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“I could use a bite of lava cake myself,” I say.
Nettie makes a face my way. “As if you could stop with just one bite.”
Bess shrugs. “Sounds like someone knows you well, Trixie.”
We share a warm laugh as Ransom helps me from the water and wraps his entire body around me with a tight embrace.
“Quinn and I were able to trace the venom—”
“To Bo Dixon’s Animal Preserve out in Kansas? That’s her uncle,” I say, nodding to Nadine. “She did it,” I call out loud enough for Quinn to hear. “She confessed to killing Julia, and she was going to kill Jane Hunt next.”
“Hearsay,” Nadine shouts as she struggles to free herself from her handcuffs. “She’s lying. I’m not saying another word until I have my lawyer present. This is all some giant suck setup!”
An entire barrage of security guards shows up and helps Quinn wrangle Nadine down to the brig.
“It’s really over.” I sigh up at the handsome man before me.
“How did you figure it all out?” Ransom shakes his head. “Don’t answer that. You are not only beautiful, Trixie Troublefield, but you are equally brilliant.” He lands a heated kiss to my lips.
“Thank you,” I purr as we pull away.
“But I’m not happy with you at the moment.” His brows swoop in and create a hard V. “Trixie, you could have gotten yourself killed.”
“I know.” My chest bucks as I look at Nettie. “And you were right. I put my friends in danger. I’m so sorry, Nettie. I won’t let it happen again, I can promise you that.”
“What?” Nettie shrieks as she stalks my way, dripping wet. “You take that back, Trixie Troublefield. You’re not investigating the next case alone. We’re the trio of terror and don’t you forget it. Ride or die, we’re going in as a team. No man gets left behind.”
The rattle of what sounds like bones goes off near our feet and we look down to see Sparky flipping over in the spa.
Bess and I let out a short-lived scream, but Nettie fishes the tiny demon out of the water.
“Relax,” she says. “The bubbles were just trying to give him the boot.”
“Give me that thing before it eats us for breakfast,” Bess says as she reaches for it, but Nettie only tightens her grip and soon a tug-of-war ensues.
“You can’t have him,” Nettie shouts.
“Nobody should have him,” Bess shouts back.
Sparky corks up above them, causing Nettie to try to snatch him back but Bess lobs him out of her reach.
The wooden boy goes flying right past Ransom and me, and right past the railing, too.
We watch in horror as Sparky dives into the dark Pacific, headfirst.
Less than two seconds after he hits the water, the ship’s horn goes off with three long and rather deafening blasts—man overboard.
“I’d better call the captain.” Ransom frowns at his phone as he does just that.
And once that’s taken care of, we wrap a towel around Nettie, head to the Blue Water Café, and eat our weight in lava cake.
Julia gets justice and we get chocolate.
Just desserts for all.
* * *
On the last night of the cruise, the captain is kind enough to invite us all to his table for dinner. It’s a formal evening, so the women are all dolled up to the nines, and the men look debonair and as handsome as can be, which is par for the course for Ransom on any given night. All right, so it’s true about Wes, too.
