“What?” I asked, trying to grasp what he was saying.
“I can’t tell you. Exposing Blake means a lot of trouble. More than just his reputation. He was set up and there’s no way the press is going to ignore ‘rich man kills other rich important man.’”
“He’s right,” I said, tugging my arm out of Marc’s grasp. I went to Blake, holding him under his shoulder, and waited for Doyle to help. “Let’s get him out of here.”
Marc groaned loudly. “You…you…ugh. You can’t do this. We can’t touch him now.”
Fancy put a hand on Marc’s shoulder. “Honey, she’s right. He didn’t do this, and leaving him here is only doing more harm. It’ll be a news team’s wet dream to find out about this.”
Before Marc could answer, another storm of footsteps rushed down the hallway.
Marc flew out of the cold room, ready to stop whoever it was.
“What are you doing here?” Raven barked at him. “Get out.”
“Raven!” I cried out. I finally bent down, tugging Blake’s arm. Doyle joined me, but we were only able to slowly drag him across the tile. The gun clattered to the floor.
Marc grabbed at his hair, fists tightening in exasperation. “Tell them they’re insane and to leave him. We have to go.”
Raven came in, swept his eyes around, cursed in Russian, and then pushed me aside, taking my place. He shoved Doyle out of the way so he could lift Blake off the floor.
Marc groaned. “What are you doing?”
“No time,” Raven said. “They’re on the way.”
Raven carried Blake’s front half. Marc grunted, picked up his legs, and took some of the weight on his shoulder, walking close behind Raven. “I can’t believe we’re doing this.”
Doyle and I followed. Fancy started to but then went back, picking up the gun.
“You should leave that,” Marc said.
“It’s probably got his prints all over the place,” she said. “And it might be his. He brought one on board.”
Crap. How did I not know he had a gun?
My heart raced as I followed the others. Blake had been framed. At least now the crime scene had been contaminated with extra DNA and fingerprints.
Including mine.
Escape
My stomach twisted into knots. Sweat beaded across my brow as we raced through hallways, keeping away from common areas.
Raven and Marc led the way and I followed blindly, looking at the unconscious Blake, worried about why he was still unconscious.
Footsteps echoed in the hallways behind us as we left the area. Someone was coming to uncover what was going on. Or maybe it was the real killer.
I suspected Sam had done it all. He had to have. I pictured it: he had found Blake, drugged him, stashed him somewhere, and brought him out for this murder.
I hadn’t suspected Sam would go so far. I’d never anticipated…
Suddenly it made sense why Sam wanted us to stay. He was going to deal with both problems at once, making us look like killers while getting rid of a big problem on his ship.
Marc gave Raven the directions to the rendezvous point where we were supposed to meet.
“Our best chance is to get off this ship before security catches up with us. They said they took a few emergency rafts. We’ll have to hope they are already there.”
Luckily, we weren’t far. We entered an area similar to the one where Blake and I had entered when we’d returned. A side panel of the hull was open, a plank jutting out from the ship.
Axel and Avery stood on the plank, waiting.
Axel took one look at Raven with Blake and moved to assist him, taking Blake’s weight. “What happened to him?”
Raven hunched over, out of breath. Marc continued to help Axel, setting Blake on the ground.
“He was set up,” Doyle said. “Made to look like he killed Colt Baker.”
Axel went white. “And you moved him?”
“Long story,” Marc grumbled. “No turning back now.”
“He needs to go,” Raven said. “Sam did this.”
“We all need to go,” I said. “Security could be on the way. We messed up their fake crime scene.”
We walked out onto the plank, looking over the safety rails. Below, in the water, were yellow inflatable rafts. We were close to the water line, but it was still a jump.
Brandon, Corey, and Kevin were already inside, trying to row the raft closer and keep it under the plank. They were struggling, though, as the rafts were being pushed and pulled by small waves.
“I need to go find Ethan,” Avery said. “He’s at dinner, but I should be seen at this point if I’m staying.”
“I’ll go with you,” Fancy said.
“I don’t like this,” Axel said, turning to Avery. “If we take Blake, they might try to pin this on you.”
“We can’t run out on Ethan,” Avery said. “He’ll be involved no matter what. We might actually be able to circumvent Sam if we act as witnesses. Besides, someone has to close this hatch door.”
“He’s right,” Raven said and waved a hand at us. “Go. No time.”
Axel grumbled, but Raven and Avery were right.
Avery and Fancy backed away, waiting to see us off before Avery would push the buttons to close things up.
I only hoped I wasn’t bailing on them when they needed help. Sam was a killer, or at least someone on his team was.
“Give me a hand,” Axel said. “I’ll have to go over with Blake to make sure he gets into the raft. No time to wait for them to keep the raft underneath. Better to jump into the water and swim to it.”
Axel lifted Blake. Marc assisted by going over the edge of the yellow safety rail.
Once they got Blake between them on the other side of the rail, Axel held on to Blake and tilted forward, going down.
A splash followed.
Marc dove in after. I watched as they surfaced, and then Marc stayed with Axel and helped him get Blake close to the raft.
“Go,” Raven said to me. “Try to hit feetfirst.”
“Maybe we should stay,” I said.
“You can’t stay,” Raven said. “You’re all over the place. And you broke your head. You can’t help anymore.”
I was way more worried about Avery, Ethan, and Fancy choosing to stay. And where were Liam and Henry? I’d just assumed they would be here to see us off.
Axel had reached th
e raft. Corey helped pull Blake in as Brandon and Kevin tried to keep the raft from floating too far.
I had to go with Blake. It felt like I was abandoning them, but my face, like Blake’s, had been all over the ship. Mr. Smith, Tara…so many people could point a finger at me, saying how suspiciously I’d acted, and how I was in on it with Blake.
Raven nudged me. “I’ll send you over. I’ll come after you.”
I nodded and climbed the rail carefully. I didn’t want to slip, hitting my head on the way down.
Raven held on to my shoulders. Before I could let go, he looked at me, then tugged me close.
He kissed me. Hard.
I sensed something was wrong, right then.
I leaned back to look up at him. “What are you doing?”
He frowned, eyes on mine. The darkness behind them building. The bear was wild, and he wasn’t finished.
“You’re not coming, are you?”
“One of us has to stay behind.”
“Why?”
“A confession can defeat evidence.”
My mouth fell open. “What?”
“Trust me,” he said and then pushed me.
I fell back, forgetting whatever the others had said about splashing down, instead looking up to Raven. How could he? How could he stay behind? And what had he meant about a confession?
I hit the water, my thoughts scattering as I went down. It was cold, but anger was making me boil, all fired up.
I swam up, surfaced, and coughed up water. I gazed up, shouting curses at him.
Raven peered down at me, and then turned his back, walking away.
The ship door closed up behind him.
Aftermath
I was forced to lie down in the raft the entire way, with Axel holding my body, covering me with an emergency blanket that had been in the raft’s supplies.
I bit him in his forearm, so frustrated Raven had stayed behind, pushing us away while putting himself in danger. I was crying without sobbing. It was just angry tears leaving my eyes.
I was going to kill him.