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We found our way to the conference room without running into anyone on the way.
Inside, Ethan Murdock sat at the head of the table, his palms flat on the surface. His hair was windblown, his skin tanned, but red around his nose and cheeks. Dark circles under his eyes matched his dour expression.
Poor guy is having a really stressful day.
Avery stood by his side, asking me questions with his eyes.
I wondered if Axel somehow knew what we were up to and had gotten word to Ethan. Or if Avery had somehow managed to stay in contact after the communication lines went down and knew something was going on.
“What is this all about?” Ethan asked. His expression was friendly to me, but when he looked to Sam, he clenched his jaw and his eyes narrowed slightly.
He didn’t like Sam. I couldn’t blame him.
At least he hadn’t used my real name.
Would Ethan think I’d betrayed him if I revealed I had sided with Sam? Would he trust me?
“We just need to talk,” I said. I checked around the room again, looking at Baldy and Sam, Corey and Raven, and then back at Avery and Ethan. “We know who the investor is, but we have to make a deal.”
Ethan perked up at this. “Oh?”
“I need you to approve Sam as future cruise director.”
“Mr. Ethan,” Sam said quickly. He skirted around the conference table with a greasy smile on his face, offering Ethan his hand. “I know we’ve talked, but I hear you need our help.”
Ethan stared at him and then reluctantly took Sam’s hand and shook it. “Do I?”
Ethan was a heart-on-his-sleeve type of guy. Hiding his disgust at Sam wasn’t going to happen.
“Ethan,” I said, “Sam says he can help us out. He wants to know if you can do him a favor, too.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow. “We already have a director.”
“You do,” Sam said. He planted a thumb against his own chest. “But I’m better. I’ll make this ship sing.”
Ethan opened his mouth, but I cut him off. “And in exchange, he’ll help us with our other problem.”
Avery placed a hand on Ethan’s arm and leaned into him, whispering something.
Ethan nodded and addressed us. “I understand,” he said. He looked at Sam. “It won’t be done quickly, as we need to honor our current director’s contract, but if you’ll give me time to put in the paperwork…”
“I’d like to see some paperwork before we get back to shore, at the least,” Sam said. “But otherwise, I’m willing to give it some time.”
Ethan’s jaw clenched. “Is this all you needed?”
I spoke, “Might be better if you stay in very public places for a while. Places where you will be seen, witnesses.”
Ethan shot me a confused look but silently agreed.
Ethan and Avery said they were heading to the pool and then left.
“So you were telling the truth,” Sam said. “This could work out to be something sweet.”
I didn’t think I could like Sam less than I had, but I realized I’d been wrong. “Now you have to give us space,” I said. “And tell me where to find Colt.”
Sam nodded to Baldy, who took a walkie-talkie out of his pocket and called in for a location on Colt Baker.
We waited.
And waited.
“Not sure,” came the voice on the radio. “He’s not in his room, not in public areas that we can see. Do you want us to search for him?”
Sam checked in with me. I shook my head. No need to stir him up before we found him.
“Nope,” Baldy said into the radio. “Don’t worry about it. Business as usual for now.”
Uncomfortable Alliances
Sam left us in the conference room. I dropped into one of the office chairs, trying to figure out our next move.
Colt was probably walking around looking for me.
The windows looking outside across the water showed me we didn’t have much time before sunset. We might not have time to confront Colt.
And what would we do if we did? Sing “neener-neener, we found him”?
“Sam’s an idiot if he thinks Ethan will keep his word,” Raven said. “I’d never believe it.”
“You’re right.” My fingers traced the edge of the leather on the armrest. It had been a little too easy to get Sam to agree to our deal—one he should have been able to see through. What was the deal there?
“At least now we can roam the ship,” Corey said. He took off his black button-down and untucked the Zelda T-shirt underneath, tossing the discarded shirt onto the table.
“I could use some clothes,” I said to Corey. I unzipped the jumpsuit a little, displaying cleavage, but just to show I was without other clothing.
His eyes followed my fingers as the zipper went down, enjoying the show. I grinned and unzipped a tiny bit more, his eyes following.
Raven popped me lightly on my shoulder. “Stop teasing him.”
Corey shook himself out of his daze, cheeks turning red.
I was way more amused than I should have been, but this thing with Corey was so new, it was hard not to want to play.
“Anyway,” Corey said, looking at the wall, “if they aren’t on the hunt for us, I think it’s safe to go back to the old rooms. We might run into our people there.”
Since Raven and I were still in our maintenance getups, we took a long way around to get to the old cabins. We did pass by employees this time, but none looked our way. The hunt was off.
The two adjoining rooms were empty when we got there, but our stuff was inside. I found underwear and jeans and borrowed a T-shirt from Corey. I kicked them out of the bathroom and locked the door, needing a little privacy.
Unfortunately, things downstairs were pretty bad. The pad had leaked and I was mortified. One bright blotch of blood on the jumpsuit. Great. I crumpled it and threw it into the corner. It was going to stay on board anyway.
Tension wedged itself into my muscles and I began breathing heavily.
Something was wrong with me, all right. I’d bleed out before the week was done at this rate.
Was I being overdramatic? I didn’t think so.
My mother had had problems with her cycles right before she’d learned she had cancer.
I couldn’t think like that. Not now. I wasn’t even in my twenties yet. My mother had been approaching her forties.
This was
n’t cancer. I couldn’t keep scaring myself. She’d had other problems, too, and I had none of the symptoms she had shown.
I did my thing in the bathroom and then washed my face and hands. My hair was behaving, thanks to the braid. Needed a wash but I’d wait until tonight.
Maybe by tonight, we’d be home.
Maybe tonight, I’d finally feel like I could really relax.
By the time I left the bathroom, Raven was sitting on the corner of the bed, waiting. He’d found another black T-shirt to wear, the tattoos on his arms obvious. He’d put the lip ring back in, too. He wasn’t hiding who he was anymore.
Corey wasn’t there.
“Where’d he go?” I asked.
He nodded toward the door. “Checking public areas for Axel and the others. He can take on Colt if he runs into any problems with him.”
Had Raven really sent him off on his own? I still didn’t like the idea, even after the search had been called off. Color me paranoid.
I sighed and sat on the bed next to him, close enough that our thighs touched. I pressed my cheek to his shoulder. “What do you think? Should we talk to Colt before we leave?”
He dropped his mouth to the top of my head, pressing his lips to my hair. “You were right before. We got what we needed. We don’t know what we’re dealing with from him.”
“He’s the investor we’re looking for.”
“He’s also the son of a governor. Or a mayor. Something. I forget.” He kissed my hair. “He might be untouchable.”
I’d forgotten, too. I recalled something in Blake’s files saying he was related to someone important. “Might be how Mr. Murdock is getting away with investing large funds into secret accounts. They get away with it because his investor is important.”
“Politic sandals,” he grumbled.
“Scandals.”
“Same. Not really what we do.”
I pulled myself away to flop down and stretch out on the bed. It’d been a really long day. My head was spinning a little. The fog in my brain was thick. I wanted a nap. “I’m still trying to figure out what we do.”
He lay back on the bed next to me and rolled to his side, propping himself up with an elbow. He placed a hand on my lower back, close to my butt. “For now, we go home. We let someone else investigate Colt. We’ve got more important things to worry about.”
