Calmer Cruises

by WINTERS, A. R.

  He blinked, apparently surprised by the sudden turn in the conversation. “Y-yes,” he stammered. “I’ll, ah… I’ll be right there.”

  She threw a chilly glance in his direction, and I was pretty sure I could actually see some of the color drain from his face as she stomped out of the lounge.

  I turned to face him, half wondering why he’d chosen to stay behind and half hoping that he would belatedly decide to just keep his mouth shut and follow her.

  “Petal’s really a lovely person.” He sighed, still looking at the spot where she’d been standing just a few seconds ago. “I think she’s misunderstood a lot, but she really does believe in the values she teaches. She truly wants to be a beacon of love and light in the world.”

  I had to stifle an eyeroll. “I’m sure she does believe it,” I said. “And obviously there are plenty of other people who are more than happy to buy into whatever she’s selling, so that has to be a comforting thought for her.”

  “She just wants to help people. That’s all she cares about. Not the money or the success or the fame… just helping people to live their best lives.” He turned back to face me again and shook his head. “I know you’re skeptical, and that’s fine. But trust me when I tell you she didn’t have anything to do with Rock Holliday’s death. What would she even have to gain from doing something like that? Especially considering everything she would stand to lose. She would be a pariah.”

  Tomek wasn’t wrong. Not entirely, at least. But the case wasn’t quite as simple as he’d made it sound, though.

  “Petal’s program has already gained from Rock’s death,” I said quietly. “She’s gained followers over the past few days, and she’s gained a powerful financial backer that she most likely wouldn’t have had otherwise.”

  I sat back in my seat and waited to hear what his defense would be this time. There was no way he was going to stay quiet and let me imply that Petal may have had something to do with Rock’s death. His loyalty to her wouldn’t allow it.

  To my surprise, though, he simply nodded. “You’re partially correct. Mrs. Holliday has preferred our methods over… those other methods for some time now. That really isn’t a secret and shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.” He raised a brow and gave me a hard look as he spoke. “And while it wasn’t terribly likely that she would have been able to put her full financial backing behind us anytime soon if her husband was still alive, that is hardly a reason to blame anyone—Mrs. Holliday, Petal, or anyone else—for his death.”

  I couldn’t help but smile. He was loyal to a fault, but his argument was almost a little too persuasive. And even if he did make some good points, he was wasting his breath. After my altercation with Babs earlier in the day, I wasn’t in any hurry to call out anyone else without some concrete evidence.

  He stood up from his seat before I could say anything else—probably a good thing, since our conversation would have turned awkward if I’d voiced my true opinions.

  “I should go.” He flashed a smile that was a little too wide to be fully believable. “I hope you’ll keep our conversation in mind.”

  “I will.” I nodded. That was an easy promise to make. Regardless of whether I fully believed everything he’d said, there was no doubt that I’d be thinking back on this strange night for a while. “Take care. Petal will probably be sending out a search party if you don’t hurry.”

  I’d intended it as a joke, but he didn’t laugh. His smile faded as he gave me another hard, intense look. “She trusts me,” he said. “She knows that everything—everything—I do is in her best interest. Always.”

  It felt like a warning. It sounded like a warning. But was I just jumping to conclusions? After the mess earlier in the day, I’d been constantly second guessing myself.

  After a cold but technically polite goodbye from Tomek, I was alone again and wondering what I should do. What would Ethan do?

  Ethan would… probably want me to talk to Ethan.

  I really had learned my lesson—mostly, probably—about rushing into something based on instinct and adrenaline alone without considering all angles… Okay, maybe I hadn’t totally learned that lesson, if I was being completely honest. But I was trying.

  And anyway, since I really was trying, I knew that my first stop had to be with Ethan. That was one instinct that I knew would always be right.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Are you busy?

  I drummed my fingers on the table and looked around the lounge as I waited for Ethan to respond to my text. The place was half deserted and mostly quiet after Tara, Petal, and Tomek had left, but I still had an uneasy feeling.

  After Tomek’s veiled threat, I wanted to ask Ethan if he’d found any other evidence that might point to the Breathe Light leader or her assistant. I certainly wasn’t going to point my finger at them publicly, but I felt like we needed to act quickly—not just because the cruise would be over in less than twenty-four hours, but because I wasn’t entirely sure that the killer wouldn’t strike again.

  Maybe against me. Maybe against Ethan. Maybe anyone else who they deemed a threat. Like Guru Shakti, perhaps.

  Ethan’s reply pulled me from my thoughts. Meeting with the captain. What’s up? Are you okay?

  I sighed and pecked out a quick reply. I’m good. Just going up to the observation deck to look around. Maybe we’ve missed something?

  My phone buzzed with his quick response. Maybe. Doesn’t hurt to take a look. I’ll meet you up there in a few minutes.

  At least he wasn’t pushing back against my question or trying to get me to stop with my own mini-investigation. I smiled to myself as I prepared to leave the lounge. Ethan was always on my side, no matter what. Just like Sam. Even Cece and Kelly always backed me up when I needed it.

  I was lucky to have all of them in my life and lucky they all seemed to know that I meant well even when I occasionally got the details wrong.

  Still mostly lost in my own thoughts as I walked from the lounge across the Grand Atrium to the bank of elevators, I almost didn’t notice that strange feeling return at first. That prickly feeling at the back of my neck like someone was watching me.

  I took a quick look around but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. If anyone had been watching me, they probably would have thought I was the one acting strange.

  Goodness, I needed to get it together. I’d been jumping at shadows for too long. I was there on a cruise ship with thousands of other people, so of course someone was looking at me. Someone was always looking at me. That was just life on board a ship.

  Besides, I’d be with Ethan in just a few minutes up on the observation deck.

  I stepped onto the elevator and took a deep breath. It’s just been a long day. And a long night. Too much drama has you feeling jumpy.

  And that was all it was. Nothing to do with getting mugged a few days ago. Nope. I definitely wasn’t scared of that happening again…

  But seriously, I wasn’t going to live my life in fear. I still had to go about my business. I still had a job to do. And I cared more about following my instincts and trying to track down a killer than anything else in that moment.

  The first thing I noticed when I got out onto the observation deck was how much better I felt. The warm breeze against my skin was refreshing and the night was calm and peaceful. It had been way too long since I’d been up that high to look out over the ocean, and even though I obviously couldn’t see very far, it was still impossible not to have my breath taken away by the natural beauty that came with being out in the middle of nowhere.

  The ship below me was a floating city with every imaginable luxury and convenience, but up on the observation deck it was easy to pretend that I was the only person in the world.

  I took a step toward the railing and closed my eyes, inhaling a deep breath of the fresh air that was rushing past me.

  A noise behind me that sounded like a shoe scuffing against the floor caught my attention, and I t
urned to look over my shoulder, expecting to see Ethan walking out onto the deck behind me.

  Instead, pain exploded across my lower back as that same scuffed shoe made contact with my spine. I didn’t even have time to scream as I was flung toward the nearby railing, the impact forcing the air from my lungs.

  “You think you’re so smart,” a voice hissed as the person’s arms wrapped around me, pinning me in place against the railing with the weight of their body. “But you don’t look very smart now. I’m surprised you had the guts to come up here alone after what I did to you the last time I caught you.”

  The voice was familiar, but it still took a moment for my brain to make the connection even after I got over the initial shock and pain from being kicked.

  “Tara?” I scramble to fight her off, but she seems to have a million arms and legs—all of which are toned and muscular from years teaching yoga for a living—preventing me from moving very much at all. “Why? What are you doing?”

  She maked an irritated noise. “Isn’t it obvious by now? Surely even you are smarter than this, Adrienne. I’m going to kill you.”

  I still had trouble reconciling the fact that I’d been sitting next to her in the lounge and having a polite conversation not even thirty minutes before, and now… now she was going to kill me.

  She shifted her weight and rocked back on her heels and then made a quick movement as she crouched in front of my sore, crumpled body. There was no denying that she was in much better shape than I’d ever been in my life, and while help would have probably eventually showed up if I’d started screaming, it definitely wouldn’t happen in time to actually save me.

  I was at her mercy.

  “But why?” I asked again as I struggled to pull myself up. “You don’t need to do this. You’re going to get caught.”

  Her eyes tracked every move I made, and she stood up to her full height at the same time I did. I saw the moonlight glint off something in her hand and froze.

  She had a knife. What little chance I might have had to survive in a fight had just evaporated.

  “I don’t want to kill you, Adrienne.” She paused then shrugged. “Well, maybe I do. You just always have this knack for getting in the way. Just like poor, stupid Rock Holliday. It won’t be as fun to kill you as it was to push him over the edge of this very railing, but…” She took a step toward me. “Close enough.”

  “You won’t get away with it,” I said, hoping I sounded more convinced than I felt. I kept my eyes locked on the knife blade as she took one more step toward me. She was close enough now that one quick jab would end it all, and I couldn’t help but flinch away at the thought of how painful it was going to be. “They’ll come looking for me.”

  “And they’ll never find me.” She laughed. “Just like they’ll never know I was the one who killed Rock. Not after the great job you’ve done at making everyone else seem so guilty—ah!”

  She cried out as Ethan pinned her arm behind her back, and I heard the knife fall to the floor at his feet. “Addi!” he called out. “Grab the knife!”

  I didn’t waste a single second. I was already moving before he’d even finished speaking, and a few moments later, I was the one standing there shaking my head as Ethan handcuffed her.

  “Are you okay?” he asked me once she was restrained. “Did she hurt you?”

  “Just a couple of bruises,” I smiled. “No concussion this time.”

  I turned my attention to Tara as Ethan called on his radio for backup. “You know,” I sighed. “You really almost got away with it.”

  She grunted. “I would have gotten away with it all. You just got lucky.”

  “No.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t luck.” I smiled as I looked from her to Ethan. “Just faith that you would get here in time.”

  He exhaled a long breath, but I could see the corners of his mouth twitch. “I think you’ve taken ten years off my life with the way you keep worrying me, Addi. But you did it. You caught the killer.”

  “Technically, you caught her.” I nodded toward the angry, handcuffed woman standing next to him. “And not a moment too soon.”

  The security team came hurrying out, and there was a flurry of activity as they bundled Tara off below deck. Once we were alone up on the observation deck, Ethan pulled me into a tight hug.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” he murmured.

  “Thanks to you,” I said, meaning it.

  “I guess we make a pretty good team, don’t we?”

  I smiled up at him and nodded. “I guess we do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Ethan reached over and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze as we stood near the ship’s exit and waited for the passengers to start disembarking.

  “You did a good job,” he murmured. “And now it’s over.”

  I smirked. “We survived another cruise. Just barely, but we did it.”

  My sarcasm had its intended effect, and I snickered as his normally stoic expression cracked just a little to show a hint of a smile. Our joking came to an abrupt end as the captain came around the corner with Kelly by his side.

  Ethan and I straightened up and said hello to our bosses. Sam, Cece, and Dr. Ryan, soon joined us just as the first passengers started to leave the ship.

  This was usually a bittersweet time for all of us. For me, disembarking time brought on a series of conflicting emotions. Sadness that we had to say goodbye to some of the passengers we’d become friendly with. Grief over the death of Rock Holliday, who lost his life unnecessarily. Pride that we’d caught his killer and could give everyone involved—including myself and Ethan—a sense of closure. And finally, happiness that we were going to get some much-needed rest and relaxation for a few days while the ship was cleaned and restocked.

  Our VIP guests were first to come through, and I had to keep my smile frozen in place and stifle a groan as Babs Holliday appeared at the other end of the corridor, hand in hand with her new boyfriend. She kept her eyes locked onto mine as she approached. Even while she thanked the captain and said goodbye to Kelly, I could still see her looking at me from the corner of her eye.

  When she got to my end of the line, I thought for sure she would either take the opportunity to yell at me or ignore me completely. I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would be the latter.

  “Adrienne,” she began, her voice crisp and cold.

  “I want to apologize again,” I blurted out, interrupting her before she could say anything else. “I shouldn’t have accused you of anything. I should have waited until we had more proof—and then we would have seen that the proof pointed to someone else. I’m so sorry, Mrs. Holliday.”

  She stood in front of me frozen in place for several seconds. Her boyfriend started fidgeting, no doubt wishing for the second time in as many days that I’d kept my mouth shut.

  “I wasn’t sure what I’d say to you if I saw you again,” she continued and then paused. Her expression softened. Only a little, but I noticed it. “Now I know. I want to thank you.”

  I blinked. “You want to… thank me?”

  Maybe I’d misheard. Maybe she’d said yank. As in yank-me-by-the-hair-and-push-me-out-the-door. Or spank. Or… anything but thank.

  Maybe the trauma of the past week had sent her over the edge and she wasn’t in her right mind. Maybe her hunky young boyfriend needed to get her to the hospital.

  Before I could suggest any of those things, though, she simply nodded and then she actually smiled. At me.

  “Yes,” she nodded. “I want to thank you. While I’ll admit I didn’t really appreciate being accused of killing my husband, I… I appreciate your dedication to finding his true killer. I heard your own life was at risk more than once while you were investigating. I think you went above and beyond—certainly more than your job here would require—and I just wanted you to know that your efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. I noticed. And I thank you.”

  I was shocked.

  More than shocked. I wanted to reach o
ut and hug Babs Holliday. That was shocking in itself. Who would have thought that my nicest compliment would come from the woman I’d wrongly accused of murder?

  Not me. Not Ethan, either, judging by his wide-eyed expression as he watched our quiet exchange.

  “Thank you, too,” I said, at a loss for words as Babs continued moving down the line toward the exit. “And good luck with… with everything.”

  She held up her boyfriend’s hand and tossed me a knowing wink over her shoulder as she walked away. Babs made her own luck, that much was obvious. She didn’t need any help from me or anyone else. And even though I might not have had much—okay, maybe not anything—in common with the wealthy widow, I still admired the fact that she knew exactly who she was and what she wanted in life.

  “If only every goodbye could be as nice as that one,” Ethan murmured as our next VIP started walking down the corridor toward us.

  “Right? That was… unexpected. But really nice. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming the whole thing.”

  Guru Shakti was making his way through the line, saying goodbye to the captain and Kelly, giving Sam some cryptic piece of motivational advice, and generally making sure he was the center of attention as his small entourage fanned out behind him to nod and hang on his every word.

  When he finally moved to stand in front of me, he gave me a curious half smile. “Adrienne…” He reached out and took my hand and gave it a friendly pat. “What can I say? I’m terribly upset by what Tara has done. In her mind, I’m sure she thought she was doing something important for me and my program, but in reality, she would have destroyed us all. I’m grateful that you’ve exposed the bad apple before she spoiled the bunch.”

  Even when he was being contrite, Shakti still had so much charisma and personality that it was impossible not to be a little overwhelmed in his presence. And I wasn’t even one of his followers!

  It was no wonder that the people who believed in him really believed.