It was scary as hell.
And the best thing ever.
A throat cleared. Rose gasped and pulled back. Sophie stood across the table from us with her hands on her hips. “Why are you wearing my hat?”
Twenty-Seven
Rose
My heart fluttered around looking for a place to land. Heat burned my cheeks as I met Sophie’s gaze. She looked mad, but her voice warbled like she was trying not to laugh. Everything in me wanted to run away and hide, a skill I’d become really good at lately. But since Sophie didn’t have a mean bone in her body, I sucked it up and widened my eyes at her.
She pressed her lips together, clearly fighting a smile.
“It’s a long story,” Sam said, staring out at the people in the street. He had to be searching for Clio’s cousin.
“I’ve got time,” Sophie said, finally allowing a smirk to curve her lips.
Sam lifted the hat from my head, smoothing my hair down as he went. Without looking away from me, he held the hat out for Sophie to take. Heat rushed up my neck all over again. He leaned forward and said quietly, “He’s gone. We can turn our chairs.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
He smiled, and my heart melted. Okay, so, that had to be the best first kiss ever. I obviously didn’t know for sure, but I believed it, and that’s all I needed. The past fifteen minutes were so crazy, and yet, here I was, still breathing. Sort of. Every time Sam and I made eye contact, the blushes attacked. Guess I’d have to learn to live with looking sunburned when I was around him.
We moved our chairs and found ourselves facing a very interested Sophie seated across from us. She laced her fingers together and rested her hands on the table. “So,” she said, gazing from one of us to the other, “story time?”
Sam and I exchanged a look. We could probably tell her everything. I mean, Alexis didn’t want her to know at first because we still suspected Jacques and Marie. But it was safe to say those two were in the clear. “Well,” I said, trying not to sound so breathy, “a lot has been going on.”
She grinned. “Apparently.”
“Don’t start, Sophie,” Sam said.
She laughed. “Do continue.”
“Here’s the short version,” I said. “Clio and Nick are involved somehow with the jewelry thefts on the ship.”
Her eyes got huge. “What?”
“Yeah, I saw—” A rush of movement from the street made me flinch. But then Alexis appeared in front of me and dragged me up from my chair.
“Thank, God!” she said, hugging me. “I thought we’d lost you.” Then she shook me by the shoulders. “Why did you leave? I told you not to go anywhere. We’ve been searching and searching.”
Clio and Nick appeared from behind her. “We were very worried,” Clio said.
“Ha!” Nick said. “I wasn’t. I knew she’d gone to meet everybody.”
A scraping sound rang out as Sam shoved his chair back and stood. “You should’ve taken her into the Internet café, A-lex-is.” He pronounced her name with such venom that his cousin let go of me and stepped back.
“Why?” she asked.
“Because Clio’s cousin tried to kidnap her.”
“What!” Sophie and Alexis said at the same time.
Was it my imagination or had Clio and Nick frozen in place for a full three seconds? I put a shaky hand on Sam’s forearm. I needed to handle this. I swallowed, a scrape across my dry throat, and stared straight into Clio’s eyes. “Your cousin, the same one I saw with you in Porec, grabbed me and tried to make me go with him.” My voice came out all squeaky, but I kept talking. “Obviously, I got away.”
“Impossible,” she said, shaking her head. “He is still in Porec. If he were here, he would have told me.”
Did she really think we’d fall for the innocent act?
Jacques and Marie suddenly exited the restaurant each holding a pan of pizza. Talk about timing. “Zee pizza has arrived,” Jacques said, placing the pie right in front of Sophie.
“Brilliant,” Nick said, and then grabbed a paper plate and set a slice of pizza on it. He shook his fingers. “Youch, that’s hot.”
When no one else moved, Jacques frowned. “What has happened?”
Sophie reached up and curled her fingers around his.
“Rose is making up stories again,” Nick said, chuckling. Holding the slice up by his face, he bit into it.
“I saw him, Clio,” I said.
“Her cousin was here?” Alexis asked.
“What is going on?” Jacques asked.
“He could not be here, Rose,” Clio said, concern in her tone. “You’ve been through a horrible experience. This person you say was after you must resemble my cousin, but it is not him.” The way she said “this person” made it clear to everyone she thought I was making the whole thing up.
“I saw him too, Clio,” Sam said. “Not just when he was going up and down this very street stalking Rose. I saw him in Trogir, outside of the cathedral. He was watching us.”
Clio shook her head and let out an exasperated sigh. “Very many Croatian men look like my cousin. It must have been somebody else. Now we should eat because we must catch the five o’clock tender back to the ship. It is the last run of the day. You will be safe once you’re back on board.” She picked up a paper plate, taking her own advice.
“I am very confused,” Jacques said.
Marie looked up from her plate. “I too.”
Alexis ran her fingers through her curls. “Yeah, everybody’s hungry. Let’s talk about this later.”
“Alex?” Sam frowned at her.
She gave her head a quick shake. “That pizza smells divine.” She went to the table.
I turned back to Sam. “We’ll talk on the ship,” he whispered. “Get the adults involved.” He wound his fingers with mine. “Come on.” He held out my chair for me, and I sat.
But I didn’t think I could eat. Not with all the lies and confusion swirling around my mind. Not with Clio denying everything outright. It felt like I was sitting on top of a smoldering box of fireworks. I just didn’t know when they would go off.
***
When Sam and I reached the ship’s reception area, Alexis waved us over. She stood in front of a map of the coast of Croatia, her hands clasped behind her back. “Pretend to be interested in the map,” she muttered as three people from the tender entered in full conversation about Dubrovnik. We eased nearer to Alexis. “What else went on while I was in the Internet café?” she asked. “Sophie said there was more to the story.”
I explained about the man who exchanged packages with Nick, Alexis’s expression remaining slightly bored the entire time I talked. She put a finger on the map as though that’s what we were discussing. “So Clio got Nick involved in this whole mess,” she said quietly. “Nice, real nice.”
Sam watched the group of people head down the stairs. “Did you see where Clio went?”
“Yup. She and Nick went straight past the check-in dude outside to the Crew Only door.”
“Do you think they’re going to make a run for it?” I asked, staring back at the empty reception desk. “We need to report this. Shouldn’t there be someone working?”
“Yeah, normally,” Alexis said. “But all the staff I’ve seen are bustling around preparing for the big buffet on the pool deck.” She touched my forearm briefly. “If Clio and Nick take off, it only makes them look more guilty, and there’s not much we can do about it anyway.”
“Then we really need to find Uncle David and Rose’s grandparents right now,” Sam said. “The cruise staff will have to listen to them.”
Yes, but would any of the adults believe us? Would the cruise staff? And if Clio wasn’t running, would she keep denying her involvement? It was basically her word against ours.
“Right,” Alexis said. “I’ll go see if my dad is in his room. There’s a good chance he and Cynthia are already at cocktail hour.”
&n
bsp; “Okay, let’s go,” Sam said. He took my hand, and we followed Alexis down the stairs to our hallway. In front of my room, she waved and kept walking. “I’ll catch up with you two later. Outside the café, right?”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “As soon as possible,” he called, but she didn’t say anything.
I knocked on my grandparents’ stateroom door and waited. Seconds ticked by feeling like hours. The only sound was Sam’s quiet breathing—no noise came from inside the room. I knocked again, harder this time.
“They’re probably upstairs,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“Let’s head up there.”
I waved at my door. “I need to, um … ” I faltered, suddenly shy about telling him I needed to pee. So stupid. I forced a brief smile. “I’m really hot and sticky.”
“All right, ten minutes max,” Sam said, finally releasing my hand. “Remember. No showers, no makeup. I’ll be back, and we can go find the others together.”
I tried to suppress a smile. “Can I at least wash my face and hands?”
“Of course, you can. Just don’t take forever.” At my grin, he narrowed his eyes. “Ah, giving me trouble. I get it.” He slid a strand of hair off my forehead. “Just please take this seriously. I’ve got a weird feeling in my gut that something bad is gonna happen.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
He stepped back and pointed at the door. “Go on. Open up. I want to do a room check.”
“I’m sure we don’t need—”
He angled his head. “Rose.”
“All right, all right, Mr. Bossy.” We entered a room dimmed by the setting sun, the door clunking shut behind us. Sam went into the bathroom. I chewed on the inside of my cheek. It was so hard to keep from wrapping my arms around him. If only we could just forget about all of the theft stuff and focus on each other. And the short time we had left.
He exited the bathroom and opened the closet doors. Would he stay in contact after we went home? How likely was that? I mean, we lived in different cities. Granted, they were only about four and a half hours apart, but still. The thought of the looks on my parents’ faces if I said I wanted to drive to Houston was enough to make me laugh out loud.
“What?” he asked, walking over to me.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re smiling.”
Ha. No way would I admit what I was thinking about. “Totally your imagination.”
“Right,” he said, sounding like he didn’t believe me. He sank to his knees to check under the bed.
Of course, there could be texting and phone calls and FaceTime, but it definitely wouldn’t be the same as catching his gaze on me from across a room or the slow curl of that lopsided smile. Or his lips on mine. Heat swirled around inside, and I dragged air into my lungs.
Sam unfolded himself from the floor and caught me staring. Then, in a breath-stealing move, he took my face in his hands. “Don’t look at me like that,” he whispered and dropped a quick kiss on my lips. “Or you can forget about reporting Clio to the cruise officials because I would not want to leave this room.”
His heated gaze made me go all shy again. “Um, sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He drew me close and whispered against my hair like he was talking to himself. “Focus.”
Yes, we both needed to focus on Clio, not each other. I pulled back and smoothed my palms down the side of my shirt. No. Not mine, Sam’s. “Oh, your T-shirt.” I whipped it off over my head. “Here.”
His cheeks got so dark that he looked sunburned. Was he embarrassed? Had it seemed like I was taking off both shirts? I stifled a nervous giggle. This was a first. I was always the blushing one. His eyebrows pinched together, so I touched his forearm. “Hey, don’t worry. Everything’s gonna be okay. We’re on the ship now. Nothing can happen.”
“Um, wrong.” He took the T-shirt. “Anything can happen.”
“That’s not what you said the other day.”
“The other day I didn’t realize how serious Clio’s cousin was.” He walked to the door, wrenched it open, and looked over his shoulder. “I’ll be back in ten minutes. Don’t leave without me, okay?”
“I won’t.”
His expression softened. “Be right back.” I nodded and shut the door. Then from the hall came a muffled, “Locking bar.”
I laughed. “Okay.” I threw the bar in place with a clunk. Sam had to be the sweetest boy in the entire world. Not that I was partial or anything.
But right now I needed to stop with the mushy thoughts and concentrate. First things first. I wanted to get rid of the sweat and grime of the afternoon. I quickly washed my face, then ran a damp washcloth across my stomach and as much of my back I could reach. Next, I put on a clean T-shirt. I even brushed my teeth for good measure.
After I had finished in the bathroom, I went to the closet for different shoes. The sole of one of my sandals had separated with all that dashing through the streets of Dubrovnik. And, now that I was paying closer attention, I finally saw the scrape and ring of blood around my big toenail. I couldn’t remember it happening, but I definitely wasn’t leaving the room without cleaning the wound. No wonder I’d been limping.
Back to the sink to work on my toe. I was just patting it dry when my cabin phone rang. I hurried out of the bathroom, careful not to bang my injured toe on the raised lip of the door frame. I snatched up the receiver by the bed. “Hello?”
“Rose Mulligan?” asked a female voice with a lilting accent.
“Yes?”
“I am Doctor Steensen, the ship physician. Your grandfather has had a fall, and your grandmother would like you to come to the infirmary.”
Twenty-Eight
Rose
Grandpa. My heart slid to the floor. “What happened? Is he all right?”
“He slipped when exiting the tender and hit his head— I’m sorry I have a call on another line.”
A dial tone buzzed in my ear. I dropped onto my bed, the phone’s black receiver a dead weight in my hand. Grandpa hurt? I had to get there. I shook myself out of my shock, hung up the receiver, and leaped to my feet. But I immediately grabbed the phone again and punched in the number to Sam’s room. I paced two steps this way and two steps that way—short phone cord—counting the brrrp ringing noises. Why didn’t he answer? When I got to ten, I hung up.
Right. Sam either couldn’t answer or was on his way. I stuck my cell in my pocket along with my keycard, and then slipped on a pair of flip-flops. I almost charged out the door but stopped myself. I’d give Sam another minute.
In the meantime, I’d try my grandparents’ cell phones. I wasn’t supposed to use mine except in emergencies, but this had to qualify as one. The main problem with calling my grandparents was that they rarely answered because they didn’t hear the ring. They’d either leave the phones in their room or in a purse or had the ringer turned off. But I tried anyway. And, just as I expected, neither of them answered. But I left messages just in case.
I paced the confines of the cabin. How could Grandpa have fallen? Crew members always waited to help you out or onto the tender. The cruise ship people were careful about that. Yes, sometimes the waves bouncing the smaller boat made the step tricky, but still. Was the landing platform wet? But it had that anti-skid surface on it. How in the world could he have fallen?
A tendril of disquiet slipped into my head. What if he hadn’t fallen? What if this was just a ploy of Clio’s to get me to the infirmary? Stuff like that happened in mystery novels all the time. But why? What would be the point of me going there? Did she want to beat me up? My lips twitched. I was starting to sound as dramatic as Lindsey.
Two sharp raps sounded on the door, and I jumped. I rushed over and checked the peephole. Sam. I dragged the door open.
“You ready?” he asked, his voice trailing away as I waved him inside.
“Quick,” I said.
“What’s wrong?”
I paced towar
d the bed then back again. “Okay, it’s like this,” I said and explained about the suspicious phone call.
He frowned. “But what would Clio want with you?”
“I have no idea, but I’m not sure I should go. Why wouldn’t my grandmother call me herself?”
“Normally I’d agree, but what if your suspicions are wrong? Your grandparents could be waiting for you right now in the infirmary.”
I twisted the hem of my T-shirt. “Ugh. You’re right. What should I do?”
“Does your grandfather have balance problems? Has he fallen before?”
“No. Not that I know of. He’s in really good shape. He’s walked on the treadmill at least three times on this trip, not to mention all the walking he’s been doing on the excursions. I mean, he only just turned seventy.” My voice ascended to a squeak.
Sam rested his hands on my shoulders. “It’s gonna be okay, Rose. How about this? We’ll walk by the infirmary. The door is always open when the doctor is in there. If anything looks sketchy, we’ll just keep going, okay?”
Would we really be able to see inside without getting close? “All right.”
He took out his phone. “I’ll just call Alexis to let her know our plans.” He only had the phone to his ear for two seconds before giving it an irritated look. “Straight to voicemail. I’ll text her, but I’m not sure it’ll go through. Our cell coverage has sucked on this ship. Could you call her on the cabin phone?”
I tapped in Alexis’s room number but hung up after my standard ten rings. “No answer.”
“Doesn’t surprise me. Their music was on so loud I could hear it in the hallway. Sophie likes to sing in the shower.”
That startled a laugh out of me. “Really?”
“Yeah. She’s pretty bad too. Alex and I usually leave or go downstairs and turn on the TV.”
“I’d like to hear that someday.” Oh, crap. I shouldn’t have said that. Talking about the future was a very bad idea.
Life in the Danger Zone Page 19
