by Ivy Dawson
Deadly Stakes
A Cruise Ship Mystery Book 3
Ivy Dawson
Copyright © 2019 by Ivy Dawson
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Afterword
Also by Ivy Dawson
Introduction
Shae Jordan isn’t having a good week. Her customers are rude and entitled, her boss is on her case, and her roommate is being a nightmare. To top it all off, a woman died on board the Princess Araminta.
Nothing seems suspicious about the death until a family friend comes forward, urging the staff to look into the matter more closely. It isn’t until Shae finds something shocking that she begins to suspect that there’s more to the apparently accidental death.
Paired with an arrogant First Officer, Shae needs to sift through years of family drama and intricate lies to find out what happened to the young woman.
Will the truth come to light? Or will Shae be too late? Find out as Shae Jordan faces deadly stakes!
Chapter 1
“Don’t look now,” Alexa said lazily, lounging on one of the luxurious chairs next to the pool. She looked like one of the guests, complete with a floppy hat and pretty white bikini that contrasted well with her tanned skin. “But a certain mechanic keeps looking this way.”
Shae, who was flustered, hot, and angry, just huffed and continued taking pictures of the group of teenagers.
“Let’s do one where we’re all pouting!” one of the girls suggested.
“That’s so brilliant!” another one gasped. “Throw a peace sign too!”
Shae tapped her foot in annoyance, trying not to get annoyed with the guests. She had always loved taking pictures but being the photographer on a luxury cruise liner was less artistic and more soul-destroying.
“I mean,” Alexa dropped her massive sunglasses lower on the bridge of her nose and peeked over them. “If you’re not interested, then just let me know. Look at those arms! Easily one of the best-looking guys onboard.”
Although she was trying her best to pretend like she wasn’t listening, Shae couldn’t help but sneak a peek at the mechanic in question. Her heart gave a little flutter when she noticed him on the deck, talking to two of his men. He was actually the maintenance manager, but she knew that if she corrected Alexa, then her friend would read too much into her words.
A part of her felt very insecure in her work clothes and red face. The sun was relentless today, and the teenagers decided that the best place for their thousand photos was on the main deck.
He looked up, as if he could sense her gaze, and she quickly turned to the teenagers and took another picture. She cautiously looked up after a few seconds and noticed that he was looking at her with an easy smile on his face. That didn’t help her poor heart.
“Oh, so you are interested,” Alexa said with a self-satisfied smirk. “It’s about time. When are you going to make a move?”
She was spared from having to respond when they heard a commotion on the other end of the deck. No one was shouting, but there were slightly raised voices as a group of people argued. Shae lowered her camera and ignored the teenagers’ protests.
“You can arrange to get your pictures at the photography lab,” she told them absently. “I’m sorry, but I need to see what’s going on.”
“No,” Alexa pouted, “please don’t. Just leave it alone, someone will be there now.”
“What if everyone thought like that?” Shae pointed out. She noticed that Jax, the good-looking maintenance manager, was also looking over curiously. He turned and nodded at her before walking off in the direction of the argument.
“Go after him,” Alexa hissed, waving her hands in his direction. Shae only hesitated for a second before following him at a safe distance.
His dark blond hair gleamed slightly in the sunlight. She tried not to notice anything about him, because it seemed to make her heart beat faster each time. It was a reaction that she hated, because she was familiar with it. The last time didn’t end too well, and she promised herself that she’d never go down that road again.
She was determined to protect her heart, and one handsome maintenance manager wasn’t going to change that. No matter how broad his shoulders were.
“I should’ve known you’d follow me,” Jax said, turning to her with that easy smile of his. “You’re never too far from trouble, are you?”
“You can’t say that,” she protested, smiling despite herself, “you hardly know me.”
“I know these things,” He said, nodding solemnly, “and I’m not usually wrong.”
“That’s not arrogant at all,” Shae teased.
As they got closer, they noticed that the first officer was arguing emphatically with another man. Speaking of arrogant, Shae thought poisonously. She narrowed her eyes at the first officer, and subconsciously took the other man’s side of the argument. She couldn’t hear what they were arguing about, but if the first officer was involved, then it was probably his fault.
“I’m sorry, but there’s no grounds to do something like that,” Mark snapped, not sounding sorry at all. He straightened his uniform pedantically and glared at the guest. Shae’s first impression was that the guest was uncommonly handsome. The second was that he looked livid.
“And I’m telling you that there is,” the guest insisted. He stood with his feet apart in a defiant stance, his nostrils flaring. His nose was perfectly straight, and his whole face had a roman-profile.
Mark was about to reply when he noticed Shae and Jax. He rolled his eyes and let out an audible sigh.
“We don’t have time for you right now,” he told them in annoyance. “Get back to work, I’ll tell you when I need you.”
Shae bristled at his words, but Jax just laughed.
“It’s kind of hard to mind our own business when you’re being so loud,” Jax pointed out, his tone light. “it’s our job to make our guests as comfortable as possible. We just want to assure them that nothing’s wrong.”
“Something is very wrong,” the man insisted, glaring at Mark, “and this guy doesn’t seem to care.”
“What’s going on?” Shae asked curiously. She didn’t like Mark, but he was usually very good at his job.
“Someone died at lunch today,” Mark said quickly, “but it was just an accident. The woman had a peanut allergy. We’re investigating to see what happened, but I’m sure she probably had some of the sauce from table nine.”
“Oh,” Shae said knowingly. Table nine of the massive buffet boasted a variety of Asian dishes. “She probably had some of the satay sauce by accident or something.”
“No,” the man shook his head, obviously very agitated. “I’m telling you that Trinity was very careful. The food at the buffet is very clearly marked. She wouldn’t have gone near the stuff. Something is wrong.”
“There could’ve been cross-contamination,” Mark pointed out. “Maybe one guest used the spoon for the satay in a different bowl. I’m sorry about your friend, Mr. Young, but I don’t think this was anything but an accident.”
“You’re not listening to me,” Mr. Young said in exasperation. “I know Trinity. She was very careful about her allergy. She wouldn’t have gone near anything
with peanuts, not even accidentally. And she usually has an EpiPen with her. Why didn’t she use it? I’m telling you; something is going on here.”
“Her husband doesn’t seem to share your concerns,” Mark said, his voice steely. “He didn’t argue with any of the facts.”
The guest’s face puckered as Mark’s words and implication hit him squarely in the chest. He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it again and shook his head.
“Now, I’m sure the family will need a lot of comfort. As their pastor, maybe you could concentrate on helping the living?” Mark suggested, straightening his back and looking the pastor right in his eyes.
“I want to speak to your captain,” Mr. Young said resolutely, crossing his arms again and glaring at Mark with unconcealed anger.
Shae and Jax shared a concerned look. This wasn’t going to end well. Mark sighed in annoyance but stepped back and motioned for Mr. Young to follow him. Shae and Jax moved to follow, but Mark held up a hand to stop them.
“I can’t stop her,” he gestured at Shae in annoyance, “but I know that you’ve got a lot of work down below. I think it’s time you got back to it.”
For the first time since she’d known him, Jax frowned. He didn’t argue though and nodded slowly.
“I need to talk to you later,” he told her, touching her arm lightly before he walked away.
“How sweet,” Mark said with a wolfish grin. “You two are adorable.”
“There’s nothing adorable about treating a woman with respect,” Shae said blithely, walking past him. “Some people consider it normal.”
“Are you implying something?” Mark asked, frowning. Mr. Young walked ahead of them, obviously uncomfortable.
“Not at all,” Shae said, walking faster. Unfortunately, Mark matched his pace to hers.
“It sounds like you were,” Mark pointed out.
“Then fire me,” Shae suggested with a sugary sweet smile. Mark inhaled sharply, but she hurried down the hall, not in the mood for another round of conflict with the infuriating man. This time, he let her go.
It didn’t take long to get to the captain’s office. It was an impressive part of the ship, but Mr. Young didn’t take any of it in. He was a man on a mission, and nothing was going to distract him from it. He knocked loudly, and immediately opened the door.
Captain Tim, a brawny man with a thick beard, looked up in surprise. He glared at the impertinent guest and looked questioningly at Mark. His desk was filled with tools, and he was trying to assemble a little ship in a bottle.
His beefy hands didn’t look like they were meant for such delicate work, but he was nearly done assembling the intricate structure. He looked at them over his glasses, clearly annoyed by the interruption.
“I couldn’t stop him, sir,” Mark said in a dry tone.
“And I see Ms. Jordan is also with you,” Captain Tim gestured at Shae. “It must be serious. What’s going on?”
It didn’t take long to explain what happened, and by the end of their story, Captain Tim didn’t look impressed. He sighed in annoyance and leaned back in his office chair. The poor chair groaned under his weight, but the captain didn’t seem to notice.
“I heard about the poor woman, Trinity Moretti, isn’t it? Look,” he leaned forward again as he spoke, and the chair groaned again. “This sort of thing happens all the time. People are on vacation, and they let their guard down. I’m sorry about your friend, but we can’t go around chasing suspicions.”
“This isn’t just a suspicion,” Mr. Young insisted. “I know that something weird is going on. Trinity’s husband is acting strange, and I know Trinity wouldn’t go anywhere without her EpiPen. I’ve spoken to her parents, and they agree that it’s suspicious.”
Captain Tim regarded Mr. Young seriously, before turning to Shae.
“What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Shae admitted with a shrug. “It does sound like it was just an accident, but …” she looked at Mr. Young questioningly.
“Caleb,” he said quickly.
“Caleb does bring up some good points. I’d say that someone should look into it. If we don’t find anything, then there’s no harm done.”
“No harm done?” Mark scoffed. “This woman’s family is grieving. This is a difficult time for them, why should we make it worse because someone is acting paranoid?”
“I’m not paranoid,” Caleb said angrily. “I’ve been a friend to this family for years. I know everything about them. Trust me, something weird is going on.”
“We need more than a suspicion to launch an investigation,” Captain Tim said slowly. He looked at Shae questioningly, and she nodded at him. Part of her did it out of spite toward Mark, but another part of her didn’t want to go back to taking pictures. It was hot out.
Taking the afternoon to speak to people in air-conditioned rooms sounded a lot better than sweating like a pig and bending to find the right camera angle.
“Okay,” Captain Tim said quickly before Caleb could protest again. “I’ll ask Shae to look into it. Please cooperate with her as she investigates.”
“The photographer?” Caleb sputtered. “Seriously?”
“Hey!” Shae protested, frowning at him.
“She usually takes care of these things,” Captain Tim said firmly, “and she’s all you’ve got right now. Take it or leave it.”
“Wait,” Mark said, a strange look crossing his face. “I think Mr. Young’s right. We should take this more seriously. I’ll join Ms. Jordan’s investigation.”
“That’s not much better,” Caleb grumbled.
Shae was so shocked that she couldn’t think of anything to say. She just stood there and stared at Mark in horror. There went her more relaxed afternoon. She’d rather take pictures of a million bratty teenagers than be around him.
“I just remembered,” Shae sputtered. “I can’t do this, I have a… thing? Yeah, I’ve got a thing to get to. Sorry, man.”
“Nonsense,” Captain Tim boomed, obviously done with the situation. “You two can work together. There you go, Mr. Young, our best and brightest are on the case.”
He waved his hand at them, gesturing for them to leave, before turning back to his little ship in its bottle.
Chapter 2
“Well,” Shae said awkwardly as the three of them shuffled out of the captain’s office. “Who was with her on this trip?”
She realized with a guilty start that all she had wanted was an afternoon off. The shame moved her to decide to do her best with this investigation. Even if there was no killer, and it was an accident, she knew that she wanted to do her best for the woman.
“Trinity was here with me, her husband, and her sister,” Caleb explained quickly. He didn’t seem to notice that Shae hadn’t mentioned Trinity’s name.
“What’s your connection to the family?” Shae asked curiously, wondering about why he was making such a big fuss when Trinity’s husband seemed satisfied with the current theory.
“More like obsession,” Mark muttered to himself, leaning on the wall as they spoke. He already looked bored.
“We come from a close-knit community,” Caleb explained, walking toward the exit. He was so eager to get started that he didn’t want to waste a moment. Shae followed him without saying anything, but she made a mental note of his actions. “Trinity’s family is heavily involved with the church. They invited me on this trip, said I needed a vacation.”
“That was kind of them,” Shae commented, nodding as he spoke. “So they’re very religious then?”
“Well, Trinity and Serenity are,” Caleb said carefully. “Trinity’s husband never really took to the whole spiritual side of things. We’re working on him, but these things take time.”
“Their names are Trinity and Serenity?” Shae asked, trying not to sound incredulous.
“You know how small towns are,” Caleb said sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders. “They’re twins, so their parents probably wanted matching names.”
“Are you taking us to their cabin?” Shae asked, choosing to ignore Mark’s comment. This didn’t sit well with him, and he huffed in annoyance.
“Yeah,” Caleb said slowly, looking between the two of them. “You know, to get along, maybe you guys need to talk about what’s going on.”
“Hey,” Mark protested, frowning at the pastor, “we’re focusing on one thing at a time, okay? Why are we going to their cabins?”
“We should talk to the family,” Shae said, also frowning at Caleb. The pastor would have to accept that there were some things that couldn’t be fixed. “Find out more about Trinity and what happened to her.”
“Yeah, no,” Mark shook his head and stopped. The other two stopped too and looked at him questioningly. “That’s a waste of time. I say we go up to the dining room and check the cameras. We can find out what she ate, and then we can set up better signs or something. There’s no need to get the family involved.”
“I was there,” Caleb said in frustration. “I saw what happened. Trinity was acting strangely all morning, then at lunch, she was quiet and withdrawn. That’s when it happened.”
“Okay,” Shae said, noticing that Mark was going to say something. “Can you take us through everything that happened? In what way was she acting strange?”
“I don’t know,” Caleb admitted miserably. “She looked upset about something, and uncomfortable. I suggested that she go to the doctor. In case she was sick or something. I thought she was feeling seasick.”
“There we go,” Mark announced, clapping his hands together. “She was seasick, she put the wrong sauce on her food and then she died. We’re done here.”