Accessory: The Scarab Beetle Series: #4 (The Academy) (22 page)

“We’re not exactly the same shoe size,” she said.

“You’ve got much bigger feet,” I said.

“Blame my big man piece,” she said. “You know what they say about big shoes.” She reached down and adjusted herself a little through the sheer material. She turned then, catching how Axel was looking at the floor. “Are you even paying attention?”

“I’m listening,” Axel said.

“Do you even see this girl?” she asked. “I was going for smart-ass Kayli, cute and diminutive.”

“It’s the only dress with pockets,” I said.

Axel looked up, at first catching an eyeful of Fancy and quickly looked at the wall. His eyes shifted again, going more slowly until he focused on me. His lips parted slightly. He tilted his head as he checked out the loafers and then the dress. “Is that even you?”

I turned slightly, holding my arms up. The dress only showed a hint of my boobs, and it was mostly showing off legs. Cute, but not really me. “Dorky?”

“It’s a different you,” he said. He stood up and then made a circle around me. I started turning to face him as he did, but then he put his hand up in a stopping motion. “Don’t move,” he said. “I just want to look.”

“The skirt is too short,” I said. I smoothed my palms down, and my fingertips were brushing against skin at my thighs. “I feel like I’m going to flash my butt.”

“Good,” Fancy said. “You should flash some ass once in a while. Make them crawl to you, begging to give up their dirtiest secrets.”

“Is that your angle?” Axel asked. “We didn’t even talk about your role in all of this.”

“My role is kicking ass with Kayli,” she said. “We’re going to work with that floor.” She motioned to me. “Diminutive, innocent and smart or…” she slicked her hands down her stomach and her hips. “Take a chance on the seductive and steal-you-away-from-your-wife Fancy.”

“I hope you’ve got a plan B,” Axel said.

Fancy put her hands down in a harrumph. “My plan B is a Glock in their nose until they confess to everything. No one can ignore a gun.”

“Let’s try to go without the guns,” I said. “We’re just looking for info.”

Fancy looked at me and then slowly trailed her eyes up and down my body. “You know, it’s missing something.” She went to a handbag that was on a side table near the bed and pilfered through it. She plucked out a pair of large brown-rimmed eyeglasses and brought them over to me. “Try these.”

“I don’t need glasses,” I said.

“They’re for fashion,” she said. “Clear lenses.”

I put the glasses on, finding them to be decorative rather than prescription. They were a little weird-feeling. I thought they’d fall off my face so I kept touching the bridge over my nose and then holding onto the side of them. They didn’t seem to move but still felt loose. “I’m going to lose these,” I said. “I feel like they’re going to fall off.”

“They just need adjusting,” Axel said. He scooted around again and then for the first time since he’d been on board, he actually smiled. “Fancy,” he said. “Don’t believe anything anyone else says about you. You’re a genius.”

“What are other people saying about me?” she barked, almost dropping into her man voice. Then she waved her hand as if to ward off his answer. “Doesn’t matter. Nope. This Fancy doesn’t give a shit. Jealousy is the only thing she hears.”

“Right,” Axel said. “Anyway, if you can pick out more outfits for her that are like this one from the shops downstairs, we can work this angle. And if you’re willing, flirt with the men from Nightingale to see if they’re receptive. Are you comfortable with that?”

“Never a problem,” Fancy said, swinging her hips as she went to pose. “Do you want me to get down and dirty with them?”

“Ew,” I said.

Axel didn’t react. “Actually, if you’re willing, do you think you could capture a couple of dirty images if you do?” he asked. “Discreetly?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Let’s go, Kayli,” Axel said.

“Why are we doing this?” I asked.

Axel shrugged and then moved toward the door. He put his hands into his white pants pockets as he moved. “We might need them later.”

“Why?” I asked, clomping after him in the oversized loafers. I turned and went back for my clothes, and realized I wasn’t going to be able to pick up the boots and other things without bending over, and then I’d be flashing my bits at them. “Axel,” I said.

He stood at the doorway but didn’t turn. “Because there’s going to be a time when we’re going to try to knock a few out of their positions. We might need the blackmail.”

“Axel,” I said again with a little more whine.

“I don’t suppose you have another suggestion.”

I blew a raspberry to get his attention. “Axel.”

He turned this time and looked at me.

I pointed to the clothes on the floor. “Half of those don’t belong to me,” I said. “I need to give them back.”

“Burn them,” Fancy said, waving her hand at the pile. “Don’t even bother.” She moved to the suitcase, and this time, she bent over, pushing the one on top out of the way to get to the one below it. She was exposing her butt to Axel, all the deep dark corners of it. “But now it’s my turn to dress up.”

Axel crossed the room, picked up the clothes, grabbed my elbow and practically carried me along with the clothes to the door. “Thanks, Fancy.”

She wiggled her butt in his direction and then stood slowly, winking over her shoulder at him. “Thank me later, sweetie. Maybe you and I will get to go over those pictures privately.”

MAKING AMENDS

A
s we left Fancy, I slipped down the hallway in the loafers, trying to get used to them, as Axel carried the clothes. It wasn’t until we were several doors away down the hallway that I realized I’d have to return tomorrow for another outfit. I’d have to go through that again? “When we get back to Charleston,” I said, “and if we’re still involved in this, I’m going to need my own wardrobe. I don’t know if I can handle this every morning.”

“I don’t know if I can handle it,” he said. He took his phone out of his pocket and then checked the screen. “It’s too late now. They say Avery’s expecting the first guests at any moment.”

“Already?”

“Two called ahead and said they were on the way. We don’t have much time, and we may need to skip the tour for now. I want to spend as much time as possible on this Nightingale group.”

I paused in the hallway. “Are we ready for this?”

“Almost,” he said, stopping to face me. His eyes kept going down toward the skirt. “I need to talk to Blake and Doyle.”

“Blake might be more accessible than Doyle,” I said. “Doyle’s more or less out of commission in the morning from what I’ve heard. He might not be up yet.”

“Then I need Blake.”

I hesitated. It was tempting to pretend I didn’t know where he could be, and delay them meeting until we had left port. I don’t know why, but it seemed like a bad idea. Like Blake could say the wrong thing and set Axel into a tirade and we’d be leaving the ship.

Though, there wasn’t much point in being here if they weren’t going to get along, anyway.

I looked around the hallway, at the fancy carpet and the wall sconces and then looked at the map of the ship. “I might be able to get us to his room.

“How do you know he’ll be there?”

I sucked in a breath and let it out slowly between my lips. I might as well tell him everything. He’d find out sooner or later. “He’s probably listening. Either him or Avery. They’ll get the word to each other.”

Axel frowned. “He can hear us right now?”

“If he is listening at all. Doyle’s rigged the entire ship.” I tried to recall our conversations. We had been careful with not mentioning the Academy, even if Doyle and Ethan and the rest knew about it anyway. I wasn’t sure how much Axel or the others talked since we’ve been here, but I was sure they knew better than to just openly talk in any location. Raven had proven they could be paranoid enough to inspect the rooms.

Axel nodded slowly. “You mentioned, although in the beginning, I’d thought it was Ethan and Avery. I don’t really know who might be worse.”

“Maybe Ethan had it done originally but Doyle taps into it. If you just ask for Avery, he’ll hear you and will make an appearance.”

“How can they listen to everything going on?” he asked. “That’d be a mess.”

I shrugged. Tech wasn’t my forte. “You’d have to ask Doyle that one. Or Blake.”

Axel turned down the hall. “So he can meet us somewhere?” he said a little louder.

“We’ll find out,” I said.

We stopped by the bedrooms we were staying in to drop off the clothes before I wandered around on the decks below. I got lost and opened two other storage rooms that weren’t the right ones before I realized I was on the wrong floor.

At the third storage room door, I knocked gently, about to open the door again when it opened quickly, almost knocking me in the face. I slid back, bumping into Axel. He remained steady, holding me up.

Blake stood in the doorway. He wore a loose grey canvas shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and another pair of designer jeans. This time he wore blue dock shoes. Casual yacht fashion. He noted Axel and then smiled at me. “You’re looking much better. So the medicine did help?”

“Thanks for helping her, “Axel said before I could say anything. “And I apologize for Brandon attacking you. She was in a pretty vulnerable position before and he’s gotten protective of her.”

Blake nodded slowly, the fox smile slipping onto his lips. “I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking advantage.” His eyes turned to me again, catching the skirt and then sliding up to the glasses. “I love this outfit. Very fetching.”

Axel turned, looking at my face. “It suits her, in a way.”

I could have burned up where I stood from the awkward attention. The fact that I didn’t like it and they did made me feel conflicted. “Can we just get to business?” I asked. I slid my loafers along the floor. I could fall on my butt in these things on the marble up in the main staircase.

“I agree,” Blake said. He stepped aside, holding the door open to let us come in “Come in. We don’t have much time.”

Axel and I stepped inside. The room was chilly and the bed had been slept in.

Axel scanned the room. “Did Avery not set you up with a regular room?”

“Actually Doyle and I gave up our rooms,” he said. “For you all. Plus we didn’t want anyone in the crew to come across the information we’ve dug up.” He pointed to the long table. The stool was positioned next to the laptop which was now open. “They won’t be cleaning the rooms we’re in. They shouldn’t be in here for any reason.”

Axel went to the table. He picked up one of the binders and opened it up, turning the pages. “Meeting notes?” he asked.

“I’ve read them,” Blake said.

Axel put the binder down and then looked at a notebook. “What’s this?”

“It’s a list of folks known to have guns in their homes—registered or not. I check-marked the ones who would most likely carry one onboard. Normally there’s pretty tight security for a ship, but according to Mr. Murdock, they don’t do this with their own CEOs. I was going to show it to you all if you decided to stay.”

“That would be helpful.” Axel looked over the other contents of the table.

“Why do the CEOs get so many special privileges?” I asked.

Blake shrugged. “It’s how the old Mr. Murdock did things. Ethan said he’d make changes later, but for now he didn’t want to alarm anyone by suddenly asking for hiked up security when they’d been allowed to carry previously.”

“It’ll be good to be aware,” Axel said. “Hopefully this will be a peaceful endeavor. I don’t expect to be confrontational on the ship. So, you’re comfortable with us helping out?”

“Actually I was hoping,” Blake said. He folded his arms over his chest, and shifted his weight to one leg. The way he stood made me notice his slim hips and the shape to his butt while emphasizing his biceps. “Ethan and I could have handled it, but more hands and eyes are always better in this sort of thing. Believe it or not, I actually feel I can trust you all.”

“I believe it,” Axel said. He met Blake’s eyes. “And you listen in on Kayli? You’re able to follow where she is around the ship?”

I gritted my teeth. There was suspicion in Axel’s tone.

Blake shrugged. “It’s not really that sophisticated. Most of the hallways, and a few of the larger rooms are currently wired, mostly public areas. The guest staterooms are rigged. We aren’t listening in on all of them right now, just focusing on the prime suspects we’ve got our money on. Nightingale, of course, and a few dozen others. Everything else is just being recorded so we can listen in later if we need to.” He pointed to the tablet on his desk. “Avery’s got an ear out for his name and in your rooms just to check in on if you need anything. He’s got Ethan’s room and ours rigged up as well so we can just call for him if we need him. But he lets me know if Kayli’s asking for me. Or you, for that matter.”

“He’s got an earpiece?” Axel asked.

“It’s just a little Bluetooth device that streams from points around the ship.” He fiddled with the black box connected to a cord around his neck. “Most of us carry one of these. It helps him find us anywhere on the ship.”

“GPS?”

“Custom for the ship,” he said. “Something Doyle picked up from our German friends, only more sophisticated. It can pinpoint our location at any given moment.”

“Can you get us some?” Axel asked. “Can he track all of us?”

Blake’s head bent forward but his eyes remained on me, devilish. “Sure. I had one prepared for her, but wanted to wait. For now, we could listen and figure out where you are, but we might not be able to later with so many people on board if we split up more.”

I bit my tongue, not wanting to admit I was feeling strange they could listen in on us at any point. It just struck me how that this morning, someone had been listening in on us, enough that they could tell I was sick. Was it Avery and he mentioned it to Blake? Or was Blake listening more than he cared to admit? It would be very useful. I would simply have to be careful what I said where. It would be difficult to be more conscious of that while trying to spy on other guests.