“I don’t know if I can handle it,” he said. He took his phone out of his pocket and then checked the screen. “It’s too late now. They say Avery’s expecting the first guests at any moment.”
“Already?”
“Two called ahead and said they were on the way. We don’t have much time, and we may need to skip the tour for now. I want to spend as much time as possible on this Nightingale group.”
I paused in the hallway. “Are we ready for this?”
“Almost,” he said, stopping to face me. His eyes kept going down toward the skirt. “I need to talk to Blake and Doyle.”
“Blake might be more accessible than Doyle,” I said. “Doyle’s more or less out of commission in the morning from what I’ve heard. He might not be up yet.”
“Then I need Blake.”
I hesitated. It was tempting to pretend I didn’t know where he could be, and delay them meeting until we had left port. I don’t know why, but it seemed like a bad idea. Like Blake could say the wrong thing and set Axel into a tirade and we’d be leaving the ship.
Though, there wasn’t much point in being here if they weren’t going to get along, anyway.
I looked around the hallway, at the fancy carpet and the wall sconces and then looked at the map of the ship. “I might be able to get us to his room.
“How do you know he’ll be there?”
I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly between my lips. I might as well tell him everything. He’d find out sooner or later. “He’s probably listening. Either him or Avery. They’ll get the word to each other.”
Axel frowned. “He can hear us right now?”
“If he is listening at all. Doyle’s rigged the entire ship.” I tried to recall our conversations. We had been careful with not mentioning the Academy, even if Doyle and Ethan and the rest knew about it anyway. I wasn’t sure how much Axel or the others talked since we’ve been here, but I was sure they knew better than to just openly talk in any location. Raven had proven they could be paranoid enough to inspect the rooms.
Axel nodded slowly. “You mentioned, although in the beginning, I’d thought it was Ethan and Avery. I don’t really know who might be worse.”
“Maybe Ethan had it done originally but Doyle taps into it. If you just ask for Avery, he’ll hear you and will make an appearance.”
“How can they listen to everything going on?” he asked. “That’d be a mess.”
I shrugged. Tech wasn’t my forte. “You’d have to ask Doyle that one. Or Blake.”
Axel turned down the hall. “So he can meet us somewhere?” he said a little louder.
“We’ll find out,” I said.
We stopped by the bedrooms we were staying in to drop off the clothes before I wandered around on the decks below. I got lost and opened two other storage rooms that weren’t the right ones before I realized I was on the wrong floor.
At the third storage room door, I knocked gently, about to open the door again when it opened quickly, almost knocking me in the face. I slid back, bumping into Axel. He remained steady, holding me up.
Blake stood in the doorway. He wore a loose grey canvas shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and another pair of designer jeans. This time he wore blue dock shoes. Casual yacht fashion. He noted Axel and then smiled at me. “You’re looking much better. So the medicine did help?”
“Thanks for helping her, “Axel said before I could say anything. “And I apologize for Brandon attacking you. She was in a pretty vulnerable position before and he’s gotten protective of her.”
Blake nodded slowly, the fox smile slipping onto his lips. “I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking advantage.” His eyes turned to me again, catching the skirt and then sliding up to the glasses. “I love this outfit. Very fetching.”
Axel turned, looking at my face. “It suits her, in a way.”
I could have burned up where I stood from the awkward attention. The fact that I didn’t like it and they did made me feel conflicted. “Can we just get to business?” I asked. I slid my loafers along the floor. I could fall on my butt in these things on the marble up in the main staircase.
“I agree,” Blake said. He stepped aside, holding the door open to let us come in “Come in. We don’t have much time.”
Axel and I stepped inside. The room was chilly and the bed had been slept in.
Axel scanned the room. “Did Avery not set you up with a regular room?”
“Actually Doyle and I gave up our rooms,” he said. “For you all. Plus we didn’t want anyone in the crew to come across the information we’ve dug up.” He pointed to the long table. The stool was positioned next to the laptop which was now open. “They won’t be cleaning the rooms we’re in. They shouldn’t be in here for any reason.”
Axel went to the table. He picked up one of the binders and opened it up, turning the pages. “Meeting notes?” he asked.
“I’ve read them,” Blake said.
Axel put the binder down and then looked at a notebook. “What’s this?”
“It’s a list of folks known to have guns in their homes—registered or not. I check-marked the ones who would most likely carry one onboard. Normally there’s pretty tight security for a ship, but according to Mr. Murdock, they don’t do this with their own CEOs. I was going to show it to you all if you decided to stay.”
“That would be helpful.” Axel looked over the other contents of the table.
“Why do the CEOs get so many special privileges?” I asked.
Blake shrugged. “It’s how the old Mr. Murdock did things. Ethan said he’d make changes later, but for now he didn’t want to alarm anyone by suddenly asking for hiked up security when they’d been allowed to carry previously.”
“It’ll be good to be aware,” Axel said. “Hopefully this will be a peaceful endeavor. I don’t expect to be confrontational on the ship. So, you’re comfortable with us helping out?”
“Actually I was hoping,” Blake said. He folded his arms over his chest, and shifted his weight to one leg. The way he stood made me notice his slim hips and the shape to his butt while emphasizing his biceps. “Ethan and I could have handled it, but more hands and eyes are always better in this sort of thing. Believe it or not, I actually feel I can trust you all.”
“I believe it,” Axel said. He met Blake’s eyes. “And you listen in on Kayli? You’re able to follow where she is around the ship?”
I gritted my teeth. There was suspicion in Axel’s tone.
Blake shrugged. “It’s not really that sophisticated. Most of the hallways, and a few of the larger rooms are currently wired, mostly public areas. The guest staterooms are rigged. We aren’t listening in on all of them right now, just focusing on the prime suspects we’ve got our money on. Nightingale, of course, and a few dozen others. Everything else is just being recorded so we can listen in later if we need to.” He pointed to the tablet on his desk. “Avery’s got an ear out for his name and in your rooms just to check in on if you need anything. He’s got Ethan’s room and ours rigged up as well so we can just call for him if we need him. But he lets me know if Kayli’s asking for me. Or you, for that matter.”
“He’s got an earpiece?” Axel asked.
“It’s just a little Bluetooth device that streams from points around the ship.” He fiddled with the black box connected to a cord around his neck. “Most of us carry one of these. It helps him find us anywhere on the ship.”
“GPS?”
“Custom for the ship,” he said. “Something Doyle picked up from our German friends, only more sophisticated. It can pinpoint our location at any given moment.”
“Can you get us some?” Axel asked. “Can he track all of us?”
Blake’s head bent forward but his eyes remained on me, devilish. “Sure. I had one prepared for her, but wanted to wait. For now, we could listen and figure out where you are, but we might not be able to later with so many people on board if we split up more.”
I bit my tongue, not wanting to ad
mit I was feeling strange they could listen in on us at any point. It just struck me how that this morning, someone had been listening in on us, enough that they could tell I was sick. Was it Avery and he mentioned it to Blake? Or was Blake listening more than he cared to admit? It would be very useful. I would simply have to be careful what I said where. It would be difficult to be more conscious of that while trying to spy on other guests.
The GPS thing might be handy though. I wondered if that was the number two thing Doyle was trying to remember and forgot.
Axel brushed a palm against his mouth, considering. “And you communicate with Avery a lot?”
Blake nodded. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “It streams the signal and then his voice comes through.” He put the phone on the table and tapped at his ear. “I’ve got an earpiece, too.”
Axel nodded and then looked over the paperwork. “I’ve asked the guys to work with you and Doyle over the next few days. I hope you’ll share your stream with Corey and the others.”
“Not a problem at all,” he said. “Although Doyle is playing dispatcher. He’s a bit feisty. I can’t promise he won’t load toilet flushes into your ear piece on occasion.”
“Do you think he’ll be a problem?”
“Oh he’s not biased,” Blake said, his smile turning coy. “He sends me the flushes, too. I try to let him have some fun. Makes for a better working environment.”
Axel let out an exasperated sigh and looked at me and then back at Blake. “If we’re in this, then I have a few requests. I need to stick by Kayli, for safety, and to observe what’s going on here.”
Blake nodded his head casually. He might have been listening more than he cared to admit. “That sounds like a good idea. If you don’t mind playing her bodyguard, I’d actually feel better.”
Axel lifted a cool eyebrow. “You would?”
“Yeah,” he said. “This might be a casual setting, but we’re still facing off with potentially dangerous men. I’m sure they don’t want the secrets we’re trying to look at to come to the surface. The ones on the front line are more likely to get caught. If she’s digging into pockets, she’s the most vulnerable.”
“Let’s hope she doesn’t have to do that too often,” Axel said. “I’d assume they’ll leave things of value in their rooms if they treat this like a vacation.”
“Let’s hope they don’t treat it too much like a vacation and not want to talk about business.” Blake said as he turned to shuffle some papers from the table, picking up a couple of pages. “We don’t have too much time. Should I go over with you what I’m working on?”
Axel turned to the table next to him. I moved around to the opposite side, putting some space between us and to be able to see what they were working on. It was awkward. They were working together but there was this uncomfortable, unspoken tension around them. Or maybe it was just me. They gave no hint as to being uncomfortable but maybe that was it. They were trying too hard to look very comfortable. For themselves or to impress me?
Blake opened up an itinerary for the ship. “We’ve got a full five days onboard, not including this half day, and another half day when they disembark. All five days should be out at sea, although we really aren’t going that far, just following the coastline.”
Axel’s eyes studied the schedule. I read it upside down. “Ugh,” I said. “There’s social hour?”
“There’s always something social on a cruise ship,” Blake said. “Scheduled dinner times. Activities. We’re going to have to make ourselves available for these, unless our targets happen to leave or not show up for events. Then we’ll have to devise alternative meetings.”
“What will you be doing?”
Blake stretched. “I’ll be working on the Nightingale crew. Whoever you manage to make friends with, I’ll try to make friends with the other ones.” He looked up at me and winked. “We want to casually find out who has some secret stash of money they’d like to invest.”
Axel shifted the papers and then tugged at the collar of his blue polo. I got the feeling he didn’t like the collar. “And your plan is to lure them into giving up cash for a false investment?”
“Money laundering schemes are always in demand,” he said. “Especially if they increase revenue. It’s how a lot of those pyramid schemes and the patent wars get started. Since governments are onto pyramid schemes and patent trolls, they’ve moved on to other things.”
“I thought the way to launder money was through gambling institutions or investing in strip clubs. Isn’t there a history of the mafia doing this sort of thing?”
Blake shook his head. “That’s for thugs and drug dealers. That’s little bits of cash funneling through a system. No, we’re talking millions of dollars at a time here. Shell companies. Real estate.”
“Is that your plan? To sell them real estate?”
“It’s one of many options,” he said. “I own a few buildings to spare if they want to see something solid. It doesn’t really matter. I could offer them real estate. Kayli could talk them into a shell company. Whatever one they take, we’ll make happen.”
Axel brushed a hand over his head, loosening one of the black strands from his ponytail. It fell into his eyes. “This is going to take longer than five days to convince them.”
“But five days might be enough to get our foot in the door,” Blake said. He put down the papers and tapped at the itinerary. “Schmoozing to get on their good sides, that’s going to be the tough part. Trust is hard to build. It’s even harder when people are paranoid, which more than likely they are. I’d rather them hand over the money than try to take it by force.”
“And after you take it?” Axel asked.
“The money will actually need to be cleaned, probably in foreign investments rather than here. If we can find out where it came from, we’ll put it where it belongs through shell companies.”
Axel frowned. “So we’re essentially doing what the bad guys are doing?”
“Temporarily,” Blake said. “It’s either that or the government gets involved, and we’re trying to avoid that. Our ultimate goal is to spare the innocent as much as possible. We put the money back the cleanest way we can, but in some cases, we may need our own shell companies to make things right.”
“Maybe,” Axel said. “But I guess we’ll have to talk about that part later. We have to find the money before we can decide what to do with it.”
Blake held his fingers to his ear, and tilted his head to one side. “Ethan’s asking for us to meet him. We won’t be able to do any meetings in a group after this. We need a communication chain of some sort.”
Axel straightened and looked more determined. “Everyone needs to report in to...” He looked at me and then back at Blake. “I normally let Marc collect information if I’m going to be indisposed. If everyone on the team can check in with him, he’ll make sure to delegate and will check in with us if needed.”
“I think we can pull that off,” Blake said. “I’ll get everyone onboard with the GPS and Bluetooth setup we have. We might need to do it one at a time so Doyle can manage it. But let’s go see Ethan and then we can get started.”
Whew. This had gone better than I thought. At least there wasn’t a fist fight or a lot of big bad boy talking. Maybe Axel was really willing to forget what had happened before and try to make friends. I walked around the table quickly, going for the door and opening it, stepping outside into the hallway.
I looked back, waiting for the other two to come out. Axel had a hold of Blake’s bicep and he was whispering something into his ear. Blake looked my way, a clear indication they were discussing me, and then held my gaze, frowning.
Then I noticed Axel wasn’t just holding his arm. He was squeezing, his thumb making a dent in Blake’s flesh.
But before I could say anything, Axel released him—his face calm—and he followed me out the door.
Blake said nothing. He held my gaze still, but slowly started to follow Axel, keeping a distance.
A threat? I wasn’t sure. Axel’s face was placid. He wasn’t going to tell me.
Boys. I rolled my eyes and released the door once they were clear, its weight causing it to slam back into place. I hurried along. I’d ask one of them sooner or later what was going on. If Axel was going to try to make friends with Blake, he wasn’t off to a good start with that last stunt.
Or did he even care to make friends? He obviously didn’t want to be here.
I walked behind them, following in silence. I might have to kick them all off the boat and do this myself if they were going to act like this.
THE TEAM ASSEMBLES
Ethan was sophisticated in a casual outfit that looked custom-made to make him look elegant and yet at home. The shirt was white with light blue stripes, loose fitting but tailored to his shoulders. The slacks were navy, and he wore blue and tan boat shoes. The crazy inventor turned into a sailing prince. His smile was big and he still had that friendly gaze, but the nose had lifted higher. He stood in the middle of the large marble floor near the front desk with Raven, Brandon, Corey, Marc, Kevin and Avery, talking about who knew what. I didn’t see Fancy anywhere.
Axel, Blake and I had gotten off at the wrong floor, one level above where we were supposed to meet them. Once we’d realized, we walked down the stairs to join the others. Raven, Brandon and Marc broke from whatever Ethan was saying to look up at us. Brandon and Marc instantly noticed Blake was with us. Brandon clenched his jaw. Marc forced a smile. Raven acknowledged Axel and Blake with a slight nod and then redirected his attention to me. I let go of the banister to wave shortly at him, wanting him to know I appreciated his effort.
My shoes slipped on the marble, just a little, but with the too-big shoes, I overcorrected and jerked forward. My hand shot out, grabbing the closest thing: Blake’s arm. He caught my elbow and then wrapped an arm around my waist, steadying me.
“Sugar doll,” he said, continuing to hold onto me as I balanced myself. My hands went to the skirt and I made sure I hadn’t flashed anything. “What under god’s sweet heaven--”