“Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how you felt about him. He said you didn’t contact him after you were in the hospital.” He paused and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “To be honest, when I didn’t hear from you, I wasn’t sure you weren’t in more trouble a
nd your friends weren’t talking.”
“I was fine,” I said, surprised that Ethan and Avery had tried to get in touch with me. “Didn’t you have my number?”
“Someone else always answered,” he said. “One of the guys. I never knew who. A different one each time.”
I blinked out at the night and then pulled out the cell phone I’d carried with me since I was out of the hospital. I smoothed a thumb over the darkened screen. “Did they give me a different number?” I asked, not having meant to say it out loud.
“No,” he said. “When Fancy called earlier, it went through to you.”
I didn’t have a response for that. The boys had blocked my phone calls somehow, and only now they let Fancy through to talk to me. How? And why?
“They said you were sick still,” Avery said, “but then when I asked if I could just say hello, they said it wasn’t a good time.”
I turned the phone in my hands, uncomfortable with this information. “They...might have been a little careful. I don’t blame them after the kidnapping.” I wasn’t sure if that was totally honest. Yes, I’d been pretty sick in the hospital when I was in there with Brandon, sleeping and trying not to puke. Then when I was released, I spent a lot of time sleeping and watching TV. The boys occasionally went out to their jobs: Brandon to his bike shop, Axel to his turtles at the aquarium. The others who knows where. Paranoia helped me stay put, but I didn’t think I was that bad off anyway; I had food, a place to sleep.
I didn’t like they’d blocked phone calls without asking me and never told me anyone was trying to contact me.
“I know,” Avery said softly. “I figured. Although to be honest, Ethan was a little worried about you. Maybe I was, too.”
I nodded but then put the phone away. I didn’t want to talk about that anymore. “Okay, well, I’m here now. To be honest, I thought we were joining Fancy on a night out. I thought maybe she wanted someone as back-up at a bar.”
Avery laughed. “Maybe I can see that, but to be honest, Ethan’s the one with the favor. Me, too, actually.”
“Really? What’s this about?”
Avery pulled the car into a turn and then pointed ahead of us at a gate with a guardhouse next to it. He waved to the guardhouse. I didn’t see anyone from how low we sat, but then the arm to the gate rose and Avery continued on into a parking lot. “Let’s get aboard. There’s a lot to explain.”
No kidding.
There were only two other cars in the small lot. Avery parked away from them and got out. He ran around, opening my door for me. He definitely grew up southern.
I stepped out, looking around at the dim lot and the more lit up length of dock. There were several large yachts, larger than most I’d seen at the downtown Charleston pier. Light poles shone clean white beams of light down at the area. There were small evergreen trees in planters every few feet along the pier. There was another guardhouse at the start of the dock, no barrier arm, just a small building. I couldn’t tell if anyone was inside. Already there was more security here than the downtown pier.
I followed Avery across the parking lot, folding my arms against my stomach. I peered back, suddenly feeling odd without the boys around. I wasn’t sure if I should move forward without them. It was one thing to pull ahead of them. It was another in this parking lot, an open space surrounded by places to hide. Sure there was security, but there was security back at the apartment building, too, and that had been compromised pretty easily.
I trusted Avery, but I was still a little shaken up. Earlier when I’d gone for burgers, I’d taken ten minutes and I still felt uncomfortable. Since it was such a short drive, it didn’t faze me too much, but now I was nervous.
It irritated me. I wasn’t normally a scaredy cat. What was wrong with me?
“It’s the one at the end,” Avery said, seeming to not notice my hesitation. He moved forward, with a determined step toward the dock, familiar with the surroundings. I did a short jog to catch up to him and follow. “The biggest boat, I think.”
There were two at the end, but Avery pointed to one that was taller and longer on the left. He was right, it did appear big, looking more like a building on the water than a boat. “That’s cruise liner?” I asked.
“That’s its job,” he said. He approached the guardhouse. I walked behind him, waiting for Avery to wave at it like he’d done before. Instead, he stopped before going past. “Hey,” he said to the darkened security house.
A head poked out of the door. The building might have been dark, but now that we were closer, I could tell there were at least two people inside: shadows darker than other shadows. There was a hand wave from a security guard. “Hey, Avery. This is one of the guests?”
“Kayli Winchester,” he said. “The others are on the way.”
The guard nodded and then motioned toward the ships. “You’re cleared for entry.”
I remained quiet as we walked on along the pier. I waited until I felt we were out of earshot before I started asking. “So there’s two security teams?”
“More. It’s too easy for someone to try coming up out of the water at a dock,” he said. “And there’s other security issues with being around a boat. There’s three pairs of guards at all times. There’s another one that will be here when a ship takes off. They do rounds on the boats as well as through the parking lot.”
“That’s a lot of security,” I said, recalling my days in pickpocketing at the mall. Even then, they usually only had maybe three on the busiest days for the entire mall. They only brought in more for the mad Christmas rush.
“Ethan trumped it up after his dad’s disappearance,” he said.
I shivered at the idea of people watching us when I didn’t know where or who. Instinctively, I stepped closer to Avery. I stuffed my hands into my pockets, trying to appear innocent and give the impression I wasn’t going to touch anything.
OLD HABITS
There was a large metal gangway ramp leading to the main deck of the large ship. I followed Avery up. The steps seemed slick, and I held onto the cold support rail. Avery moved quicker than I would have liked. In the clunky boots, I had no grip at all. I would have rather been barefoot for a good foothold.
I managed to make it up without too much slipping. I couldn’t imagine going back down without going slowly. I pictured falling to my doom into the dark water.
Avery moved confidently ahead of me. Once we were on the ship, I stopped, gazing around at the sheer immensity of the place. The deck opened up into a small pool and hot tub area and that was surrounded by benches and lounge chairs, some stacked and pushed to the side to make more room for walking around the pool. The bottom of the pool was tiled with a big blue L, and the space was lit up, brightening up the deck in the night. I was dazzled by the lights all over.
Avery walked toward a bar outfitted with displays of wine and liquor on a wall behind it. On the marble surface of the bar was a silver platter with a glass pitcher filled with ice and water and several empty glasses. Avery picked up one of the glasses and poured. “Would you like some lemon water before we go in?”
He showed no hesitation at all. The ship might belong to Ethan, but Avery was much too familiar with it. “How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Huh?” he asked, pouring a second glass. He dropped a lemon slice into each one and carried both over to me, holding one out. “I just got here. With you.”
“I mean, you didn’t just pop in today on this ship,” I said, taking the water from him. “What happened after...after...” I didn’t know what to call it. The incident? The kidnapping fiasco?
“A lot, actually,” he said. He took a sip from his glass and then nodded toward a set of glass doors, each one etched with a large L in a fancy font. “Let’s go inside. You can talk to Ethan.”
I glanced back at the parking lot. The boys hadn’t arrived yet. I also didn’t see anyone else on this ship. It looked alive with the lights, but strangely empty. I was feeling weirdly alone.
“Fancy will get them here soon,” Avery said softly, redirecting my attention to him. He smiled and went to the door, holding it open for me. “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”
I wanted to believe him. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so mistrusting right now. Avery had gone through a lot, too, after I’d been kidnapped. I didn’t think he’d lead me into anything dangerous.
I’d been too wrapped up with the boys since the incident. They’d been by my side near constantly. It was just odd that now I felt like I’d be more comfortable if one of them was there. How needy. How...not me.
I took a long sip of water before stepping through the doorway. One step further down the rabbit hole.
The room we entered was a large foyer, with shiny blue and white marble floors and polished wood columns. There was a staircase leading up four stories and a glass dome over our heads revealing the night sky. There were a couple of sitting areas around us, a bar that was shut down at the moment to the left, and additional big fancy doors. There was a long counter at the far side with a few computers on it and a big copper L hanging on the wall behind it.
“It’s like a hotel lobby,” I said. “A big fancy one.”
“It’s really just like a hotel on the water,” Avery said. “And there’s shops on the second floor. So it’s like a mall and a hotel in one.”
Great. “So Ethan has his own cruise liner he can do whatever he wants with?” I asked.
“It actually belongs to his company,” he said. He motioned to the staircase and headed toward it. “They use it for a lot of things. Let’s go into the lounge. It’s on the third floor.”
The gleam of the floor and the bright lights in the chandeliers above our heads made me feel really dirty in the boy clothes. I pulled my brown hair from the nape of my neck, drawing it out and combing it straight with my fingers as I entered. I skimmed my hands over my waist and hips, feeling shapeless under the T-shirt and jacket. No wonder Fancy was mortified by my appearance. This was worse than some dark club.