“They’re going to let…those guys…go?” I meant the Academy team, but if he was being careful about his words, I figured I needed to be also.
“Too many bodies floating in the sea become noticeable. Otherwise it might have been more.”
Huh. So as far as Sam and this investor were concerned, they had gotten rid of the biggest problem and were now just waiting for the cruise to end to get rid of the others. “Who does the…boss assume we were? He thinks the team would just walk away?”
“Cartel,” Raven said. He pushed me away lightly, making room for himself to get up. I moved away and he replaced the panel and began screwing it back into place. “Or mob. Or just thieves. Not official. They would have noticed if we were official.”
I wasn’t sure if being associated with a cartel was a good thing. As far as they knew, I was probably dead, but they couldn’t be sure.
If they thought Axel and the others were cartel and were with me, would they be targets after they left the ship?
My own fault. I’d dragged them into this. The others had tried to warn me they didn’t have enough time, and that we weren’t suited for the job. I hadn’t listened. “They know of us. We don’t know who they are.”
“They’re not as big a group as you think,” Raven said. “Sam’s an underdog. He’s following orders from someone else. But we don’t know how many are in the investor’s group. We’re outnumbered on the boat, not off.”
I tapped my foot against his side. “I don’t think Sam is normally the type to get bossed around—I think something is different on this cruise.”
Raven stopped messing with putting the panel back and looked up at me, eyebrow raised. “What?”
“That one big guy said they were waiting until all these people got off the boat, and then they could get back to normal. Sounds like they don’t like this investor running things any more than we do.”
Raven twisted his lips, nodding slowly. “Sam doesn’t want to cross him.”
“Maybe Sam would be willing to work with us to get at the investor instead. Like if we got the investor off of Sam’s back, maybe he’d stop hunting around for us.”
“Maybe. We don’t know who the investor is, though, and what he might be holding over Sam, or if they’re friends.”
“Maybe I should make friends with Sam,” I said. “He doesn’t really know me.”
He frowned. “Fuck no.” He grunted. “Maybe if we can get to the investor and shut him down, Sam will back off. If he doesn’t like the investor giving him orders, he’ll appreciate it. And if they are friends, and we handle the investor, then we’re showing we are more powerful. He might back off then.”
It sounded better to be active and on the attack, rather than passively waiting for news from upstairs. “So we’re back to looking for the investor.”
“Sounds like.” He dusted off his jumpsuit. “I doubt the investor is a maintenance guy, though. We’d have to go back upstairs.”
“Too bad we can’t get someone to tell us who it is,” I said. “It would make things easier.”
“No one knows who he is, apparently, except Sam. Mr. Smith thought you were the investor, remember? No one knows what he looks like. They just know it isn’t you now.”
Who else would know? Mr. Smith thought I was her, and he’d as much as told Colt.
Something about Mr. Smith still bugged me, though, but my foggy brain wasn’t making that connection.
“Hey.” I picked at a broken fingernail. “Bald guy might know, right?”
Raven shrugged. “Maybe. He suggests he does, but I’m not really sure.”
“Why don’t we hold him at gunpoint and ask?”
“If he goes missing, Sam will suspect something.”
“So we do it quick. Do you want to sit down here all night and—”
I stopped, suddenly hearing footsteps. Other maintenance people were heading out of the area, leaving minimal staff to supervise. Break time, or possibly dinner.
“How soon will that goon be down here again?” I asked.
Raven checked a clock on the wall. “Probably within ten minutes.”
“If Sam won’t talk, let’s talk to him.”
Raven let out a low growl but said nothing. I assumed that meant he was up for it, but didn’t like the plan.
I didn’t know much about pimps and about how they protected their territory. I wondered how loyal they were. Could we threaten this guy with jail time, or bribe him with cash just to tell us everything?
If we had ten minutes until the guy came back, we needed to set up our “interrogation area.” We luckily found several out-of-the-way storage rooms next to each other. We sourced a chair and some small bits of rope for restraints. Then we waited.
My heart pounded, and I tried to ignore the lump in my throat. Raven had explained to me what to do, but that didn’t stop me from worrying something might go wrong.
When it was about time for the bald goon to come through, I took off the hard hat, goggles, and earmuffs. I needed to look like a girl for this, but I left my hair in the braid; it was doing a great job keeping hair out of my face.
I stood, appearing to be alone, just inside the door to one of the storerooms.
On cue, Bald Dummy appeared. Luckily, he came down alone. His eyes swept around the area, possibly looking for Raven. Since most people had left, it was a skeleton crew now.
“Psst,” I said, loud enough to reach him.
He immediately turned and spotted me. He raised an eyebrow, but was uninterested. He didn’t care about me.
Yet.
I put my hand to the front of my jumpsuit and unzipped it, revealing the cleavage created by the padded bra.
He paused, watching my hands, eyeballing my boobs.
This was more Fancy’s territory, but I had to admit, it worked like a charm.
He came my way, and as he approached, he seemed more curious now.
I backed up into the room, smiling as I unzipped down to my belly button.
He stepped into the room, eyes not moving from my breasts. “What are you doing down here?” he asked. “Maybe you should be working in the spa. Girl like you could be worth a lot of money.”
I wriggled my eyebrows at him as the door closed behind him.
The click was noticeable, and bald guy turned, finding Raven locking the door and facing him full-on. His broad shoulders were pulled back, making him appear so much bigger and stronger. He stood, legs wide, defiant, a wall of muscle.
Baldy smirked. “You fucking around in here?”
“We needed to talk to you somewhere private,” Raven said as I zipped my jumpsuit back up.
“What about?” Baldy said and then decided he didn’t want to wait for an answer. “I don’t have time for this.” He moved toward the door.
He’d had his chance to play nice.
Before the guy could even put up his hands to block, Raven threw punches, striking Baldy’s torso, close to the groin, and then the guy’s neck.
Baldy groaned, bent over, coughed like he couldn’t breathe, and then fell to his knees.
Afraid he’d get up, I rushed at the goon, striking at his neck with my hands, and then, for good measure, I hit him in the ears. I kicked him in the back, too.
“Whoa, whoa,” Raven said, carefully grabbing me by the wrists as I was about to hit the guy again. “Hang on. I said only hit him if he managed to get his Taser out.”
“He hit me first,” I said. I pointed to my head. “I’ve got a concussion because of him.” I was pretty sure this was the guy. He was big enough to carry Blake down the hall to stash him and to think he could take on me and Brandon.
Still holding me back, Raven said something that sounded like a curse in Russian as he turned and kicked the guy in the shin.
Baldy was already having a hard time breathing, heaving with his hands braced on his knees, but at the kick, his entire head turned red.
“
See?” Raven said, finally letting me go. “Hit him in the head too much, and he passes out—not able to answer questions. Hit him below the belt, and he’s in pain without being worthless to us.” He backed away from me, motioning to the man’s other shin.
I smirked and used the heel of my shoe to strike him in the leg.
He turned purple and crumpled.
Raven hooked an arm around my neck, brought me in, and kissed my forehead. “That’s my thief.”
Deals
It took both of us some time to get the goon in the chair and restrained properly.
“They’re going to notice I’m gone,” he said as we tested the knots of the rope to make sure they were secure. The guy was sweating and his face remained red. “They’ll come looking for me. Any minute…”
“Not if I talk to them,” Raven said. He allowed his Russian accent to come through as he spoke. “I tell them you found the girl”—he motioned to me—“and were actually working with her the whole time.”
The goon looked right at my face and frowned as he seemed to finally clue in. “Her? Wait. You’re that Kitty.”
I did a finger wave. Took him long enough, but if he’d only ever seen me in pictures or black-and-white video, it made sense that I would have been harder to spot. Still, he’d recognized me eventually, which told me they knew my face, even if they weren’t on the lookout for me right now.
He turned on Raven. “You said you got rid of her.”
“I did, but now she’s back, and she’s got a better offer. You should listen.” Raven looked at me expectantly.
I had the jumpsuit fully zipped up now and put my hands on my hips, trying to look angry. “We aren’t after you. We don’t care what you’re doing on this ship.”
Baldy spat in my direction. “Like I’ll believe that.”
Raven smacked him hard with the back of his hand. He grabbed Baldy’s shirt, leaned down, and pulled him until their faces were an inch apart. “Do that again, and your tongue becomes fish food.”
They glared at each other.
“Boys,” I said, trying to play the nice guy, “right now, we’ve got bigger problems.” I pried Raven off, pulling him back toward the door. “You should keep a lookout so no one comes in here.”
Raven shot Baldy a warning glare and then left.
After the door closed, Baldy slumped in his chair, more relaxed. His cheek was dirty from Raven’s smudged hands, his neck red and on its way to being bruised. His voice was gravelly. “I should have known he wasn’t with us. His name wasn’t on our list. I told Sam…”
“He only joined me when he found out Sam was being told what to do,” I said. “He doesn’t like not knowing who his employer is. Too dangerous. Then he overheard that Sam was trying to get in with this investor. Maybe continuing their alliance off this ship.”
He frowned.
I lowered my eyes to his feet and then looked back up to his face. “What’s your name?”
“John Smith,” he said with a sarcastic tone. Obviously a lie.
I smiled and then bent at the waist to look him at his level. “We could leave you in this chair and tell Sam all sorts of naughty things that you’ve been up to.”
“He won’t believe you after I talk to him.”
“Who says you’ll be able to tell him anything?” I asked with a smirk.
He glared at me.
I let out a big sigh. “I don’t want to fight. I know Sam doesn’t like being under someone else’s thumb. We can help.”
“We don’t need your help.”
“You think this ends when this ship docks? The investor will be back and will keep coming back to use your little group over and over again. Bodies pile up. You’ll be the only ones connected. You think prostitution is a long sentence? Try multiple homicides.” This was probably an empty threat, but I just needed him to believe me now.
He rolled his eyes, but he was sweating more and the muscles of his arms twitched, his left leg bounced. He was really uncomfortable. Maybe this was working.
“Why do you think he won’t do the dirty work himself?” I asked. “Sam doesn’t know it, but this investor could get rid of you all. All he has to do is rat you all out. Word is he’s planning to. Tell me who he is, and we can get rid of him for you.”
He smirked. “You think I know? Sam doesn’t tell me shit.”
“If you don’t know, you should get him to tell you. And maybe…if you’d like, we’ll get rid of Sam, too. We’ll leave you in charge. A promotion. Hmm?”
He stared at me, silent, but I could see on his face that he was weighing his options. Finally, he asked, “What’s the catch? What’s in it for you?”
“All I want is the investor, like I said. Stay here and play sex shop all you want. With Sam.” I shrugged. “Without Sam. Makes no difference to me.”
He nodded slowly. “You’ll let me go.”
I smiled, turned around, and used the pocketknife to cut him loose.
Once he was free, he remained seated and touched his neck tenderly. “What about your man outside?”
“He works for me,” I said. “Play nice, and he won’t have to do what he does best. But again, we’re not interested in you. Never were. You know it, too, don’t you?”
“We were wondering why no one else came down to ask or snoop,” he said, rubbing his throat. “Except yesterday morning, with one of them and that one girl.”
“The girl was me,” I said as I looked him in the eye. “I was hoping to talk to Sam, but you got to me first.”
He stared at me and shrugged. “I was wondering why I couldn’t find you. You look different.”
“What’s it going to be, John Smith?”
He shrugged. “Sam has been careless and stupid. We don’t need to take orders from anyone. We own this ship.”
Uh-huh. I hoped Ethan was willing to put the work into finding all new crew, because he’d need to. “Help me locate the investor. I’ll take care of him, and I’ll take care of Sam.”
He nodded once, resigned. “Just tell me what to do.”
Risks and Rewards
Raven returned, and we told Baldy to monitor Sam: see who he reported to and spoke to. Make a list, return the list to this maintenance room, whether we were here or not. We’d come find it later.
Once Baldy took off, Raven and I left the maintenance areas as well.
“This could go bad,” Raven said, leading me down a hallway and then up a flight of stairs. “Either he believes us, or he’s going to camp out there with a gun and shoot us when we come in the door. Depends on how loyal he really is to Sam.”
“And I just told him who I was,” I said. “We’ll find out soon.”
I had the hard hat and the earmuffs back on, the jumpsuit zipped all the way up. We made our way up to a line of guest cabins.
“We need a place to hide for now,” Raven said. “They won’t bother a guest.”
We got to a room, and Raven knocked.
I couldn’t believe him. We’d bug one of the guests? Did he even know whose room this was?
No noise inside the room. Quiet.
Raven moved on to another room.
“What are you doing?” I whispered as he knocked on the door. “Shouldn’t we go into the one with no one there?”
The door opened before he could respond. A little old woman in a sundress with tiny spectacles looked out at us.
“Sorry to bug you,” Raven said with a charming smile. “Someone said the toilets weren’t flushing right on this floor. Can we come in and check out yours to make sure everything is in order?”
She smiled and allowed us in. “I was about to head to the casino anyway.”
“We won’t be long,” I said, going along with Raven’s story. I couldn’t believe it worked. But then, we did look like maintenance. “Good luck. Hope you win.”
She took her room key card and left us alone. So trusting.
It was an interi
or room, with no window, and for the first time, I felt we were relatively safe. Raven was right; they wouldn’t look for us inside a guest room.
The door closed. Raven took me around the waist, pushing.
I stepped back, legs colliding with the bed, going down on my back on top of the blanket. He came down on top of me, his body like a cage of muscle pressing me into the mattress.
He kissed me. My mouth was open in shock, but I was too surprised to respond at first.
He grabbed my hand, bringing it down to his crotch. His jeans and the jumpsuit were in the way, but even so, he was hard and pulsing.
He broke the kiss long enough to breathe and whisper in my ear, “You’re so fucking bad-ass-hole.”
I think he meant badass, after my performance downstairs with the goon. I was rather proud of myself. My nerves shook now after the fact. I couldn’t believe I went through with it. But those thoughts were fleeting as he began nuzzling my neck.
He returned to my mouth, and this time I kissed him back. He kept my hand under his, encouraging me to rub his length through the clothes.
I wasn’t going to have sex with him here, though. He was tempting, but this was bad timing. “Raven, I want to, but…”
He groaned and rolled over onto his back, the tent at his groin obvious. “She could be in the casino for hours.”
“It’s that time of the month for me,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow, blinking obliviously.
Lost in translation. “What do they call periods in Russia?”
“That all you worried about? I can handle blood.”
I couldn’t. I shook my head; not going to happen.
He got up and walked awkwardly toward the bathroom. “Can you give me five minutes, then? I can’t concentrate.”
Oh my God. Was he just going to masturbate in there? “Raven!” I cried out. “We don’t have time for this.”
He groaned again and then closed the bathroom door, staying in the main room with me. “You kill me, little thief.”
I sighed. “Raven, I—”