But Charlotte was with him, murmuring that it would be okay, that his daughter was still on the ship somewhere. Addison turned away to give them privacy, but she doubted very much that that was the case, and by the look on Felix’s face, so did he.
Addison wanted to search the sundeck, search the whole ship and the surrounding waters. But all the show dogs disappearing at once could only mean one thing. The dognappers had gotten what they finally wanted, and then some. Along with it, they had taken both Naia and Princess.
Princess. A tear rolled down her cheek before she even knew she was crying. Addison felt both distraught and selfish at the same time. Felix was missing his daughter, his baby, and she was crying over her dog. But in a way, Princess was Addison’s baby. If she wasn’t, then why did it feel like someone had taken one of the silver spoons from the dining deck and hollowed out her insides?
She wished she had a DeLorean like in Back to the Future, to go back in time. She would tell her past self not to bring Princess that night, to leave her at home. She’d tell Felix not to bring Naia. Hell, while she was at it, she’d kiss Felix on Phillip’s balcony rather than push him away.
Her head spun, caught in a useless cycle of regrets and random thoughts—fear for her precious Princess, guilt for worrying about Princess when Naia was missing too, pity for Felix. She glanced at Felix, but he was hugging Charlotte now so she turned away, adding self-loathing to the mix of emotions circulating through her.
Hugging herself, Addison shuffled to the back of the boat, heels sinking into the fresh sod. She leaned against the white picket fence and stared out into the night.
There was quiet splashing in the water below. Addison thought it had come from the bow, where the deckhands were probably attempting to dislodge the small boat that had crashed into the Belle. But then there was another splash behind her. It was soft and rhythmic, coming from the stern.
She peered into the night. More fog had rolled in since she was last outside with Zoe and Piper. Maybe that was why the recreational boat hadn’t seen the Belle. Although she couldn’t see how, since it was a three-hundred-foot-long floating torch made up of string lights.
The bay water was so dark beyond the boat, reflecting their own halo of light immediately around them. She searched for the source of the splashing and saw a dark shape drifting inside the halo’s sparkling ripples. It was a boat, big enough for about ten people.
Oars dipped in and out of the water as it rowed away. In the light, gold letters flashed along the side of its hull. San Francisco Belle. It was one of the Belle’s lifeboats. Inside the hull was a stack of boxes.
Addison’s frantic brain finally caught up with the scene playing out before her. They weren’t boxes. They were dog kennels. The kennels. The dogs. Naia. Princess. Her knees buckled and she gripped the railing for support.
The dognappers were right there, still so close. She should have been able to hear the dogs’ barking and whining echo across the water, but they were silent. Her mouth went dry as she considered why.
“Felix.” Her voice was barely a whisper. She licked her lips and tried again. “Felix, look!”
It felt like a bad dream. Surely this wasn’t happening. She couldn’t be the only one to see this happening. But then again, at that very moment, all the guests and crew were distracted by the head-on collision up front.
She suddenly realized the “accident” had been intended as a distraction. The smaller boat had intentionally run into them. But surely all the dog minders hired to watch over the show dogs hadn’t run to gawk at the accident. Where were they?
Addison heard Felix’s footsteps swishing across the grass, but she didn’t want to take her eyes away from the shape in case she blinked and lost it. She pointed straight out into the darkness, and Felix’s eyes followed her finger. She knew he saw it when his grip tightened around one of the fake fence posts and it busted off in his hand.
The lifeboat disappeared from the Belle’s aura of light, blending into the foggy night. She yelled, “Stop!” But her voice was downed out by the long blast of the horn.
The Belle’s engine whirred somewhere in its depths. The dark waters below churned around the stern of the boat until it looked like boiling water. The paddle wheel slowly began to turn and the Belle inched forward, away from all of the dogs floating away.
Felix threw the piece of wood aside. “We have to go after them.”
Charlotte gripped Felix’s jacket and shook her head. “They’ll be long gone by the time we dock. Besides, Naia might still be on the boat. We’ll go talk to the captain.”
Addison barely heard Charlotte. Her eyes were moving over the crime scene.
“Maybe we don’t have to wait,” Addison told Felix, pointing to the other side of the ship. “Look. There’s another lifeboat. They haven’t gotten very far. We can follow them.”
Felix was already tucking Naia’s bunny into his inside jacket pocket, charging toward the spare lifeboat. Addison hurried after him, her heels digging into the grass like lawn darts, slowing her down. By the time she reached the boat, Felix had already climbed inside and was grabbing the power controls to lower it into the water.
“Wait. Where are you going?” Charlotte asked him.
“To get my daughter back.”
“We haven’t even called nine-one-one yet,” she said. “Why don’t you wait for the police?”
“That will take too long. We haven’t been able to catch this guy yet. If we let him go now, we might not be able to find Nai—” He couldn’t finish the thought. He blinked, long and slow. “This could be my only chance.”
Addison threw a leg into the boat. “You mean our only chance.”
Felix held a hand up to stop her. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“With you.”
“No you’re not. It might be dangerous.”
He tried to push her out, but she swatted his hand away.
“I’m going and you can’t stop me. I want to help you get Naia and Princess back. The longer we argue about it, the more we risk them getting away.” She fixed him with a steady stare. “We’re in this together, remember?”
Felix seemed to consider this a moment before reaching out and helping Addison to climb inside the hull. Her poofy dress took up nearly the entire width of the boat. The moment her butt hit the bench across from him, he hit the down button on the control switch.
The lifeboat jerked to life. Addison gripped the bench beneath her. With a whir of gears and pulleys, they descended the three decks to the water below.
“Charlotte!” Addison called up. “Go find Zoe, the event coordinator of this party, and tell her everything that’s happened!”
She saw Charlotte nod just before they hit the water. Addison squealed and shivered as the spray from the paddle wheel reached them. Felix took off his jacket and tossed it to her.
“Thanks,” she said, wrapping it around herself. She felt the bulge of Naia’s stuffed bunny inside the jacket and swallowed hard.
“I can’t move in the monkey suit, anyway,” he said.
Felix reached down to pick up the oars resting next to their feet. He placed them in the eyelets on either side and started rowing in the general direction the dognapper had gone.
Addison knew they needed to make up for lost time, so she spun around, her back to Felix. Setting her clutch down next to her so it didn’t fall in the water, she grabbed another pair of oars and began to row. As they floated farther and farther away, the bay fog swallowed the San Francisco Belle.
Addison tried to keep the same pace as Felix, but she felt the powerful surge of their little boat with each one of his strokes, and she knew she wasn’t helping much. Her oversized ball gown getting in the way of the oars didn’t exactly help either. And since there were two more sets of oarlocks, it was definitely not meant to be a two-person rowboat. But every inch counted, every inch brought them closer to Naia, to Princess, to all the stolen dogs. To saving the day.
This is
what Addison tried to remind herself of when her back began to ache, when her muscles screamed as though the flesh was being torn from her bones, when her arms felt like hardening cement. But still she rowed. For Naia, for Princess, for all the dogs and their worried owners—and to keep her dad feeling proud of her.
Felix’s grunts grew louder with each stroke, but he never slowed for a second. Addison bit hard on her lip to keep from crying out each time she dipped the oars into the water and heaved back as hard as she could. She didn’t want to be the reason they lost the other boat.
The fog weighed down on them, much thicker than before. Addison glanced behind her every couple of minutes, worried they could be ten feet from the other boat and never see it. But they kept making their way toward the bright glow breaking through the fog: the Financial District.
Soon, over Addison’s own heavy breathing, Felix’s grunting, and the splashing of their oars on the water, she heard another set of rhythmic splashes. Muffled as it was by the haze, Addison knew they were gaining on the dognapper. There was no doubt it was him because who else would be crazy enough to row a boat out on the bay in the dark and the fog?
Biting down so hard on her lip that she tasted blood, Addison worked through the pain. She knew Felix could hear the sound too, because their boat’s momentum suddenly increased with his sudden burst of power. A last desperate effort.
The distant splashing suddenly stopped. Addison and Felix kept rowing. With each stroke, Addison’s heart quickened. What was going to happen when they caught up to the thief?
Someone yelled out. “Throw me the rope!”
Addison heard answering calls. Her eyes grew wide as she realized there were more than one dognapper. But of course there were. In order to steal this many dogs, there’d have to be.
The hidden voice reached their ears again. “Come on, hurry!”
Moments later, a loud roar echoed across the water, followed by the quiet purr of an engine.
Felix grunted. “They’re going to get away.”
He groaned, and Addison imagined him trying to go faster, but they’d been going so long.
“Okay, go, go, go!” that mystery voice yelled over the engine.
The purr turned into a growl as the engine revved. Then it quickly faded into the distance, until all that was left was the splashing of Felix’s and Addison’s oars.
Felix stopped rowing. “Shhhh.”
Addison turned around to see him holding up his hand, tilting his head to listen. But there was only silence.
In mere seconds their lifeboat floated over white foam, churned up by a motor. They’d been so close, but the boat, the dogs, and Naia were gone.
27
Up the Creek without a Doggy Paddle
“Shit!” Felix threw down an oar, spraying Addison in the process. “We lost them. Goddammit.”
He grabbed the other oar and flung it, sending it flying into the bay. It landed with an unsatisfyingly quiet splash.
It looked like he wanted to rage, to punch something, but they were stuck on the little lifeboat, so he pressed his face into his hands and yelled into them until he turned red.
Addison spun on her bench to face him, her heart breaking to see his pain. This time she couldn’t help but reach out to him and hold his hand. He grabbed it readily and squeezed.
“We might still catch up to them,” she said. “They still have to unload the kennels. That will take time. We’re not too far from shore.” The glow had in fact brightened, the angular outlines of the skyscrapers poking out of the fog above them.
“They wouldn’t be headed back to the Embarcadero,” he said bitterly. “Too many witnesses. They could be headed anywhere.” He kicked the hull of the boat, causing it to rock.
“Maybe Zoe’s contacted the Coast Guard by now. Maybe they’re already searching.” Addison opened her clutch and dug through it to find her phone. “I’ll just call her.”
“Why bother? It’s not like the police have been able to find any of them since they first started to disappear.” Felix’s voice hitched and Addison’s heart lurched at the sound of it.
“But we can just call and see if—”
“What good are they going to do, Addison!?”
Addison flinched, startled by his anger. “Don’t yell at me!” she yelled back. “I’m trying to help!”
“I’m sorry.” He rubbed his face. “I’m sorry. I’m a little on edge. I’ve just lost my daughter, if you haven’t noticed.”
“I know, but yelling at me isn’t going to help get her back. I lost my baby too, you know.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Princess isn’t your baby.”
Addison scowled. “She is to me.”
“It’s a dog, for God’s sake. Not a child,” he said, sounding tired. “If you want a baby then go have a real one.” He stopped and his hands clenched, like he was fighting himself. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m just—”
“Scared,” she said, reining in her anger. “I know. I can’t imagine how awful this is for you right now, but don’t pretend like I haven’t lost anything.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
She knew he was only lashing out because he was worried about Naia, but he’d accidentally hit a sore spot. She swallowed her indignation, but hated it when her next words wavered. “And I can’t.”
He lifted his gaze from his feet to look at her in question, but she couldn’t meet his eyes.
“I can’t have kids,” she told him. “I had a hysterectomy when I was twenty-two. Princess is as close as I’m ever going to get to having one.” She raised her eyes to meet his. “So just don’t pretend like I haven’t lost anything today, okay? Because Princess is all I’ve got.”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated softly.
But now she was looking at her own feet, wishing she’d worn closed-toed shoes because the cold bay water was making them ache.
When she didn’t respond, she felt the boat shift as Felix came to sit next to her. He shoved her plentiful skirts aside in order to get close.
“I mean it,” he said. “I’m sorry. Both for what I said, and for what happened to you. I guess there are a lot of things that I don’t know about you either.”
Addison felt the sincerity behind those words and she sank against him. Now that they’d stopped moving, she started to shiver even with Felix’s jacket on. He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close to keep her warm.
It was a nice place to be, in his arms, so warm and comforting. Again she felt the loss of something potentially amazing, that she’d missed the boat. Literally and figuratively.
They fell into an anxious silence. Felix fidgeted next to her, ready for action, but there was nothing they could do without knowing where the kidnappers went.
Waves lapped against the side of the boat, rocking them as they listened to the distant sounds of the city. As cold as it was getting in their damp formal wear, neither of them moved or suggested they head for shore, as though that would mean they gave up. If they continued to float for eternity, then maybe they wouldn’t have to admit they were up the river without a paddle, so to speak. If they never went to shore, they wouldn’t have to face the truth or what came next.
They’d been so desperate to not only save the dogs, but also their jobs, their reputations. Those things seemed so menial now that a human life was on the line. And not just any human. The most precious little angel Addison had ever met.
She began to wonder if the thieves even knew she was in Oliver’s kennel. What would they do when they discovered her?
Addison stopped that line of thinking, closing her mind off to any possibility that meant they didn’t succeed, that they didn’t find Naia. Because Addison Turner didn’t give up. She didn’t give up when her business faced total ruin. And it was a hundred times more important that she not give up now.
“There has to be something we can do.” Addison sat straight up in her seat. “Maybe we can call Channel Five and have th
em fire up the chopper.”
Felix snorted, despite the situation, or maybe because he looked like if he didn’t laugh he might throw himself overboard. “Except that you forget, Holly Hart isn’t exactly on your team right now.”
“For the promise of a good story she might help,” she said doubtfully.
“I shouldn’t have brought Naia,” Felix said. “I should have stayed home. I should have just given up on the reward money and the bar. It’s all meaningless without her.”
“This isn’t your fault,” she told him. “This party was supposed to be safe. Who knew they would go to such lengths to get to the dogs?”
“But I suspected they were going to try something, or else I wouldn’t have come. Charlotte was going to identify who’s been stealing all the dogs.”
Addison shifted on her seat as much as her dress would allow in order to look at him. “Hold on. What? How does Charlotte know who’s behind it?”
He hesitated, his eyes flickering with a wince. “Well, she might have had something to do with it.” He spoke slowly, as though gauging her expression with each word.
“Charlotte stole the dogs?” she asked, but it was barely a whisper.
“She didn’t steal them,” he said. “She just helped. Sort of.” He frowned and pulled a face like even he couldn’t talk his way out of this one.
Addison’s teeth clenched. “What do you mean, ‘sort of’?”
“Well, she didn’t have anything to do with the cocktail mixer. But she might have, kind of, helped hide the dogs in the back of the van at Phillip’s fundraiser.”
She gripped the oar next to her, ready to smash it over his head. “Then you sent her on her merry way out the front gates with them.”
“It’s not like I knew they were in there, did I?”
Addison could no longer feel the cold. All she could feel was hot anger flowing through her. “But you vouched for her. You promised that she had nothing to do with this. And the whole time she knew who it was. She lied straight to our faces when we asked her about it.”
She got to her feet, unable to stand being near him any longer. The boat began to rock beneath her, and she nearly lost her balance. Felix pulled her back down.
Beauty and the Wiener Page 28
