Wicked Ghostly Seas: A Rowan Gray, Harper Harlow and Ivy Morgan Mystery Omnibus

by Lily Harper Hart

  “I know.” Quinn felt awful for pressing her on the issue. “I simply wanted to make sure.”

  “I’m fine.” Rowan held his gaze for a bit before turning to her computer. “Besides, what are the odds that something will go wrong on a ship full of ghost hunters? I think that would be a little too coincidental. I’m guessing the only thing we’re going to have to worry about is our ghost hunters trying to conjure real – and possibly fake – ghosts, which falls under your purview.”

  “Huh.” Quinn stroked his chin as he examined the statement. “I hadn’t even considered that.” He felt like a dolt. “You’re right, though. Everyone is going to try to scare everyone else. It will be part of the show.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Well, crap.” He slowly got to his feet. “I think I should increase patrols on the decks overnight. I need to make a few calls. Are you going to be okay while I’m gone?”

  Rowan chuckled. “I think I’ll manage to survive.”

  “That’s what I want to hear.” He smacked a loud kiss against her lips. “I’ll make sure you do better than survive later. We can thrive together.”

  “Good plan.”

  THE ROOM WAS BASICALLY WHAT Harper expected. She looked up photographs on the internet before leaving Michigan. It was small — as far as she could tell, most cruise ship rooms were tiny — but there was more than enough room for Jared and her to get comfortable.

  “I basically stacked our toiletries together in the bathroom,” she announced as she wandered into the main room, grinning when she found Jared spread out on the bed with a come-hither look on his face. “I figure it doesn’t matter if we mix a few things up when packing to go home because we’re going to the same place.”

  He nodded. “Forever. We’re going to the same place forever.”

  “We are,” Harper agreed, moving toward the bed. “I’m glad you came on this trip. I don’t know if I’ve told you that yet — and if I forget later, it’s not on purpose — but I’m so glad we decided to do this together.”

  Jared’s grin only widened. “I am, too. Now ... come here and give me a kiss.”

  Harper didn’t immediately acquiesce. “I know you’re worried that Zander is going to be a pill.”

  “Zander is always a pill.”

  “But you’re worried he’s going to be even worse now compared to how he usually is,” Harper pressed. “He doesn’t mean to be annoying. It would’ve been better if Shawn could’ve come with him. When we first made arrangements for this trip it was supposed to be a thing for just him and me and now that you’re here his nose is probably going to be out of joint.”

  Jared let loose an exasperated sigh as he rolled to his back. “Heart, it’s fine.” He dragged a hand through his dark hair. “I’m used to Zander and his antics. I can handle him. What I don’t want is to spend our entire vacation worrying about him … or talking about him, for that matter.”

  Harper pressed her lips together and nodded.

  Jared held out his hand again. “Come and play a game with me,” he ordered, waggling his eyebrows. “I promise it’s a game you’re going to like.”

  “Well, if you insist.” Harper took a tentative step toward her future husband, her back going rigid when she heard the door open behind her. Out of instinct, she swiveled quickly, and wasn’t surprised to find Zander walking through the opening. “Uh-oh.”

  Jared’s reaction was much darker. “How did you get a key to our room?”

  Unbothered by Jared’s tone, Zander merely shrugged. “I went to the front desk and pretended to be you,” he replied simply. “The girl there remembered me — probably because I’m so handsome — and she had no idea which one of us Harper was with so she gave me an extra key when I requested it. Don’t worry, though. I promise to only use it for good … or in emergencies … or if I feel the humidity is going to do terrible things to my hair.”

  Jared’s gaze darkened. “We’re kind of busy. You need to come back later.”

  Zander immediately started shaking his head. “Oh, no. You said an hour. It’s been an hour and a half. Your time for romance has passed. It’s time to hit the deck and get drinks.”

  “But ... .” Jared spared a glance for Harper and recognized the way her eyes lit up at the mention of drinks. They had time for romance later. He’d promised her an adventure, and it was something he was determined to follow through on. “Fine.” He managed to keep his smile in place, although it took effort. “Let’s head to the deck and get drinks. I could use something to relax me.”

  “You definitely could,” Zander agreed. “Perhaps we’ll find a drink that manages to dislodge that stick in your ... .”

  “Zander!” Harper’s sea-blue eyes went wide as she shook her head in warning. “No fighting. This is supposed to be fun. I don’t want to deal with the fighting.”

  “There won’t be any fighting,” Jared promised, getting to his feet. “We’re getting drinks. There’s nothing to fight about when coconut drinks are involved.”

  Zander’s smile was wide. “We finally found something we agree on.”

  “It’s a vacation miracle.”

  ROWAN WAS ONLY PARTIALLY focused on her work so she barely noticed the images as they flew across the screen. It was only when the upload was finished and she started trashing blurry images that she noticed a rather obvious problem.

  The omen was there. The symbol that promised incoming death. It was visible in a crowd shot, which meant anyone in the photograph could be in mortal peril.

  Calmly, Rowan clicked to the next snapshot. This was hardly the first time the omen had shown up on a group photograph. The key now was to find an individual photograph that featured the omen. If that wasn’t possible, hopefully she could find a photograph with no more than two or three people in it so she could track down the unfortunate soul who had death knocking at his or her door.

  Rowan moved to the next photo and her eyebrows hopped. The omen was there, and this time there were only two figures in the snapshot. “How lucky is that?” she murmured, flipping to the next photo. There was a chance she snapped the two people in their own photos, so she wanted to be sure.

  Instead, she found an entirely different couple staring back at her ... and they also had the omen loitering over their shoulders.

  Panic washing through her, Rowan methodically scanned through the photos, a low noise emanating from her chest when she realized the omen was present for at least a hundred people. She’d honestly lost count by the time she made it to the end.

  “Hey, sweetie.” Quinn was all smiles when he returned and kissed her cheek. “I was thinking we would eat in the main dining room tonight. They have crab legs — and themed cakes — and it’s supposed to be a beautiful night. How does that sound?”

  Rowan didn’t respond, instead staring at her computer screen as the sick feeling of dread filled her stomach.

  “Ro?”

  How could there possibly be that many omens? Rowan’s mind was aflutter with what that could mean.

  Officially concerned, Quinn lowered himself so he was at eye level with Rowan. “Hey, what’s going on with you?” Fear gripped him by the throat when he realized how pale she was. “Baby, what is it? Tell me what’s wrong.” His fingers were gentle as he pushed her auburn hair away from her face. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together.”

  Rowan finally found her voice. “The omen.”

  “Is that all?” Relief washed over him. “I’m not going to say it’s nothing because we both know that’s not true, but it’s okay. We’ve dealt with the omen before. We’ll deal with it again.”

  “It’s not one omen,” Rowan countered. “It’s ... hundreds of them.”

  Quinn wasn’t sure he heard her right. “What do you mean?”

  “Look.” Rowan took him through the photographs a second time, going slow so he could absorb the magnitude of what they were dealing with. “Half the people on this ship are in danger of dying.”

  Quin
n was utterly flabbergasted. “But ... how?”

  Rowan held her hands palms out and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’m at a loss for what we’re dealing with here ... unless maybe it’s some sort of ship catastrophe.”

  Quinn kept his hand on Rowan’s shoulder as he considered the possibility. “We don’t know what it is, but I promise to have Michael run his people through the paces in the engine room to rule out issues there. I’ll also see if we can get scouts out along the route to make sure there’s nothing that we could potentially strike as we’re going forward.”

  Despite herself, Rowan felt relief at the words. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

  “We can, but I’m going to have to come up with a reason why. Don’t you worry about that, though. I’ll think of something.”

  Rowan cupped his hand against her cheek. “I don’t know what to do. I feel paralyzed because of this. There are too many to watch.”

  “You said half the people are in danger,” Quinn pressed. “Is that a scientific number or an exaggeration?”

  “An exaggeration. It’s more that I saw a hundred omens, and some were over group shots. Still, that’s far too many to narrow down.”

  Quinn couldn’t argue with that. “Well, we have to take this a step at a time. Whatever is going to happen isn’t something that’s going to occur in some dark corner of the ship. We have that going for us. It will be out in the open, because that’s the only excuse for so many people being involved.”

  “So ... what do we do?”

  Quinn had no idea. “We go through the photographs again and see if we can pick out any similarities. I don’t know what else to do.”

  That wasn’t what Rowan wanted to hear. “It will be a massacre if we don’t figure it out.”

  “Then I guess we’re going to have to figure it out.”

  Three

  Quinn did his best to calm Rowan, but it was a losing battle. Ultimately he had to take a step back so she could sulk in private.

  Truthfully, he was worried. Rowan’s gift was generally pretty reliable. The only times the omen didn’t turn out to be true were the instances where they intervened. Other than that, the omen was irritatingly correct the rest of the time. What that meant for a huge contingent of their guests was anybody’s guess though, and Quinn found he was unnerved as he watched the people flit around the deck.

  What sort of catastrophe could cause more than a hundred people to die in such a short amount of time? Clearly the ship wasn’t plagued with a serial killer, a Jason Voorhees wannabe who would somehow manage to mow down a hundred bodies before anyone managed to take him out. No, whatever was happening was somehow different. The deaths had to come from a big event.

  But what?

  Quinn sat in the shade at the tiki bar and kept his eyes open for signs of trouble. Obviously he had no idea what he was looking for, but that didn’t stop him from watching all the same. At a certain point, the captain of the ship, Michael Griffin, took the open spot in front of him and leaned back in his chair as he signaled the bartender Demarcus Johnson for a drink.

  “Good afternoon, crabby,” Michael drawled, amused when Quinn didn’t acknowledge his appearance. “You seem ... darker than usual today.”

  Quinn didn’t bother to hide his scowl. “Darker, huh? Is that supposed to be an insult? If so, you missed your mark.”

  “Well, woo-hee.” Michael made a face as he studied his friend. “You’re in a terrible mood, huh? There’s only one thing I can think of that would put you in a mood like that. I take it you’re fighting with the comely ship photographer.

  “You need not dwell on it,” he continued. “Couples fight. I know you and Rowan never fight, but it happens to normal people. The glow is starting to fade from your relationship. The bloom is off the rose, so to speak. Fights are more common when those things happen.”

  Quinn narrowed his eyes, frustrated. “Excuse me?”

  Taken aback, Michael’s shoulders hopped. “Rowan,” he repeated. “I’m here for you if you need me. I’m totally ready to call her names if you want me to boost your ego.”

  Quinn’s annoyance doubled. “First off, don’t ever call her names. Second, I’m not fighting with Rowan.” That was true. Er, for the most part. Rowan was flustered and needed time to herself and Quinn agreed to give it to her. They weren’t fighting, though. They were merely taking some space and regrouping. It wasn’t the same thing.

  “If you’re not fighting with Rowan, why are you so sour?” Michael challenged. “I’ve had five different people tell me that you’re making the guests uncomfortable with your intensity. I get that spying and staring is part of your job, but you’re usually subtler about it. Blink occasionally.”

  Quinn sighed as he ran his hand over his short-cropped hair. “I don’t mean to frighten the guests.”

  “Then why are you staring?”

  There was no way Quinn could answer that question. While certain people knew about Rowan’s gift, only one of those people was onboard the ship. Quinn often thought Demarcus suspected, but the gregarious bartender wisely kept his questions to himself. Whatever he knew, he wasn’t pushing Rowan to tell her secret. Quinn was thankful for that.

  Michael was a different story, however. As captain of the ship, he had his fingers in a number of pies, but he didn’t seem to suspect anything regarding Rowan. Quinn had gone out of his way to make sure that was true. He couldn’t very well blow Rowan’s secret out of the water after admonishing her to keep quiet.

  “I’m simply nervous,” Quinn lied. “All these ghost hunters give me a headache. Have you listened to some of the things they’re saying? EMF readers. Ion counters. Thermal imaging devices. The whole thing gives me the willies.”

  Michael snorted, genuinely amused. “You don’t like watching those ghost hunter shows I take it. I happen to love them. I was excited when I heard about this trip.”

  Quinn couldn’t hide his surprise. “You like ghost hunters? That doesn’t sound like something you would be into.”

  “Hey, I like hot chicks looking for information as much as the next person,” Michael drawled. “I don’t care if that information comes in the form of ghosts ... or news stories ... or even Victoria’s Secret bras.”

  Quinn wrinkled his nose. “That statement makes no sense.”

  “I know. I just like talking about bras.”

  Exasperated, Quinn rolled his eyes. “Well, thank you for putting that in my brain for the rest of the day.”

  “You’re welcome.” Michael amiably bobbed his head. “I don’t care how uncomfortable it makes you. I have a thing for ghost hunters. I’m not sorry about it.”

  Quinn was the pragmatic sort so he chose to look at the bright side of things. “Well, at least you’ll have plenty of women to tickle your libido this go around. Women love it when the captain showers them with attention. I’m sure that will be no different for ghost hunters of the female persuasion.”

  Michael grinned happily. “That’s what I’m hoping. I already have one in mind.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Quinn arched an eyebrow. “Do tell.”

  “That one.” Michael pointed at a tall blonde who sat on a lounge chair between two men. She had long legs and a shapeless bathing suit that hid her body, but her smile was warm and engaging.

  “I recognize her,” Quinn said. “I saw her in the lobby earlier.”

  “See. She’s hot. She has to be super hot to drag your attention away from Rowan.”

  Quinn’s scowl was back. “I didn’t notice her because of that.”

  “Whatever.”

  “I didn’t. I noticed her because she was with two guys instead of one. I thought it was weird she was traveling with two boyfriends.”

  “Oh, both those guys aren’t her boyfriends,” Michael said knowingly. “The one on the left is her boyfriend. The one on her right is her best friend.”

  Quinn was rendered momentarily speechless. All he could do was work hi
s jaw and stare at his friend.

  “I didn’t stalk her or anything,” Michael offered hurriedly. “I don’t want you thinking that. I simply recognized her from a television show.”

  “She’s on a television show?” Quinn flicked his eyes back to her, intrigued despite himself. “I don’t recognize her. What television show?”

  “She was on Phantoms for one episode,” Michael supplied. “I happen to love that show.”

  “I’m not familiar with it.”

  “It hardly matters. Her name is Harper Harlow. On an episode last fall, she went with a television crew to an abandoned asylum in Michigan. It was on an island. People died while she was there and she talked to a bunch of crazy ghosts who helped her solve a case.”

  Quinn had no idea what to make of the story. “I see,” he said finally. “That sounds like great television.”

  “Oh, take your judgmental attitude and throw it out the door,” Michael complained. “I’m telling the truth. She almost died. The boyfriend over there was with her. The best friend — who is gay, so it’s not as if she has a harem — was also there. Some of her other workers were along for the ride, too.

  “The guy who was killing people was part of the filming crew,” he continued. “He had ties to the asylum through his mother or something. I forget that part of the story. It’s not important given how hot she is. Anyway, she’s the real deal and I’m going to invite her to eat dinner with me.”

  Quinn was flabbergasted. “You just told me she was with her boyfriend and best friend. She’s not going to date you while on vacation with them.”

  “You don’t know that.” Michael was used to getting what he wanted, and that included women. “I think she’ll be happy to spend time with me.”

  Quinn merely shook his head. “She’s wearing an engagement ring,” he said finally, the glinting gem catching his attention when Harper moved her hand. She was the animated sort, and whatever she said had Jared belting out a loud laugh as Zander made a face and glared. “You’re not going to convince her to leave her fiancé for you. Also, I would appreciate it if you didn’t turn into a leech and go after taken women.”