Accessory: The Scarab Beetle Series: #4 (The Academy) (23 page)

The GPS thing might be handy though. I wondered if that was the number two thing Doyle was trying to remember and forgot.

Axel brushed a palm against his mouth, considering. “And you communicate with Avery a lot?”

Blake nodded. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “It streams the signal and then his voice comes through.” He put the phone on the table and tapped at his ear. “I’ve got an earpiece, too.”

Axel nodded and then looked over the paperwork. “I’ve asked the guys to work with you and Doyle over the next few days. I hope you’ll share your stream with Corey and the others.”

“Not a problem at all,” he said. “Although Doyle is playing dispatcher. He’s a bit feisty. I can’t promise he won’t load toilet flushes into your ear piece on occasion.”

“Do you think he’ll be a problem?”

“Oh he’s not biased,” Blake said, his smile turning coy. “He sends me the flushes, too. I try to let him have some fun. Makes for a better working environment.”

Axel let out an exasperated sigh and looked at me and then back at Blake. “If we’re in this, then I have a few requests. I need to stick by Kayli, for safety, and to observe what’s going on here.”

Blake nodded his head casually. He might have been listening more than he cared to admit. “That sounds like a good idea. If you don’t mind playing her bodyguard, I’d actually feel better.”

Axel lifted a cool eyebrow. “You would?”

“Yeah,” he said. “This might be a casual setting, but we’re still facing off with potentially dangerous men. I’m sure they don’t want the secrets we’re trying to look at to come to the surface. The ones on the front line are more likely to get caught. If she’s digging into pockets, she’s the most vulnerable.”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t have to do that too often,” Axel said. “I’d assume they’ll leave things of value in their rooms if they treat this like a vacation.”

“Let’s hope they don’t treat it too much like a vacation and not want to talk about business.” Blake said as he turned to shuffle some papers from the table, picking up a couple of pages. “We don’t have too much time. Should I go over with you what I’m working on?”

Axel turned to the table next to him. I moved around to the opposite side, putting some space between us and to be able to see what they were working on. It was awkward. They were working together but there was this uncomfortable, unspoken tension around them. Or maybe it was just me. They gave no hint as to being uncomfortable but maybe that was it. They were trying too hard to look very comfortable. For themselves or to impress me?

Blake opened up an itinerary for the ship. “We’ve got a full five days onboard, not including this half day, and another half day when they disembark. All five days should be out at sea, although we really aren’t going that far, just following the coastline.”

Axel’s eyes studied the schedule. I read it upside down. “Ugh,” I said. “There’s social hour?”

“There’s always something social on a cruise ship,” Blake said. “Scheduled dinner times. Activities. We’re going to have to make ourselves available for these, unless our targets happen to leave or not show up for events. Then we’ll have to devise alternative meetings.”

“What will you be doing?”

Blake stretched. “I’ll be working on the Nightingale crew. Whoever you manage to make friends with, I’ll try to make friends with the other ones.” He looked up at me and winked. “We want to casually find out who has some secret stash of money they’d like to invest.”

Axel shifted the papers and then tugged at the collar of his blue polo. I got the feeling he didn’t like the collar. “And your plan is to lure them into giving up cash for a false investment?”

“Money laundering schemes are always in demand,” he said. “Especially if they increase revenue. It’s how a lot of those pyramid schemes and the patent wars get started. Since governments are onto pyramid schemes and patent trolls, they’ve moved on to other things.”

“I thought the way to launder money was through gambling institutions or investing in strip clubs. Isn’t there a history of the mafia doing this sort of thing?”

Blake shook his head. “That’s for thugs and drug dealers. That’s little bits of cash funneling through a system. No, we’re talking millions of dollars at a time here. Shell companies. Real estate.”

“Is that your plan? To sell them real estate?”

“It’s one of many options,” he said. “I own a few buildings to spare if they want to see something solid. It doesn’t really matter. I could offer them real estate. Kayli could talk them into a shell company. Whatever one they take, we’ll make happen.”

Axel brushed a hand over his head, loosening one of the black strands from his ponytail. It fell into his eyes. “This is going to take longer than five days to convince them.”

“But five days might be enough to get our foot in the door,” Blake said. He put down the papers and tapped at the itinerary. “Schmoozing to get on their good sides, that’s going to be the tough part. Trust is hard to build. It’s even harder when people are paranoid, which more than likely they are. I’d rather them hand over the money than try to take it by force.”

“And after you take it?” Axel asked.

“The money will actually need to be cleaned, probably in foreign investments rather than here. If we can find out where it came from, we’ll put it where it belongs through shell companies.”

Axel frowned. “So we’re essentially doing what the bad guys are doing?”

“Temporarily,” Blake said. “It’s either that or the government gets involved, and we’re trying to avoid that. Our ultimate goal is to spare the innocent as much as possible. We put the money back the cleanest way we can, but in some cases, we may need our own shell companies to make things right.”

“Maybe,” Axel said. “But I guess we’ll have to talk about that part later. We have to find the money before we can decide what to do with it.”

Blake held his fingers to his ear, and tilted his head to one side. “Ethan’s asking for us to meet him. We won’t be able to do any meetings in a group after this. We need a communication chain of some sort.”

Axel straightened and looked more determined. “Everyone needs to report in to...” He looked at me and then back at Blake. “I normally let Marc collect information if I’m going to be indisposed. If everyone on the team can check in with him, he’ll make sure to delegate and will check in with us if needed.”

“I think we can pull that off,” Blake said. “I’ll get everyone onboard with the GPS and Bluetooth setup we have. We might need to do it one at a time so Doyle can manage it. But let’s go see Ethan and then we can get started.”

Whew. This had gone better than I thought. At least there wasn’t a fist fight or a lot of big bad boy talking. Maybe Axel was really willing to forget what had happened before and try to make friends. I walked around the table quickly, going for the door and opening it, stepping outside into the hallway.

I looked back, waiting for the other two to come out. Axel had a hold of Blake’s bicep and he was whispering something into his ear. Blake looked my way, a clear indication they were discussing me, and then held my gaze, frowning.

Then I noticed Axel wasn’t just holding his arm. He was squeezing, his thumb making a dent in Blake’s flesh.

But before I could say anything, Axel released him—his face calm—and he followed me out the door.

Blake said nothing. He held my gaze still, but slowly started to follow Axel, keeping a distance.

A threat? I wasn’t sure. Axel’s face was placid. He wasn’t going to tell me.

Boys. I rolled my eyes and released the door once they were clear, its weight causing it to slam back into place. I hurried along. I’d ask one of them sooner or later what was going on. If Axel was going to try to make friends with Blake, he wasn’t off to a good start with that last stunt.

Or did he even care to make friends? He obviously didn’t want to be here.

I walked behind them, following in silence. I might have to kick them all off the boat and do this myself if they were going to act like this.

THE TEAM ASSEMBLES

E
than was sophisticated in a casual outfit that looked custom-made to make him look elegant and yet at home. The shirt was white with light blue stripes, loose fitting but tailored to his shoulders. The slacks were navy, and he wore blue and tan boat shoes. The crazy inventor turned into a sailing prince. His smile was big and he still had that friendly gaze, but the nose had lifted higher. He stood in the middle of the large marble floor near the front desk with Raven, Brandon, Corey, Marc, Kevin and Avery, talking about who knew what. I didn’t see Fancy anywhere.

Axel, Blake and I had gotten off at the wrong floor, one level above where we were supposed to meet them. Once we’d realized, we walked down the stairs to join the others. Raven, Brandon and Marc broke from whatever Ethan was saying to look up at us. Brandon and Marc instantly noticed Blake was with us. Brandon clenched his jaw. Marc forced a smile. Raven acknowledged Axel and Blake with a slight nod and then redirected his attention to me. I let go of the banister to wave shortly at him, wanting him to know I appreciated his effort.

My shoes slipped on the marble, just a little, but with the too-big shoes, I overcorrected and jerked forward. My hand shot out, grabbing the closest thing: Blake’s arm. He caught my elbow and then wrapped an arm around my waist, steadying me.

“Sugar doll,” he said, continuing to hold onto me as I balanced myself. My hands went to the skirt and I made sure I hadn’t flashed anything. “What under god’s sweet heaven--”

“Slipped,” I said.

“I noticed.” He held onto my elbow the rest of the way down.

The rest of the men watched us. All were frowning aside from Kevin, Avery and Ethan. Those three were just curious, and seemed oblivious to the jealous glares everyone else wore.

“Are you okay, dear?” Ethan asked once we got to the foyer floor. “I do worry about having marble as a stairway. It looks amazing but not at the risk of our women falling.”

How chivalrous. Let’s all point at the girl and feel sorry for her because her loafers were too big for her feet. I know he was just showing some sympathy in traditional Southern charm, but since I was the one embarrassed, it grated. “I’m fine,” I said. “Let’s just focus.”

“Right,” Ethan said and turned to Axel, holding out a hand. “Welcome again. So glad to have you on board.”

Axel walked over to him, shook Ethan’s hand and nodded. “I just hope we can help.”

“I do, too,” Ethan said. He took his hand back and then waved his arms wide for everyone. “Okay, so I wanted to ask you all here. I know we’re due for guests at any moment, but I wanted to talk to everyone all together. I’ve been informed of the plan. I just hope we’re not in too over our heads.”

“If we take things slow, it should be fine,” Blake said. He looked casually at everyone. The others seemed to have calmed down, or at least had hidden their dislike well enough for now. “There is absolutely no rush to act, unless you discover information that should suggest otherwise. In which case, let either Kayli or I know immediately. Let’s try not to make a move without discussing it.”

“Remember, people,” Ethan said. “Despite our interests, all of these people are guests. They are to be treated with respect, even when and if we prove our suspicions to be correct. We don’t want to alarm our innocent friends by assaulting the wrongdoers, if we should find any.”

I leaned on one foot, distracted as they went on. It was probably the medicine I’d taken earlier, making it hard to concentrate. I was concerned about how I was going to talk to complete strangers and make friends just enough for them to trust me. This wasn’t my forte. I was a pickpocket. I didn’t make friends with people I stole from. I didn’t have many friends of my own. Being nice to strangers was one thing, but getting to know them was going to be very different.

I turned my head, distracted by movement on the second floor near the shops, and was surprised to find Raven by my side. I hadn’t heard him move.

I leaned into him and whispered. “Raven?”

He kept his eyes on Ethan like he was listening bur spoke to me. “Did you hurt your foot?” he asked quietly. “When you slipped?”

“No,” I said. I lifted my ankle and bent it, to show him the bottom of the loafers. “These aren’t exactly my size. And the bottoms are really slippery.”

Raven studied the material and then turned, reaching out to pinch Corey on the arm.

Corey looked our way. He smiled and stepped closer, leaning in. “What?”

“Fix her shoes,” Raven said, pointing to my loafer.

“Do I look like a cobbler?” Corey whispered, the smile turning more amused.

Raven grunted low, disappointed. “You fix things.”

“Computers,” he said. “I fix computers. I fixed your phone. I don’t know anything about shoes.” He looked at the shoes and then at my outfit and then the glasses. “You look good in glasses.”

I touched the corner of the glasses, feeling self-conscious. “They’re a pain,” I said. “I think they’ll fall off.”

“I wear them sometimes,” Corey said. “When we’re on missions. They can be a nice touch.”

Kevin partially turned and snapped his fingers at us and then put a finger against his lips in a silencing gesture, reminding us to pay attention.

I refocused on Ethan and Blake who were taking turns talking about where life vests were, where the crew stayed and some emergency situations to be aware of. “We’ve got a list of gun owners who may come aboard with a weapon. Only one on the Nightingale team, but at the very least, be aware of the others. Now, I think that’s it.”

Kevin raised a hand in the air.

“Yeah?” Blake asked him. “Am I forgetting something?”

“Where exactly do we go if we do learn anything? Do we have a base to drop off notes or something?”

“When you get a chance, either Avery, Kayli or I can show you where Doyle’s and my rooms are. You’re welcome to go there any time. Leave notes. Leave clues. Whatever you need to do, but once a day, preferably in the morning, try to drop by, write your name and the time and anything you might have learned. That’ll just help us make sure we’re all okay.” He picked up his phone and held it in front of himself. “Now, can I get a quick check-in on what everyone will be focusing on? Axel, Kayli and I will be focused on the Nightingale team directly. The rest of you?”