No. I’d kiss him and then kill him.
Axel never told me off once about the biting. He offered his arm to my mouth, and allowed me, sometimes urging me, to make dents.
He ground his own teeth. I wondered if he needed something to bite, too.
I couldn’t help it. I was too tired to express myself. Too tired to fight. Raven’s words repeated in my brain, over and over.
A confession can defeat evidence.
Was he going to make Sam confess? I had an hour to mull it over before we got to shore.
One by one, we climbed out of the life raft onto a beach.
It was only then I realized I’d lost the phone. Colt’s phone. Had I dropped it?
Raven had helped me over the edge; could he have taken it from me in our panicked fleeing?
Raven…picked my pocket?
Probably good he did. It would have gotten wet, I had already forgotten about it. It would have been evidence, to have something that belonged to Colt in our possession.
We traveled on foot in the dark for miles until we found a road, which eventually led to a gas station with a phone.
Axel put in the call to the Academy, leaving me in Marc’s care, but we could hear the conversation: Raven was in trouble. There had been a murder. People had been framed. Do what you can.
That was all he could ask for.
After that, we waited, sitting on the curb at the gas station. I leaned against Marc’s chest, his arm around my shoulders, and dozed off.
Later, no way to tell how much later, I was shaken awake and put into a town car, driven by someone I didn’t know.
I slept during the ride, but awoke when we arrived at a familiar hospital.
“I don’t need this,” I told Axel, again next to me.
“You do,” he said. “Blake does, too.”
I suddenly remembered Blake had been unconscious. I was fighting for a few memories now. “Is he awake?”
“Yes, he’s in the other car, but we need to find out what they gave him. Whatever it was, it was very strong and we need to make sure it clears his system and won’t leave lasting damage.”
After that, my world became a blur of white coats and a million questions. I was prodded, examined, X-rayed, and scanned.
Hours later, I was in a hospital bed, in a dazed state, not really asleep, not really awake. My brain was too wired, going over everything again and again even though I was beyond exhausted.
My room had two beds, but I was the only real patient. Corey had crashed in the other bed while Brandon and Marc were on a small sofa against the wall. Axel sat in a chair next to my bed, upright.
He asked me constantly if I needed anything.
What I needed, he couldn’t give. A second chance. A do-over.
I should have said no. Right from the start, I had known we couldn’t do what Ethan wanted. I should have convinced Blake.
Kevin came by and was polite when he asked me if I was okay, but I got the feeling he wasn’t happy with me. He barely looked at me and then said he had to go.
Couldn’t blame him.
I wondered why the rest stayed nearby, but I supposed here was as good as anywhere to wait for news about me or Blake. Or Raven.
They told me Blake had been given a bunch of tests and then taken to an observation room overnight.
I stared at the ceiling, imagining pictures in the speckles of the ceiling tiles.
Sometime during the night, Dr. Roberts came in. I remembered him, and was oddly comforted seeing his wrinkled face with his white hair and glasses. He was followed by a younger-looking doctor, perhaps too young to be much more than an intern? But he had a white coat. Name tag: Dr. Green.
“Awake?” Dr. Roberts asked me with a smile.
I sat up and attempted to smile, but it was hollow. “Yup.”
Corey sat up in the bed next to mine, yawning and pushing a palm toward his face. Marc and Brandon scooted close to the edge of their seats.
Axel stood by my bed, reaching for my hand. “Is something wrong?”
“Why would you think something was wrong?” Dr. Green asked.
“It doesn’t take two doctors to tell us she’s got something minor,” Axel said. He let my hand go and crossed his arms over his chest. “What is this?”
Dr. Roberts frowned and motioned to me. “She’s got the right to kick you all out and find out for herself.” He turned his attention to me. “We do have something important to tell you. It’s up to you. Do you want them here?”
I shrugged and then nodded. I assumed I had cancer and would die in a few months. I pictured my mother, how she hadn’t told us kids for a long time. I had been so angry with her for it. I didn’t want to keep whatever this was a secret. “Sure,” I said. “Let them stay.”
Dr. Roberts looked at Dr. Green, and Dr. Green passed him a file, saying, “You heard her.”
I reached out and Axel’s hand landed in mine.
Dr. Roberts adjusted his glasses and read from the file. “Your brain got rattled around a bit but looks fine. We compared things from the scans we managed to get sent to us from the ship. You should be okay, if you rest.”
“Her memory was pretty bad on the ship,” Axel said.
“That may go away with time,” Dr. Roberts said. “Or with practice and some therapy. But she might still have some memory issues. She might also develop other symptoms. We’ll keep as close an eye on it as we can, but the worst will be over if you just rest.”
“But?” I asked. I felt there was more. He hadn’t come in to tell me I’d be fine.
He kept his gaze on the file he held. His other hand slipped into the pocket of his white coat. His face was grim. “Looks like the poison did more damage to your reproductive system than we caught before. Or maybe the stress agitated it. We’ll need to put you under observation.” He took off his glasses, looking at me. “We might need to make a decision sometime soon. Your uterus is bleeding, but it is excessive. We need to find out why, and quickly.”
That didn’t seem like a life-or-death thing. I scrunched my eyebrows. “Are we talking surgery?”
“Maybe. If it isn’t healing up, there might be something really wrong, and if it’s really bad, we may need to remove it just so you don’t bleed to death.”
My mouth opened. I stared at him blankly. I’d heard him, but it seemed like he was talking to someone else, not me. I didn’t feel sick. I didn’t feel so broken that I needed body parts removed. This was just a period. He had to be mistaken.
“What…?” I mumbled. I couldn’t get out the words. I looked up at Axel.
He faced me, eyes dark, lips tight.
I wordlessly told him I wasn’t sure what to say, or to think.
He squeezed my hand, turned to the doctor and spoke. “Does this mean her…reproductive system is completely broken? She can’t have kids in the future?”
It was a question that was burning in my brain. He had said it out loud, and I was still trying to comprehend the meaning.
“We don’t know,” Dr. Roberts said and then turned to me. “Your uterus might be okay if we can find a way to heal it. If it’s just your eggs coming down the pipe at a quick rate, we can just slow it down. Having eggs come out quickly sometimes happens in women, but usually not so quickly, so repeatedly like this. We need time to observe, to take samples of your eggs, and see if they are damaged. It might be your body is just rejecting them for some unknown reason. We might be able to save a few good ones for you, and set them aside for later, just in case.”
I hardly ever thought of the future, at least not far enough ahead for kids. Still, it had always been on the horizon. Maybe I wouldn’t want them, but that was different from not being able to have them.
I stared at my feet under the blanket. I wasn’t dead or dying, but I was numb, unsure how to feel about this yet. Since there were questions hanging in the air, it was as if I were simply in limbo.
“We??
?ll need to do a few more tests,” Dr. Green said. “But you should be prepared in case we have to take you into surgery quickly. We will need to keep you here, in case other organs were affected.”
I looked over at the guys. Axel was glaring at the doctors. Corey looked at his knees. Marc pressed his palms to his eyes, frowning.
Brandon was looking right at me, and then caught my attention. Sadness. Anger. Confusion. Frustration.
I was a mirror, reflecting, going through those same emotions.
Dr. Roberts nodded and passed Dr. Green the file. “If you don’t mind, Doctor, I need to talk with them alone. I may need to stay on to counsel. We can wait until the morning to start more testing.”
Dr. Green looked at me sympathetically, and then at the others before he left.
Once the door closed, Dr. Roberts approached the bed. “I know this isn’t a good time, but I need to talk to everyone about what happened on that ship.”
“Did something happen?” Axel asked. “Is there any word about what’s going on over there?”
Dr. Roberts adjusted his glasses. “Seems like the ship is headed back to shore. A murder has been reported. The governor’s son.”
The room fell silent.
“Anything else?” Axel asked.
Dr. Roberts’s face darkened. It was obvious we had been aware and unsurprised by the news. He was displeased. “A few of ours are still on board. Someone got into a fight, got thrown into the brig. Word from our team is, there was a mutiny.”
“Who’s in the brig?” Axel asked.
“Someone named Sam,” he said.
I let out a breath and then realized the only one who could have done all this was Raven. I looked at the others, realizing while we had escaped, Raven would be on board when the ship got to port, and would be involved in any investigation.
I jerked Axel’s hand to get his attention. “We need to do something before they kick Raven out of the country. Or worse…”
“We might not be able to help him,” Axel said.
“We can,” Corey said and jumped off the bed. He looked right at me. “We can do it. Help me?”
I nodded. Of course I would. “But how?”
“Trust me.”
~ A ~
Three Days Later
Raven lay on a bunk in a holding cell of downtown Charleston’s county jail. He shared the room with two people, but they were out in the yard doing exercise. Raven had gotten into two fights already and had been sent back, on restriction.
He was the new guy. This was routine. Everyone had to test him. He’d thrown a few punches.
He closed his eyes.
Kayli.
He couldn’t erase those green eyes from his mind. She’d screamed as she had gone down into the water. Both times.
He’d hated it each time. What if there had been a shark? Some sharp, unknown object? What if she wasn’t a strong enough swimmer?
It killed him, killed his heart. Throwing her over had meant saving her life both times. He knew Sam would have killed her otherwise. The investor was never going to let her live. That was the only thing that kept the guilt from eating him.
When the police had boarded the ship, he’d been taken in. An Academy lawyer had been by to give some paperwork, but they were still questioning his ID.
It could have been worse. Sam had confessed to the murder, only after Raven warned him of the horrible things Raven would do to him if he didn’t.
And his family.
And when that wasn’t enough, he’d threatened his daughter.
Sam had told Raven about his daughter in passing earlier in the cruise, and Raven had filed away the information for something like this.
He’d used his history in Russia, the gang he had been in, what they did to people like Sam. He’d made him believe it was the Russian mob who was coming to get him and that he’d be safer in prison.
A clank against the door stirred Raven from his thoughts. “Eugene Ravenstahl. You have a visitor.”
Raven cringed hearing his first name pronounced like that. It didn’t sound that way in Russian.
The lawyer was there often, but Raven had been waiting for Axel or one of the others to come see him.
The lawyer had told him and the group to stay away until they were sure the police weren’t going to actually charge their team, or drag them into the investigation over Sam, in case Sam tried to lie.
Raven sat up, stretched. The orange jumpsuit was baggy on his body. He put his feet inside flip-flops and walked to the door of the cell.
“Hands behind your back,” the man said.
Raven turned and waited as his wrists were tied. He was new, and they were wary of his Russian background, even if they hadn’t yet dredged up his actual files. He wasn’t technically supposed to be in a county jail, but when the ship had come in, everyone had been inspected. The prostitution had come to light. Almost everyone involved, including all of the security team, had been escorted off. Most jails and the border patrol offices were overrun.
Raven walked through the halls. He twisted his hands behind his back and tried to appear respectful to the officers.
He was ushered into a room with tables set up for visitors. The room was empty at the moment except for them. Was it even visiting hours right now? Time was hard to keep track of in a cell.
Blake Coaltar sat at one of the tables. His hair was combed back away from his face and he was unshaven. He rose a little as Raven came to the table and then sat down again.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Raven said as he sat down. The officer left him, walking away.
“Neither should you,” Blake said, with that stupid smile he always seemed to carry. “But I have to admit, whatever you did worked like a charm. I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be.”
“I’m not here to make trouble,” Blake said, his accent a little thick, making it harder for Raven to understand him.
Raven looked over his shoulder at the cop standing by the door, then back to Blake. “I don’t care. How is she?”
“Pissed as all hell at you,” he said. “I don’t understand. Why did you stay?”
“They couldn’t come after you if I made Sam confess.”
“I didn’t do it.”
Raven glared at him. He didn’t want to explain the obvious. A confession from Sam meant Blake was in the clear. That’s all that mattered.
Blake’s smile faded and he looked at the table, tracing the edge with his fingertips. “They caught me that morning we got back, shortly after Axel told me off. I was walking through the casino and they hauled me out, telling guests I’d been cheating at a game. Got tied up in one of the massage rooms. Was there for hours. Last thing I remember, they came in with a needle. It’s all fuzzy after that point.”
“Good,” Raven said. “The less you remember, the better.”
Blake pursed his lips. “I still don’t understand. You could have left me and gotten yourself off the ship. Why did you do it?”
Raven breathed out slowly. “It wasn’t about you.”
“Then what?”
“Her.”
Blake pressed his lips together, then brushed a palm against his chin. “So she does care about me?”
Raven bared his teeth. “For now.”
“It doesn’t have to be like that,” Blake said. He pressed a palm to his chest. “Look, she says she likes me, and she obviously likes you, too. If you want to be in her life, like I do, then maybe we should try to get along.”
“I don’t care about you,” Raven said.
“Maybe you don’t care, but she does. And like hell if I’ll let her get kidnapped again. Like you let happen.”
“Like when you two almost got killed the first night on board the ship?”
Blake’s eyes narrowed. “You threw us over.”
Raven’s fists clenched behind his back. “I saved you,” he bit out.
“I didn
’t need saving.”
They glared at each other across the table.
Raven was itching to go back to his cell, but instinct told him not to leave before Blake did if he could help it. He didn’t want to appear to be running away from him.
How could she like Blake? He was smug, arrogant.
Blake relaxed his shoulders. “I don’t want to fight.”
“Then leave.”
“I came to offer a truce. Because right now, I have a problem.”
“I’m not here to fix your problems.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m hoping you’ll say no, but I doubt it.”
Raven jerked his head back, suddenly intrigued. “What?”
“When you wonder later why I bothered to help with this,” he said, pulling a piece of paper of his back pocket, “just know, I didn’t want to. I’m doing it for her.”
Blake finished unfolding the paper and slid it over the table to Raven.
Raven looked down at it. It was official-looking, stamped, with Kayli’s and his full name on it. He read the fancy lettering along the top. And then again until it sank in. “Marriage certificate?”
“It was Corey’s idea. He said he’d marry you himself, but it might not be recognized here or in Russia, and it might make it more complicated in already complicated circumstances. Kayli’s your shot, unless you find someone else.” Blake reached for the paper, touching the corner and slowly sliding it back to his side of the table. “Of course, if you don’t want to…”
Raven couldn’t reach him, so instead he knocked the table from underneath with his knee and then kicked Blake’s foot.
Blake jumped. The officer came over, eyebrow up.
Blake waved at him. “We’re good, but can you free him? I need him to sign a paper.”
The officer looked once at Raven, who nodded, and then he shrugged and undid the binding.
Once Raven’s hands were free, he picked up the paper, reading it over and over again. She’d told him before she didn’t want to get married. “I don’t understand,” he said. “Is she okay with this? Why is she doing this now?”
“To save your ass from getting deported,” Blake said. He pulled a ballpoint pen out of his pocket and clicked the top. “It will still take some paperwork, but lucky for you, I’ve got friends in all the right places. So you see, I’m more than just a delivery boy. I can make this happen.”