Hoax

by C. L. Stone

  He came at me while I was still sitting on the bed, and bent down to kiss my lips.

  I closed my eyes. The kiss was different from the last one. Relaxed, calmer. Tender.

  He stopped and looked at my eyes.

  “Ya lyublyu tebya.”

  My heart raced. The words, I didn’t understand, but the quiet, serious way he said them told me exactly what he meant: he loved me.

  My mind froze. Brandon had said the same thing. Now Raven.

  And then I remembered: he didn’t know about Blake. He didn’t know about Axel.

  “Raven,” I said quietly.

  There was a knock at the door.

  I gulped, eyes widening.

  Raven stood and went to the door. He peered out, cursed, and then opened the door.

  I stood up, ready to bolt if it was the lady.

  It was Corey with Henry. Corey was in the same black clothes, only clean of smears. Henry was in jeans and a black sweater. His short dark hair was mussed, as if he’d been running around.

  Henry had Corey by the shoulder and shoved him inside.

  Corey lowered his head sheepishly.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Henry said, pointing at Raven and then at me. “Things have gotten way out of hand.”

  Raven took one look at Corey and then turned back to Henry, making fists and looking like he was about to hit him. Possibly because he had a hold of Corey and he was accusing us. Or Raven didn’t know him from anyone else on this ship. Maybe he thought Henry was with Sam.

  “Wait!” I said and rushed toward Henry, blocking him from Raven. “No, he’s from your Academy.”

  “Yeah,” Corey said, going to Raven, putting a hand over one of his fists and holding on to it. “Don’t. It’s my fault. He knew something was up when I said we should look for Blake. I had to tell him about you.”

  Raven seemed to unclench. A little.

  “How did you know we were here?” I asked Henry.

  “Followed you,” he said. “Figured you were down in the engine rooms if we couldn’t find you upstairs after searching all night. What did you tell that bald guy? And why is he trying so hard to get out of Sam who this investor is?”

  Had they managed to get their radios back up?

  Maybe we’d given Baldy too much credit. “We might have told him we’d get rid of Sam and let him become the prostitute boss on board if he could help us find who the investor is.”

  Henry lifted a hand to his face, and I couldn’t help but notice the ring, the same gold, same very plain style that was on Liam’s finger. “We don’t make deals with people like that. Don’t you remember any of your Academy training?”

  “We do what we have to,” Raven said flatly. He was still glaring but had relaxed his fists. “And she’s not Academy.”

  “You can’t do it like this.” Henry waved toward the door. “We can’t give him what he wants. And now he’s making an idiot of himself down there. There’s a reason he was the muscle and not the brain.”

  “We’re not stupid,” Raven said.

  “He didn’t say that,” Corey said and planted a palm on Raven’s chest. He looked Raven in the eye. “But we can’t stay any longer. We need to leave. All of us. She’s exposed now. She’s got a concussion, and she can’t keep running around like this. It won’t take long for Sam to realize what this guy is up to. Then we’re done for.”

  My heart sank. The risk we’d taken to try to get to the bottom of the investor’s identity might have created a big problem. I checked in with Raven, but it was clear that since he wasn’t arguing, he believed Corey to be right. He trusted him enough to listen.

  “We can stay here for a minute,” Henry said. “And we should hide out somewhere until dark. We have to get out of here before they come after all of us. We can take one of the life rafts.”

  It burned through me they were willing to tuck tail and run at this point. Maybe I also didn’t want to admit we had jumped the gun talking to Baldy. “We shouldn’t just run now,” I said.

  Raven turned to me, reaching for my hand and holding it. “We have time, but we should plan an escape. Just in case. We probably shouldn’t stay on this boat any longer than we have to. We can’t trust Sam and his people. Once we find out who this investor is, we should really back off. If we spook him, he might run.”

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  Neither did anyone else.

  Corey turned to me, looking at my face and touching my cheek. “You okay?”

  “Memory is shit,” Raven said for me. “I repeat myself a lot.”

  It didn’t seem so bad to me, but it did worry me that he’d noticed, so maybe it was worse than I thought. “Is this going to keep happening?”

  “It might,” Corey said, frowning. He checked out my pupils, felt my forehead with his palm. “But Henry’s right. It’ll only get worse the more you run around, and the stress doesn’t help. It might become permanent if you keep going.”

  I lowered my head, wondering if the damage wasn’t already done. I couldn’t remember things. My brain was in a fog. There was no way I’d stay steps ahead of Sam or the investor like this.

  Corey wrapped his arms around my shoulders, drawing me in for a gentle hug. “Come on, don’t look like that. You’ll get better.”

  I pressed my cheek to his chest and sniffed. I breathed in his warmth and felt his strong arms around me.

  Raven came up behind me, brushing a hand over my head and then my shoulders. “We’ve got you,” he said in hushed tones. “My little thief doesn’t let something like this get in the way. You’ll come home with us. We’ll fix everything. All of us.”

  Raven had said he loved me. I felt it now.

  I swallowed the emotion in my throat. I was tired and stressed. They had been right from the start. We hadn’t had time to prepare, thrust into a situation by Blake’s eagerness. I didn’t blame him. It had seemed like a good idea on the outside. We had just pushed things too far too quickly, exposing ourselves.

  “Wait,” Henry said. He was standing by the door and had been looking out the peephole. He turned, arms across his chest, and leaned with his back against the door. He looked at Raven, watched as he touched me and then raised an eyebrow. “You know about…about…” His face shifted to annoyance. “Sorry, I’m going to be blunt here. You’re okay with her being romantic with the other guys?”

  Not exactly what Raven had been talking about, but maybe he hadn’t been fully listening until that last part.

  Raven turned from me, eyebrow raised. “Yeah.”

  “You knew? Have you been listening?” He waved his hand. “Sorry, I don’t mean…I’m not trying to be nosy. I was just wondering if you’d been able to hear us.”

  Raven frowned. “Not that it’s any of your business, she told us last night. We talked about it then.”

  “Right,” Corey said, still holding on to me. I wanted to stand on my own, but my head was starting to throb again. “We were always on board. It took the others longer to come around.”

  Henry huffed. “That’s it? Wait, no, she only told you last night, or do you mean the night she disappeared?” He looked right at my face. He didn’t seem concerned, not like Liam had been before, just surprised and curious. “Now I am being nosy. Raven, you know everything and you’re okay with this?”

  I frowned and pulled myself away from Corey to look up at Raven’s face. It wasn’t the right time, perhaps, but the others knew, and he needed to also.

  “I had sex with both Blake and Axel since I last saw you. I mean, since I got thrown overboard last night.” There. That was it. The last person to know.

  Raven didn’t say anything. He blinked repeatedly, taking in the information, and then shrugged. “So?”

  My mouth dropped open. “So? What do you mean, so?”

  “We just said we were okay with it,” Raven said, looking at Corey to confirm.

  Corey nodded and beamed. “Yu
p.”

  Henry and I suddenly matched in our shocked expressions.

  “Hold on here,” Henry said and pointed to the two of them. “I was informed that you two were into her for more than just sex.”

  Raven tilted his head back and laughed. “If I wanted just sex, I would have made it happen ages before now.” He turned his back to Henry, looked me in the eye and took my hand. He kissed my knuckles. “You’re my thief, I told you.”

  “And she’s my, uh, Kayli,” Corey said. “Maybe I should make up a better nickname…”

  I studied them both. Too calm. Something wasn’t right. “Are you…sure?”

  “There’s no way,” Henry said, putting his palm against his forehead. “No way…you all were only told yesterday that she’s been very involved with everyone, and everyone is just okay with this? It’s impossible. You even went about it all wrong.”

  “What would you know about us?” Raven asked, letting go of my hand. “What right way is there?”

  “I’m not asking about it for my own reasons,” Henry said and shook his head. “Actually, I was at first, but… look, the Academy won’t be happy about this.” He looked at me. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, and you probably shouldn’t hear about it, but someone has to tell them. The Academy is going to take one look at this group and try to split you up. You’re already a distraction to them.”

  “Everything’s a distraction,” Raven said. He pointed to Corey and winked. “He’s a big one.”

  Corey blushed. “I don’t think he…”

  Raven smirked.

  I couldn’t believe it, either. I’d thought the others had been too nice to me, and things had gone way too smoothly. I was the one in doubt, more than the others, worried they weren’t being completely honest, just holding things together while we were working so closely right now.

  But…hadn’t Axel made me feel I’d have to choose not long ago? Had he really changed his mind?

  Marc had admitted they didn’t like Blake, but even then, everyone being calm about it seemed over the top.

  Henry seemed to understand my confused silence. “This can’t end well,” he said. “We don’t expect perfection, but we try to avoid disasters.”

  “I think it’s up to us, isn’t it?” Corey said, he and Raven turning to Henry, shoulders back, both standing tall in front of me. I was in awe. I wanted to kiss them both for feeling so strongly about something I was still a little afraid of. For feeling so strongly about me.

  “We have to prove to the Academy we can work together just like before. Isn’t that what you and Liam said?”

  “Right,” Henry said. “But there’s no fucking way the Academy is going to believe that you all just instantly agreed this was okay.”

  “Then they don’t know us very well,” Corey said.

  “Do they want us to fight?” Raven punched Corey lightly in the arm. “There. We fought.”

  “Yup,” Corey said with a smirk. “You win.” He shrugged at Henry. “Maybe not every group works like yours does. We make up our minds, we’re in. We don’t need therapy and a whole lot of discussion to figure it out.”

  Henry frowned. “Maybe. You know they’ll insist on a conversation.”

  “Let them talk,” Raven said.

  “You’re risking your Academy careers if they don’t approve and you insist on doing it anyway.”

  “Worth it.”

  “Shh,” Corey said and nudged Raven in the ribs. “You don’t mean that.” He looked at Henry. “But we get to choose our group, right? As long as we aren’t harming anyone, what right do they have to question us?”

  Raven put an arm around Corey’s shoulders, pulling him close.

  My heart lifted, and I wedged myself in the little space between the wall and Corey, completing the line. I couldn’t believe it, either, but this was way better than I’d ever imagined things would turn out. I still struggled with the idea that perhaps they weren’t being completely honest with their feelings, but if they were willing to try to make things work, I loved them all for it.

  Henry rolled his eyes. “None of my business. I’m not going to say anything, unless we run into problems. But just so you’re prepared, we went through a lot of shit with our team trying to prove we could be a group and make it work. It won’t be easy.”

  He waved a hand. “But you can worry about it later. We need to get everyone at risk off this ship. We may have to leave a few behind, though. Liam and I may not be recognized as being totally with you yet. Ethan can’t leave without being noticed. And the others, we’ll have to see who stays and who goes.”

  “Have you seen Blake?” I asked.

  “Blake’s with someone, I’m sure,” Henry said. “Why the sudden need to find him?”

  “He needs to leave tonight,” I said. “We can’t leave without him. He’ll get killed if he’s seen.”

  “From what I heard, he started this mess.” He snapped his fingers and pointed toward the door. “The one we’re having to clean up. Last I heard, he was running around on his own, something we warned him not to do. We can’t work with him if he’s doing his own thing.”

  I scoffed, turning toward Raven. “We can’t just leave him. They might not have found him yet, but if they know I’m here, they might suspect he’s here, too. They’ll be looking for him next.”

  “She’s right,” Corey said. “We can’t leave Blake behind. We can’t leave without at least telling him what you told Sam’s guy.”

  “Maybe, but you have to go,” Henry said, pointing at me. “Tonight. No matter what. We aren’t set up to do anything but run at this point.”

  “Give me until dark,” I said. “Give Raven and me a chance to find out who the investor is.”

  Henry pressed his lips together, looking at us and then checking the peephole to remain on the lookout. “This is way too dangerous.”

  “I’m in,” Corey said. “She’s right. We have a few hours until dark, when we can leave without people seeing us. So let’s use the time.”

  “In,” Raven said.

  Henry sighed. “Of course you are.” He turned from the door to glare at me. “I don’t want to see you all killed trying to find out something like this. It’s not worth it.”

  “They wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t the right thing to do,” I said. “They’re not afraid to fight with me if I’m wrong.”

  Henry grunted. “I don’t like this plan. Negotiating with criminals isn’t what we do, either.”

  “You don’t have to approve,” Raven said, walking toward the door. “Go hide. We’ll deal with this.”

  Henry huffed and then shook his head. “She’d kill me if I ran off without making sure you all got off this boat safely.”

  I imagined he meant his wife. Who was influencing who?

  “Then get with the progress,” Raven said.

  “Program,” Corey corrected. “The program.”

  “Same.”

  The Kiss

  My heart was beating a mile a minute. Corey and Raven had made me start to feel I could believe the others had been honest about their feelings.

  Not one of them had seemed concerned about my having been with the others, more like they were concerned that no one had been informed.

  What about Axel? He had been adamant about telling the others to back off.

  But was it because I needed to keep them from fighting? I tried to remember, hoping my brain was recalling the past correctly. The more I thought about it, the more I was sure. I’d hinted to Axel that I was worried they would fight, and he told me he would tell them to back off.

  Had he ever told me he’d want me to be exclusive only? Maybe not. Maybe I had been misreading them this whole time. They were all rather alpha in their own ways, and I had been so sure that they’d fight if they found out.

  How could I have misunderstood them so much?

  Or had something happened? Had something changed their attitudes
about this relationship?

  Despite wanting to believe, Henry had been right. It had happened so quickly. They were too willing. I hadn’t even given the concept all that much thought.

  All of them? With me? Like we’d been, but out in the open and with no secrets?

  I’d have to wait and see.

  We had to leave the room before the old woman came back. A group of four seemed too big to walk around in, and someone had to touch base with the others.

  Henry got into the elevator alone. “I don’t want you three to separate,” he said. “But I’m going to go find Liam. He should be up there with Fancy.”

  “Shouldn’t one of us go with you?” I asked.

  “If they were listening to us like you said, then they might already have discovered Fancy’s role. Her room was one of the few spots we had left,” he said. “We might still use it now, since they’re letting us.” He pressed his lips together. “Look, I don’t approve of you going off to do something so dangerous to negotiate with criminals, but if you can ensure our safety as we get out of their way, that’s all we want.”

  It was the best compromise we could possibly hope for. I was hoping for the investor’s name, but if everyone got off the boat safe, I’d take it.

  We had until dark to find Blake and possibly name the investor before we would meet at a rendezvous point.

  It was late afternoon, in November. Which meant we had less time than I would have liked.

  Corey, in normal pants and a shirt, followed us down into the ship, making me feel like a lump, still dressed in the jumpsuit.

  We found another storage room and stopped for a bit, waiting for some time to pass. We needed to give Baldy time to get his list together. If he was confessing to Sam who we were, hopefully we’d hear them looking for us and wouldn’t be trapped in a storage room where no one would hear us.

  This storage room was clean, at least, and we were really close to guest rooms. There was carpet on the floor and the shelves had rows of towels. The area was warm and smelled nice. Corey said we were near the laundry facilities.

  How many storage rooms did this ship have? Felt like a lot. The area was cramped, but cozier than others we’d been in, and there was at least room for us to sit on the floor.