Accessory: The Scarab Beetle Series: #4 (The Academy) (42 page)

Should I suggest the tablet contained lots of accounts that I was trying to track down? Or maybe investment reports? I didn’t want him to learn my reputation directly from me. Safer to ask questions rather than reply. “Do you think I was targeted specifically? Like they weren’t just after a tablet, but the information on it?”

“Why steal yours like that?” he asked. “Why right then in front of everyone? Why yours in particular and not the thousand other units on this ship right now, left unattended by the pool or in staterooms?”

“Is there a reason why they’d want your cell phone?” I asked, turning it back on him. “Was there sensitive client information on it?”

He opened his mouth to answer when an older gentleman stepped onto the small stage, distracting him. I bit my cheek, silently cursing the interruption.

The man at the podium spoke into a microphone. “Thank you, thank you everyone for coming. Everyone, I know we’re not all here yet. And I know you’re hungry, but I wanted to say a few words.”

The man went on with his speech, introducing himself and talking about how great it was to see everyone and making jokes about people I didn’t know and suggesting how we should all thank Mr. Murdock, Ethan in particular, for this annual cruise week. I took the opportunity while everyone was distracted to check in with Axel, who was focused on the speaker and trying to blend in.

“Can you hear me?” A voice spoke in my ear, whispering, sounding like Blake. “Cough if you can.”

I did so, lightly, and reached for the ice water. There was no chance I could reply from where I was now.

“Good,” he said. “I’m walking around the ship for now. I’ll show up for dinner in a little bit. I just followed the blond man who met with another older gentleman and took money from him, too. I’m seeing where the crewman goes now.”

Sam, the German blond staff member was up to something, even if he might not be working for Eddie. I wanted to tell Blake to be careful, but I couldn’t while I was sitting at the table, possibly with eyes on me.

“By the way,” he said, “nice job earlier. I think what you did really fixed things. Brandon, Corey, Marc and Raven...they didn’t glare at me once and from what Doyle says, they’re avoiding talking about you completely right now. I think you freaked them out. They don’t know what to do with themselves.”

Was that good? Maybe I’d gone too far and they were distracted. When everything settled down, would they be angry?

“I heard what Colt said about Brandon,” he said. “I’ll tell him to lay low and stay away from Colt. We don’t need Colt trying to question him. He’s not in the dining room yet, but I may have him switch places with Marc.”

That was a good thing.

Colt turned back around, looking at me. I smiled, and he leaned in to whisper, “I think this is the same speech from last year. Don’t you think so?”

Uh oh. Do I dare suggest I was on the ship before? No, I’d told Mr. Smith it was my first one and he was sitting right next to me. I shrugged, grinning instead of answering.

Colt leaned his elbow on the table getting closer. He had a curious glint in his eyes. Was he trying to flirt? “You know, I don’t remember seeing you around before.”

I adjusted the little black bracelet on my wrist under the table. I needed to be vague. “Well, there are a lot of people here,” I said. “And I suppose it’s easy to miss someone.”

“No,” he said, the curve of his lip deepening, his smile becoming more playful. “I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you at all. I’d have remembered your face.”

I was going to make some sort of funny comment about his flirting, but then I had to channel Kitty Lane, the meek and nerdy little girl.

I tried to blush, thinking of embarrassing things, like the scene at the hot bath earlier. I bowed my head. “I’m not that memorable.” Appearing humble, and yet fishing for compliments.

“Sweetheart, you’re unforgettable,” Blake said in my ear. “But don’t let him get too close. I don’t think I could handle any more competition.”

“I think you are very memorable,” Colt said, keeping his smile. “Maybe tomorrow night, instead of this, we should check out another one of the restaurants. I’m pretty fond of the Italian one.”

There was a nudge at my arm on the other side of me. I turned and Mr. Smith leaned toward us. His hook nose was wrinkled and his whiskey breath blew into our faces. “He should be fond of that restaurant,” he said. “Given his father--”

“Mr. Smith,” Colt said quickly, interrupting and sitting up straighter. His eyes were wide, bugging out in alarm. “Where did you get that whiskey? They haven’t been by to ask me yet. I’m dying here.”

“You’re not going to need any,” he said, leaning against my arm into my space, making me very uncomfortable. He spoke directly to Colt, ignoring me. “Don’t let her fool you. She’s got a boyfriend; the guy right behind you.”

“Seems like Colt’s father is a sensitive topic,” Blake said. “He tried to cover that up pretty quickly. I’ll ask Doyle to do some research. Colt Baker might not be the innocent we think he is.”

I pressed my teeth together, shifting my chair back, giving room to Mr. Smith if he was going to force his way in so he wouldn’t end up in my lap. “I, uh, yes...”

Colt started to mumble an apology but Mr. Smith interrupted. “And what’s this I hear about your tablet being stolen.”

Before I could answer, Colt cut in. “It was. She said there was sensitive information on it. She reported it stolen but--”

“What?” Mr. Smith said louder, drawing attention from Ms. Wayward and Mr. Jones, not to mention people from other tables. “Don’t tell me it had confidential financial information.”

“How does that matter to you?” Colt asked.

“I have it backed up,” I said quickly. Uh oh. This was getting dangerous. Mr. Smith was clearly drunk and if he thought there was a chance his investments could be stolen by tablet thieves, then I could be in big trouble. “And it’s encrypted. I can manage without it and continue my work. It’s just an inconvenience.”

“I don’t know if that’s the case,” Colt said. “They seemed pretty determined to steal it from you and get away. Are you sure they can’t access the information?”

I flared my eyes and then looked down to hide it. He wasn’t helping.

“It’s none of your business, Colt,” Mr. Smith said, spitting at the T sound in Colt’s name. He pointed at me. “If I were you, I’d make sure you get that tablet back before you leave the ship. Have every one of those crewmen...even the guests’ rooms searched. Mr. Murdock would be very upset if even a bit of information was discovered to be unsecured.”

“We certainly can’t just go accusing everyone,” Colt said.

“Funny, maybe it was you,” Mr. Smith said. “And I believe I told you to butt out. You clearly don’t know how to keep your nose out of other people’s business.”

“My phone was stolen, too,” Colt said.

Suddenly, the speech ended and everyone clapped. Colt looked around and started clapping a little but then gave an evil glare to Mr. Smith.

Mr. Smith leaned back against his chair. He reached for the glass of whiskey near his plate and downed the rest. Then he leaned into me, and whispered in my ear. “Get that tablet back, or I’ll make sure Murdock Senior hears about this.”

I gulped. Did he know where Mr. Murdock was? Was that a hint that he had a clue? Well, I wasn’t going to get away without having a tablet at this point. I’d have to get one from somewhere. “It really doesn’t have much information on it,” I said quietly to him. All the information I had was what Ethan had. I didn’t know enough information to help him. “It’s not going to be any good without Mr. Murdock here anyway. He gave me account numbers, not names. I couldn’t tell you what money goes to who, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He captured my bicep and whispered again. “Then you better get it back and hang on to it so it’s still there whenever he gets back.” I made eye contact with Colt, grinning and rolling my eyes at this drunk guy, but deep down, I was really scared. Mr. Smith was an intimidating man. “Or maybe we can leave right now and settle our accounts. I don’t care about anyone else. I want out, you hear?”

“I need an account number and amount,” I said, whispering, hoping to placate him and keep him from making a scene. “The money you’ve put in. To the penny. It’ll help me figure out which account might be yours. I don’t have authorization to release funds, but it’ll at least get the ball rolling.”

Mr. Smith backed off, taking a pen out of his pocket. He examined the items on the table, picked up the paper napkin on top of the bread plate, and placed it onto his dinner plate. He wrote out a number and then shoved the napkin toward me. “I want what is owed to me out before I leave this ship,” he said. He picked up his empty whiskey glass and stood up. “I’m going to the bar.” He staggered around tables, heading for the door.

“What was that all about?” Colt asked, brows knitted together in concern. “Was he threatening you? You look pale.”

“I’m...fine,” I said. I was pretty sure Colt had heard the last of that conversation after the clapping had died down. I couldn’t believe Mr. Smith was so angry. He wanted his money and thought I was the key to it and now...now I was in big trouble.

“One down,” Blake said, his voice low. “Although even if we have the amount and account number, we don’t know where this money is. We don’t know where Mr. Smith got it from, either.” He sounded breathless.

I picked up my water glass and muttered behind it, “Where are you?”

“I thought someone was following me. I got a little turned around. Don’t worry. I’m headed to the dining room now. I may as well show up. Don’t let Colt get any more information out of you.”

I put my glass down, crumpled the napkin in my other palm and shrugged at Colt. I glanced around the dining room. “So when do they start serving food around here?” I really was starving now. I hadn’t eaten in hours and after all the stress, I needed to refuel.

Colt adjusted the glasses on his face and scanned the room. “I don’t know. Maybe it would be better if we escaped, too. We might get fed faster somewhere else.”

“We’re already here,” I said. Was he still pushing for a date? After being told Axel was my boyfriend? I spotted a server coming around the table with bowls of soup. “Looks like they’re getting started.”

Colt sat back in his chair a little, looking at Axel who was talking to Ms. Wayward and Mr. Jones. Then he turned his attention back to me. “I just feel a little uncomfortable. I don’t know about you.”

Ditto. Only I couldn’t just leave. Could I? With an empty seat beside me, I was expecting Blake to scoot over one when he got there and help with this conversation. I didn’t want to talk about Mr. Smith, but I didn’t know what else to say, either.

As my eyes scanned around the table, I noticed Ms. Wayward looking in my direction. Her eyes shifted immediately, but I got the feeling she was paying more attention to us than to the people around her. Was she making Colt uncomfortable, too?

I looked at Colt, undecided. I needed to get to the bottom of this. Colt didn’t seem to know about the investments like Mr. Smith did. There was something about him, though. He was flirting too much. Too interested.

I was about to talk to Colt about what he planned to do the next day when I heard something.

There was a thud then a grunt. I turned my head, thinking it had come from another table. Then I realized it was talking in my earpiece, but I couldn’t distinguish what was being said.

There was another thud. Then silence.

I waited, listening. Nothing.

My heart stopped. This was much too familiar. I couldn’t ask how he was doing, or what was going on with Blake. I glanced at Axel, but he was involved in talking to Ms. Wayward and Mr. Jones now, oblivious.

I started to stand up quickly, and then slowed, smiling sweetly at Colt. “If you don’t mind, it’s time to powder the nose.” I think I said that wrong but I was in a hurry and I wanted to give myself an excuse to leave. “I’ll come back.”

“Good idea,” Ms. Wayward said, grabbing her purse and standing. “Should we go?”

Crap. The girls need to go together thing. How had she even heard me across the table? Maybe she had better hearing than I thought. I forced a polite smile. “Okay.” I looked at Colt. “I’ll be right back.”

“Sure,” he said, and then focused on his glass of water, drinking some.

I scurried around the table. Ms. Wayward joined in, following me out. She was in a fancy pantsuit. Her hair was high on her head, giving her the school mistress look: sharp face and little in the way of makeup. She was quiet at first as we wound around other tables toward the door and I wondered if I should say something.

Luckily, she started before I could. “I saw how Smith grabbed you,” she said.

“Mr. Smith?” I asked. I didn’t want to answer, just ask questions. I really didn’t want to talk about him right now.

“Yes,” she said. “Don’t let him push you around. He thinks he can do that to all the women.”

“Does he push you around?”

“Oh sweetie, no one pushes me around.” She threaded her arm through my elbow. It was a very awkward thing. She was trying to make friends. “By the way, did you manage to find Mr. Murdock?”

“Ethan or his father?” I asked. “I found Ethan.”