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“Who...” I started to ask. There were blank spaces in my memory. I remembered the time in the water after being pushed off the boat, swimming to shore and barely making it, being on the beach, making love to Blake, walking through the woods, waiting for someone to pick us up...and then nothing. I thought I remembered another voice, but assumed it had been a dream. But then, how did we get here?
“I’m Liam,” said the man at the door. “Corey sent me. I’m here to help. I drove you here last night, in case you don’t remember.”
Corey. One of the only ones I could count on to still like me, although I wondered if loyalty to the others—including his twin—and learning the truth about me might have muddied our friendship. I vaguely remembered talking to him, letting him know we were okay, but even then, he’d seemed angry. At the time, I was sure it was he was upset we had almost been killed, but my tired, suspicious mind could have been filling in gaps, too.
Blake tugged at me to stand up. As he did, he leaned in to whisper, motioning toward Liam at the door. “I think he’s Academy,” he whispered. “But don’t ask him directly. He won’t admit to it. Seems like a good guy, though.”
“We need to get going,” Liam said loudly. “We can talk on the way.”
I agreed, mostly because I wanted to get dressed and get to wherever we were going and get a shower. The sand on my skin was crusty and felt like fleas biting at my skin. I wondered if we did catch sand fleas of some kind. Or bed bugs. I made a face. Gross.
Blake went to a table and picked up a plastic shopping bag. Inside were black sweats, a pair for each of us.
“The mart up the road didn’t have much,” Liam said. “I’ll be out here when you’re ready.” He closed the door fully now.
Blake compared the sizes of some pants and then passed the smaller set to me. It was still a little big, but there was a draw string on the pants and I tied it tightly at my waist. He passed on a sweatshirt, too. There were flip-flops in the bag for both of us as well. Good enough.
Once Blake was done, and we each had a turn at the restroom, Blake collected his old clothes, putting them in the shopping bag. He took off his watch, too, and put it in the bag.
“Are you throwing it away?” I asked. I grimaced. “Did we break it?”
“I’ll keep it,” he said, with a soft smile. “But yeah, it’s broken.” He looked up at me, the light in the gold flecks in his eyes shining. “I think it’s my favorite broken thing now.”
I pressed my lips together, looking at him, unsure how to feel. I had felt so strongly about him on the beach, and continued to feel it now, but this was new territory for me. We’d agreed not to be exclusive, but what did making love on the beach and all of this mean for us now?
I didn’t really want to ask in this old motel room. It would have to wait.
Blake went to the door, but before he opened it, he looked at me, eyes wide. He was silently asking if I was ready for this next step.
I wasn’t even sure what this next step was, but Blake seemed to have an idea, and I didn’t particularly want to stay here by myself with no clothes or money. It was tempting to ask him to just take me back to Charleston. If they didn’t want us on the boat, they’d given us a clear message that we should just stay away. Maybe it was best to just move on.
But then there was Avery and Ethan and the people we had been trying to help. If Axel and the others had a beef with us, they should be the ones getting off the boat, leaving Blake and I to get to work.
I also didn’t have proof, and it could have been someone else. If so, then Axel and the others would be in trouble.
Plus, if I went back to Charleston, where would I go?
I nodded to him. Yes, I was ready.
He opened the door and we hurried out. I touched my hair, trying to rake it back with fingers, but a lot of it was matted to my head. I wished then I had a baseball cap or something just to cover it for now.
Liam was standing by a metal rail. He was shorter than me by about an inch, with reddish blond hair. He had a gritty face, with a generous growth of hair, more than an overnight unshaven look, although with his light hair it looked thinner than it was.
He nodded to me, but then turned his head to Blake as he spoke. “Are you ready? We need to hurry.” He backed up a step and then moved toward the parking lot without waiting for Blake to answer.
“Is there a reason…why we’re going so early?” I asked, yawning mid-question.
Blake nudged me in the elbow, and then grabbed my hand to pull me along. “The boat will swing back near here before most of the crew are awake. Ethan gave orders to the Captain to change course. We’ll be able to board without too many witnesses.”
“Hopefully you’ll look like more crew boarding instead of guests,” Liam said, opening the door to a dark sedan. It could have been green or blue or black, but in the dim orange glow of the parking lot lights, the color was just dark. “We have to time this right, because if the boat is there for too long, more people are going to notice.”
They were going to stop the boat at another port for just two people? Wouldn’t the crew really notice if they had to put out another gangway? I hopped into the back seat of the car, forcing myself to trust in this Liam, mostly because Blake was here and he seemed to trust him. Blake got in next to me.
The car ride was silent. Liam wasn’t much of a talker. Blake yawned and rubbed his face, maybe trying to keep himself awake.
Despite hurrying, the car ride was a half hour long at least. I wasn’t sure how fast Liam was moving, and without other cars around, and the landscape being dark, it was just one long lull of time. I wanted to sleep, but I felt like I’d have to jump out at any moment to rush to a dock, and every bump in the road made me grip the handle on the door, ready to go.
Liam eventually pulled into what looked like a park. The gate was up, the sign brown and with trees around it, but I didn’t catch the name. He wound through a narrower road, surrounded by more trees. Eventually, we arrived at a parking lot. Beyond it was a dock, smaller, with motorboats and sailboats. There wasn’t a big yacht.
“It’s not here,” I said, checking again, as if I could have missed it the first time. “Did we miss it?”
“It’s out there,” Liam said, nodding toward the water. He pulled into the parking space and stopped the car. “You’ll have to meet it out there.”
In the distance, the river opened up into the ocean. He meant we’d have to meet the ship out in the middle of the ocean? I scanned the area for the lights of the ship, but from where we were, I didn’t see any. That didn’t mean it wasn’t around the bend somewhere. “And how are we supposed to do that?” I asked.
“We sail out there,” Liam said.
We?
“Come on,” Blake said, tugging my wrist and then opening the door. “Try not to ask them too many questions.”
Them? “Ask who?”
He jumped out without answering me. I groaned, and then touched at the mess of hair on my head again, scratching some sand loose, since I was being ignored at the moment anyway.
I got out of the car and followed Blake across a dim parking lot. The only lights were around the dock, and only half of those were on. There was no guard house here, and only a handful of motorboats and a few sailing ships. The ships bobbed a little, sails and ropes creaking in the otherwise quiet night. The boats weren’t as impressive as what I’d seen at Charleston’s own ports. This was like a poor man’s marina. No security. Very few slips available.
Liam started toward the docks slowly, but then a motor on one of the boats started, causing him to start jogging. “Come on,” he called over his shoulder.
Blake and I hurried along after him. It was a surreal moment and fear touched me. After all I’d been through, I was afraid of these new people, of the other boys not being there in that moment, even if I wasn’t sure I could trust them. I only had Blake. I’d already been thrown into the middle of the ocean. How could Blake be sure these people wouldn?
??t do the same?
Not wanting to be left behind, I hurried to get beside him and I reached for his elbow, for something familiar to hold on to.
Blake shifted his arm, rubbing our sweatshirts across each other and then touching my hand, causing a slight electric zap between us.
He held on anyway. Our flip-flops slapped loudly along the wood of the dock.
Liam slowed at a motorboat with an open helm toward the front. There were already two men there, their shadows moving, adjusting things. One was fiddling with the controls, the other stopped to watch Liam and us. When we got closer, he went to the corner of the ship and started undoing the rope. I didn’t recognize either of them, and I kept blinking, looking for familiar features, but they wore dark clothes like us and my dried-out eyes blurred when I tried to focus.
Liam jumped onboard, then turned back and motioned to us. “Come on,” he said. “It’s best if you two stay inside until we get to the ship.”
Liam grabbed my hand as I started climbing, pulling me up. Blake jumped in after. The moment he touched down, the boat started moving, at first sideways away from the dock, and then out toward the river.
Liam hurried us around to the back of the boat, toward a narrow set of stairs. Below deck was a galley and small seating area that smelled of must and dampness with a hint of fish. The fridge was one of those tiny dorm room types, and there was a microwave, a small sink and an electric hot plate.
“Have a seat,” Liam said, motioning to the table. It had a thin plaid tablecloth over it. “There might be something in the fridge if you’re hungry, but don’t bother thinking about cooking anything; once we’re there, you’re going to have to climb up quickly.”
Climb up? Then I realized with a big yacht, we’d probably have to get up alongside the ship. And then what? They’d throw down a rope ladder? I didn’t know anything about boats, so I wasn’t really sure how this would work.
Liam left to go up top. I could hear footsteps over us. I settled into the bench seat in the table, wedging myself in. I tried to sit back but it was too upright and uncomfortable. I grunted.
“It’s not so bad,” Blake said, looking around then opening cabinet doors. He found a box of crackers and pulled it out. He took a packet from it and returned the box, and bringing the packet to the table. “Wait until we’re back on the yacht. Maybe we’ll take another hot bath.”
“No more baths,” I said. “I just want a rinse and then to go to sleep.” I reached over, taking one of the crackers from him. I put it in my mouth. It was a stale saltine. I ate it anyway. “And I want a steak. And eggs. And a coffee.”
“Do you want to eat or sleep?”
“I can do both.”
Blake chuckled and ate a couple of crackers. “Sweetheart, I love the way you think.”
My cool skin heated and I shared a look with him. I was thinking of what we were now. Were we a couple now? Did he still hold to the not being exclusive? What did I want? I wanted to be sweet with him, because I really felt we were close. I just had no idea what to do.
