She leans over me and smiles as her hair hangs in my face. “You are not fucking normal and this whole ship from Hell thing you have got going on here is filled with whore bags. Whore bags that you share with your work colleagues.” She fakes a shiver of disgust.
It would seem weird to the outside world. Truth be known, for the first time since being here, I can’t wait to get back to this cabin every night after work. This beautiful, innocent, fiery woman in my bed is almost too much to bear.
I want her.
I want her to want me and I will move Hell to make damn sure that she does.
I reach up and swipe my fingers through her dark, chocolate hair as she stares down at me. “I’m not interested in the whore bags, Rosh.”
“What are you interested in?” Her eyes search mine and I have to restrain myself from sitting up and taking her lips in mine. I can’t touch her in the bedroom, I remind myself.
“You,” I answer immediately. I can’t even pretend that I don’t want her. Regret fills me and I hesitate for a moment. “I wish we had met under different circumstances,” I reply.
“The point is moot because we didn’t.” She smiles sadly as she pulls out of my grip and stands.
My face falls at her rejection.
“So, is that a yes? You will help me?” she asks.
I lie back and watch her for a moment as I tuck my two hand behinds my head. Why does the thought of being the only person on the planet who knows where she is seem so appealing to me?
“I can help you disappear,” I reply.
She smiles a grateful smile. “Thank you.”
I stand and wrap my arms around her from behind, and she turns and leans her head onto my chest. We stand for an extended time in each other’s arms and I wish she didn’t just show me that vulnerable side of her… because now, not only do I have the primal urge to fuck her, I also have the need to protect her. In the situation I am in here in on this ship, I honestly don’t know if I can offer her protection or which sin is the worse evil.
* * *
Rosh.
The door closes behind him as he leaves for work I wait for ten minutes and tap my foot impatiently. I’m itching to get back into his wardrobe. I tiptoe over to the door and open it to peer left down the corridor, and then right. He’s nowhere to be seen. All is silent and the coast is clear.
Time for business.
I close the door behind me, lock it, and then grab the chair to lift it over to the wardrobe where I carefully climb up. I stand and peer into the darkness and feel up over my head. My clumsy hand clambers around and I just can’t seem to reach the fake roofing. I stretch farther and nearly fall off the chair.
Damn it, why can’t I find it today? I found it by accident last time. I jump a little and hit the roof and sure enough, it releases. I push the fake roof up and slide it to the side. I feel around and finally locate the sought after phone. My eyes glance around guiltily and I slide the roofing back into place, close the wardrobe, and put the chair back at the desk. I then take out a pen and paper, lock myself in the bathroom, and take a seat on the floor. I click on images first and go straight to the picture of the attractive girl and the young boy. Is this his family? Who is this girl? I slide across until I get to the photo of the two of them with the young man and I study it for a moment. He has his arm around her and she is leaning her head back onto him. They look like a couple… a family. I swipe through the images once more and then come back to this one again. I frown as I think. No, I am sure they are this other guy’s family… not my Mac’s.
I roll my eyes in disgust at myself. He’s not my Mac. Oh God. Concentrate, you fucking idiot. I keep going through the images until I get to the one I am looking for. The report.
* * *
1267 CCPick up 10thCoffee
* * *
1208HPick up after deliveryTea
* * *
1190IPick up 14thStatue
* * *
1211H Pick up 11thNA
* * *
1130CCNon disclosedBook
* * *
1140 DMDPick up after deliveryStatue
* * *
1289WPPADFlooring
* * *
Hmm, what do these mean?
Okay, so container 1267 has something in coffee. CC…what is CC? I bite my thumbnail for a moment as I contemplate this. I take out my pen and paper and start to copy down the note.
What the hell is CC?
Where is Google when I desperately need it?
Container 1208 has something in tea and the pick up is after delivery. After delivery? Does that mean after we get to Puerto Rico? And what is H?
H… H… H is for…?
My eyes widen. Holy fuck. H is heroin. I think for a moment. Shit, CC must be cocaine.
I put both of my hands over my mouth in shock. Cocaine is hidden in the coffee and heroine is hidden in the tea.
Crap. This is some serious shit. My heart rate picks up and my eyes flicker around nervously. What if I get caught copying this down?
Why does he even have it? What if he gets caught copying this down? Who did he copy this from?
Shit, I continue down the list.
1140 DMDPick up after deliveryStatue
* * *
1289WPPADFlooring
1140. DMD. What is that? What is DMD? God, I really do need to find out what all of this shit means. Whatever it is, it’s in a statue. I wonder how big of a statue?
I tap my foot as I think. Okay, the first thing I need to do is find the container and try to get into it. Which container do I want? I go back through the list with my pen. It needs to be small enough for me to…
I have to ask him how I’m getting off this ship. Maybe I will be searched?
So much to think about. I put the phone back where it belongs and after carefully hiding my note, hop into the shower.
I let the hot water run over me as I try to devise a plan.
I’m going to do this, Momma. This is my chance and I’m taking it. I’m breaking free.
* * *
“Ready to go?” Angela asks from the corridor as I open the door. I smile, grateful she has been so nice to me and has come to get me to take me with her for the day.
“So where are we going again?” I ask.
“Top deck?”
I frown.
“Up on top of the control room we have a place that we call top deck. Sun lounges and the gym and stuff are up there.”
I raise my eyebrows in shock. “Sun lounges?”
She laughs. “Don’t get too excited, it’s a long way from Ibiza. You have a swimming suit, don’t you?”
“Um.” I frown. “Oh, I think I do in that bag of stuff. Let me check.” I shuffle around in the plastic bag and find the white bikini. “Here it is.” I cringe as I hold it up and inspect it.
“Put it on.” She smirks
“Okay.” I slip into the bathroom and put on the tiny bikini.
“Hurry up,” Angela calls.
“Oh God, it’s fucking obscene,” I shout back.
“Let me see.”
I tentatively open the door as I look down at myself in the white, Lycra, barely-there, string bikini.
Angela raises her eyebrows in approval. “Very nice. Mac’s going to love you in that.”
I frown as I try to stretch the top to cover more of my boobs. “Do you think so?”
She smiles warmly. “I know so.”
I glance over at her. I want to ask her so many things about him. Like why is he on this God forsaken boat? How long has it been since he slept with Chelsea? Does he have someone at home waiting for him? Is he really nice and insanely gorgeous, or am I becoming delusional and developing Stockholm Syndrome? I know I shouldn’t care about any of the answers to my questions, and to be honest, the less I know about him the better. He is a means to an end. He will keep me safe until I get off this boat and that is all I need to know. The rest doesn’t matter. I wish it really didn’t matter to me… but somehow it secretly does. I grab my towel. Ten minutes later I am being led to the top deck.
“Here it is.” Angela holds her arms up. “Our own special kind of paradise.”
I laugh out loud. “Yes, I can see.” The area is about ten meters square and there are ten white deck chairs in a semi circle, and the floor is covered in fake grass. It is the epitome of the eighties. To the left is a large glass room that houses the gym. I can see a guy in there working out. Angela spreads her towel out on a chair and lies down. “Take a seat.”
I spread my towel out, sit down beside her, lie back, and close my eyes. The sun is warm and welcoming.
We lie for a long time in silence. “How long did you say you have been on this boat for?” I ask.
Angela screws up her face as she thinks. “A couple of years.”
I glance over at her. “Explain this two men thing to me.”
She smiles with her eyes closed as she inhales the sun. “If you had asked me ten years ago if this is the life I imagined for myself.”
I watch her.
She shakes her head. “No way in Hell would I have imagined being happy here, living the way I do.”
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Happy?” I frown, because I can’t imagine that she could be.
She smiles broadly. “I have never been so happy.”
I fall back and face the sun as her words roll around in my head.
“Once I let go of my childhood aspirations and let myself live in the moment, I stopped being disappointed with everything.”
I glance over at her. “What do you mean?” I ask.
She shrugs. “I thought to be happy I had to have the three kids and the white picket fence in the suburbs with the perfect husband.”
“That’s how I feel,” I murmur.
“It’s all fucking bullshit. All of it.”
I think for a moment. “I just don’t get…” I stop myself, knowing this is none of my business and I really shouldn’t comment.
“How I’m with two men?” she asks.