s tablet, the screen currently black. “That’s the problem. He’s got a second set of accounting books that was kept locked away. I found it after the police left. No names, just code.”
“I've been working to decipher it,” Ethan said. “So far, no results.”
“Okay,” I said, picking up my water glass again. I traced my fingers over the condensation along the sides. “So you suspect wrongdoing because there’s a secret set of accounts, which does sound suspicious. How do you know it involves your company and not his own little side projects?”
Ethan’s lips pinched together, his face tightening into a tense expression. “I don’t really know, but it would be irresponsible of me to let this go and not look into it. Also, if it is outside of the company, whatever it is, if it’s not good, it should be dismantled. The only reason to keep it secret is if there’s something illegal about it.”
I wanted to argue that not everything secret was necessarily wrong, but given who his father was, I couldn’t debate that point just now. I took a sip of water to consider what I was going to say. Did he want me to simply agree with the fact that he should probably check things out? “I wish I cou
ld help,” I said. “I just don’t understand how I could.”
“To be honest, I don’t have a lot of people I trust right now. My own father, and then my wife...luckily I got that annulled.”
“It probably helped that her ID was false,” Avery said. “So you weren’t legally married to anyone.”
Ethan sliced a hand through the air as if to cut out the memories and focused on me. “Look, I’m a horrible judge of character sometimes. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. All I know is, there’s a small group of people that came to help me without asking anything in return.” He pointed a forefinger at me. “You and your friends could have given up my little software program the moment you discovered it and saved yourselves. Instead, you not only saved me, you stayed until everyone who was innocent was safe. Not just anyone would do that.”
“Yeah,” I said, unsure whether to stop him there, as it was awkward to be talked about like some sort of hero. What I’d done, it was more like survival, a wild few days where my only goal was to stop all the kidnapping and threats and possible deaths. I’d also been very careless, and unsure of what to do. It wasn’t heroics that saved us, at least on my part. Just a lot of fumbling and being lucky. “We were doing what we could, but we really didn’t have much of a choice.”
“I understand,” he said. “But you were all exceptional. I feel that with your help, I could get rid of the bad apples that still linger. I’m sorry to ask you after everything you’ve been through, but I really don’t know who else I could ask that I could be sure of. You owe me nothing and I owe you everything.”
I sucked in a breath, holding it, turning my eyes away from Ethan to look at the muted television, the anchor still talking and the day’s news still scrolling across the screen. Maybe I’d been cooped up and restless for too long. I’d become restless. I wanted to say yes to helping him, but it did feel sudden, mostly because I didn’t know what I could do for him. “What are we talking about?” I asked. “I mean, what exactly do you want me to do?”
