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I had the jumpsuit fully zipped up now and put my hands on my hips, trying to look angry. “We aren’t after you. We don’t care what you’re doing on this ship.”
Baldy spat in my direction. “Like I’ll believe that.”
Raven smacked him hard with the back of his hand. He grabbed Baldy’s shirt, leaned down, and pulled him until their faces were an inch apart. “Do that again, and your tongue becomes fish food.”
They glared at each other.
“Boys,” I said, trying to play the nice guy, “right now, we’ve got bigger problems.” I pried Raven off, pulling him back toward the door. “You should keep a lookout so no one comes in here.”
Raven shot Baldy a warning glare and then left.
After the door closed, Baldy slumped in his chair, more relaxed. His cheek was dirty from Raven’s smudged hands, his neck red and on its way to being bruised. His voice was gravelly. “I should have known he wasn’t with us. His name wasn’t on our list. I told Sam…”
“He only joined me when he found out Sam was being told what to do,” I said. “He doesn’t like not knowing who his employer is. Too dangerous. Then he overheard that Sam was trying to get in with this investor. Maybe continuing their alliance off this ship.”
He frowned.
I lowered my eyes to his feet and then looked back up to his face. “What’s your name?”
“John Smith,” he said with a sarcastic tone. Obviously a lie.
I smiled and then bent at the waist to look him at his level. “We could leave you in this chair and tell Sam all sorts of naughty things that you’ve been up to.”
“He won’t believe you after I talk to him.”
“Who says you’ll be able to tell him anything?” I asked with a smirk.
He glared at me.
I let out a big sigh. “I don’t want to fight. I know Sam doesn’t like being under someone else’s thumb. We can help.”
“We don’t need your help.”
“You think this ends when this ship docks? The investor will be back and will keep coming back to use your little group over and over again. Bodies pile up. You’ll be the only ones connected. You think prostitution is a long sentence? Try multiple homicides.” This was probably an empty threat, but I just needed him to believe me now.
He rolled his eyes, but he was sweating more and the muscles of his arms twitched, his left leg bounced. He was really uncomfortable. Maybe this was working.
“Why do you think he won’t do the dirty work himself?” I asked. “Sam doesn’t know it, but this investor could get rid of you all. All he has to do is rat you all out. Word is he’s planning to. Tell me who he is, and we can get rid of him for you.”
He smirked. “You think I know? Sam doesn’t tell me shit.”
“If you don’t know, you should get him to tell you. And maybe…if you’d like, we’ll get rid of Sam, too. We’ll leave you in charge. A promotion. Hmm?”
He stared at me, silent, but I could see on his face that he was weighing his options. Finally, he asked, “What’s the catch? What’s in it for you?”
“All I want is the investor, like I said. Stay here and play sex shop all you want. With Sam.” I shrugged. “Without Sam. Makes no difference to me.”
He nodded slowly. “You’ll let me go.”
I smiled, turned around, and used the pocketknife to cut him loose.
Once he was free, he remained seated and touched his neck tenderly. “What about your man outside?”
“He works for me,” I said. “Play nice, and he won’t have to do what he does best. But again, we’re not interested in you. Never were. You know it, too, don’t you?”
“We were wondering why no one else came down to ask or snoop,” he said, rubbing his throat. “Except yesterday morning, with one of them and that one girl.”
“The girl was me,” I said as I looked him in the eye. “I was hoping to talk to Sam, but you got to me first.”
He stared at me and shrugged. “I was wondering why I couldn’t find you. You look different.”
“What’s it going to be, John Smith?”
He shrugged. “Sam has been careless and stupid. We don’t need to take orders from anyone. We own this ship.”
Uh-huh. I hoped Ethan was willing to put the work into finding all new crew, because he’d need to. “Help me locate the investor. I’ll take care of him, and I’ll take care of Sam.”
He nodded once, resigned. “Just tell me what to do.”
Risks and Rewards
Raven returned, and we told Baldy to monitor Sam: see who he reported to and spoke to. Make a list, return the list to this maintenance room, whether we were here or not. We’d come find it later.
Once Baldy took off, Raven and I left the maintenance areas as well.
“This could go bad,” Raven said, leading me down a hallway and then up a flight of stairs. “Either he believes us, or he’s going to camp out there with a gun and shoot us when we come in the door. Depends on how loyal he really is to Sam.”
“And I just told him who I was,” I said. “We’ll find out soon.”
I had the hard hat and the earmuffs back on, the jumpsuit zipped all the way up. We made our way up to a line of guest cabins.
“We need a place to hide for now,” Raven said. “They won’t bother a guest.”
We got to a room, and Raven knocked.
I couldn’t believe him. We’d bug one of the guests? Did he even know whose room this was?
No noise inside the room. Quiet.
Raven moved on to another room.
“What are you doing?” I whispered as he knocked on the door. “Shouldn’t we go into the one with no one there?”
The door opened before he could respond. A little old woman in a sundress with tiny spectacles looked out at us.
“Sorry to bug you,” Raven said with a charming smile. “Someone said the toilets weren’t flushing right on this floor. Can we come in and check out yours to make sure everything is in order?”
She smiled and allowed us in. “I was about to head to the casino anyway.”
“We won’t be long,” I said, going along with Raven’s story. I couldn’t believe it worked. But then, we did look like maintenance. “Good luck. Hope you win.”
She took her room key card and left us alone. So trusting.
It was an interi
or room, with no window, and for the first time, I felt we were relatively safe. Raven was right; they wouldn’t look for us inside a guest room.
The door closed. Raven took me around the waist, pushing.
I stepped back, legs colliding with the bed, going down on my back on top of the blanket. He came down on top of me, his body like a cage of muscle pressing me into the mattress.
He kissed me. My mouth was open in shock, but I was too surprised to respond at first.
He grabbed my hand, bringing it down to his crotch. His jeans and the jumpsuit were in the way, but even so, he was hard and pulsing.
He broke the kiss long enough to breathe and whisper in my ear, “You’re so fucking bad-ass-hole.”
I think he meant badass, after my performance downstairs with the goon. I was rather proud of myself. My nerves shook now after the fact. I couldn’t believe I went through with it. But those thoughts were fleeting as he began nuzzling my neck.
He returned to my mouth, and this time I kissed him back. He kept my hand under his, encouraging me to rub his length through the clothes.
I wasn’t going to have sex with him here, though. He was tempting, but this was bad timing. “Raven, I want to, but…”
He groaned and rolled over onto his back, the tent at his groin obvious. “She could be in the casino for hours.”
“It’s that time of the month for me,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow, blinking obliviously.
Lost in translation. “What do they call periods in Russia?”
“That all you worried about? I can handle blood.”
I couldn’t. I shook my head; not going to happen.
He got up and walked awkwardly toward the bathroom. “Can you give me five minutes, then? I can’t concentrate.”
Oh my God. Was he just going to masturbate in there? “Raven!” I cried out. “We don’t have time for this.”
He groaned again and then closed the bathroom door, staying in the main room with me. “You kill me, little thief.”
I sighed. “Raven, I—”
