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“Would you recognize them if you heard them speaking again?”
Ruric bowed his head, his green eyes ominous. “If I see who they are, I will make them think twice about doing anything aboard ship that is not…proper.”
***
Not wanting to eavesdrop, Caitlin stirred against Levka’s chest to let him and his friends know she was awake. But then she sat up abruptly, worried she might hurt Levka’s wound. “I’m so sorry, Levka. You should have pushed me away.”
His brown eyes darkened. “My chest no longer hurts. I’m sure by tonight, maybe sooner, I’ll be able to walk and will no longer have to use the wheelchair.”
“Are you sure?” She couldn’t believe he’d truly recover that quickly when he’d been so weak earlier.
“I’m pretty sure.”
“Maybe you can lend him a shoulder if he gets dizzy.” Ruric smiled.
“Ha! Like I helped poor Levka the last time. I’m so sorry about that.” She felt as if she’d been lying in the sun as hot as her skin grew just thinking about him sitting on the deck next to his wheelchair when he’d fallen.
She suddenly realized she hadn’t been watching her foster sister and jerked her head around to look at the pool. Staring at the pool, then at the bodies soaking up the sun’s rays nearby, she immediately saw both Alicia and Dylan were gone. “I’ve got to go.”
“But—” Levka didn’t get to say anything more, or if he did, she didn’t hear him as fast as she proceeded in the direction of the stairs to her deck.
She would prove to Mildred and Thomas their faith in her was justified. But what nagged at her most were bits and pieces of the conversation Levka and his friends had been sharing. There was some problem with the passenger manifest. Some trouble with Dylan having a roommate when he shouldn’t have. Some reason Levka and his friends ended up with the stateroom instead.
She’d just been waking from a warm, lazy sleep, snuggled next to a Phat guy, dark-haired and eyed, and totally mysterious and intriguing. His large hand had caressed her arm in a soothing, tender way. He’d only stopped to squeeze her more tightly against his warm, hard body when she’d stirred the first time.
But something had awakened her fully this time. A kid’s shrill cry in the pool that seemed miles away. The splashing of water, too? Something had brought her out of her comfortable nap, and in her groggy state, she’d heard their strange conversation—words spoken, but not. Concerns shared, but hidden. Someone was planning on pulling a prank on passengers. But who and on whom?
Ruric was the one who had heard the someone talking. Ruric would take care of whoever it was.
She hurried down the stairs. Why was Levka reluctant to let her go? Worried what she’d find? What would she find? Alicia fooling around with Dylan?
Clenching her teeth, Caitlin hurried inside, then down the stairs to her deck and to Dylan’s room. Her stomach tumbled a million times before she reached his door. Then she remembered what Ruric had said—but hadn’t exactly said. Dylan was sharing a room with another boy. She pressed her ear to his door and listened. No sounds. If they were in there, wouldn’t they be talking or something?
She looked in the direction of her room. If they were in her room…
Stalking down the carpeted floor, Caitlin shortened the distance to her room. Her hands shaking, she pulled her key out of her pocket and jammed it into the lock.
When Caitlin stepped into the room, she found the beds made and the sunlight streaming in through the open window. The shower was running in the bathroom. Caitlin put her ear to the door and heard giggling, then Dylan’s voice.
Caitlin’s heart sank. If Alicia was going to do it with Dylan fine, but not in their suite. She banged on the door. “Alicia, tell Dylan to get his butt out of there.”
The shower shut off and whispered voices followed.
Her blood heating, Caitlin paced across the suite. How could her foster parents have expected her to chaperone the princess?
The bathroom door jerked open, then Dylan stormed out of the steamed-up room, slamming the closed door behind him. All he wore were shorts. His hair, chest, and arms were dripping wet, his eyes as hard and cold as icicles. He stalked toward Caitlin, and she stood her ground, though her heart rate increased tenfold, while he looked bent on murdering her.
Had she interrupted their fun? Good.
She only wished she could use her abilities now and put him in his place herself.
He grabbed her arm and jerked her toward the balcony. She couldn’t shake loose of the huskily-built creep no matter how hard she tried. Grabbing the door, he yanked it open and tossed her onto the narrow patio that accommodated two plastic chairs and a table.
She cried out, but her scream was caught by the breeze and drowned out by the ship splashing through the ocean, its engines thrumming at a dull roar. She hadn’t ventured out here before, not this close to the water. A cold sweat erupted on her skin.
For a moment, Dylan glared at her, murder in his eyes. Then he smiled the most satanic look. “You didn’t die the last time you were on a boat. But you know, if you fall from this height, you wouldn’t have to worry about floundering in the water with the sharks. The fall would kill you.”
She tried to look tough, unafraid, but her knees shook.
