God knows I am going to be on my own for a long time after this in fucking Puerto Rico.
I glance at the clock on the wall. Where is he? He has been gone for a few hours and he said he wouldn’t be long. I put the chair back and straighten the bed linen and fold and put away our clothes that have come back from the laundry this afternoon. I go back into the bathroom and check how I look again. Bloody hell, maybe he won’t even be coming to dinner?
I take a seat on the bed and stare around at my surroundings. Dead silence. No television, no radio. How does he stay sane in this environment for so long on his own? No wonder he’s always horny.
A knock sounds at the door. Why is he knocking? I open the door to see Ang standing in front of me. “I came to get you for dinner.”
My face drops. “Where’s Mac?”
“Apparently something is going on. I don’t know. The boys aren’t back yet, either. Chelsea said she saw them and they said to go without them.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Hopefully everything is alright,” she mutters as we walk down the hall.
“What do you mean?”
“Stuff happens on this ship.”
“Like what?” I frown.
“Well…you know what kind of ship this is and some seedy characters fly in and out. I know a helicopter came in this afternoon. I hope the exchange went well.”
“Oh,” I mutter, distracted. God. “Has anything ever happened before?”
“A guy got killed once. He tried to rip off the dealer and they shot him dead.”
My eyes widen in horror. “Fuck,” I whisper. “Who was that?”
She shrugs. “Some idiot who worked on here. I didn’t really know him. Apparently he was shifty.”
“Who shot him, I mean?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. One of them.”
“Mac? Was it Mac?” Is he really capable of this kind of stuff?
“Who knows? They don’t tell me much. I hear most things through Chelsea.”
“What did they do?”
“They threw his body overboard.”
“Holy shit. I can’t believe this.”
“It’s true.”
Ang’s eyes glance down at me and she smiles broadly. “You scrub up well.”
I look down at myself and smile. “Thanks for loaning it to me. I would love to say I will pay you back, but I have nothing to loan you.”
She grabs my hand in hers. “Your friendship is a gift and you have loaned me that.”
Oh, what a nice thing to say. I get choked up. She has no idea how much that means to me. I have never felt as alone as I have in the last two weeks. It has been so nice having someone to talk to today. She squeezes my hand as if knowing that she just hit a nerve. We take a seat at our normal table with three of the girls. I haven’t really paid much attention to the other girls before and I glance around at them. One has black hair and is kind of rough looking, while the other is a bottle blonde and looks like she would be in her early thirties. They are attractive, but it is blatantly obvious that they have had hard lives. The third girl is Chelsea; the boy’s clear favorite. She is attractive and has a banging body, but it is her confidence and outgoing personality that sets her apart from the others.
“What’s going on? Where are the boys?” Angela asks.
The two other girls shrug and Chelsea leans into the table. “Apparently someone fucked up and Jack had to reprimand them this afternoon, and then Rick and he ended up fighting.”
Angela’s face falls. “Who… J-Jack and Rick are fighting each other?” she stammers.
Chelsea shakes her head. “No. Rick ended up getting into a fight with Stucco and then they had to call Mac to sort it.”
I sit still, unsure what to say.
Chelsea points her chin toward the girl with the black hair to symbolize for her to be quiet. Oh… the dark haired girl must be close with the guy they are talking about. We wait until she gets distracted as someone comes in to talk to her.
“What happened?” Angela whispers.
“I don’t know, apparently Mac ended up going fucking crazy and had to be pulled off him before he killed him.”
My eyes widen. Fuck. Stucco is that sleazy guy who hit me. I heard Mac say he wanted a reason to kill him that night.
“How did it start?” Angela whispers.
“Apparently Stucco got caught going through Simmo’s cabin.”
“What was he doing?” Angela whispers.
“Searching for something.”
“Like what?” I whisper.
“I don’t know, but it was suspicious, and to top it off, when the chopper arrived in the middle of all this chaos they couldn’t find the key to the container they were here to empty.”
“Fucking hell,” Angela whispers.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Mac had to open the container with huge ass bolt cutters. He looked like an idiot in front of the clients. He was fuming mad.”
My eyes widen. “Where was the key supposed to be?”
“All of the keys are kept in the main office, but this afternoon when they went to get the key it was missing.”
“Shit,” Angela whispers.
“Mac is going fucking berserk because it means we have a thief on board as one of the crew.”
“Does he think its Stucco?” I ask.
Chelsea shrugs. “Who knows, but I would hate to be whoever it is when he finds out.”
I sit back and sip my drink. Hmm. Very interesting. There are keys in the office. Everybody goes in the office so everybody is a suspect. I sip my drink to hide my smirk. This could be easier than I ever imagined. But what if they lock the cupboard now?
Shit. This could really mess up my plans. “Where did he get the bolt cutters?” I whisper.
Chelsea’s eyes flicker to me for asking a stupid question. “Down on level three is the maintenance level, all the tools are kept down there.”
“Oh,” I answer. Level three. I need to check out this level three.
The girl with the dark hair waves and stands to meet someone behind us and we all turn. It’s Stucco. She kisses him on the lips and they walk over to the bar.
“So is she on with him?” I ask.
Chelsea shrugs. “They get it on, but she is with other guys, too. She sleeps most nights in his cabin now. It won’t be long before he stakes his claim and refuses to share her.”
I frown. God, this is a weird set up. My eyes flicker over to them as they get their drinks from the bar and take a seat on the armchair in front of it. He sits down and she sits on his lap allowing his hands to roam up and down her upper thigh.
A guy walks in. He’s tall and dark and pretty damn hot to be honest. Who is this? “Hey Chels.” He smiles.
She stands immediately and walks around to kiss him on the cheek, and they disappear over to the pool table.
I turn to Angela. “Tell me the high ranking of this ship. Why was Mac called to sort stuff out?”
“Okay, so there used to be a captain of the ship-”
“Who owns this ship?” I interrupt.
“Vikinos.”
I frown.
Angela shakes her head. “He’s a really bad dude. Mafia. He doesn’t come on here. In fact, I have never met him, only heard of him.” She looks around to see if anyone can hear us. “He is known for torturing his victims to death.”
My face drops and I suddenly feel sick.
“Apparently he makes billions in drugs every week. He is big… I mean huge.”
“Fuck,” I whisper. “Carry on. There used to be a captain.”
“Oh, yes. But there was constant bickering and he couldn’t control the crew, so about a year or so ago the captain got fired… or killed. We’re not quite sure.”
My eyes widen.
“He never came back and Mac came in his place.”
“What does Mac do here?”
“His role is called the enforcer, but he is also a marine engineer so he takes care of the operations.”
“Huh?”
“He enforces the rules and makes sure things run smoothly.”
“How did he get the role of enforcer? What did he do to get this job?”
Angela shrugs. “That’s what we would all like to know. He came from Vikinos’s camp itself.”
“Oh,” I whisper. “So he really is bad? Like bad bad.”
Her eyes widen. “Baby, everyone on this ship is fucking bad. How do you think they got this job? But I think Mac is hard-core… I don’t know.” She shrugs. “I do know all of the men are shit scared of him.”
Bloody hell, at this point he is the only person I’m not scared of. Hell, what a mess. I am now orgasming over a hit man or something. I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried.
I have enough emotional baggage. Maybe I should knock this on the head before it even begins. Before what begins? What exactly am I about to do?
No. Stop it.
Live in the moment, remember?
Have fun while you can. This is just a bit of fun. It means nothing. Stop over analysing everything.
Over the next ten minutes, I watch as man after man comes in after work freshly showered and ready for their nightly dinner. They go to the bar and get a drink and then take a seat next to their friends. I watch the door in anticipation as Angela talks to another girl who has taken a seat next to us.