I followed him into an unadorned room with a row of windows overlooking the ocean on one side and a large wooden table in the middle. The table was surrounded by leather executive chairs and had a large monitor on the far wall.
Ethan Murdock sat at the table, white shirt buttoned, tie straight, his graying dark hair neatly brushed, but his eyes tired. He’d always had fine smile lines around his lips, but they were deeper now on his tired face, as were the lines around his eyes. He’d been sitting at the middle of the table, tapping at an iPad. He lifted his head the moment we entered, bowing his head at Corey, and then he spotted me.
His face lit up and he smiled as he stood, hand extended toward me.
He had always been friendly to me. I liked him; he seemed to have a good heart.
I came closer, skirting around office chairs to meet him halfway. I was sure I looked a monster, and smelled like one, too, so I tried to keep just a little distance from him.
“Kayli,” he said, and the smile on his face was genuine. “I heard you were back, but now that I see you…”
I shook his hand and nodded politely. “I’m all right,” I said.
“Good,” he said, and then he glanced at my head and then my body and made a short click with his tongue. “No, no, this isn’t good. We should make sure a doctor looks you over. Things should never have gotten this far. Maybe we should get the police involved. I feel like I’ve done this all wrong.”
I was about to answer him when shouting erupted just outside the conference room.
Ethan and I froze. Corey went to the door, holding it closed with his palm.
“I’ve been looking for her,” a male voice said. It was oddly familiar but I couldn’t place it.
“Well, she should be in the stateroom,” Axel’s voice floated in. “Probably asleep. What do you want with her?”
“I’ve been to your room, she’s not there,” the other voice continued, and I remembered the young board director, Colt Baker. I pictured his glasses and short dark hair and high cheekbones. I’d stolen his cell phone yesterday. “I needed to talk to her.”
“What about?”
Pause. Was that hesitation? I glanced at Corey and then at Mr. Murdock, their lips closed, eyes turned to the door. No one dared to move.
“I might have a lead about her tablet. She said it went missing.”
Axel scoffed. “She probably lost it. Again. I can get her another one.”
It rattled me to be hearing his voice just beyond the door. It was that same stoic, smoky tone I’d gotten used to. My body electrified, not just anxious about Colt, but knowing Axel was nearby. I was afraid to see him and yet wanted to at the same time, and my emotions were a tornado inside me.
“She had it stolen earlier,” Colt said. “Didn’t she tell you?”
“It’s been a long day,” Axel said and laughed, too loudly. Had he really been up all night? “I just left the casino. I’ll tell you a trick. If you stay late enough, they get tired, but they won’t kick you out. Then you can convince the dealer to show you a few cards…”
Had he been in the casino? I hadn’t seen him, but I had been trying to hide my face and could have missed him.
“Aren’t you wondering where she is at all?” Colt asked louder. “She seems to be missing.”
There was concern in his voice, as he seemed to be scolding Axel. Was he really that worried about me?
“She’ll be fine,” Axel said. “Where would she go? She’s probably at the pool. But she’s usually never up this late. She’s probably deep asleep in her room and didn’t answer the door.”
The two men stopped talking at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. A deep groan sounded, and then the footsteps faded down the hallway.
Silence.
Corey took a step away from the door and it opened quickly enough from the outside that a small breeze stirred the room.
In walked Axel, with Avery following at his heels. How had Avery gotten down here so fast?
They entered and Avery closed the door. “Sorry, Axel,” he said. “I heard you, so I came down. Glad that stopped him.”
“Thanks,” Axel said. “He’s been hounding me all night.” He scanned the room, spotted me.
For a fraction of a moment, it was only Axel and me, meeting each other’s eyes.
Axel was the oldest in his Academy group, in his early twenties. He had dark eyes that could pierce right through my soul and pluck out everything I was thinking. His face was hard planes, handsome. His sleek black hair was in a short ponytail, but bits of it had come loose and framed his face.
He wore the same shirt and pants he’d worn to dinner the night before. The white shirt was unbuttoned, revealing the tank top underneath that formed to his chest and stomach. The sleeves of his shirt were rolled up his forearms. The dark pants were wrinkled.
Electricity snapped between us as we took each other in. I stopped breathing, sure he could see all the thoughts inside me, all the fears, all the doubt I had about him, the anger I’d woken up with.
Through the storm in his eyes, though, I saw he’d been up this whole time, and that storm hadn’t stopped brewing since I’d disappeared.
In a flash, he was coming around the table. He gripped a chair, launched it at the wall and out of his way to get to me.
I didn’t move. I couldn’t…wouldn’t dare cower.
I was showing I did trust him.
He took me by the shoulders, drawing me in quickly, pulling me to him.
My arms went around his waist. It was instinct. I needed this.
He held me, strong and steady.
As I held on, I found myself biting his shoulder, trying my best not to cry. I wasn’t going to be a victim, and I wasn’t going to let Ethan or Avery or even Corey know how frightened I’d been, or how close to death I’d gotten. It wasn’t the first time my life had been threatened since he’d known me, but his s
trong hold was giving me somewhere to place all the fears and let them go.
Except I couldn’t fully let them go. Not now. I couldn’t lie to myself that the nightmare was over. It wasn’t. Not yet—not until we found whoever did this.
He allowed me to bite him, saying nothing of it as he just held on to me.
I forgot everything else. Axel was the one who, when I made stupid decisions, pulled me back. He never judged me. He was simply there. All of my suspicions about him faded.
This was Axel Toma. How could I have let myself suspect horrible things of him?
“Erm,” Avery said in a small voice somewhere behind me. “I really don’t mean to interrupt, but is this everyone we need at the moment?”
“Everyone else is busy working,” Axel said, his smoky voice vibrating through me. Despite the fury I felt in him, his voice was still even. He turned just slightly to look over the top of my head toward Avery. “We’ve got murder suspects to search for.”
“Come, now,” Ethan said. “They aren’t dead.” He coughed. “I mean… we should stop whoever did this, but if we call it murder, then…”
“Someone tried to kill her,” Axel said. He started to release me slowly while I backed up. He waited until I nodded, indicating I was fine, and then continued.
“People who met her yesterday are asking questions about where she is. One of them knows she went overboard, and we need to stop them before they try doing that again, or to someone else. The next time might not be someone as strong as Kayli.”
I wanted to mention that it had been Blake who’d helped me to stay alive, but I assumed he already knew and I didn’t want to complicate the point.
“I understand,” Ethan said. “But we’ve got a ship full of suspects, and some of them might be involved in this financial matter. If we barge in asking who is murdering people, those who started us on this investigation might run off—perhaps forever, if we threaten that the police might get involved.”
“This needs to take priority over your financial issue,” Axel said. “You’ve got time to investigate into your father’s accounts, but for now, we’ve got someone who has tried to kill two people.”