Hoax

by C. L. Stone

  “Rather,” Axel said, “did anyone talk to all three of them? Colt didn’t, at least not yet. Not that he’s mentioned, and he’s mentioned a lot of people.”

  “Maybe you should go with Colt and talk to them,” Henry said. “Find out their moods. Kayli’s right. From what you’ve said, at least about Mr. Smith and Ms. Ward, we should find out if they’re still interested in Kitty Lane. Could be nothing, but just in case.”

  Kevin turned pages over in a file and frowned. “Shit.”

  “What?” Axel asked.

  Kevin read from the file. “Raven spoke to all of them last night before he disappeared. Or at least, the few witnesses we could find that saw him said so.”

  Axel crossed the room and took the pages from Kevin’s hands to read for himself. “At the time, we assumed he was looking for Kayli since she went missing.”

  Kevin nodded. “We didn’t really notice he was missing until after Kayli called Corey from shore. He disappeared before we had a chance to tell him she was okay.”

  Axel frowned and passed the file back to Kevin. “Look for any instances of Raven talking to anyone else before we lost track of him, and what he might have said.”

  Kevin looked at the rest of us and then back at Axel. “It might be weird if we ask the crew if they talked to him. They’re going to know something is wrong.”

  “We might not have much choice. Kayli’s right that something’s wrong here. Everyone’s too calm this morning. We might be wrong about why Raven is missing.”

  My heart thundered. “How does this all connect? I don’t understand.”

  Axel was on his way to the door, but he turned back to me, the storm building, lightning striking. “I don’t know, but I don’t believe it’s a coincidence he talked to them, and from that moment, they’re unconcerned and he’s suddenly gone.” He shook his head and frowned. “We were too wrapped up with you to see it.”

  Suddenly, he seemed to change gears and snapped his fingers at Brandon. “You, go with Henry to find Fancy. We’re going to need her and her girls to talk to Mr. Smith. Kevin, find Avery, get him and Tara together. I’m going with Colt to talk to Mr. Cline.”

  The whole room became a tornado of chaos with people slugging the last of their coffees, putting in earpieces, and moving out.

  And then, there was silence as the door closed behind them. Marc stayed with me.

  It was unsettling how they’d all disappeared so quickly, especially with what Axel had said.

  We were too wrapped up with you.

  Compromised

  Being left in the storage room sucked.

  Axel’s words still haunted me through a short nap and what felt like eons of tense silence.

  Marc kept an eye on everyone via the monitors and used the audio equipment to keep people in communication.

  I wanted to help, but my foggy brain demanded some downtime. I also needed time to think.

  Sam and his crew might have been behind my getting tossed overboard, but something had happened to Raven, possibly something bad.

  I’d assumed he was just hiding.

  But Raven didn’t hide. Did he?

  I was lying on the cot, forcing myself to stay still, wondering exactly how long I had to rest after a concussion. The doctor had said it was mild. Did I really have to just lie here?

  After a while, Marc rolled his chair over to the cot, caught my ankle, and held it. “Can you take this headset for a bit?” he asked. “I can’t watch and listen at the same time. They should all have the earpieces in—just listen in case they need you to relay something.”

  I took the headset and Marc told me how to operate it. The keypad had several buttons, and I just pressed one and could hear if one of them was talking.

  “It auto-changes the channel depending on certain things our team might say, like ‘help,’ or a volume of shouting,” Marc said. “Listen carefully. It might be someone asking for help, and then give it to me if you need to.”

  Marc showed me a channel to start on. It was filled with the sound of splashes and girls laughing. Doyle must have fallen asleep by the pool. I hoped he got a sunburn.

  I opened up each channel to listen, but it was weird hearing what other people heard and not seeing anyone’s faces. I gathered I was listening through earpieces people were wearing. Watching the monitors was easier, but I could lie on the cot while listening.

  “I’ve been all over this ship,” Colt was saying. “Either she’s with the crew somewhere or she’s…I don’t know.”

  “She’s here somewhere,” Axel said, sounding anxious. “I bet you we’re just missing each other and didn’t realize it.”

  “Let’s try having her name called over the announcement system. That should bring her out.”

  “I’m worried about drawing unwanted attention to her,” Axel said. “You saw Mr. Smith last night. It could be she’s hiding from him.”

  “Why would she hide?” Colt asked.

  “He was drunk and saying crazy things. I bet she’s avoiding people. Did we check the library?”

  They continued, their voices changing as they moved down the hallway. I was tempted to talk to Axel, just to say hello, but I didn’t want to distract him.

  I pushed each button and could hear just about everything from anyone who was connected. Kevin was going over what to say to Tara Ward. He wanted to wait until she got up from the pool. Approaching her now would seem really odd.

  Marc stood up and stretched. “All is quiet for the moment,” he said. “Mr. Smith is having his massage. Tara’s reading her book. Mr. Cline is about to go for a swim in the pool. Everyone else seems to be doing their job or enjoying this cruise. It’s going to take a while to find out what’s up.”

  I sighed and pushed the mute button so I wouldn’t spook Kevin. “I don’t suppose we could just hold a gun to them and make people talk.”

  He chuckled. “Last time we tried that, you ended up shooting people, remember? Let’s try the subtler approach this time.”

  I had my eyes closed, but I sensed him when he came over and hovered above me. “What?”

  He touched me once on the nose. “Are you going to fall asleep?”

  “You should be watching the monitors.”

  “Watch them for a minute?” he asked. “This is why I liked our cabin better. I didn’t have to go far for a toilet.”

  I’d have to go soon, too. I nodded to him. “Surveillance is boring. No wonder Doyle quit.”

  “I agree,” he said.

  I slowly got up as Marc was leaving. I wondered if he needed an earpiece, but then, no one was looking for Marc. There was a bathroom at the start of this hallway, so he wouldn’t be long.

  I crawled out of the cot, pulling my hair back so it was out of my face. I sat in his seat, watching the monitors with bleary eyes. I wanted to find Raven, but I was having a hard time staying awake.

  I spotted Corey walking by shops on the mall-like deck. He looked inside windows but didn’t go in.

  Who was with him? Was he alone?

  If anyone else was near Corey, the cameras weren’t showing me who. I didn’t know how to get the video to show me different angles of the same floor. It just switched around at random to show different cameras at different times.

  Did Corey have an earpiece? I imagined he did.

  I wanted to say hello. I used the keypad for the audio, and I clicked on each button. It didn’t tell me who I got, so I had to listen for surroundings and try to figure out whose feed it was. I wished they were marked so I could tell who was who.

  I got Axel again, switched, and found who I thought was Corey but quickly realized it was Brandon talking. I switched again: Kevin.

  I switched again and heard voices. As I listened, I realized there was a piano playing and live singing in my ear. I expanded Corey’s video, and sure enough, there was a piano player in the center of the shopping area.

  “Can you hear me?” I asked in
to the mic.

  Corey didn’t seem to react in the camera. He’d been looking inside a shop and continued to do so.

  Maybe he couldn’t talk. It would be weird to others around him if he seemed to be talking to himself.

  “Just saying hello,” I said quietly, wondering if people nearby would hear him talking to me.

  “Where are you?” a whisper came through. I thought it was him.

  “Watching the monitors,” I said.

  Silence. Corey still didn’t move, but he looked up. Checking the reflection in the shop window?

  His head turned curiously, right, left, over his shoulder. Then he turned around, heading slowly toward the piano.

  “Is something going on?” I asked. I hoped he could hear me over the piano.

  Corey darted his head back and forth, but said nothing.

  Maybe I was distracting him. I hoped he didn’t lose whoever he was watching.

  Corey remained by the piano for a long while. A woman—a crew member—walked up to him, offering him water and a piece of paper. Corey waved her off, but she continued to talk to him with a smile, offering the paper and laughing. By her body language, I could tell she was flirting with him.

  His head turned, slowly, surveying the area, on alert.

  I focused on Corey, wondering what bothered me about the scene in front of me, when I realized I had only seen the woman talking to him. I hadn’t heard her. I heard the piano. I should have been able to hear her and Corey talking.

  I wondered if there was a problem, but I was still hearing something through the headset: Music? Voices?

  I wasn’t listening through Corey’s earpiece.

  I’d been listening to someone else near Corey. Who was with him? Maybe Avery?

  My heart was pounding as I forced myself to focus on the screen, straining to hear every sound.

  Corey walked around the shopping area, his head darting back and forth, clearly on the lookout for someone. Who?

  The sound of the piano faded out, and all I heard were footsteps.

  Heavy footsteps. Getting faster.

  I listened and returned my attention to Corey in the video; he was walking away from the piano and out of range of the camera. I clicked around but couldn’t catch him in other video feeds.

  I grunted. Stupid limited videos.

  “Hey!” An Irish shout came loud over the audio, scaring the crap out of me. “Yo. You. You listening to me right now?”

  “Doyle?” I asked. I found the video feed from the pool he’d been at, but he had left. I didn’t see him anywhere. When had that happened? “What’s going on?”

  “Shit,” he said. “It’s you.”

  Ugh. Someone had woken him up. Or had I been talking to him? Now I was going to have to breathe in smoke. And argue. “I’ve got things. Go back to doing whatever you were doing. Take a break.”

  “No, idiot. You just…stupid…girl…idiot. I told you not to touch a goddamn thing and you couldn’t listen. I curse everyone right now, all the babies.”

  “Where’s the hang-up button on this?” I asked, swiveling in the chair to turn away from the monitors since no one was in sight. “I want to hang up on you.”

  “Turn it off,” he said, sounding like he was running out of breath. “Kill it.”

  Did he think I was breaking his stuff? “Kill? What?”

  “Kill everything. Kill the computers.”

  “What? Why?”

  Suddenly his voice was completely breathless but the tone changed to desperate. “Do it. Right now. I swear to God, I’ll never make fun of you… anything you want. I’m being dead serious right now. Just kill everything in that room. Do it.”

  I’d never heard this kind of panic in Doyle’s voice. He always seemed crabby and ready to argue with me, but this was different.

  “Kill it and leave, Kayli,” he continued. “Right now.”

  I jumped out of the chair and scanned the room, looked for a big plug in the wall. There was an extension cord under the table. I got down on my knees and crawled underneath to yank at it.

  The plug flew out of the wall. Everything shut down at once, including the audio. I couldn’t hear anything from Doyle.

  I exhaled and put the headset on the chair, my heart pounding. I was summoning up some energy to push myself up and out from under the table when the door opened.

  I froze. Doyle had said to leave. Was this him? Or Marc returning to get me? I remained still, wanting to see who it was before I dared come out of hiding.

  Legs appeared in the doorway. Legs in black jeans and combat boots.

  No one on our team was wearing black jeans today, at least not that I could remember.

  My heart thundered in my rib cage.

  Please be Avery. Please be Axel. Anyone. Even Liam or Henry. I’d even love to hear Doyle’s voice.

  The person entered the room. Heavy footsteps came over to the table as I held my breath. The legs bent into a crouch.

  I bit my lip, heart pounding, waiting to be discovered.

  A face appeared.

  Raven.

  My heart leapt into my throat as relief washed over me. Raven! Thank God.

  I had two seconds to be thankful it was him and then I had to get him out of here. Doyle had said to leave.

  I reached out to him, wanting to explain. “Raven,” I said, breathless. His hair was standing up on his head a bit. His big brown eyes were wide, wild, like the bear tattoo on his back. He wore a black shirt. The lip ring was gone, the hole still evident.

  We reached for each other. He hooked me by the elbow and pulled. I thought he was just trying to get me to stand, but once I was almost up, he tugged again. Hard.

  Before I knew what he was doing, I was over his shoulder.

  He pivoted and pulled down the shelf that had all the hard drives and papers.

  The shelf crashed down. Papers flew across the room, some landing on the cot, most on the floor.

  A burning smell caught my nose. He turned again.

  As I dangled over his shoulder, I saw the lighter landing on the cot, the papers fluttering under it.

  He’d set the room on fire.

  The Return of the Bear

  Raven flew down the hallway with me over his shoulder.

  I couldn’t get enough air to yell at him to put me down. I planted a hand on his butt, trying to, at the very least, stabilize myself.

  He carried me downstairs, down into the deeper parts of the ship. I wasn’t sure where we were going until I started to smell hairspray and nail polish.

  The spa? Why?

  The only things I could glimpse around his body were the glass doors and the atrium, and then I was looking at the back of the stairs, and walls I didn’t recognize.

  Click. Door opening. He pulled me down off his shoulder and set me on my feet and then turned and locked the door, the two of us inside.

  As the blood rushed out of my head, a dizzy sensation swept through me, a black wash going over my eyes. It took a few minutes for it to clear enough that I could take in our surroundings.

  The room—more like a closet—was lit by one tiny yellowed light above our heads. The area was hot and filled with large pipes. There were meters on the pipes, buttons and diagrams on the walls. The space was cramped.

  But we were alone.

  Raven turned to me, his eyes wild. His broad shoulders seemed to take up most of the room. Some might call him stocky, but he was all muscle. A powerhouse. In the black jeans, combat boots, and black shirt, he was downright scary.

  “What happened to you?” I asked. “Why did you…” My brain was still floating from being upside down.

  He leaned against the door, sweat beading across his brow. His broad chest rose and fell as he caught his breath. He scanned me up and down once, taking me in.

  I was still in the slim black pants, tight sweater, and padded bra. I was embarrassed; even as plain as it was, it was more
dressed up than I usually got and I didn’t feel like me.

  I opened my mouth to ask again where he’d been.

  Before I had the chance, he pushed himself from the door and reached for me, grabbing my shoulders, pulling me into him.

  He kissed me.

  Shock stilled me, and all I felt were his lips on mine. All I could do was stand there, mouth open.

  His kiss deepened and I slowly started to kiss him back.

  When I did, he pressed into me, forcing me to step back. He lifted his hands, pressing his large palms into the wall behind me and pushing me against it. His lips were demanding, hungry. His tongue surged into my mouth, drawing out mine. He sucked my tongue and dove deeper into the kiss.

  I began to respond more and more. I hadn’t meant to hold back. I knew in the past I had, especially with him. But I was relieved to see him and needed to show him that I’d missed him, that I cared about him.

  Raven never held back. He pressed against my body. I felt the hardness between his legs, pulsing against his jeans. My slacks seemed so thin, like he was grinding himself against my groin.

  I moaned and reached around his neck.

  I opened my mouth more for him. The more he kissed me, the more I wanted him to. I’d missed him, and I had been so worried. Relief flooded through me just feeling that he wanted me, and he was here.

  He pulled back just when I was sure I’d drown in his kiss. His breath was heavy as it warmed my face in the already-warm room.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” His deep voice reverberated, the Russian accent thick, especially at every r sound.

  I let go of his neck, pulling back, but only getting so far with the wall right behind me. “I should be asking you why we’re here,” I said. “Didn’t I just ride down here on your shoulder?”

  “I mean on the boat. How the hell did you get back?”

  I breathed in deeply and leaned back against the wall, realizing he must not have known I’d made it back. Where had he thought I was? Had he thought I’d drowned? “Liam and Henry. Some people from your Academy. They brought us back last night.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Us? He’s back too?”