I couldn’t get the feel of Ella’s body out of my head. No matter how much I tried, or what I forced myself to think about, my thoughts always focused back in on the way I had felt pressed against her. How easy it would have been. A simple shift of clothing… no, stop it.

Ella paced the floor. Phone in hand, she relayed the latest news to Oliver while I poured us both a very stout drink. Or what I thought was a stout drink. It couldn’t have been too bad, because Ella stopped her tirade long enough to chug half of it, and then handed the glass back to me saying, “More.”

I set her glass down, took a sip of mine, and felt my throat tighten and my eyes burn. Ella didn’t need another drink like that one, so I dumped a can of soda in, shoved the ice around with my finger to mix it, and held it out to her.

“Go with the flow? Have you lost your damn mind?” she demanded. “That’s the solution? Get married. Never mind the fact that I’m already married, Oliver.”

I cringed.

If Oliver could only see her face. See the tortured look pinching her brows. The tears she fought, clinging to her eyelashes.

“Fine,” she snapped, pulling the phone away from her ear. She marched over and handed it to me. “He wants to talk to you.”

Once the phone was in my hand, Ella stormed off to the bathroom and closed the door firmly behind her.

“Hey, Oliver. What’s up?” I asked, holding back a sigh.

“How did this happen? The two of you know how important it is to be low profile. You’re supposed to be there to do a job,” Oliver snapped.

I gripped the phone so tight in my hand that it emitted a loud crack as I said, “Hold up. First, I know exactly what we’re here for. And second? You’re not here, so don’t start in on me about the way it should go down. I have enough shit to deal with.”

“Look, it’s not a matter of you getting married, that’s easily dissolvable with a few pieces of paper. And no matter what Ella thinks, she’s no longer married to Trent. She hasn’t been since his death certificate was filed. My concern now is the intel we just got from Baron,” Oliver explained. “I would have given the information to Ella, but in light of the circumstances, I thought it best to tell you, and you can fill her in once she’s calmed down a little bit.”

“Before you say any more, I want to clarify something… you’re telling me to marry Ella?” I asked, wondering why I’d even bothered asking. He’d plainly said it. I just needed to hear it again.

“I’m telling you to do whatever you need to do. Now can we focus on the important stuff?” Oliver asked, sounding more than a little annoyed.

“I’m listening.” 

After hanging up with Oliver, I waited for Ella to come out of the bathroom. It had been almost thirty minutes, and she’d yet to open the door.

I knocked softly, calling her name, and then waited for her to answer. When she didn’t, I let myself in and found her sitting with her arms around her knees as she stared at the opposite wall. I knelt beside her, taking up the rest of the space in the bathroom.

Reaching out, I cupped her face. “Ella?”

She blinked and blew out a long breath. “I’m fine,” she said, letting go of her legs and gesturing for me to move.

I stood, putting my hands out to help her up. She looked at them for a second before taking the help I offered. Once she was on her feet, I pulled her into a hug. She struggled, but I wouldn’t let her go.

“Don’t push me away, Ella. I know you’re hurting. I get it, but let me help you. Lean on me so we can get through this together. Talk to me. Yell at me, but don’t shut me out. I already feel alone enough as it is.”

Her head bumped into my chest as a sob broke free from her. Her arms loosely wrapped around me, locking us together. She didn’t try to speak; she just held on and let the storm brewing inside her break free.

I brushed her hair back from her face, and then splayed my hand across the center of her back, holding her close until her body stopped shaking and her breathing evened out to hitched sobs that soon tapered off. When she tried to push back, I hugged her one more time, kissed the top of her head, and then dropped my hands, giving her some space.

She reached past me, pulled a long strip of toilet paper from the roll, wiped her eyes, and then blew her nose.

“Better?” I asked.

“No, but at least I’m not in the mood to murder anyone like I was before,” she answered, stepping to the side and looking into the mirror. “Well, don’t I look like hell? Hand me a washcloth, please,” she said, turning on the water.

There wasn’t room to get by her so I sat on the closed toilet seat lid and waited as she applied the cold cloth to her face.

“Does that really work?” I asked, watching her fold the cloth into a strip and then hold it against her eyes.

“It’ll take the red away, and some of the puffiness. Time does the rest. Or cucumber slices.” She ran the washcloth under the tap again.

“Cucumbers? I guess once you’re done wiping your face with them, you have a snack.”

She made a face. “Gross. And you don’t wipe your face with them. You put them on your eyes,” she answered.

“Is that one of those life-hack things?”

She eyed me, deciding I wasn’t giving her a hard time, and said, “No. Well, maybe, I guess you could call it that. All I know is that there is something in the cucumber that soothes the skin around your eyes. Spas use them all the time.”

“Huh, learn something new every day,” I said, watching as she rinsed the washcloth one more time and wrung it out.

“I think I’m gonna lay down. My head is pounding.” Ella turned from the mirror. “While I do that, you can fill me in on what Oliver talked to you about.”  

The washcloth slipped down her face when she sat up. “Pirates? Like real pirates?”

I rolled over onto my side, propping my head on my palm. “Not the swashbuckling kind they portray in the movies, though that would be cool. Jared would be jealous. Especially if they had a peg-legged bird or a monkey.”

She shoved me, knocking my hand from under my head. I rolled over onto my back, grabbed a pillow, and then pulled it under my head as she said, “Explain.”

I settled in as she sat up, crisscrossing her legs, one eyebrow arched while clasping her hands in her lap.

“Oliver said that Baron received a concerning threat. One he couldn’t ignore. I guess the guy gets them regularly. But this threat came with a little more detail,” I explained.

She leaned closer. “What sort of detail?”

“Well, for starters, they had the name of this boat, the sailing dates, ports of call, and a crew manifest,” I answered.

Her eyes grew distant as she processed what I said, forming a new plan in her mind. “So now we not only have to watch the guests, keep tabs on horny newlyweds, watch the crew, but now we have to keep an eye on the whole ocean surrounding us too?” She shook her head. “Jesus, we need like two more sets of eyes each.”

“And all the while, we need to look like we only have eyes for each other,” I added, sighing. “We should have come up with a different cover story.”

She fell over on her side, dropped the washcloth back on her face, and groaned, adding, “I completely agree.”

“I’m thinking tomorrow we need to check out some stores and see if we can find a few things,” I said, getting an idea.

“Like what sort of things?” she asked, throwing the washcloth. It sailed across the room and landed somewhere inside the bathroom.

“Nice throw,” I said.

She tucked her hands under her face. “Probably landed in the toilet.”

“Toilet lid is closed.”

“What sort of things do you want to buy?”

I liked how Ella could bounce around in conversations with me without either of us getting lost.

“Cameras and such. Something easily hidden that doesn’t need to be mounted. Stuff with apps so we can see it on the phone. And I’d feel a little better if we had more than just one pistol,” I added, flicking a glance at the closet where it was tucked away. The last thing either of us needed was the maid coming in and finding a loaded weapon. And keeping it on us while wandering around in bathing suits wasn’t an option.

“We could always go with diving knives. Then having a weapon wouldn’t look so… out of place,” Ella added, chewing on her lip in thought.

“Good idea. Tomorrow we’ll get everything we need. I don’t think we’ll have to worry so much about actual pirates, though. The way Oliver talked, it seemed like a scare tactic. But the crew manifest and the sailing itinerary… that’s a little more accurate detailing. Though I do wonder… what if it was a passenger who passed the information on?”

“That’s a good possibility. We should probably start making a list of people who don’t sit right with us. Gut instinct seems to have worked well in the past. And we have absolutely nothing to go on, so it’s a start.”

“Yeah, like the guy who was looking for Alex. His cousin, wasn’t it? Summer didn’t seem to care all that much for him,” I said, remembering our first encounter with Nick.

“And I want to pick Allyson’s brain a little more. There seems to be a whole lot more going on than what she’s saying. Maybe if I can get her alone, she’ll open up and talk to me,” Ella said.

I fought a yawn. “Sounds like you two should have a girl’s day.”

Ella yanked the covers back, and then slipped in between them. “I doubt I could keep her from Alex that long, but she might be okay with a few hours.”

She was still in the same sundress she’d changed into once we’d returned to our room, and when I pointed that out, she just snuggled further under the covers and said, “I know, but I’m too freaking tired to be bothered.”