The last time I’d been in his cabin, he’d opened the glass doors with his phone. No handle appeared, but there was a control panel to the size. With a look back at Alexei on the bed, I tapped the shades button. A whisper of gears turning sounded and all the shades covered their windows. A tap of the lights button and the room fell into darkness.
Instead of the wide glass doors, I padded to the narrow one that opened to the side of the ship; starboard or port, I didn’t know which was which. It swung open silently. A brisk wind fluttered Alexei’s shirt.
No lights illuminated the yacht, not one. A thin crescent moon cast a sliver of light over the ever shifting water. It disappeared into the darkness. More stars than I realized existed in the sky twittered above. I’d never been this far away from everything. Well, almost everything.
Thinking of Alexei sent more images through my head of our recent activity. A shiver took me and I shook my head to banish them… reluctantly. A deep breath of the crisp sea air helped.
Water crashed against the hull. The noise melded with the engine hum, a hypnotic static. I craned my neck to the sky and stared.
Stars had never interested me all that much. I’d learned about them in some science classes, knew my constellations, their general makeup, but they didn’t exactly matter to me. At no point in the life I was destined to lead did I need to know even that. What was the point of delving into it?
Experiencing views like this, for one. As I marveled at the celestial glory of the night sky, I couldn’t help but wonder what other amazing moments had I missed, walled off as I’d let myself become?
“Let myself become?” I chuckled under the hypnotic hum.
Way to pass the buck. I built the walls myself. My father might have opened the door to that gilded cage, but I’d flown through it. And now Alexei stood outside, lock pick at the ready.
Was this yacht of his just another cage? Oh, it offered amazing views, both inside and outside his cabin. The water stretched to the horizon, only a tiny glow way up ahead of us and a few twinkling lights in the darkness appeared, gave proof to a world off the boat. This wasn’t exactly freedom. The ship followed Alexei’s orders, always would.
A squeak sounded somewhere behind me. I glared into the darkness to the back of the ship. Shadows moved, dark on even darker. The light of the moon reflected off two circles at the stairs from below. I’d seen the same with Alexei’s night vision goggles.
I’d strayed too far from the side door to his cabin. My feet took me toward the front, padding backward. I might have been too paranoid. The yacht was running dark. Maybe Oleg and Pavel had their own goggles so they could move around. As I crept around the corner to the balcony where we’d had our first date, any question of who I’d seen got answered.
Cold metal pressed against my back, just under my ribs. A hand slapped over my mouth.
“Shhh, we’re here to help Ms. Marciano,” the man whispered in my ear, speaking Italian.
The men from Sicily called me by my mother’s maiden name, not my own. If the gun pressing against my back hadn’t frozen me, the next realization would. These men worked for my father. He’d be the only one interested in rescuing me from Alexei.
“Take her to the lounge, keep her quiet,” whispered another voice. “We’ll sweep the rest of the ship.”
“My father would want you to take them alive,” I said after shaking the hand away.
It slapped back in place and the gun ground into my skin. He’d want Alexei alive until he got here, but Pavel and Oleg wouldn’t matter to him. Frozen as I’d been, unable to even contemplate my choices, I didn’t want either of them to die.
The man pushed me along the balcony to the rear of the deck. Alexei’s tour had only included a quick visit to the lounge. A bar and small four-person table sat to one end. Couches wrapped around the rear with a baby grand piano in one corner and an entertainment center in the other.
I got pushed toward one of the couches after he flipped on the lights. I stepped away from the man and turned around, shaking my head.
“Is my father on his way now?” I asked.
“Once we give the all-clear,” he replied.
My hands cinched the shirt closer when he smiled. His eyes hadn’t risen above my breasts since I’d turned around.
“I should get ready to meet him then,” I said before stepping past him.
His hand snatched my arm and tossed me onto the couch. I rearranged the shirt to cover me the best I could. His gun remained on me the entire time, those leering eyes drinking me in.
“I don’t work for you,” he hissed but then smiled. “Your father paid a lot for my services. He told us to find you and keep you until he arrived. Would you like to make a counter offer?”
He wasn’t talking about money. I’d only lost my virginity an hour ago and now I’d started considering seducing a man if it helped me… What exactly were my goals right now? I didn’t want Alexei, Pavel or Oleg to die. But if I helped them, I’d be going against my father. You never turned on your family.
I stayed silent, covering myself the best I could. He perved on me in silence, the gun in his hand remained trained on me. After a few minutes of silence, a thud sounded somewhere below, followed by another and a third, then a louder one. Some time after that the engine sound disappeared.
A distant engine whined, loudening as it neared. My father.
The mere thought of the man had me sitting up straighter. My hair a mess after its dunk in the seawater, no makeup and in the shirt of my father’s enemy after freshly fucking him, I couldn’t change any of that. My comportment, I did control. He had expectations of me, after all. I’d disappointed him enough already. No matter what I did, disappointing him now only hurt my chances of keeping everyone safe.
