I grimaced. Whoops. Maybe I was going to get out of this tonight after all. “Sorry. I didn’t know,” I said. “I was out and came over when you called.”
“Out where? In a hobo’s ass? Who let you out wearing that?” Future asked.
“She’s fine,” Marc said, smirking.
“No,” Future said, and pointed a finger at him, a bright pink fingernail sparkled with glitter. “Fuck you for letting her out of the house in that. Not that you’re dressed any better.”
Marc raised his hands, looking down at his clothes. “What’s wrong with jeans?”
“Boys never know how to dress,” Future said. “You can barely see your butt in those jeans.”
“Isn’t that the point of wearing clothes?” he asked.
“Uh,” I said, “Future...can we just--”
“Oh no, honey-buns,” she said. She put her arms back up and posed again. “This isn’t Future anymore. No, this striking new girl in front of you? Say hello to Fancy.” With that, she tossed her hair and wiggled her butt to sway the frilly skirt and then froze.
Silence lingered, the only sound coming from the still running car behind her. I exchanged glances with Marc and Raven. I thought perhaps we were supposed to clap or something, but I didn’t want to assume and be rude.
“Fancy?” Marc asked.
She lowered her arms again, pouting. “What? You don’t like it?”
“I don’t even know what it is,” he said.
“It’s my new name,” she said. “Fancy.”
“What was wrong with your old name?”
She sliced her hand through the air. Her bracelets clanked with the movement. “Please. That old thing? Keeping the same name all the time is so cliché.”
“It’s cliché to have just one name?” Marc asked, the smirk building on the side of his mouth.
“Of course it is,” she said. “It’s like hanging on to the same look all the time. Sometimes you just have to reinvent yourself.”
“You were Future a month ago,” Marc said.
“Yeah,” she said. “Held on to that too long. Fancy’s so much better.”
“What was before Future?” His smirk lifted high, and I could tell he was just playing with her.
I stepped forward, wanting to stop this line of crazy questions and answers before we went as loopy as Fancy. “Okay,” I said. “Well, we’re here. You were talking about a favor? Something about a boat?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Fancy said. She waved to the yellow car. “Hop in. We’ll show you.”
“Who’s with you?” Marc asked.
“Avery,” she said.
I bent forward, looking through the open door, spotting Avery at the wheel of the car. Marc and Raven did the same, peering in at him.
Avery wore a shiny blue button up shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His brown hair was trimmed, brushed back away from his eyes. A touch of the tattoo across his chest was peeking out. He spotted us looking in on him and did a short wave. “Hi,” he said.
Avery? How? I tried to make a connection. Did Future...Fancy come to Charleston, get a cab, run into Avery and then start talking about me? It seemed like a stretch, but it was the only explanation I could come up with. It still didn’t explain the car. Had Fancy brought it up from Florida?
At the sight of Avery, Marc and Raven seemed to relax. I wondered if they, too, had suspected Blake was behind this. “Nice car, Avery,” Marc said. “Kind of an upgrade from what you had.”
Avery smiled, his thin lips parting to reveal teeth. “A little,” he said. “It’s not mine, though.”
Where’d you get it from?”
“Long story,” Avery said. “Tell you on the way?”
The secrecy was odd, but from Avery’s expression and Fancy’s grin, I suspected it was more surprise than dangerous.
Marc looked at me, seeming amused but then there was a hesitation, too. Silently, he was asking me if I was ready for this. Did I really want to know what was going on? If not, we’d head back to the apartment.
The red or blue pill, Kayli?
I hesitated, unsure. If I said I was still feeling sick, what would happen? I’d go home, be bored and restless for longer. Fancy wanted a favor. Avery was here, so it couldn’t be that bad of a thing.
My curiosity was getting the better of me, too. I shrugged. “We don’t have anything better to do.”
“We’re all not going to fit in there,” Marc said. “Raven’s butt is too big.”
Raven grunted. I grinned. Marc was enjoying this little get-together way too much. Maybe he’d been antsy to get out of the house, too.
Fancy moved forward between Marc and Raven, threading her arms through theirs. “Here’s what we can do,” she said. “Avery can drive with Kayli. I’ll go with you guys and point you in the right direction.”
“I’ll fit my butt in,” Raven said, starting to head toward the yellow car.
The car only had two seats. If I let him in, we’d be crushed together. That was too pretty of a car to try to squeeze us both into the seat, even with me sitting in his lap, when he had a perfectly good SUV to sit in. I also didn’t really want to sit in the SUV with Fancy.
“I’ll see you there!” I raced for the car, jumped in and closed the door. If they had a problem, they had time to stop me, but they didn’t. Avery was a safer driver than Raven. I waved to them at the window.
Marc rolled his eyes, and said something to Raven. Raven looked disappointed but retreated toward the SUV. Fancy followed, talking and sparkling under the lights.
“Let’s go, Avery,” I said, “before Raven changes his mind and tries to squeeze in here.” In that instant, I wondered if this was part of Fancy’s plan. I went with it, maybe too curious for my own good. Was there a reason to separate us?
Maybe I shouldn’t have been so eager to get going.
THE BEST SHIP MONEY CAN BUY
Avery stepped on the accelerator. The car rolled forward, smooth, getting faster every second. It was like a boat on the water. The seats were leather, smooth. There was a screen on the dash, with a blinking red light showing our location on the island, and then switched to show the weather: partly cloudy and a twenty percent chance of rain. There were soft blue glowing buttons and dials all over the place. My fingers itched to touch all of them, just to see if the car had an ejection button or would spit fireballs.
I was impressed, and I normally didn’t have any particular feelings toward cars. “Wow,” I said.
“Yeah,” Avery said. He smoothed his hand over the steering wheel and then turned down the fan. “She’s real pretty.”
This wasn’t just a car for tonight. He’d been driving it for a little while. “Where did you get her from?” I asked. “And whose boat are we going to?”
“More like a cruise liner.” He talked with a hand waving at me as he turned the car through streets, going deeper into the island. “Five or six stories high, and has its own crew that’s there near constantly. I think it’s bigger than my old elementary school. It’s got an indoor and outdoor pool, a few spas, a main dining room and several restaurants. Lots of other things, too. I still don’t think I’ve seen everything. And I’ve been all over that ship.”
“Okay,” I said, unable to stop from smiling at his enthusiasm. Last time I’d talked to Avery, he’d been deeply involved in helping me free Brandon and the others from being kidnapped. Something had changed in him since then. He was aware, not the same pothead taxi driver I’d met initially. “I get it’s a big boat. But who does it belong to?”
“Ethan,” he said slowly. “Didn’t forget who he was, did you?”
My mouth popped open. I stared at the windshield. “And this car belongs to him?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how you felt about him. He said you didn’t contact him after you were in the hospital.” He paused and tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “To be honest, when I didn’t hear from you, I wasn’t sure you weren’t in more trouble a
nd your friends weren’t talking.”
“I was fine,” I said, surprised that Ethan and Avery had tried to get in touch with me. “Didn’t you have my number?”
“Someone else always answered,” he said. “One of the guys. I never knew who. A different one each time.”
I blinked out at the night and then pulled out the cell phone I’d carried with me since I was out of the hospital. I smoothed a thumb over the darkened screen. “Did they give me a different number?” I asked, not having meant to say it out loud.
“No,” he said. “When Fancy called earlier, it went through to you.”
I didn’t have a response for that. The boys had blocked my phone calls somehow, and only now they let Fancy through to talk to me. How? And why?
“They said you were sick still,” Avery said, “but then when I asked if I could just say hello, they said it wasn’t a good time.”
I turned the phone in my hands, uncomfortable with this information. “They...might have been a little careful. I don’t blame them after the kidnapping.” I wasn’t sure if that was totally honest. Yes, I’d been pretty sick in the hospital when I was in there with Brandon, sleeping and trying not to puke. Then when I was released, I spent a lot of time sleeping and watching TV. The boys occasionally went out to their jobs: Brandon to his bike shop, Axel to his turtles at the aquarium. The others who knows where. Paranoia helped me stay put, but I didn’t think I was that bad off anyway; I had food, a place to sleep.
I didn’t like they’d blocked phone calls without asking me and never told me anyone was trying to contact me.
“I know,” Avery said softly. “I figured. Although to be honest, Ethan was a little worried about you. Maybe I was, too.”
I nodded but then put the phone away. I didn’t want to talk about that anymore. “Okay, well, I’m here now. To be honest, I thought we were joining Fancy on a night out. I thought maybe she wanted someone as back-up at a bar.”
Avery laughed. “Maybe I can see that, but to be honest, Ethan’s the one with the favor. Me, too, actually.”
“Really? What’s this about?”
Avery pulled the car into a turn and then pointed ahead of us at a gate with a guardhouse next to it. He waved to the guardhouse. I didn’t see anyone from how low we sat, but then the arm to the gate rose and Avery continued on into a parking lot. “Let’s get aboard. There’s a lot to explain.”
No kidding.
There were only two other cars in the small lot. Avery parked away from them and got out. He ran around, opening my door for me. He definitely grew up southern.
I stepped out, looking around at the dim lot and the more lit up length of dock. There were several large yachts, larger than most I’d seen at the downtown Charleston pier. Light poles shone clean white beams of light down at the area. There were small evergreen trees in planters every few feet along the pier. There was another guardhouse at the start of the dock, no barrier arm, just a small building. I couldn’t tell if anyone was inside. Already there was more security here than the downtown pier.
I followed Avery across the parking lot, folding my arms against my stomach. I peered back, suddenly feeling odd without the boys around. I wasn’t sure if I should move forward without them. It was one thing to pull ahead of them. It was another in this parking lot, an open space surrounded by places to hide. Sure there was security, but there was security back at the apartment building, too, and that had been compromised pretty easily.
I trusted Avery, but I was still a little shaken up. Earlier when I’d gone for burgers, I’d taken ten minutes and I still felt uncomfortable. Since it was such a short drive, it didn’t faze me too much, but now I was nervous.
It irritated me. I wasn’t normally a scaredy cat. What was wrong with me?
“It’s the one at the end,” Avery said, seeming to not notice my hesitation. He moved forward, with a determined step toward the dock, familiar with the surroundings. I did a short jog to catch up to him and follow. “The biggest boat, I think.”
There were two at the end, but Avery pointed to one that was taller and longer on the left. He was right, it did appear big, looking more like a building on the water than a boat. “That’s cruise liner?” I asked.
“That’s its job,” he said. He approached the guardhouse. I walked behind him, waiting for Avery to wave at it like he’d done before. Instead, he stopped before going past. “Hey,” he said to the darkened security house.
A head poked out of the door. The building might have been dark, but now that we were closer, I could tell there were at least two people inside: shadows darker than other shadows. There was a hand wave from a security guard. “Hey, Avery. This is one of the guests?”
“Kayli Winchester,” he said. “The others are on the way.”
The guard nodded and then motioned toward the ships. “You’re cleared for entry.”
I remained quiet as we walked on along the pier. I waited until I felt we were out of earshot before I started asking. “So there’s two security teams?”
“More. It’s too easy for someone to try coming up out of the water at a dock,” he said. “And there’s other security issues with being around a boat. There’s three pairs of guards at all times. There’s another one that will be here when a ship takes off. They do rounds on the boats as well as through the parking lot.”
“That’s a lot of security,” I said, recalling my days in pickpocketing at the mall. Even then, they usually only had maybe three on the busiest days for the entire mall. They only brought in more for the mad Christmas rush.
“Ethan trumped it up after his dad’s disappearance,” he said.
I shivered at the idea of people watching us when I didn’t know where or who. Instinctively, I stepped closer to Avery. I stuffed my hands into my pockets, trying to appear innocent and give the impression I wasn’t going to touch anything.
OLD HABITS
There was a large metal gangway ramp leading to the main deck of the large ship. I followed Avery up. The steps seemed slick, and I held onto the cold support rail. Avery moved quicker than I would have liked. In the clunky boots, I had no grip at all. I would have rather been barefoot for a good foothold.
I managed to make it up without too much slipping. I couldn’t imagine going back down without going slowly. I pictured falling to my doom into the dark water.
Avery moved confidently ahead of me. Once we were on the ship, I stopped, gazing around at the sheer immensity of the place. The deck opened up into a small pool and hot tub area and that was surrounded by benches and lounge chairs, some stacked and pushed to the side to make more room for walking around the pool. The bottom of the pool was tiled with a big blue L, and the space was lit up, brightening up the deck in the night. I was dazzled by the lights all over.
Avery walked toward a bar outfitted with displays of wine and liquor on a wall behind it. On the marble surface of the bar was a silver platter with a glass pitcher filled with ice and water and several empty glasses. Avery picked up one of the glasses and poured. “Would you like some lemon water before we go in?”
He showed no hesitation at all. The ship might belong to Ethan, but Avery was much too familiar with it. “How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Huh?” he asked, pouring a second glass. He dropped a lemon slice into each one and carried both over to me, holding one out. “I just got here. With you.”
“I mean, you didn’t just pop in today on this ship,” I said, taking the water from him. “What happened after...after...” I didn’t know what to call it. The incident? The kidnapping fiasco?
“A lot, actually,” he said. He took a sip from his glass and then nodded toward a set of glass doors, each one etched with a large L in a fancy font. “Let’s go inside. You can talk to Ethan.”
I glanced back at the parking lot. The boys hadn’t arrived yet. I also didn’t see anyone else on this ship. It looked alive with the lights, but strangely empty. I was feeling weirdly alone.
“Fancy will get them here soon,” Avery said softly, redirecting my attention to him. He smiled and went to the door, holding it open for me. “Don’t worry. It’ll be okay.”
I wanted to believe him. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so mistrusting right now. Avery had gone through a lot, too, after I’d been kidnapped. I didn’t think he’d lead me into anything dangerous.
I’d been too wrapped up with the boys since the incident. They’d been by my side near constantly. It was just odd that now I felt like I’d be more comfortable if one of them was there. How needy. How...not me.
I took a long sip of water before stepping through the doorway. One step further down the rabbit hole.
The room we entered was a large foyer, with shiny blue and white marble floors and polished wood columns. There was a staircase leading up four stories and a glass dome over our heads revealing the night sky. There were a couple of sitting areas around us, a bar that was shut down at the moment to the left, and additional big fancy doors. There was a long counter at the far side with a few computers on it and a big copper L hanging on the wall behind it.
“It’s like a hotel lobby,” I said. “A big fancy one.”
“It’s really just like a hotel on the water,” Avery said. “And there’s shops on the second floor. So it’s like a mall and a hotel in one.”
Great. “So Ethan has his own cruise liner he can do whatever he wants with?” I asked.
“It actually belongs to his company,” he said. He motioned to the staircase and headed toward it. “They use it for a lot of things. Let’s go into the lounge. It’s on the third floor.”
The gleam of the floor and the bright lights in the chandeliers above our heads made me feel really dirty in the boy clothes. I pulled my brown hair from the nape of my neck, drawing it out and combing it straight with my fingers as I entered. I skimmed my hands over my waist and hips, feeling shapeless under the T-shirt and jacket. No wonder Fancy was mortified by my appearance. This was worse than some dark club.