If Not For You (14 page)

“You sure?” he turned and walked around peeking in the closet and under the bed.

I nodded my head. “My jewelry case is missing and my personal things have been moved around in the bathroom.”

“Maybe it was the room steward.” He suggested.

“No he hasn’t been here, the beds not turned down.” I pointed at the bedspread still tucked over the pillows and my discarded shorts and t-shirt that still lay there from earlier.

Gage looked and nodded. “You’re right, have you touched anything?”

“The drawers, I thought maybe I put my jewelry case away and forgot. But it’s not in any of them. And my pills in the bathroom are turned so the labels showing. I never do that.” I took him by the hand and showed him. It was a crazy habit, something I had always done so that nosy people wouldn’t see what meds I took.

“I left my gold hoop earrings on that glass shelf, they’re gone.” I pointed with a shaky hand. Gage took me in his arms and held my head to his chest.

“I’m going to call the ship’s security office, don’t touch anything else,” he instructed, and pulled a tissue from the box on the counter, wrapped it around the phones receiver and took a pen from his pocket to punch the buttons.

After telling them my suspicions, he directed me to the living room and poured me that glass of wine watching as I downed the entire thing and held it out for a refill.

“Take it easy, you want to give a sober statement.” He was brash and that was so not what I needed.

“Fuck you, you give a sober statement.” Oops the snootiness was back, not that I gave a shit.

Clearly not very impressed with me, Gage refilled my glass and walked over to the sliding door with his hands in his pockets, not exactly pouting but not a happy camper either. He pulled back the sheer and bent over looking at the handle.

“Locked.” he said then turned and leaned against it. “Obviously someone with a card got in here. You didn’t give a card to anyone?”

“Who would I give a card to?” I snapped, and the scowl I got from across the room could have split me clean in half. “Sorry, my Mother’s Amethyst ring was in there.”

“What else?”

“Junk really, costume jewelry, replicas of the real deal I left at home. I don’t go anywhere without her ring, stupid I know but it’s like a good luck piece. I feel like she’s watching over me when I have it.”

“Not stupid, I wear my dad’s ring for the same reason.” He held up his hand to show a gold pinky ring, I walked over and took his hand in mine for a closer look. It had a lion on it.

“Does this mean something, is it a family crest?” I fiddled with it, probably longer than I should have. His fingers were long and artistic looking, well-manicured for such a tough ass. He never pulled away and I could tell as I spun it around his finger that he was watching me, closely.

“It’s the rampant lion, the royal standard of Scotland, my family’s Scottish.” I looked up as he told me and indeed he was watching, studying even.

“All it needs is a diamond right here.” I pointed and he pulled his hand free.

“Don’t think so.” He tucked his hand back in his pocket and looked down at the carpet.

“Sorry.”

“You say sorry a lot.”

“So?”

“So, stop,” he demanded. His order crawled under my skin making me feel like a punishment was approaching. In a way maddening, in a way amusing. Either way, he wouldn’t get the better of me.

“You know you can be really brutal. I don’t think I like you when you’re all business, you’re being a real prick.”

Gage shrugged his shoulders and laughed, “Yeah I can be brutal, I don’t always like me when I’m business either, but I won’t apologize for doing my job and I won’t say I’m sorry. If it comes out of my mouth, I own up to it. You can’t take it personally, sweetheart.”

He shouldered past me when there was a knock at the door, I hurried after him. There were two men, one in a security type uniform the other in a navy suit. They nosed around while asking questions, took photos, had me fill in an incident report and produce my insurance papers. I was assured that they would investigate footage from the hall cameras and I was given a number to call to make the insurance claim. The gentleman in the suit re-keyed the lock and handed me two cards to replace the old one that he took with him, warning me not to give them to anyone. Well Duh!

A few hours later, I sat drinking the last of the wine with a drained, hollow feeling in my gut. I often heard people in this situation say that they felt violated, I didn’t somehow. I was just plain sad and angry that I lost my Mother’s ring. Had I been a fool and it had slipped from my finger and gone missing, I don’t think it would have felt so bad. It would have been a sign that I didn’t need to depend on it, it wasn’t meant to be mine. But picturing it in a pawn shop window or being melted down for the cost of gold just saddened me more.

“I’m going to go now,” Gage said, standing.

“Okay.” I didn’t want him to leave but he definitely couldn’t stay.

“You’ll be fine. No one’s going to come back, you’ve got nothing that they didn’t already take.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” I slapped his shoulder and he flinched with a grin.

“Come on, you know what I mean.” He pulled me into a bear hug and I inhaled his scent, engraving it in my memory.

“How about I pick you up in the morning and I take you for breakfast?”

“I guess.” He ducked to my level so he was peeking into my eyes until I smiled, it was weak, but it was a smile all the same.

“See you at eight?”

I scrunched up my nose thinking of how early that was.

“Nine then?”

“Okay nine.” I said, rolling my eyes and saw Gage narrow his, he didn’t like eye rolling.

“See you at nine. Be ready!” He ordered and I gave him a grand salute.

Gage shook his head and laughed, kissed my cheek and stood in the hall while the door locked into place and I slid over the latch. I watched him disappear through the peep hole and climbed into bed, with every possible light that I could find turned on. Anyone along the shoreline would have seen my room like a beacon in the night.

Day 46

The ship cruised quietly along on the Java Sea, at least that’s what the newsletter said for this day, we would be in Singapore tomorrow. I was looking forward to the tour. I ticked off all the places I’d like to see and would have to make the time to book my tours at the ship’s office.

I waited patiently for Gage to arrive to take me to breakfast. When he finally did, a half hour late, I had to stand back and count to ten to calm down. I was nauseatingly nervous like I was the prom queen and the captain of the football team was picking me up. I pulled the door open and stood with my hand on my hip, a pissy look on my face and Gage stood laughing.

“You’re late.” I scolded him.

“Yeah had some emails to read, business. You know how it is.”

“No I don’t, I’m on holiday.” I pulled an angry face but my performance couldn’t have been as academy award winning as I thought, because Gage was still laughing.

“Come on let’s not waste time, I did some snooping. One of your pretty boys ain’t as pretty as he seems. I’ll tell you over breakfast,” he informed, my mouth dropping open and my eyes widening with shock, I couldn’t believe my ears.

Gage took my hand and dragged me off in his he-man-caveman way that I was beginning to enjoy.

We ate on the Lido deck, it was buffet style, yuck, but our table gave us privacy to talk. Gage had papers and smoothed them out so we could both see them, pointing as he read the information to me.

“It seems that Jack Martin has done time. The files have been neatly tucked away from public record so it’s gone unnoticed for years. He was accused of several minor theft offenses; pick pocketing, cheque cashing fraud, harassment, nothing of any real significance there. He paid some fines or the charges were dropped. Except for a burglary arrest which came with a yearlong stay, he got off early for good behavior.”

“You’re serious?” I asked, and then tightening my brow I thought, matters of private record can’t be accessed. I would know since it was part of my job to get into these types of records. “If the records are sealed, how did you get into them?”

“Not sealed, merely hidden, one of those for-your-eyes-only deals, he probably lined a judge’s pocket…besides, I know people,” he winked, “I’m thinking Jack has something to do with your room being broken into. Jack’s our man.”

Silent I stared off into the distance, lost in thoughts of Jack going through my things.

“You okay?”

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Not a hundred percent no, but my gut says yes. I need to do some more detective work…there’s something else you should know.”

“What?” I asked, swallowing hard, scared of what he may say next. Murder? Assault?

“He was charged with forcible confinement, the charges were later dropped from what it says here,” he pointed to a highlighted area. “The woman, nameless of course, backed out three days before the trial. She was probably threatened, or paid off.”

“I know he’s a womanizer but I would have never thought,” I mused, raising my brows, “he does philander with anything in a skirt.”

“Did he come on to you, try anything with you?” Gage asked in an angry tone.

“Calm down Columbo, like I told you before we barely said two words to each other.” Images of the times he disappeared with some chick on his arm suddenly bothered me, what kinds of things was he doing with them, to them?

“He’s never been charged with rape, right?” I asked.

“Nope, can’t see anything here about rape. Why?”

“Forcible confinement Gage, think about it. Maybe he raped her, she got spooked about testifying, it happens all the time.”

It was true. I had seem women go into hiding when it came to actually testifying. Those that made it into the courtroom were usually misdirected by twisted questioning techniques. Making the woman look like a liar is the job of the prosecuting lawyer and unless the woman was strong in both mind and soul, she could easily be dissuaded and made to seem confused and foolish.

“You scared?” he asked, probably because of my silent thoughts.

“Not at all, I’d kill the little fucker if he tried anything,” I barked with certainty.

“That’s my girl!” Gage laughed and I pondered his statement, it was all caveman-like and I liked it. The whole thumping his chest and taking command made me smile inside.

“Like I said, I have a few more sources to touch base with before I can do any accusing. I’ll give this info to security, they need to be aware.”

“You should do that…It’s weird eh? You never know about people, who they are, what they’re capable of, what they could do to you, how they could affect the rest of your life.”

“You think too much, sweetheart. Change of subject, what would you like to do today?”

“What are you asking?” It wasn’t as if I was confused, no sir. I knew exactly what he was getting at. He wanted to be my protector, knight in shining armor and I just wanted to hear it. Knowing he wanted to be my bodyguard was an appealing thought.

“I’m not leaving you alone, so what will we do?” he pried.

I laughed and shook my head, “I’m a big girl now, I can take care of myself.”

“So you don’t want to spend the day with me?”

I chewed the inside of my cheek and contemplated the idea of spending the day alone or having some fun with a gorgeous blond, blue eyed sexy man. The decision really wasn’t a tough one, I just didn’t want to appear overly eager and let him think he was one up on me.

“Why not,” I shrugged and Gage frowned.

“You certainly know how to deflate a guy’s ego. Movie or maybe you can slip into that hot pink number of yours and we’ll laze by the pool.”

“Hot pink number?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I like you in that bikini.” He nodded with his bottom lip tucked between his teeth, oh so sexy and distracting. I had to look away before my creative mind went into overdrive with thoughts of my teeth clenched to that lower lip.

“So why can’t we do both? There are twenty four hours in a day you know.”

“Let me check what’s playing at the theatre, I’ll be right back.” Gage stood and walked away.

I felt strangely bashful. I hadn’t realized that he saw me in that bikini. I absolutely didn’t remember seeing him. I had gotten all gutsy that day, forcing my brazen side to surface. My face heated as I thought back to the moment I dropped my sarong and leapt onto the lounger before anyone saw, or at least I thought. I laughed to myself.

Gage returned with a newsletter, we scanned over the possible movies and times. James Bond ‘Skyfall’ won by a landslide, no arguments.

We ran by the security office on the way. Gage gave the papers and information to the same fellow in the navy suit, who questioned Gage’s sources suspiciously. Gage produced his credentials as a licensed security specialist. The man was none too happy with Gage; he didn’t like him interfering with his investigation. Warning Gage to back off, he finally let us go, giving us little time to get to the movie just as the opening credits rolled on the screen.

“By the way, I’m impressed,” I whispered into Gage’s ear.

The feel of his hot breath on my cheek as he leaned over and whispered, sent a wave of flutters low in my belly and I grinned impishly in the dark. “With what?”

“The whole James Bond thing you got going on.” I could see his eyes as the light on the screen sparkled in them when he turned and stared at me. “It’s kinda hot,” I said.

“You think so?” he laughed, and several people shushed us. I had to hold back my giggles for fear of being thrown out on our asses.

There was no man on the face of this planet that could compare to Mr. Daniel Craig in the roll as James Bond. He oozed pure sex god and no one could do a sex scene, shoot a gun or kick the snot out of the bad guy, and of course bleed, quite like him. He could make my panties disintegrate just appearing on the screen and when he spoke, well don’t get me started.

It was hard to be distracted from the movie on the screen, but when Gage placed his arm across my shoulders and pulled me closer, I was distracted. He had done the suave stretch in the air thing and I peeked from the corner of my eye when he made his move and smirked at his typical guy realignment. The pure male scent of him, the half-naked shot of Bond on the screen and Gage’s fingers playing with a lock of my hair, were driving me mad. The more I squirmed in my seat, the firmer his hold.