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He caught it, shaking his head, not laughing. “Stop.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Raven might have left you for a reason,” Marc said. “If he’d thought what he was going to do would be easy, he would have brought you along. If Raven went alone, it’s likely he knows where Blake is and it won’t be easy to get him back.”
Raven’s style of handling things was getting on my last nerve. “How would he even know? We’ve been looking for him for two days.” I pressed a palm to my forehead. Without communications, finding anyone on this ship might be really difficult.
There was a brisk knock at the door before Doyle opened it. He took one look at Marc, started to come in, saw me, and then groaned and backed away like he was leaving.
“Hey,” Marc said. “Wait. Change of plans. We’re all getting off the boat. Have you seen Blake?”
Doyle returned and closed the door, his eyes on me, death daggers shooting in my direction.
“What?” I asked. “I didn’t do anything to him.”
“I haven’t heard one peep from him,” Doyle said. “It really isn’t like him. He never goes for so long on a mission without at least letting me know what’s going on.”
“Don’t you normally stay in your house and listen to audio waves in the sky?” I asked.
“I mean the times we’ve been out together,” he said. “All five times. Or more. Maybe.” He shook his head, messing up the mop of brown on his head. “But this isn’t like him. He’s usually up my ass. He didn’t even come ask why the audio contact went down.”
Good point. “Did anyone see him after the fire in the storage room?”
No one spoke. Marc and Doyle exchanged a dark look, both shaking their heads.
Marc was right. Raven knew something was wrong.
I went for the door, but Marc caught me by the waist and made me stop. “Whoa,” Marc said. “Let’s not start the goose chase again.”
“Something’s wrong,” I said. “And I’m not going to chase. I’m going to go get Sam to find him, and if he doesn’t help me, I’ll smash his nose in until he does.”
“You’re the one that bargained with him,” Marc said. “You can’t do that.”
“I can,” Doyle said and he opened the door, slipping out and leaving it open behind him.
I nudged Marc. “Let me go with him.”
“You should stay,” he said. “You haven’t gotten any sleep since you got your concussion, right?”
“I slept last night.”
“You should still be resting. You’ve been running around enough. I’ll go with him.”
“We’ll both go,” I said. “Or you’re going to have to tie me up again.”
He smirked and shook his head, heading toward the door. “Tempting.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “But we can save it for later.”
Teamwork
Marc and I had to jog to catch up with Doyle.
“What?” Doyle asked, looking over his shoulder at me once.
“Where was Blake supposed to go last?” Marc asked.
“He was going to check in with… about…something,” Doyle said. “Didn’t I yell at him? Something about Axel.”
We were walking past cabins, heading toward a rear stairwell. “Yeah,” Marc said. “You told Blake Axel said to fuck off, remember?”
“I can’t keep track of you all,” Doyle said and stopped in the hallway. “Anyone seen the girl man?”
Good question. “Anyone talk to her recently?” I asked. “Let’s check her room.” It made sense to start there. Blake might have checked in at some point. Hopefully Fancy or someone else was there to give us a few clues.
Walking through the hallways in my normal jeans and a T-shirt made me feel so much better. For the first time on this ship, I wasn’t Kitty or someone else. I was just me, Kayli. No more games. No more hiding my face.
Funny enough, I seemed to blend in just fine. No one we came across was too familiar. No one looked my way. We passed a few people in plain black clothing, but they all turned away from us. Whatever Sam was up to, his men were staying out of our way.
The hallway was quiet as we finally reached Fancy’s suite.
She let us in and then returned to her mirror. She had on a blue dress and was applying a dramatic evening look with her makeup. She surveyed us with one eye done up in dark eyeliner, the other incomplete, making it look strange. “Well, the party has been getting wild around here, hasn’t it? That sun was beating me to death all afternoon.”
Doyle pressed a palm to his face, rubbing it. “Is that all you’ve been doing? And now you’re getting ready for a party?”
“Getting ready for dinner,” she said. “I’ve been doing what everyone told me to do. Keeping an ear out. By the way, I think my earpiece broke. It stopped working ages ago.”
“Have you heard from Blake?” I asked.
“Not since I painted that fine torso yesterday morning.” She surveyed the floor. “Did anyone see where I threw my black stilettos?”
“No time,” Marc said. “You should put something simple on in case you need to move quickly. We’re going to get off this boat.”
Fancy dropped her eyeliner, and it clattered onto the floor. “What? How? Is it because of the fire?” She gasped. “Is the boat still on fire? Are we going down?”
“Stop panicking, crazy,” Doyle said.
“We have the investor’s name,” I said. “But we should leave. There might be more trouble.”
She shook her head. “What about Ethan? And sweet, sweet, baby-faced Avery?” She looked at me. “We needed to find the money so we can give it back to the kids. We needed to find out if more kids are in trouble.”
“We have the investor,” I said, “but he knows our faces and that we’re on to him. We need to back off or he’s going to run. He’s also the son of the governor or someone like that. He might be untouchable. He might know you’re a part of it, too. It isn’t safe to stay.”
“But all that money! Girl, do you know how much these shoes cost? Mama don’t do no free work. When scumbags are carrying some good cash, we need to get paid.”
I hid clenched fists behind my back. I wanted to shake her. “We can’t fight him right now and get the money back. We need to back off.”
“Nuh-uh,” she said, shaking her finger. “You know what happened when I turned my back on one of y’all when things were getting dicey? You went for a swim. What makes you think I’ll just leave now? If Ethan has to stay, I’ll stay.”
I approved of her loyalty, but she wasn’t listening to reason. “I don’t want you hurt. You’ve been with us since the start. He might know you’re with us. Ethan’s untouchable, but you…”
“And someone’s going to have to take that risk to stay with Ethan.”
Marc stepped up, opening his hands in offering to Fancy, and he brandished the sweetest smile, bedroom eyes. “Baby,” he said. “Sweetheart. We’ve got a plan. Ethan wouldn’t want you to hurt that beautiful face.”
Every jaw dropped, every eye widened.
Fancy batted her eyelashes. “Oh, sweet Jesus. You know how to talk to a girl.”
Marc went t
o her, taking her hands in his. “We just want to get everyone safely off this boat. Ethan and Avery can’t leave, that’d be too noticeable, but we can take you.”
“I can’t leave, sweetie,” she said, releasing his hand and patting his cheek. “And I know you’re trying to talk me into it, but I came on this boat with Avery. He’ll need help.”
“We’ve got help on the way,” Marc said. “Come help us find Blake. Then we’ll get out of here.”
She swayed on her feet slightly as she looked at Marc, considering his words. She shook her head, but then started to undo the clasp on her dress.
Before I could divert my eyes, the dress fell to the floor in a heap. She hadn’t worn a bra, but at least her doodle noodle was tucked into black underwear.
“I can’t leave,” she said. “I’d be too noticeable if I was missing, but I can at least help you look for Blake.”
It’s Not What It Seems
Fancy put on shorts and a halter top, but she wouldn’t leave her suite without finishing her eyeliner. She found a handbag and loaded it with her gun and lipstick. She left the rings and necklaces off this time, ready for business.
We started from the front of the ship and headed back, going down a floor, working our way back and forth through the ship, checking in public areas as well as storage, bathrooms, anywhere someone could hide. Or hide a body.
Security eyed us as we passed the shopping level, through some bars, and the casino, but stayed out of our way.
Along the way, we found Liam and Henry, who assured us that help was still on the way. Marc asked for replacements, new faces to watch over Avery and Ethan while we were gone. They said it was possible, and they’d make sure to put someone else on board.
“We’re looking for Blake,” I told Liam. “But have you gotten in touch with everyone else?”
“I think so,” he said. “We’ll keep an eye out for Blake, too. We’re having to make calls with cell phones, and that’s sometimes dicey if they happen to be able to listen in on those.” He checked his watch. “You’ve got a half hour before nightfall. We can’t leave until after dark. You have a little time, but not much.” He told us the location to meet later.
