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Brandon. I fought a grimace, not wanting to arouse suspicion. “Well he can’t be the thief,” I said matter-of-factly. “He was right in front of you. And then in front of me during that time.”
“It makes me think he was distracting me. He did a good job redirecting the attention of everyone from the dining room, leaving you alone to get your coffee.” He tilted his head. “Is there any reason they’d want your tablet in particular?”
Should I suggest the tablet contained lots of accounts that I was trying to track down? Or maybe investment reports? I didn’t want him to learn my reputation directly from me. Safer to ask questions rather than reply. “Do you think I was targeted specifically? Like they weren’t just after a tablet, but the information on it?”
“Why steal yours like that?” he asked. “Why right then in front of everyone? Why yours in particular and not the thousand other units on this ship right now, left unattended by the pool or in staterooms?”
“Is there a reason why they’d want your cell phone?” I asked, turning it back on him. “Was there sensitive client information on it?”
He opened his mouth to answer when an older gentleman stepped onto the small stage, distracting him. I bit my cheek, silently cursing the interruption.
The man at the podium spoke into a microphone. “Thank you, thank you everyone for coming. Everyone, I know we’re not all here yet. And I know you’re hungry, but I wanted to say a few words.”
The man went on with his speech, introducing himself and talking about how great it was to see everyone and making jokes about people I didn’t know and suggesting how we should all thank Mr. Murdock, Ethan in particular, for this annual cruise week. I took the opportunity while everyone was distracted to check in with Axel, who was focused on the speaker and trying to blend in.
“Can you hear me?” A voice spoke in my ear, whispering, sounding like Blake. “Cough if you can.”
I did so, lightly, and reached for the ice water. There was no chance I could reply from where I was now.
“Good,” he said. “I’m walking around the ship for now. I’ll show up for dinner in a little bit. I just followed the blond man who met with another older gentleman and took money from him, too. I’m seeing where the crewman goes now.”
Sam, the German blond staff member was up to something, even if he might not be working for Eddie. I wanted to tell Blake to be careful, but I couldn’t while I was sitting at the table, possibly with eyes on me.
“By the way,” he said, “nice job earlier. I think what you did really fixed things. Brandon, Corey, Marc and Raven...they didn’t glare at me once and from what Doyle says, they’re avoiding talking about you completely right now. I think you freaked them out. They don’t know what to do with themselves.”
Was that good? Maybe I’d gone too far and they were distracted. When everything settled down, would they be angry?
“I heard what Colt said about Brandon,” he said. “I’ll tell him to lay low and stay away from Colt. We don’t need Colt trying to question him. He’s not in the dining room yet, but I may have him switch places with Marc.”
That was a good thing.
Colt turned back around, looking at me. I smiled, and he leaned in to whisper, “I think this is the same speech from last year. Don’t you think so?”
Uh oh. Do I dare suggest I was on the ship before? No, I’d told Mr. Smith it was my first one and he was sitting right next to me. I shrugged, grinning instead of answering.
Colt leaned his elbow on the table getting closer. He had a curious glint in his eyes. Was he trying to flirt? “You know, I don’t remember seeing you around before.”
I adjusted the little black bracelet on my wrist under the table. I needed to be vague. “Well, there are a lot of people here,” I said. “And I suppose it’s easy to miss someone.”
“No,” he said, the curve of his lip deepening, his smile becoming more playful. “I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you at all. I’d have remembered your face.”
I was going to make some sort of funny comment about his flirting, but then I had to channel Kitty Lane, the meek and nerdy little girl.
I tried to blush, thinking of embarrassing things, like the scene at the hot bath earlier. I bowed my head. “I’m not that memorable.” Appearing humble, and yet fishing for compliments.
“Sweetheart, you’re unforgettable,” Blake said in my ear. “But don’t let him get too close. I don’t think I could handle any more competition.”
“I think you are very memorable,” Colt said, keeping his smile. “Maybe tomorrow night, instead of this, we should check out another one of the restaurants. I’m pretty fond of the Italian one.”
There was a nudge at my arm on the other side of me. I turned and Mr. Smith leaned toward us. His hook nose was wrinkled and his whiskey breath blew into our faces. “He should be fond of that restaurant,” he said. “Given his father--”
“Mr. Smith,” Colt said quickly, interrupting and sitting up straighter. His eyes were wide, bugging out in alarm. “Where did you get that whiskey? They haven’t been by to ask me yet. I’m dying here.”
“You’re not going to need any,” he said, leaning against my arm into my space, making me very uncomfortable. He spoke directly to Colt, ignoring me. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s got a boyfriend; the guy right behind you.”
“Seems like Colt’s father is a sensitive topic,” Blake said. “He tried to cover that up pretty quickly. I’ll ask Doyle to do some research. Colt Baker might not be the innocent we think he is.”
I pressed my teeth together, shifting my chair back, giving room to Mr. Smith if he was going to force his way in so he wouldn’t end up in my lap. “I, uh, yes...”
Colt started to mumble an apology but Mr. Smith interrupted. “And what’s this I hear about your tablet being stolen.”
Before I could answer, Colt cut in. “It was. She said there was sensitive information on it. She reported it stolen but--”
“What?” Mr. Smith said louder, drawing attention from Ms. Wayward and Mr. Jones, not to mention people from other tables. “Don’t tell me it had confidential financial information.”
“How does that matter to you?” Colt asked.
“I have it backed up,” I said quickly. Uh oh. This was getting dangerous. Mr. Smith was clearly drunk and if he thought there was a chance his investments could be stolen by tablet thieves, then I could be in big trouble. “And it’s
encrypted. I can manage without it and continue my work. It’s just an inconvenience.”
“I don’t know if that’s the case,” Colt said. “They seemed pretty determined to steal it from you and get away. Are you sure they can’t access the information?”
I flared my eyes and then looked down to hide it. He wasn’t helping.
“It’s none of your business, Colt,” Mr. Smith said, spitting at the T sound in Colt’s name. He pointed at me. “If I were you, I’d make sure you get that tablet back before you leave the ship. Have every one of those crewmen...even the guests’ rooms searched. Mr. Murdock would be very upset if even a bit of information was discovered to be unsecured.”
“We certainly can’t just go accusing everyone,” Colt said.
“Funny, maybe it was you,” Mr. Smith said. “And I believe I told you to butt out. You clearly don’t know how to keep your nose out of other people’s business.”
“My phone was stolen, too,” Colt said.
Suddenly, the speech ended and everyone clapped. Colt looked around and started clapping a little but then gave an evil glare to Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith leaned back against his chair. He reached for the glass of whiskey near his plate and downed the rest. Then he leaned into me, and whispered in my ear. “Get that tablet back, or I’ll make sure Murdock Senior hears about this.”
I gulped. Did he know where Mr. Murdock was? Was that a hint that he had a clue? Well, I wasn’t going to get away without having a tablet at this point. I’d have to get one from somewhere. “It really doesn’t have much information on it,” I said quietly to him. All the information I had was what Ethan had. I didn’t know enough information to help him. “It’s not going to be any good without Mr. Murdock here anyway. He gave me account numbers, not names. I couldn’t tell you what money goes to who, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
He captured my bicep and whispered again. “Then you better get it back and hang on to it so it’s still there whenever he gets back.” I made eye contact with Colt, grinning and rolling my eyes at this drunk guy, but deep down, I was really scared. Mr. Smith was an intimidating man. “Or maybe we can leave right now and settle our accounts. I don’t care about anyone else. I want out, you hear?”
