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“What did he threaten to do?”
She toyed with her napkin.
“Caitlin, what did he threaten you with?” Levka reached for her hand, but she hid it in her lap.
“I probably can visualize something pretty awful. I have a very good imagination, Caitlin. Why don’t you tell me the truth so I won’t picture something worse?”
“He threatened to throw me overboard! He shoved me halfway over the rail and forced me to see the ocean, to see where my family died! He said the fall would kill me so that I didn’t have to worry about the sharks. That’s what he did, Levka! Are you happy?”
The girls at their table sat with their mouths agape. Caitlin didn’t bother to look at Levka’s friends to see what horrified expressions they might wear. She jumped up from her chair and stormed out of the dining hall. Despite being upset, she felt better. Just getting the truth out in the open, felt like such a relief. Now Dylan would kill her. Or Levka would kill him. Or Dylan and his thugs would go after Levka and his friends. Whatever! It was out of her hands and not her fault.
But it was her fault! She shouldn’t have told Dylan to get out of their room. She should have left the proverbial sleeping dogs lie. How she wished she could get him on shore and then she’d work her magic on him, and not in a good way.
She bit her lip. Making a disgruntled face, she crossed the deck, then passed the pool. She glared hard at the water. She was not afraid of the water. Tonight, when everyone was eating dinner, she would swim. She would prove she could get in the water again.
***
For a moment, no one said a word, then the Georgia girls all began to ask what was going on with poor Caitlin. “I’ll see you all later,” Levka said, and left his uneaten sandwich behind.
He stalked underneath the covered walkways, looking for Caitlin, but didn’t see her. He couldn’t have been that far behind her. Where had she gone? He headed down the stairs.
When he reached her room, he listened at the door. He heard nothing. He knocked.
No answer. “Caitlin, I’m sorry. Let me in, and we’ll talk.”
Though he didn’t know what he’d say. That he wanted to kill Dylan for terrifying her. That he would kill him if he threatened her again. He’d seen enough killing, enough bloodshed that he’d had enough for several lifetimes, but he wouldn’t let anyone hurt Caitlin if he could help it.
He knocked more gently this time and leaned up against the door. “Caitlin, if you’re in there, will you talk to me?”
No response.
Taking a ragged breath, he paced. Either she was ignoring him, or she wasn’t in there. He fought the urge to appear in her room to find out for sure. If she was, how would he explain his sudden appearance?
Clenching his teeth, he walked away. From one end of the ship to the other, he searched. He checked all the lounges, the restrooms—as much as he could—the dining facilities, the game rooms, the theater. As big as the ship was, she could have been moving from place to place like he was, and he could have just missed her.
Though the idea Dylan might have hurt her again soured his stomach.
When the dinner hour arrived, his friends met up with him near the dining room. Arman shook his head. “I don’t know where she is. We searched in a line straight across the ship from deck to deck. But like you said, she could have been moving around on a lower deck, or even visiting with someone in their room.”
“Or she could have been in her own room,” Ruric said. “You admitted yourself that she could have been sleeping in her stateroom for a couple of hours and didn’t even hear your entreaty.”
“Or heard it and ignored you,” Stasio said. “You did badger her a bit to tell you what had happened with Dylan.”
Levka scowled. “Caitlin’s not shown up for dinner. Neither have Dylan, Lynne, or Alicia. I don’t like this.”
Arman shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “They could have eaten at one of the buffet lines. No one has to eat in the formal dining room.”
“Stasio, you sit at our dining table and let me know if she or any of the others arrive. Ruric, you check the buffet line on the deck below us. Arman, you check out the one above us. I’ll go to Caitlin’s room and see if she’s there.”
Levka stalked off toward the stairs. How could one small mortal girl turn his world upside down as much as she did? A world traveler, a guy who’d lived for eons, a prince in his world and hers. How could Caitlin McEvin turn him inside out?
Chapter 10
After taking a nice long nap and going on a tour of the kitchen and the crew’s quarters with other passengers—just like a tourist would on their first cruise—Caitlin returned to her room. Since it was time for dinner, she slipped into her bathing suit, intending to swim in the pool while most of the passengers were at the evening meal.
She couldn’t help harboring a grudge against Levka for forcing the issue about what had happened between her and Dylan. Too late to do anything about it now, she’d try to make the most of her trip. Tomorrow, the ship would arrive at the first of the islands, and she had every intention of enjoying a visit to the rum factory and caves. If Dylan or any of his friends bothered her, she’d let them have it.
When someone knocked on the door, she grabbed her shirt and threw it over her bathing suit.
