Instead of going outside for fresh air, she took a seat beside Julien in the lounge and tried to act normal—or at least as normal as she could under the circumstances.
The next couple of hours were torture as she pretended nothing was wrong while waiting for the chance to talk to the captain. He came down once to grab coffee and something to eat while Julien, Claude, and Jean Paul were still heavy into their post-lunch wine. Annie never drank before she went diving. Although she had no intention of diving anywhere with these guys, and could have used something to calm her nerves, Julien would notice.
She jumped up as soon as the captain came in, and offered to make him a fresh pot of coffee so she could go into the galley with him, but he said it wasn’t necessary, and she was forced to sit back down. When he came back out, he seemed to be doing his best not to look at her, not giving her a chance for some kind of silent communication. She felt like one of those hostages taken to the bank to empty their account and helplessly trying to alert the clueless teller that something was wrong. He wasn’t clueless, more deliberately avoiding. The darkness and anger had returned.
Dan left a few minutes after he came in, leaving Annie resigned to the fact that she was going to have to wait to talk to him until everyone went down to rest. But every time she tried to steer them downstairs, Julien would say, “Just a minute” and launch back into the current political discussion.
They were talking about renewed problems in Crimea. It was exactly the type of conversation that would have held her enthralled a few weeks ago—Julien and his friends’ take was always so different and she liked hearing their perspective—but that had all changed now that she’d learned he was some kind of psycho extremist.
She listened closely for something that she might have missed—something that should have alerted her—but even with what she knew now, he sounded so reasonable.
She still felt like such a fool. How could she not haverealized what was going on? She’d been so blinded by Julien she hadn’t seen anything beyond his good looks and charm. He’d seemed so perfect. They cared about the same things, thought the same way...
Suddenly the realization hit her. That was probably the point. He’d made himself appealing to her. Oh God—she’d been honeypotted! How completely humiliating. Admittedly she didn’t have that much experience with men—she’d had a couple of long-term boyfriends over the years—but she didn’t want to think of herself as being so gullible. Or worse, desperate.
Annie didn’t think she needed a man to “complete” herself, by any means, but had she unconsciously been worried? She wanted a family. A companion. Children. Here she was, twenty-six years old, finishing up grad school, and she hadn’t had a serious date since her last boyfriend... two years ago. She winced, realizing how long it had been.
Had it made her a little too eager? Too willing to ignore things that didn’t seem quite right?
No, she’d been perfectly happy before Julien came along. There was plenty of time for everything else.
But she couldn’t deny that it had been exciting, having someone like Julien romancing her.
Annie had begun to fear that they would never rest as they’d planned when Jean Paul finally stood up. “We should all try to get some sleep. We’ve a long night ahead of us.”
“What time are we due to arrive?” Claude asked.
“Just before dark,” Jean Paul said. “Around ten.”
In other words she had about six hours.
“We should be in the water no later than two a.m.,” Jean Paul added. He looked meaningfully at Julien. “I trust that will give you enough time to make sure everything is ready?”
Julien nodded with an anxious look in her direction. Apparently she was “everything.”
After going below, Claude and Jean Paul went into the room on the right; she and Julien went into the one across the hall on the left. As soon as Julien shut the door behind them, he tried to broach the subject. “I need to talk to you about tonight.”
It was small comfort that he looked as if he wanted to throw up.
She forced a smile to her face. “Can it wait until after we get some rest? I’m suddenly exhausted.”
He heaved a heavy sigh of relief like a man who’d just been given a stay of execution. “We are supposed to meet Jean Paul and Claude at ten, so I’ll set the alarm for nine.”
“Sounds good.”
He thought he would only need one hour to convince her? Did he think her so malleable? She was even more insulted, which under the circumstances was ridiculous. Must be some kind of gallows humor.
Annie was glad for the single berths, as she didn’t have to get into bed with him. She doubted her acting abilities would go far enough to prevent her from cringing if he tried to touch her.
Wrapping the wool blanket around her shoulders, she turned toward the wall and curled up to wait.
It didn’t take long. The dark, windowless room, the gentle lull of the ship, and the three glasses of wine soon put him in a nap-time coma.
But she forced herself to listen to his steady breathing for nearly an hour before slipping out of bed to go in search of the captain.
•••
Normally Dean liked the time alone at the helm, staring for hours out the window, watching the mesmerizing roll of the ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see.
