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I’d been listening to someone else near Corey. Who was with him? Maybe Avery?
My heart was pounding as I forced myself to focus on the screen, straining to hear every sound.
Corey walked around the shopping area, his head darting back and forth, clearly on the lookout for someone. Who?
The sound of the piano faded out, and all I heard were footsteps.
Heavy footsteps. Getting faster.
I listened and returned my attention to Corey in the video; he was walking away from the piano and out of range of the camera. I clicked around but couldn’t catch him in other video feeds.
I grunted. Stupid limited videos.
“Hey!” An Irish shout came loud over the audio, scaring the crap out of me. “Yo. You. You listening to me right now?”
“Doyle?” I asked. I found the video feed from the pool he’d been at, but he had left. I didn’t see him anywhere. When had that happened? “What’s going on?”
“Shit,” he said. “It’s you.”
Ugh. Someone had woken him up. Or had I been talking to him? Now I was going to have to breathe in smoke. And argue. “I’ve got things. Go back to doing whatever you were doing. Take a break.”
“No, idiot. You just…stupid…girl…idiot. I told you not to touch a goddamn thing and you couldn’t listen. I curse everyone right now, all the babies.”
“Where’s the hang-up button on this?” I asked, swiveling in the chair to turn away from the monitors since no one was in sight. “I want to hang up on you.”
“Turn it off,” he said, sounding like he was running out of breath. “Kill it.”
Did he think I was breaking his stuff? “Kill? What?”
“Kill everything. Kill the computers.”
“What? Why?”
Suddenly his voice was completely breathless but the tone changed to desperate. “Do it. Right now. I swear to God, I’ll never make fun of you… anything you want. I’m being dead serious right now. Just kill everything in that room. Do it.”
I’d never heard this kind of panic in Doyle’s voice. He always seemed crabby and ready to argue with me, but this was different.
“Kill it and leave, Kayli,” he continued. “Right now.”
I jumped out of the chair and scanned the room, looked for a big plug in the wall. There was an extension cord under the table. I got down on my knees and crawled underneath to yank at it.
The plug flew out of the wall. Everything shut down at once, including the audio. I couldn’t hear anything from Doyle.
I exhaled and put the headset on the chair, my heart pounding. I was summoning up some energy to push myself up and out from under the table when the door opened.
I froze. Doyle had said to leave. Was this him? Or Marc returning to get me? I remained still, wanting to see who it was before I dared come out of hiding.
Legs appeared in the doorway. Legs in black jeans and combat boots.
No one on our team was wearing black jeans today, at least not that I could remember.
My heart thundered in my rib cage.
Please be Avery. Please be Axel. Anyone. Even Liam or Henry. I’d even love to hear Doyle’s voice.
The person entered the room. Heavy footsteps came over to the table as I held my breath. The legs bent into a crouch.
I bit my lip, heart pounding, waiting to be discovered.
A face appeared.
Raven.
My heart leapt into my throat as relief washed over me. Raven! Thank God.
I had two seconds to be thankful it was him and then I had to get him out of here. Doyle had said to leave.
I reached out to him, wanting to explain. “Raven,” I said, breathless. His hair was standing up on his head a bit. His big brown eyes were wide, wild, like the bear tattoo on his back. He wore a black shirt. The lip ring was gone, the hole still evident.
We reached for each other. He hooked me by the elbow and pulled. I thought he was just trying to get me to stand, but once I was almost up, he tugged again. Hard.
Before I knew what he was doing, I was over his shoulder.
He pivoted and pulled down the shelf that had all the hard drives and papers.
The shelf crashed down. Papers flew across the room, some landing on the cot, most on the floor.
A burning smell caught my nose. He turned again.
As I dangled over his shoulder, I saw the lighter landing on the cot, the papers fluttering under it.
He’d set the room on fire.
The Return of the Bear
Raven flew down the hallway with me over his shoulder.
I couldn’t get enough air to yell at him to put me down. I planted a hand on his butt, trying to, at the very least, stabilize myself.
He carried me downstairs, down into the deeper parts of the ship. I wasn’t sure where we were going until I started to smell hairspray and nail polish.
The spa? Why?
The only things I could glimpse around his body were the glass doors and the atrium, and then I was looking at the back of the stairs, and walls I didn’t recognize.
Click. Door opening. He pulled me down off his shoulder and set me on my feet and then turned and locked the door, the two of us inside.
As the blood rushed out of my head, a dizzy sensation swept through me, a black wash going over my eyes. It took a few minutes for it to clear enough that I could take in our surroundings.
The room—more like a closet—was lit by one tiny yellowed light above our heads. The area was hot and filled with large pipes. There were meters on the pipes, buttons and diagrams on the walls. The space was cramped.
But we were alone.
Raven turned to me, his eyes wild. His broad shoulders seemed to take up most of the room. Some might call him stocky, but he was all muscle. A powerhouse. In the black jeans, combat boots, and black shirt, he was downright scary.
“What happened to you?” I asked. “Why did you…” My brain was still floating from being upside down.
He leaned against the door, sweat beading across his brow. His broad chest rose and fell as he caught his breath. He scanned me up and down once, taking me in.
I was still in the slim black pants, tight sweater, and padded bra. I was embarrassed; even as plain as it was, it was more
dressed up than I usually got and I didn’t feel like me.
I opened my mouth to ask again where he’d been.
Before I had the chance, he pushed himself from the door and reached for me, grabbing my shoulders, pulling me into him.
He kissed me.
Shock stilled me, and all I felt were his lips on mine. All I could do was stand there, mouth open.
His kiss deepened and I slowly started to kiss him back.
When I did, he pressed into me, forcing me to step back. He lifted his hands, pressing his large palms into the wall behind me and pushing me against it. His lips were demanding, hungry. His tongue surged into my mouth, drawing out mine. He sucked my tongue and dove deeper into the kiss.
I began to respond more and more. I hadn’t meant to hold back. I knew in the past I had, especially with him. But I was relieved to see him and needed to show him that I’d missed him, that I cared about him.
Raven never held back. He pressed against my body. I felt the hardness between his legs, pulsing against his jeans. My slacks seemed so thin, like he was grinding himself against my groin.
I moaned and reached around his neck.
I opened my mouth more for him. The more he kissed me, the more I wanted him to. I’d missed him, and I had been so worried. Relief flooded through me just feeling that he wanted me, and he was here.
He pulled back just when I was sure I’d drown in his kiss. His breath was heavy as it warmed my face in the already-warm room.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” His deep voice reverberated, the Russian accent thick, especially at every r sound.
I let go of his neck, pulling back, but only getting so far with the wall right behind me. “I should be asking you why we’re here,” I said. “Didn’t I just ride down here on your shoulder?”
“I mean on the boat. How the hell did you get back?”
I breathed in deeply and leaned back against the wall, realizing he must not have known I’d made it back. Where had he thought I was? Had he thought I’d drowned? “Liam and Henry. Some people from your Academy. They brought us back last night.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Us? He’s back too?”
