by C. L. Stone
“Which is why we might need you to convince them,” Blake said.
I opened my eyes wide, surprised at his implication. “You really want them to help? I thought you didn’t like them.”
“This is more important than petty feelings,” he said. He pointed to the tablet. “If they were nosy enough to see what I was up to, they’d be idiots not to check this out.”
“I thought that you didn’t trust them.”
“Again,” he said, “petty feelings. I can’t argue with results. I don’t agree with their tactics. They bring in guns far more than I like.”
I bit my lip. My instinct was to disagree, but then, every instance of trouble we had been in, they did bring in guns. “So why ask them now?”
“I can’t do it alone,” Blake said. “We need all the help we can get. If there is that much money floating around in bad areas, that means trouble in Charleston. Our home. We need to fix it. That Corey, he really is brilliant with a computer, even better than Doyle. The others have their own talents. I’m willing to overlook the criminal records. I’ll even overlook this Academy they belong to.”
I made a face, surprised he’d said it out loud. I glanced at the others, who didn’t flinch. Blake had spilled the beans. That was pretty bad. The boys had told me they kept their Academy a secret for many reasons, and it was better not to tell anyone. Blake had found out on his own and now Avery and Ethan knew.
I was disappointed Blake had told the others so much. It also hurt that I was bitter about keeping secrets about the boys, when the boys kept secrets from me, like who had called me. “Maybe you shouldn’t bring up all that to them,” I said. “They don’t like other people knowing about the Academy. Not if you want them to work with you.”
Blake moved around the coffee table and then sat on it in front of me. “Listen,” he said. “I know you and I aren’t exactly the perfect match. We’re oil and lightning. You put us together, and there’s explosions and chaos. I’ve come to realize that.” He leaned in, his eyes wide, the gold subduing into something softer. “But you’d go through hell and back for the right cause. That makes you the most qualified person here.”
“Blake has agreed to lead the team,” Ethan said. “I hope you’ll join us.”
I sat quiet for a moment, considering what they were asking me. Yes, the boys would be highly interested in getting to the bottom of those accounts. They might be interested in helping Ethan and the others. Blake though...that’d be a tough sell.
And did I want to get into the middle of this? That wasn’t the tough question. Could I go home after this, walk away while knowing that some rich fat cats were doing who knows what to my city? No. That’d bug me forever. Two billion dollars could create a lot of damage. And if it was hard for someone like me to find a job before, then it was going to be even worse if thousands of innocent people found themselves out of jobs if Ethan’s company got shut down because of stuff his father did.
“I can try,” I said. It was as close as I could get to agreeing to go along, but I still needed to make sure of some things. “I can’t make any promises about what the others will do. Plus, I need a few assurances.”
Ethan brightened, sitting up and smiling. He slapped his palm against his knee. “Anything,” he said.
“I need to know I can walk away at any time if I don’t like this.”
“Of course.”
“And I want all the details before we do anything at all. I don’t want the chaos like last time. No secrets. No holding back.”
“Obviously.”
“And I want to be in charge.”
Blake chuckled, leaning forward again with his elbows on his knees, looking up at me with big eyes. “Sugar dumpling, you’ve been here two minutes. You can’t just take over.”
“I’m not going to get into a situation where you’re trying to dump poison into a well just because you’re pissed off, Blake,” I said. I didn’t mean to be so brisk, but it was true.
“Oh like you’re any better?” he asked, his voice rising with each syllable. He sat back, leaning on one arm on the coffee table. “Do I even want to bring up when you shot me in the leg?”
Ugh, I couldn’t believe him. Yeah, it was true, but there were reasons. “You lied to me.”
“And you crashed my yacht,” he said. “Do you really want to compare notes?”
The electricity between us fired off. Oil and lightning. I should have stopped, but I couldn’t. “You had us robbed at gunpoint by one of your own employees.”
He stood up. I did, too, facing him off. He kept going, counting off on his fingers. “And you blew up my kitchen! And sunk my new car into the Florida swamp. And dragged me through the middle of a gunfire fight...”
“Hey, wait,” Avery said, standing and putting an arm between us. “There’s no need to yell.”
Blake backed off a step, knocking the coffee table aside. He kneed it out of the way so he could pace near the television. He waved a hand dismissively in my direction. “She was yelling at me.”
“Your point doesn’t change just because you say it louder.” Avery had such a calming tone.
I swallowed the retorts on my tongue, drowning out the burning sensation within me. I was jumping off the deep end again. Axel told me before I needed to learn to control it. I hadn’t experienced it in a few weeks and now, with Blake, he seemed to set things off again.
Ethan stood up and stepped around the settee. The action distracted me from the fire burning inside me that I felt toward Blake. He went to the bar, and stepped around it to the wall of liquors on display, and started making a drink from the selection of bottles. “How about if there’s a co-lead? No action gets made unless you both can agree on it.”
Blake stopped pacing and placed his hands on his hips and rolled his eyes. “Do you want anything to actually get done?”
“I’ll agree to almost anything,” I said, smirking, “as long as it doesn’t involve physically hurting innocent people, or--”
“Don’t bring that up again,” Blake said.
“You’re the one that suggested we bring in Kayli,” Ethan said. He finished making his drink, and swirled the brown liquid in the bar glass before he took a long sip. He walked around the bar again. I supposed there was no need to pay when you owned the ship. “Unless you two can get along, I don’t see how Corey and the others will get along with us.”
“Where are Marc and Raven, anyway?” I asked. “Why are they taking so long?”
Avery’s cheeks reddened. “Well, I told Fancy if we managed to separate you from them, that she give us a chance to talk to you first. She was to get them lost on the island, get held up by security and if they made it on the boat, she was going to give them the long tour.” He picked up his phone and checked the screen. “Seems like they just managed to get on the dock past security.”
“We have to change things if you want me to talk them into this,” I said. How bad was it that they had to work with tricks in order to ask me if I’d help? It didn’t seem like the boys to turn down anything that involved helping people. I faced Blake. “And if you expect me to be able to do anything, I need to be the one in charge.”
Blake’s shoulders dropped. He crossed his arms over his chest, his face shifting from unhappy to calculating. “You think they’ll accept this easier if you’re the boss?”
“Much easier than if you were.”
He looked up at the ceiling, the blond hair falling back away from his face. “Fine. You can be a co-lead.” He righted himself, looking at me, the flash of smile on his face like the fox with a hen in its mouth. “So you and I will be working pretty closely.”
Ethan stepped closer, getting my attention before I could say anything. “I’ll pay for your time, of course,” he said. “I’ve put a bounty on the money. Each dollar that gets recovered, found, and put back, you keep ten percent.”
Ten percent. Of two billion. Seriously? I couldn’t even picture how much that was. “Split between us?” I
asked in a soft voice.
Ethan shrugged, the ice cubes in his glass clinking together. “Doesn’t matter to me, as long as the money gets returned.”
It was a ridiculous amount, even split between all the boys if they decided to come along. Surreal. We wouldn’t have to live crammed into a tiny apartment. I wouldn’t have to depend on them at all for money. We’d be even. I blinked and tried to put it out of my head for now and focus. “I’ll have to see about how the others feel about that, but I guess I’m in.”
Ethan brightened, stepped forward and held out a hand. “Then I’d like to welcome you aboard Lucienda.”
A DEAL WITH A FOX
Avery checked his phone, and said the boys had come aboard. “I can go get them,” he said. “They’ll probably want to get away from Fancy by now.”
I nodded, looking around the lounge at the luxury surrounding us. “It’ll probably be better if I talk to them alone,” I said. “Just to get a feel. You said some people were going to be boarding?”
Ethan swirled the liquid around in his glass. “Tomorrow. I’m sorry for the short notice. After trying to get a hold of you, tonight was our last shot. At least before the ship went out to sea for a few days.”
“We’ve got a lot of ground to cover,” Blake said. “I need to catch you up.”
That was probably true, but I also needed to clear this with the guys. It was generous of me, since they hadn’t given me the luxury of knowing what was going on until now. I was still pretty ticked about that.
Avery stepped toward the open hallway that lead to the rest of the third floor and the wide marble staircase. The silky shirt shifted on his shoulders, revealing a small glimpse of the tattoo across his chest. In the finer clothes, he looked good. Real good. I was surprised at how well being dressed up could change him. He looked all grown up. He motioned to Blake. “You should talk to her now. I’ll go meet up with the guys.” He looked at Ethan. “Could you go...anywhere else for right now? Maybe it’s best when I bring them up that she talks to them first.”
“I’ll hide out until you give me the okay,” Ethan said, heading toward the hallway and following Avery.
“Shouldn’t take long,” Avery said to us. He did a short wave and then walked with Ethan toward the wide staircase, heading down.
I blew out a slow breath. I stepped away from the settee and over to the bar, looking at all the glasses and dark liquids in bottles and the bowl of ice, dazzled by how it sparkled under the light. I wasn’t really sure how I would convince the boys to agree to this. The money? Would that be enough to bribe them? Corey had tried to tell me they didn’t get much money from the Academy for their jobs, and this...this was much better.
I turned slowly toward Blake. I needed more details if I was going to convince the guys to stay. “So what’s the plan?”
Blake flashed a smile. He walked slowly toward me, his bare feet padding along the carpet. How at home did he feel on the ship? And why was he always barefoot? He and Avery seemed to be at very comfortable here. “Maybe you and I can talk about it over a late dinner?”
“I don’t think we’ve got that much time,” I said.
“It’s a big ship,” he said. “Avery could drag them around for hours.”
“And tick them off before we even get started?”
Blake pressed his lips together. He turned toward the bar, and walked around it. He plucked two short glasses from the neat rows of barware and placed them in front of him. He dropped ice into both and then searched the bottles along the far wall. The display was backlit with white lights through frosted glass, giving everything a glow. “Are you a gin or a rum girl?” he asked.
“Neither,” I said.
“Whiskey?”
“Nope.”
He turned his attention back to me, the gold flecks sparkling with amusement. “Strawberry daiquiri?”
“I don’t really drink.”
“You could do with a little liquid courage right now.” He selected an Irish whiskey and poured a bit into one of the glasses. He selected something else, a label I couldn’t read, and poured it into the second. “Try this.”
“I’m not interested.”
He held the glass out to me, the liquid inside swirling, a delicate pink color. “Entertain me.”
“That’s not what I’m here for,” I said, but took the glass from him. Maybe if I held it, he’d shut up about it. “Just tell me what I need to know.”
He motioned to the deeper part of the lounge, to another small sofa that faced a fireplace that, at the moment, was lit to a few glowing embers. No smoke. Was it fake? “Sit. Please.”
I sat on the sofa, at the far edge corner. “Start talking, please,” I said.
Blake sat beside me, close enough that he placed a gentle hand on my knee, warming me through the jeans. I pressed my lips together, and stared at the arm of the seat. I didn’t want him to guess at that I actually did like him.
When he spoke, I looked up at him. “We’ve got five days on board ahead of us where there will be businessmen and women as well as these crooks we’re looking for.” He took a sip of his drink and then settled more in his seat, looking at the contents in his glass. “You and I, we’re going to have to agree to be completely upfront with each other.”
“That might be harder for you than me,” I said.
He lifted an eyebrow. Then his gaze started at my face and worked slowly down my body and then back up to my eyes. It made me self-conscious of what I was wearing again. “Sweet little Kate needs to remember she lied, too, and that she lied first.”
I cringed at remembering the old name I’d used when I had first met him, right after I’d picked his pocket for his wallet. “If we’re going to work this close, we’re going to have to forget about that for now.”
His voice lightened, sweet like honey. “Darling, I’m willing to start over with a clean slate at this point.” He took a sip from his glass. It was the first time I noticed the watch around his wrist. It wasn’t silver exactly, maybe platinum. There were diamonds around the face and the telltale emblem in the center: Rolex. He lowered his hand and then distracted me with his eyes that were focused intently on my face. “Can we do that?”
“Nice watch,” I said, unable to commit, unsure I could hold my tongue if he started talking about the past again. Part of it was my own guilt, too. I did feel bad for blowing up a lot of perfectly good food from his kitchen. His yacht had been okay. It wasn’t the yacht’s fault.
He smirked. “I guess that’s as good an answer as I am going to get.” He put the glass down on a side table and then edged closer until he was sitting with his knee against my thigh. His arm went behind my shoulders and he remained there, really close. “So, co-lead, should we get a room together tonight to discuss what we need to do?”
“Why don’t you tell me now what you need to tell me?” I asked, frightened by how easily I was lured by his coy smile and his constant badgering to go somewhere quiet with him. For the past couple of weeks, the guys had been rather aloof. Not one comment about a relationship, nothing more than a casual hug. At first, I’d been sick and wouldn’t have wanted anyone to touch me, anyway, but then it started to grate on me. It was strange how I hadn’t thought of this until now. “And then I’ll do what I can to convince the guys that they should stay and work with us. And if they don’t leave, you’ll be on your best behavior until we can get to the bottom of what’s going on?”
“And what happens if they do leave?” he asked. “Are you going to stay and help if they won’t?”
I bit my lower lip, unsure of my answer. Would they refuse? I wanted to believe they’d stay if they were helping other people, but I wasn’t totally convinced. They’d say I was too worn down from the last catastrophe to participate in this. They would say they were too close, perhaps. That they were unprepared. They may not want Blake anywhere near here. However, it was only going to be information gathering and we didn’t have to go through with anything else.
&n
bsp; Was I just creating a bigger mess getting them onto a ship together for a few days?
But still, the money… That could set us all up for years. They wouldn’t have to work for anyone, Academy or not. I wouldn’t have to work, either. We’d be set. After it was all done, we could do whatever we wanted. Wouldn’t that be amazing?
Blake continued to gaze at me while I was thinking. His hand shifted, until he was rubbing my shoulder. “Sweetheart, you’re not answering me.” He leaned in to catch my eyes, the gold in his flashing. “You know, when I got your message and tried to call you back, that’s when I knew something wasn’t right. I felt it before when I tried to visit you in the hospital and they refused to let me see you.”
My eyes opened wide, staring at his face. I hadn’t heard there were people at the hospital to see me. It was true that I hadn’t felt like company, but I wasn’t even told about it. I lowered my eyes to stare blankly at the grey sweater he wore, wondering what other things the boys hadn’t told me. It hurt. I wanted an explanation and to rationalize it away, but could there be any excuse as to why they hadn’t at least talked to me about what was going on?
“I think we should focus on what we’re here for,” I said quietly.
Blake sucked in a huge breath, held it for a minute and then bowed his head to let it go. “If you need something to convince them to stay, I should tell you about Michelle.”
“Who’s that?” I asked.
He lifted his head and I noticed a change in his expression: the sly fox had shifted into something softer, gentle, and troubled. “Michelle runs a children’s foster home, one meant for teenagers. She raises a few rescued animals, too—cats and dogs—and she has the teenagers help her out. She owns an estate out in the middle of nowhere just off of John’s Island.”
“Okay?” I said, unsure where this was going.
“She started a lawsuit last year against Ethan’s company for failure to fulfill promised donations. There’s paperwork that said she got money from the company, but she never did, and the government was looking in on it and accusing her of lying on her tax statements. She also said that since she had been promised money, she had relied on it, and had spent her time with the kids instead of pursuing other avenues of income. By the time she realized the money wasn’t coming, she was in a lot of financial trouble. She was using her last pennies to file and take them to court.”