“Oh, geez.” Zander rolled his eyes as he walked into the elevator and stood next to Jared. “I’m never going to get her to shut up about this, am I?”
Jared smirked as he tugged Harper in front of him and wrapped his arms around her waist to keep her still. She was practically vibrating with agitation, and he didn’t want her to explode all over Zander in an enclosed space. “Let’s not take this to a nasty place, huh? We need to talk about a few things.”
“You’ve said that already,” Zander complained as they exited the elevator and moved toward the dining room. “Aw, man. I missed breakfast. They’re serving lunch now. How come everything terrible in this world happens to me?”
Jared slid him a sidelong look. “Actually, I think you were pretty lucky last night considering the fact that you were passed out on a lounger a few feet away from where a woman was murdered. You didn’t even wake up. The murderer could’ve taken you out just as easily.”
“Yeah, well ... .” Zander forgot what he was about to say — he just knew it was going to be snarky — when he realized Harper had drifted away from them and was looking through the open doorway that led to the deck. She seemed lost in thought. “Harp, what are you doing? If you’re going to be sick again, there’s a bathroom right there. For the love of all that’s holy, use it.”
“I’m not going to be sick. It’s just ... I think I saw something.”
“Saw what?” Jared asked, curious despite himself. His growling stomach told him it was time to refuel, but Harper wasn’t the sort to get distracted by anything inane. Er, well, unless she was bored and Zander had a bug up his butt or something. In those instances, she could easily be distracted by the inane.
“I’m not sure. Go ahead and find a table. I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.” She moved to exit through the door, but Jared stopped her before she could drift too far away.
“Absolutely not.” He was firm. “We’re all going together.” He grabbed Zander’s arm and gave it a sharp tug. “That includes you.”
“I don’t want to go to the deck,” Zander complained. “No, I’m being serious. I’m hungry and I need some caffeine. I don’t want to go off on whatever harebrained adventure Harper is envisioning.”
“I would like nothing better than to leave you behind for the entire afternoon,” Jared shot back. “I thought I would be planted in a hammock by now with my girlfriend in one arm and a piña colada in the other. That hasn’t exactly worked out, though.”
“Oh, poor Jared.”
“Don’t make me thump you,” Jared growled. “You’re coming with us, mostly because Harper will melt down if she doesn’t have you close. You have no idea what she went through when she thought you were dead.”
“Oh, you can’t keep using that against me,” Zander complained. “It’s not my fault. It was just one of those things. It could’ve happened to anybody.”
“I don’t know anyone other than you that it could’ve happened to.”
“I need food,” Zander snapped, jerking his arm away from Jared. “I feel terrible.”
“And whose fault is that?”
“Um ... yours. You guys left me on my own last night. If we’d been together, none of this would’ve happened.”
“Oh, that’s a load of crap. I ... .” Jared realized too late that Harper had slipped away and was already through the hallway that led to the deck. “I blame this on you, Zander.” He wagged a finger at the other man before stomping after his fiancée. “I don’t see why you can’t behave yourself for five minutes.”
“Oh, yes, it’s my fault Harper gave you the slip,” Zander intoned as he followed. He obviously wasn’t keen on putting off his meal, but he understood Jared’s desire to keep Harper close. “I’m to blame for all of this.”
“You definitely are,” Jared agreed. “I ... oomph.” He was in such a hurry to catch up, he didn’t check to see if anyone was in his way before rounding the nearest corner. That allowed him to slam right into Harper, who barely noticed his less than graceful arrival. “What are you doing?”
“There,” Harper murmured, her eyes fixed on the tiki bar. “She’s there.”
“Who is there?’ Jared asked, frustration bubbling up.
“Tasha Vale.”
“What?” Realization dawned slowly on Jared. Since they were away from Whisper Cove, he’d managed to shove Harper’s ability to trip over a ghost at every turn out of his head. It seemed surreal to discuss it here. “Where is she standing?”
“In front of the bar,” Harper replied. “She keeps staring at it, occasionally moving her hand. I think she’s trying to tell me something.”
The deck was so busy, Jared was forced to move closer to Harper to keep from being separated from her by the constant line of traffic. “You can’t talk to her now, Heart,” he whispered, his mouth close to her ear. “There are too many people around.”
“We have to ask her how she died,” Harper argued. “We might not see her again. We have to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Jared shook his head, firm. “No. I don’t want you to risk anyone noticing what you’re doing.”
“I’m the first one who thinks Harper should be careful when it comes to outing her ability, but we’re on a cruise that’s designed for paranormal investigators,” Zander pointed out. “If she’s safe unveiling her ability anywhere, it’s here.”
“I ... .” Jared wasn’t sure how to respond. Technically, Zander had a point. However, he remained wary. “I still think we should wait until there are less people around. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“I want to talk to her,” Harper snapped. “She keeps gesturing toward the bar. That has to mean something.”
“It means she got drunk there last night.”
“No, she got drunk at the jazz bar with Zander.”
“Huh. I forgot about that.” Jared dragged a restless hand through his hair as he focused on Zander. “Is the jazz bar the last place you saw her?”
“I don’t know,” Zander said. “I think we went somewhere else. There were a group of us. I was the life of the party. They kept calling me ‘Zan the Man.’”
Harper scowled. “They did not. You made that up months ago. There’s no way they started calling you that out of the blue.”
“I might have told them it was my name.”
“Oh, that is ... pathetic,” Harper drawled, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you would stoop that low.”
“Hey, I was drunk. It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“Those are famous last words if I’ve ever heard them,” Jared said. “It doesn’t matter, though. I need you to think. Did you visit the tiki bar?”
“I ... .” Zander trailed off, his mind busy. At that exact moment, a tall man in board shorts and a T-shirt moved behind him and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey, Zan the Man. How’s it hanging?”
Zander narrowed his eyes as he stared at the man. “Um ... .”
“Do you two know each other?” Jared asked pointedly.
Zander started to shake his head, but the man emphatically nodded and threw him for a loop.
“Of course we know each other,” he said. “We surfed the rum runner wave together last night. Zan the Man was the hit of the party. By the way, you must be his friends.”
“We are,” Jared confirmed, shaking the man’s hand. “I’m Jared.”
“I thought your name was Sourpuss.”
“Excuse me?” Jared arched an eyebrow.
“Sourpuss,” the man repeated. “Zander said your parents hated you and gave you a crappy name and that’s why you’re always working out because you need to overcome it. Well, that and your circus nipples. He said you can hang things off them. Is that true?”
Jared shot an incredulous look toward Zander, who had the grace to look abashed.
“Some of this is starting to come back to me,” he lamented. “I do kind of remember talking about your nipples.”
“
You and I are going to have words before this is all said and done,” Jared warned. “I mean it.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Zander waved off the potential diatribe and focused on Harper. “Let’s get something to eat. We’ll handle your problem after.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Harper said on a sigh. “She disappeared during the ‘Zan the Man’ talk. She’s gone.”
“Well, that will give us some time to come up with a plan for when she comes back,” Jared suggested.
Harper merely nodded. “Fine. I guess I’m hungry.”
“Nothing that will look gross if you throw it up,” Zander ordered.
“Listen, Zan the Man, I’ll eat what I want.”
“I really do like the sound of that name. I know you guys think it’s dorky, but I like it.”
“You would,” Jared said, putting his hand to the small of Harper’s back. “Come on. It’s time for lunch. Then we’ll strategize and figure this out.”
Eight
Despite hours of discussion, Jared felt as if he got absolutely nowhere with Zander. The man legitimately couldn’t remember what happened, which left Jared nowhere to turn for answers.
They spent the bulk of the afternoon on deck, Jared claiming a hammock and Harper crawling in with him even though her focus was elsewhere. No matter how he tried to get her to relax, it was a losing proposition. Harper had her eyes peeled for the ghost and Jared finally gave up and read a book until he felt weariness overtake her. When she drifted off into a nap, he took the opportunity to scan the deck.
“I know you’re angry,” Zander said, keeping his voice low from his spot on a lounger nearby. “I really didn’t mean for this to happen, though.”
Jared flicked his eyes to him and merely shook his head. “I don’t blame you for this.”
“You don’t?”
“No. You couldn’t have known this was going to happen.”
“Yeah, but ... I’m a murder suspect.”
“You’re not.” Jared was firm. “That security guy had no choice but to question you. Quite frankly, we’re lucky that you weren’t a victim, too. So, no matter how down you’re feeling, keep in mind that things could’ve been a whole lot worse.”
Zander was silent for a moment, contemplative. “Did she really think I was dead?”
Jared’s fingers were gentle as they stroked down the back of Harper’s head. She slept hard no matter what was going on around her, so he knew she would be out for a bit and they were free to talk.
“We were both worried,” he replied finally, opting for the truth. “She was on the border of freaking out. I kept telling her everything was going to be okay because I honestly couldn’t imagine life if the alternative were true. There’s no doubt we were afraid, though.”
“Even you?”
Jared scowled. “You just want to hear me say it, don’t you?”
Zander enthusiastically bobbed his head.
“Fine. I was worried, too. Believe it or not, I like having you in my life. Don’t get me wrong, you’re a pain in my backside more often than not, but you’re a good guy. You’re also important to Harper. She wouldn’t get over it if something happened to you.”
“And rightly so.” Zander puffed out his chest. “I’m the center of her world.”
“We’re both the center of her world,” Jared corrected. “She needs both of us because ... well, because this is the life we’ve built. It involves all three of us.”
“And Shawn.”
“And definitely Shawn,” Jared agreed. “If Shawn wasn’t in our lives, you would be doubly intolerable. I can’t have that.”
“Oh, I can feel the love.” Zander mock clutched at his heart and then winked at Jared to let him know things were okay between them. “By the way, you hugged me.”
Jared’s scowl deepened. “I remember.”
“I think you love me, too.”
“Don’t push it.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
QUINN WAS WIPED BY THE time he met Rowan outside the dining room. He felt as if he’d been slogging his way through quicksand the entire afternoon, and all he could think about was some downtime with his favorite person. She looked equally tired when he caught up with her.
“Hey.” He dipped down to give her a kiss, pushing her hair away from her face. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
She nodded, although there was no light to her eyes.
“Sweetheart, tell me what’s wrong.” Quinn could take almost anything except Rowan being in pain. He wasn’t built to withstand that. “Tell me what’s going on. Did something happen with your father?”
“He’s doing research. He doesn’t know why I’m seeing multiple omens either.”
“Then why are you freaking me out?”
She met his gaze head-on. “Do you know how many different ways there are to sink this ship? How many legitimate multiple-casualty scenarios we could face? Sally and I made a list this afternoon and it isn’t pretty.”
The fear fist gripping Quinn’s heart eased as he stared at her. “That’s how you spent your afternoon?”
“We have to figure out what’s going to happen if we’re going to stop it.”
“Oh, geez.” Quinn looked to the sky, as if praying for patience to continue the conversation. “Okay, well ... how many?”
“A hundred and forty-two.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. We took every scenario we could come up with and there are a hundred and forty-two.”
“Can you give me some examples?”
“Well, there could be a fire that traps people in one part of the ship so they can’t escape. The good news on that one is that the ship probably won’t sink unless the fire makes it all the way to the bottom deck. We ran probabilities.”
“You ran probabilities, huh?” Quinn worked overtime to tamp down his frustration. “I can’t believe you spent the entire afternoon doing that.”
“That makes two of us. I’m going to have nightmares.” She poked at her eyes, which only served to tug on his heartstrings.
“Okay, you need to put these scenarios out of your mind because they’re not going to help.” He rubbed her shoulders to loosen the tension she was carrying there. “Come on. They’re having a New Orleans feast tonight in the dining room. You love crawfish.”
Rowan brightened considerably. “I didn’t know they were going Cajun in the dining room tonight.”
“I thought that would make you feel better.” He kissed her cheek and prodded her through the door, taking a moment to scan the room for signs of trouble before ushering her toward the buffet table. His gaze landed on a table toward the center of the room, to where three familiar faces sat. Zander, Jared, and Harper looked to be having a good time and, conveniently, there were open seats at their table. Since he’d never made it back to question Zander a second time, an idea began taking shape.
“I want to join those guys,” Quinn noted as he pointed toward the table.
Rowan looked up from the gumbo she was ladling and followed his finger. “How come?”
“Because the guy with the dark hair is the one who was sleeping on the deck.”
“I thought you said we needed a break from serious talk.”
“We’ll get a break. I just want to talk to them. I researched their group a little.”
“You told me that.”
“She can supposedly see and talk to ghosts.”
Rowan’s face remained blank. “So?”
“So, I want to see what she has to say.”
“But why?”
“Let’s just say I’m curious enough to volunteer a bit of time and ask a few questions. If you’re not up to it, though, I can shelve the plans until later.”
“No, it’s fine.” Rowan waved off his concern. “I could use a conversation that doesn’t revolve around the chandelier in here accidentally falling down and crushing a hundred people in one fell swoop.”
Quinn arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, you definitely need a br
eak from that.”
JARED SAW ROWAN AND QUINN when they were still across the room and wasn’t surprised when they headed in their direction. He barely got a warning out for Zander and Harper before the couple grabbed chairs on the other side of the table.
“You don’t mind if we sit here, do you?” Quinn asked pointedly.
“Of course not,” Jared lied, wiping the corners of his mouth with his napkin. “The more the merrier. That’s what I always say, at least.”
“You never say that,” Zander fired back. “If that were true you wouldn’t complain when I climb into bed with you and Harper every Sunday morning.”
The look Jared shot Zander was withering, but the comic timing of the duo was enough to cause Quinn to relax, at least marginally.
“Obviously you guys spend a lot of time together,” Rowan noted, shifting her plate so she could have easier access to the gumbo. “I’m Rowan, by the way. I’m the ship’s photographer.”
“I remember you.” Harper smiled. “You took our photograph when we arrived.”
“Are you two together?” Jared asked Quinn.
“We are,” Quinn confirmed. “She’s my better half.”
“Oh, good grief,” Zander muttered, rolling his eyes. “Let me guess, you two are all lovey-dovey, too, huh?”
Quinn shrugged, unbothered by the question. “We like a good bit of schmaltz.”
“Great.” Zander pushed the shrimp on his plate around with his fork. “This whole vacation sucks.”
Harper half-heartedly patted his shoulder. “It will get better.”
“Definitely,” Quinn agreed. “What are the odds you’ll wake up next to a dead body two days in a row? Tomorrow will have to be better just by that merit alone.”
Despite himself, Zander chuckled, the sound utterly humorless. “You have a point.” He picked up one of the prawns by the tail and bit into it, waiting until he was finished chewing to speak again. “Have you found anything out about what happened to her?”
Wicked Ghostly Seas: A Rowan Gray, Harper Harlow and Ivy Morgan Mystery Omnibus Page 47
