Page 7 of Sawyer’s Mistake

Past the first doorway, they came across a group of three people talking together. Sawyer strode towards the group. “You speak French, right?” he whispered to her.

Saoirse nodded.

“Cool. Don’t let on that you understand the language. See if they say anything interesting.”

He seemed so genuinely impressed, she was tempted to tell him she could speak eight languages fluently and understood a few more. She’d always had a particular knack for languages. She’d come out of university speaking fluent French, Latin, Mandarin, and Japanese, and had since taught herself ancient Greek, Italian, and Arabic. Her love for languages was one of the reasons she’d decided to study linguistics. She bit her lip. She wasn’t going to start thinking about her job or how much she missed it.

Sawyer turned on the charm as they got close.

“Hey there,” he said, smiling. “My name’s Jake Sawyer, and this is Saoirse. We just arrived today.”

Saoirse gave a shy nod and a wave.

“Il est mignon le cow-boy,” the first woman whispered. Her friend giggled. Saoirse struggled to keep her expression neutral. She saw Sawyer as these women were just seeing him: tall, wide-shouldered, his shirt clinging just right against his narrow waist, with bright green eyes and a disarming smile.

Indeed he is. He’s also extremely annoying and has some telling trust issues.

“Welcome, Jake. Come, join us. We were just deciding what game to play tonight after dinner. We always like to do something together. Charades, perhaps?” one of the women said.

“No, no, not Charades again, Marie!”

“Definitely not Charades.” The young man reached over to shake Sawyer and Saoirse’s hand. “Hey there, I’m Louis, Marie’s husband. We arrived only recently ourselves.”

“Yes,” said Marie, moving closer to Saoirse. “Some of these people, the ones who’ve been here since the invasion, don’t remember what it was like.” Her voice trembled slightly. “But we remember. It was a couple weeks until we could sleep again …”

Marie’s husband reached over to pat her hand.

The blond woman sighed prettily. “Let’s not go there, Marie. We’re safe here. Come on, what should we do tonight?”

Sawyer interrupted gently. “We will leave you to decide. Ladies, Louis, it was great meeting you.” With that, he dragged Saoirse away from the group.

“You didn’t give me much time to listen in on them before approaching them,” she complained when they were out of earshot.

“Don’t bother translating what the blond lady said. I think I got the gist of it just fine,” Sawyer gloated.

Despite herself, Saoirse couldn’t help smiling. His next words quickly sobered her up.

“Charades? Come on, I want to walk around the whole ship before dinner. There’s something here we’re missing.”

They made their way up to the walkway. Two men stood guard at the prow, their silhouette stark against the fading light.

“They have guns, Jake,” Saoirse said,

“Keep going, don’t stare at them.” He ushered her on with a gentle hand on her back.

They were close to the bridge when Paul walked out to meet them. “Ah, my friends, just in time for dinner. I was just about to head over to your cabin to find you. But now there’s no need.”

“Who are those men, Paul?” Sawyer asked, pointing to the two guards.

“We all do work here, you know? Those two men work security for us. We have two others on the aft deck. Always working in pairs. Rest assured, we’re safe here.”

Paul offered Saoirse his arm. “Come on, dear, they’ll be waiting for us for dinner. They don’t like to start without me, you know,” he said, winking. Saoirse took his arm. His arm felt warm and solid.

Chapter 4

Jake

If the last couple years had taught Sawyer anything, it was to treat food as fuel. He usually ate fast and didn’t give much thought to the food he was eating as long as it looked safe, but even he had to admit the meal was delicious.