Pleasure Cruise

by Yolanda Wallace

  Spencer looked at her hard. “You’re kidding, right? Who in her right mind doesn’t like chocolate?”

  “I have a weakness for strawberry cheesecake, but on the whole, I prefer my treats to be salty rather than sweet.”

  “Do you like your women the same way?” Spencer asked before she could stop herself.

  “Unfortunately, yes,” Amy said with a laugh. “That probably explains why I’m single.”

  “And it probably explains why I have so many fillings in my teeth. I keep a bowl of candy next to my computer monitor and snack on the contents while I work. More often than not, a handful of miniature chocolate bars serves as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.” She glanced at the game card Amy had given her. “What’s the prize if I win?”

  “Besides a chance to meet twenty-five new people?”

  “Twenty-four.” Spencer pointed to the mark she had made in the center square. “Thanks to you, I already got a head start, remember?”

  Amy lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Don’t say that too loud or you might get disqualified for cheating. I don’t know what the prize is, but I’m sure Breanna has picked out something good from the company stash. You wouldn’t want to miss out on winning some sweet swag, would you?”

  She wouldn’t want to miss out on a chance to spend some quality time with Amy, either. “Are you going to play?”

  Amy shook her head. “I know most of the people here so I’d have an unfair advantage.”

  “Then you sound like you could be the perfect wingman.”

  “If I didn’t have a meeting I need to get to in a few minutes, I might take you up on that.” Amy turned to leave, then seemed to think better of the idea. “If you save me a seat at dinner, I’d love to hear all about how the game went. Breanna has a tendency to embellish from time to time. I’d prefer to hear the details from someone with a more reliable point of view.”

  SOS Tours had set aside reserved seating for the Indies at each meal, meaning Spencer wouldn’t have to eat alone. With no reasonable excuse for staying in and ordering room service, how could she turn down Amy’s offer? But before she said yes, there was one thing she had to know.

  “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We’re on a ship filled with thousands of passengers, yet I’ve run into you twice in a matter of only a few hours. Are you paying me extra attention because you want to or because it’s part of your job description?”

  Amy seemed taken aback by the question, even though Spencer suspected it was one she had probably fielded dozens of times before. “I’m being nice to you because I like to get to know the women who travel with us. Because you allow us to share your vacations with you, you’re much more than clients. You’re like family. Does that answer your question?”

  Amy flashed a disarming smile, but Spencer didn’t let

  her guard down. She thought about the conversation she’d had with Hannah a few minutes before. “I heard SOS Tours employees aren’t allowed to get involved with clients. If that’s true, I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble for fraternizing with me.”

  “My fellow employees and I aren’t permitted to become intimate with clients during trips, no,” Amy said carefully, “but we’re allowed to ‘fraternize’ with whoever we choose. Because we want to, not because we’re told to. I’m not trying to pressure you into doing something you don’t feel comfortable with, Spencer. If you’d prefer to have dinner with someone else—”

  “Someone who doesn’t have an aversion to chocolate, you mean?”

  Amy laughed and Spencer felt the growing tension dissipate. She also felt a heavy weight fall off her shoulders. Knowing Amy was off-limits made it easier to spend time with her. She could relax and be herself, not worry about making an impression favorable enough to win her over. Like that could ever happen.

  “This is going to be a continuing issue between us, isn’t it?” Amy asked.

  “Yep. I don’t know if I’ll be able to share a table with someone who turns up her nose at the greatest confection ever created, but I’m willing to give it a try if you are.”

  “In that case, I’ll see you tonight.”

  Even though she knew nothing could come of it, Spencer couldn’t remember the last time she had looked forward to something more.

  * * *

  Jessica began to address the list of questions Amy handed her. Queries that SOS Tours personnel had received from guests since the ship had sailed but were unable to answer. Most questions were as simple as the hours the gym were open. Others were more complex. Leanna Lafaele, the head of the Wahines on Water program, for example, had received a question from a passenger whose partially paralyzed partner was interested in taking part in a spin class but only if she wouldn’t end up feeling like the center of attention while she did so.

  “I make sure all of my classes are inclusive,” Jessica said. “I don’t believe in separating participants by skill level. I find it’s much more enjoyable when everyone’s together having fun. I have several recumbent bikes available. I’m sure the passenger would be able to use one of them during a class. I can adjust the routine to account for her physical challenges, but I hope she doesn’t expect me to go easy on her.”

  “No, I think she wants you to push her as hard as you do everyone else. Harder even since she’s a former Marine.”

  “Awesome.” Jessica loved helping people test their limits. From the sound of it, she wouldn’t have to push her new client too hard to reach for hers. “I’m looking forward to it.”

  Jessica scrolled down the rest of the list. She answered each question as thoroughly as she could, but it quickly became apparent that Amy wasn’t paying attention to anything she was saying. In fact, Amy had seemed distracted throughout their meeting, which Jessica found disappointing. When Breanna Lafaele, Leanna’s sister, had called a few days ago to talk about this week’s trip, she had mentioned that Amy would be acting as cruise director for the first time. Jessica had been skeptical of Amy’s ability to do a good job her first time out, but Breanna had praised Amy’s professionalism.

  Jessica hadn’t worked with Amy before so all she had to go on was Breanna’s word. She had always thought Breanna was a pretty good judge of character—and she wasn’t saying that simply because she and Breanna had started hooking up during a trip to the Mexican Riviera two years ago. Okay, perhaps she was. Her thinking process got a little muddled whenever she remembered some of the sexy things Breanna could do with her tongue. Amy’s behavior today, however, made Jessica wonder if Breanna’s assessment of her was clouded by the blinders of friendship. Or were Breanna and Amy hooking up, too? Jessica and Breanna had never made any claims on each other, but Jessica felt a definite pang of jealousy when she thought about Breanna and Amy hitting the sheets.

  “Is there anything else you need to know?” she asked as a passenger walked in and headed to the treadmill.

  “Hmm?” Amy jerked as if waking up from a nap. “Oh, no, that’s all for now. I’ll let you get back to work. Thanks for meeting with me.” She gathered her things but didn’t rise from her seat. “I apologize if I seemed out of sorts today.”

  So Jessica hadn’t been imagining things. Even though Amy had confirmed her suspicions that she had been spaced out for most of their meeting, Jessica decided not to hold it against her. “No problem. Being in charge of a group this size has to be challenging.”

  “That’s one way of putting it. Do you have any idea when the boutiques close?”

  Jessica was thrown for a loop by the unexpected question. Had Amy been thinking about shopping the whole time? “Not for a couple of hours. Why?”

  “I need to find an outfit for dinner.”

  “What’s the matter?” Jessica didn’t try to disguise the sarcasm in her voice. “Did you burn through a week’s worth of clothes in only a few hours?”

  “No. Aside from one dressy outfit I brought to wear to the formal farewell dinner on the la
st night of the trip, I packed mostly casual clothes because I planned to hit the buffet all week instead of the main dining room.”

  “What changed?”

  Amy looked somewhat embarrassed. “There’s a passenger on board who seems a bit out of her element, and I was hoping I could help her find her sea legs.”

  “I see.”

  Now Amy’s behavior today was starting to make sense. Jessica knew from experience how easy it was to lose focus on the task at hand whenever there was a woman involved. Even though Amy was trying to downplay her dinner plans with the passenger she had mentioned, Jessica could see a spark of interest in her eyes. She could also see why Amy had inspired such loyalty in Breanna. Amy didn’t buckle under the yoke of responsibility, and she wasn’t afraid to own up to her own shortcomings. Jessica felt like kicking herself for rushing to judgment. And she felt terrible for potentially having a hand in placing the trip’s success at risk.

  SOS Tours had a lot riding on this cruise. After the debacle that had taken place in Cancún six months ago, the company couldn’t afford another misstep. Not if they wanted to retain the customers that had remained loyal instead of deciding to do business with someone else. If Brandon tried to sell drugs to the wrong passenger or someone overestimated how much their body could handle, the consequences could be catastrophic for everyone.

  “Good luck,” she said.

  Because they just might need it.

  Night One

  Jessica wasn’t easily impressed, but she looked on slack-jawed as the passenger who had entered the gym during her meeting with Amy continued her workout. The passenger, a tall African-American woman with muscles for days, possessed a rare combination of power, agility, and endurance. She put in a brisk thirty minutes on the treadmill and stepped off without even breathing hard. Then she picked up a jump rope and went through one of the intricate workouts boxers put themselves through while they were in training for an upcoming fight. She whipped the rope through the air so fast it was little more than a blur as it skipped under her feet and over her head. Jessica wouldn’t have lasted five seconds at that rate, let alone the fifteen minutes to which the woman subjected herself. After she finally managed to break a sweat, the woman ran a towel over her face, arms, and close-cropped hair.

  “Can I have a spot?” she asked as she settled onto one of the weight benches.

  “Sure.” Jessica pulled a back brace from her duffel bag and wrapped it around her waist. The woman’s expression was wary, her body language guarded. She seemed as if it took a great deal of effort to earn her trust. Jessica felt honored the woman had chosen to trust her, however briefly. “How much weight would you like?”

  The woman lifted her broad shoulders in a shrug. “One fifty’s a good place to start.”

  Jessica whistled in admiration. The woman appeared to be in her late twenties. At her age, she should have been able to bench press around sixty-five percent of her body weight. Based on Jessica’s estimate, the amount of weight the woman had requested was closer to ninety percent.

  “You’re probably only a buck twenty soaking wet,” the woman said with a sly grin. “Do you think you’re up to the job?”

  “I’m stronger than I look.” Jessica cinched her back brace a little bit tighter. If she had to step in, thankfully she wouldn’t have to lift her burden too far. Otherwise, they’d both be in trouble. As the woman lifted the weighted barbell off the rack, Jessica positioned her hands under the bar, ready to intercede if the woman had overestimated her own strength. “What’s your name?”

  The woman took a deep breath as she lowered the weight to her chest and exhaled as she slowly straightened her arms. “Raquel,” she said between lifts, “but my homies call me Raq. You’re Jessica, right?”

  “Have we met before?” Jessica had worked with so many passengers over the years that she had forgotten most of their names. Raq’s striking looks, however, made her hard to forget.

  “Nah, I heard the blonde who just booked it out of here call you that while you two were talking. Are you kicking it with her?”

  “No, we just work together. I can get her number for you if you’d like me to.”

  Raq chuckled. “Thanks for the offer, but I think my girl would have something to say about that. Since she’s a cop, I try not to get on her bad side. I don’t want her to slap me in handcuffs unless it’s in the bedroom, you know what I’m saying?”

  “I hear you. Are you in law enforcement, too?”

  “In a way. I’m what you might call a consultant. Kind of like Sherlock Holmes on Elementary. I help crack cases, but I don’t get to carry a badge.”

  “I’ve always been fascinated by how people decide what they want to do for a living. How did you get started?”

  “I used to provide security for one of the biggest drug dealers in Baltimore.”

  Jessica didn’t know what she had been expecting Raq to say, but it definitely wasn’t that. “Were you one of his bodyguards or something?”

  “No, he had a squad of guys a lot bigger than I am to make sure he stayed out of harm’s way. My job wasn’t nearly as glamorous. I used to keep the corner boys safe while they did their thing. I let them know when the five-oh was about to roll up, and I kept rival dealers from encroaching on our territory.”

  The description sounded like some of the services Jessica performed for Brandon. She didn’t have to worry about keeping the competition at bay since they had the market to themselves, but that didn’t prevent her from looking out for him in other ways. It wasn’t part of her job description, but she was willing to do whatever it took to keep their operation running smoothly—and to keep everyone involved in it from winding up in prison. They had successfully rolled the dice dozens of times without crapping out, but she was tired of pushing her luck. The time had come for her to cash in her chips.

  “I never carried a gun, though,” Raq said. “I still don’t. That’s one of my rules. I’ve always fought my battles with these.” She held up her fists. “Sometimes, I was paid to do it. Sometimes, I wasn’t. A friend back home who owns a boxing gym keeps trying to convince me I should try out for the Olympics or take a shot at going pro, but there’s no money in women’s boxing and I can’t eat a gold medal.”

  “There’s good money to be had in product endorsements. Some athletes make more money off the field than they do on it.”

  “Maybe, but there’s no way a company with a ton of loot would take a chance on putting someone with my background on a cereal box. The side of a milk carton, maybe.”

  Jessica was curious about Raq’s about-face. “But you said you don’t live that life anymore. How did you go from working for drug dealers to helping to catch them?” When she got out, she intended to walk away without looking back. She wasn’t interested in seeking justice, righting wrongs, or making amends. She just wanted to be free.

  “The guy I used to work for was Ice Taylor.”

  Jessica recognized the name. At his peak, Isaac “Ice” Taylor was the biggest drug dealer on the East Coast. He built a vast multimillion-dollar empire, using his legal businesses to launder the money he earned from his illegal ones. Almost as swiftly as he had risen to power, he had been knocked off his perch. And Raq was partially responsible for both his meteoric rise and his spectacular downfall.

  “I threw in with Ice because I didn’t think I had a choice. I grew up in the ’hood, and the money he offered seemed like my only way out. I took his money, but I never let him take my principles. I met Bathsheba, my lady, when she went undercover and took Ice down. I fell for her before I knew who she was. When I found out she was a cop, I felt trapped between the only life I’d ever known and one I never dreamed I could have. Being with her made me realize I was selling myself short. I had choices. I just had to decide to go the hard way instead of taking the easy route. Staying on the straight and narrow doesn’t pay as much as running the streets, but Bathsheba makes it worth the sacrifice. Taking her on this trip is kind of my way of tha
nking her for helping me turn my life around.”

  “Is this your first time traveling with SOS?”

  “Yeah. Bathsheba’s, too.” Raq finished a set of ten reps and lowered the weight onto the bar to give the muscles in her arms and shoulders time to rest. “I love her, but she’s like a Boy Scout sometimes. She’s always gotta be prepared. I found our room, the dining room, the gym, and the bars. I’m good. While she’s sitting through orientation, learning everything there is to know about what to expect this week, I’m hanging out here trying to take my mind off the fact that I’m surrounded by all this water. I can swim, but I ain’t no Michael Phelps, you know what I mean?”

  “There’s no need to be nervous. I’ve been on dozens of cruises and the worst that’s ever happened is a day or two of choppy seas.” Jessica thought it best not to mention the norovirus outbreak that had plagued her last trip. Raq was on edge enough as it was.

  “There’s always a first time. I brought plenty of video games to keep me distracted on the days we can’t see land, but that didn’t work out too well today.”

  “Why not?”

  Raq took a sip of water from the bottle between her feet. “Bathsheba and I went back to our room after the Reagan Carter concert, and I started playing one of my games to take my mind off the fact that the ship was moving. I didn’t think I had the volume turned up that loud, but when she heard me waste one of the characters in the game, the federale in the room across the hall came busting into the room like she was leading a raid on a drug den.”

  Jessica felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach. “We have a federale on board?”

  “Yeah, her name’s Luisa Moreno, and she’s based in Mexico City. She’s not on duty this week, though. She and her girlfriend, a writer for some travel magazine, were part of that whole mess that took place in Cancún a few months ago. They got vouchers for a free vacation and decided to cash them in on this trip. Once we got over the shock of her practically kicking our door down, she and Bathsheba hit it off right away. Cops are cops, no matter what color their uniform.”