Accessory: The Scarab Beetle Series: #4 (The Academy) (38 page)

Axel poked his head in. He was wearing tan slacks, a white shirt and a light blue tie. All the light colors contrasted with his very tan complexion and dark hair. I wasn’t sure I liked those clothes on him. His gaze slid from Corey, to the rumpled bed, and finally, to me. “Are you feeling better?”

“She seems to be,” Corey said before I could.

Axel looked between Corey and me again and then focused his eyes on my face. “We need to get ready.” He came fully into the room, holding a dress in a clear garment bag. It was a black evening gown with a gold hoop buckle and more gold detail on the sleeves. “I’m sorry we don’t have time to get your opinion on this. I just tried to go for the simplest design the shop had.”

“I thought we weren’t going to buy clothes here,” I said, although I was grateful I didn’t need to go to Fancy again for clothes.

“On the house, apparently,” he said. “Per Ethan’s orders, we’re to be given complete VIP privileges. It’s all charged to Ethan. I wish I’d known that earlier.”

My nerves were frayed with Axel and Corey together in the same room. I worried they would start bickering. Corey kept his lips closed, a small, but strained smile on his face. Axel’s face was unreadable.

Is this what we’d become? Were we going to sit around and pretend nothing had happened? I crawled to the edge of the bed, wearing the crumpled up sun dress I’d slept in determined to just get on with it. I didn’t have the energy to challenge them right now. If we were required at dinner, then I’d need to prepare. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a makeup kit.”

“Do you need one?” Axel asked.

I stared at him. Fancy dinner and no makeup? Had he never taken a woman to dinner? “I need you to go down to the stores. I think I saw makeup in one of them. Maybe Fancy can help.”

“Fancy can’t help. She’s with some CEOs right now, getting what we asked her to.”

I tried not to think about how Fancy was doing. “Then we’ll have to do this on our own. I need you to go down and get at least the basics.”

Axel glanced at Corey and then me again. “And what exactly are the basics?”

“Foundation, mascara, lip color, almost everything,” I said. Fancy had done some daytime makeup on me earlier, but no doubt after the bath, all the crying and sleeping, I needed to just redo it all. I probably looked a mess.

I must have been feeling refreshed after my nap because I suddenly felt in control, ready to get back in the game. This was my job. I needed to take over. “I also need another pair of glasses if I’m playing Kitty Lane. And shoes. Tell Brandon I need another pair of strappy sandals like the first ones he bought me. He’ll know what to look for.”

He nodded slowly. He looked at Corey. “Got all that?”

“No,” I said, climbing off the bed to get between Corey and Axel, facing Axel head on. He didn’t get to delegate. I was in charge now. “I need you to go do it.” I stepped toward him. He didn’t budge at all. I reached around and found his phone easily in his back pocket. I pulled it out and used the camera to take a picture of my face. “Use this image at the makeup counter. Have the woman there match an evening palette to my skin tone as best as you can. Corey is going to stay here while I shower. I need you to get all those things. And then I need Blake and you back here to brief me on anything I might have missed while I was sleeping before we head to dinner.”

“Blake might be unavailable,” he said.

“Then I need an earpiece with him on the other end,” I said. “He and I need to be in communication at this point. I need to be updated on what he’s been telling anyone else on the ship, and I might need some guidance as far as what to say about investments if anyone asks at dinner. Go get Doyle to make me another earpiece set up with Blake’s.”

Axel’s eyes were steady on mine. He nodded shortly but said nothing. He left the dress in my arms and then turned and walked out, the door slamming closed behind him.

“Wow,” Corey said. He moved to the edge of the bed, putting his feet on the floor to sit up. “You seem...better.”

I turned to him, my heart pounding in a frenzy. “Was I bossy? I just wanted to get things going.”

“No,” he said. “Actually, that’s...” He shook his head and then smiled, this time genuinely. “You don’t seem sick anymore. Maybe the muscle relaxer and a nap did the trick. It’s like you’re back to your old self.”

“Old self?” I asked.

He shrugged and then stood up, going to the bathroom and opening the door. “You were like this when I first met you,” he said. “But I like it. You were honest about what you wanted. Lately you’ve seemed kind of blah. Not much of an opinion on anything.”

I walked into the bathroom and looked around. Soaps and towels were placed back in their original positions and the toilet paper roll had been replaced. This time it had a regular, ordinary white toilet paper roll. “Who cleaned the room?” I asked.

“Kevin made sure he and Raven did it,” he said. He went over to the sink, messing with the tiny soaps. “And there’s a Do Not Disturb sign out there just in case. It should stop anyone else from coming by.”

That was good. We didn’t need anyone else snooping around. I went to the shower, turning on the water. The spray blasted strongly at first, and then eased to normal pressure. “Do we get normal ordinary toilet paper now instead of the blue stuff?”

Corey looked over at the roll and shrugged. “I heard Raven say something about you didn’t like the blue stuff.”

I smiled. “Anything I should know about what’s going on around the ship?”

“Colt stayed,” he said. “Ms. Wayward and Mr. Smith got together and talked a little. They talked about you.”

“Good ways?” I tested the water and as it was warm enough, I checked the bottles and soaps to make sure what I needed was there. “If you’re going to stay in the room and talk, I’m about to hop in.”

He moved from the counter to the toilet, putting the lid down and sitting on top of it. He kept his eyes on the floor and there was a wall between the shower and the toilet so he wouldn’t be able to look in. I smiled at how considerate he was of my modesty, even though he’d already seen me naked.

He went on, “It might be good. Mr. Smith doesn’t like Axel. But he wants to talk to you. Now we just need Blake and that other guy, Mr. Cline, to talk with Mr. Smith to help confirm you are who you say you are. Blake was trying to get Mr. Cline into the same bar with Mr. Smith, but he was reluctant. Seems like they don’t really like each other. To be honest, I don’t think anyone likes Mr. Smith.”

I stepped out of the underwear and pulled the sundress over my head, dropping the clothes on the floor before I stepped into the shower. I let the water stream around my body, soaking up the warmth. “Am I going to be sitting at a table with all of them?”

“I think it’s just Ms. Wayward and Mr. Smith and the new guy, the one we haven’t talked to yet.”

I’d forgotten about him. Four men and two women from Nightingale. “What about the second woman? The older one?”

“She’s eating at one of the other restaurants outside of the main one. I don’t think she goes to many of the social events. She’s been sitting by the pool reading on her iPad all day.”

I started washing my hair. With the door closed, the glass was fogging up. I stared at it blankly as I did the shower thing. “She’s older. Who can we get to make friends with her?”

“Avery seems like he’s getting along with her,” he said. “I’m wondering if we can’t send Avery and Ethan in to talk to her. That would make her feel special to get attention from a Murdock.”

“Do we have any details? What is she like?”

“She’s married, but didn’t bring her husband along. She really doesn’t get out much. I think she’s the original person who started Nightingale before it was bought. She may not be much more than a figurehead, which is weird because she rarely goes to events or the meetings. The others sort of split it among themselves. Except for Colt. He tends to avoid anything involving the press.”

“If she did start the company, we might be able to get a better history and find out when things started changing. Like what might have changed around the time that Michelle stopped getting payments from Nightingale.”

There was movement in the bathroom. It sounded like shuffling, like Corey was playing with stuff. “We’ve got a few days to at least get acquainted and open that line of communication. At least Ethan can start with her if you want to focus on the others. We can make her feel like Ethan Murdock is giving her attention, and she may be open to talking to him more than us kids.”

“Are we picking up anything else from all the other people onboard?”

“According to Doyle, everything’s being recorded. We just need to go over it later. I’ve been busy trying to get to the tech these six from Nightingale brought on board. We’re waiting to get access.”

“Should I lift more cell phones?”

“Maybe,” he said. “Slowly. Let’s not make it obvious that whenever you’re around, phones go missing. Colt’s been looking for his. He was harassing the kitchen staff, asking questions.”

Whoops. I hoped someone didn’t get fired because Colt assumed they had stolen his phone. I started washing my body, using the washcloth to scrub my legs. “I’m going to need to shave if I’m wearing a short dress. I can’t wear socks this time. Did you bring a razor?”

There was more movement, and the blurry figure standing at the counter left as I presume he went to go find a razor.

A few moments later, the door to the shower stall opened. At first, I was a little proud of Corey. Very brave of him. I was just about to tease him about being an adorable pervert.

But when I turned, I found Raven in the doorway. He wasn’t fazed at all, not even looking down. He held out a razor.

I was going to try to cover myself, but I had a tiny wash cloth. I turned my body to the side and covered my boobs with my arms a bit. It was a little too late anyway. When had he arrived?

“You didn’t have to open the door,” Corey said from somewhere out of my view. He must have still been on the toilet. The shadow had been Raven walking in. “You could have just handed it over the door.”

“Why?” Raven asked. He turned his head to look at Corey. He wore the same black outfit the crew wore. I guess Raven was stuck being crew with Kevin.

I snatched the razor from his hand and tried to shut the shower door on him. “Thank
you
,” I drawled.

“Well-
come
,” he said, matching my tone, although with a curious eyebrow lift above his dark eyes. I couldn’t tell if he understood my sarcasm. He backed up so I could close the door.

“What’s going on, Raven?” I asked, lathering up the soap to start shaving. It was a cheap men’s razor, two blades, disposable and generic. I had to go slow to not slice myself. “Did you need something?”

Raven opened the door again, holding it open fully this time as he looked in on me. “What?”

I rolled my head back, looking at the ceiling in exasperation. Maybe it was better if we all got over the modesty bit anyway. If I was going to work with these guys, and we were going to live in tight quarters, I had to get used to them seeing me naked. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen a girl nude before. “Why did you open the door?”

“I couldn’t hear you,” he said. “You’ve got the shower running.” He left the door open and then crossed his arms over his chest, leaning against the door, pressing it to the wall. The black clothes made him a little scary with his wide brown eyes, especially when he intensified that gaze. “What did you say?”

Oh well. He wasn’t ogling. Raven’s boundaries were simply nonexistent. “I was just asking what’s going on with you. How’s the crew?”

“Fine,” he said.

“Raven, you can’t hold the door open like that,” Corey said. “You need to let her shower on her own.”

“Why?” Raven asked, turning to look at Corey. “She was talking to me.”

“Don’t worry about it, Corey,” I said. I tried to bend, but then ended up lifting my leg, shaving my calves, going up just to above the knee, and then thought better of it and decided to shave the whole leg. I didn’t really know how short the dress was, better to do too much than too little. “Come on over if you can’t hear me, either.”

Raven didn’t shift, keeping his eyes on me. I wasn’t sure if Corey was going to do it. I lifted my leg as best as I could in the tiny space to prop it up on the shower wall, concentrating on shaving and it wasn’t until I stood up that I spotted Corey peeking around the wall. At first, he started to tuck his head back around but when I didn’t say anything or cover myself, he stepped around, his cheeks red, as red as Brandon’s face got when he was angry. “Are you sure this is okay?” he asked.

It wasn’t like he was interested. And I’d already given up with Raven about trying to stay modest around him. I waved dismissively at him and then continued shaving the other leg. “It’s fine,” I said. “It’s more important to catch me up.” I looked at Raven briefly before I refocused on my leg. “So did we figure out about this blond guy? Who is he? The one Mr. Smith paid.”

“German,” Raven said.

I stood up quickly, almost slipping but catching myself on the grab bar. Corey reacted, reaching out for me but then backed up when I’d corrected myself. I looked at Raven who hadn’t moved. “What did you say?” I asked.

“He’s German,” Raven said. “His name is Sam.”

“Is he part of Eddie’s group?” I asked, remembering the leader of the German team who had kidnapped us.

“Don’t know,” he said. “He doesn’t seem bothered by me or you or even Corey. If he is part of it, he doesn’t know our faces.”

“I’ve been trying to get his history,” Corey said. “All I have is his resume. He’s been on this cruise ship for a while, and before that, on another cruise, and before that at resorts around the United States. He’s German but he’s been in this business a long time. Not like Eddie’s group, who was only here for maybe a year or so.”

I was bent over to start on my other leg. I still didn’t like the idea. I didn’t want to be prejudiced around any other Germans we might meet, but I had to be cautious and couldn’t help but wonder if Eddie might have reached out to this Sam at any time. It felt like too much of a coincidence.