Elder swiped a hand over the sweat glistening on his forehead. “Keep them here until the all-clear is given.” Shoving me forward, he didn’t touch me, kiss me, or whisper anything kind to me. I was nothing more to him than someone to protect while his mind was in a battle elsewhere. “Keep her with you. Don’t let her out. Do you hear me?”
I bristled. I didn’t appreciate being talked about as if I wasn’t there or had any brain cells to understand simple commands. The head cleaner—an elderly woman with curlers in her hair—took my bicep, tugging me unwillingly into the room. “We’ll take good care of her, sir.”
Elder grunted in acknowledgement, already focusing on another task.
Instead of seeing me as an ally and someone who could help fight with him, he saw me as a liability to remove so he didn’t have to worry.
How dare he?
I knew I’d been weak when we first met. I knew I still had fading bruises from Harold, and I knew I still had other issues to overcome, but how dare he not trust me enough to lean on me?
After everything.
Whatever was happening, I wanted to be with him—not stuffed in some closet and forgotten about.
I grabbed his hand. “El, let me come with you. I need—”
His fingers wrapped around my wrist, tugging my grip away. “I need you to stay here, Pimlico. Got it?”
I eyed the door. Or rather the fortress entrance—it wasn’t lacquered wood like the rest of the Phantom’s entrances. This was utterly bullet-proof with thick hinges, dead bolts, and metal encasing front and back.
Shoving me once again into the hold of the cleaner, he barked, “Keep her here. Understand?”
The woman nodded. “Understood.” Grabbing my elbow again, she pulled me away from Elder.
I yanked my arm against her tugging, locking my knees. “Elder, wait. What’s going on?”
The air of apprehension and concern infected me. Every staff member on the Phantom stood worried behind me.
That could only mean one thing.
Oh, my God, they’re here.
Elder’s black eyes met mine, glowing with remorse, brutal with violence. “Nothing. And for the love of Christ, Pimlico, stay here and do as I say.” With a sharp shake of his head as if fighting the same need I had to touch him and find some sanity in this crazy wake-up scare, he stormed off down the corridor, leaving me entrapped with staff members.
The moment he vanished into the stair-well, the girl with blonde hair shut the door, and I whirled on the woman holding me. “Let me go.”
She unwound her fingers, backing into the room. “Just keeping you safe.”
“Well, don’t. My safety is not your concern.” My eyes followed her. My temper fizzled out as I took in the space. Just like the door wasn’t just a door, this wasn’t just a room. The walls had no windows, there were couches around the perimeter but narrow and uninviting compared to the luxury of other Phantom furniture. A long table to the side with buckled down crates held hundreds of water bottles and packet food ready for a famine, but it was the centre piece that caught my attention.
In the middle of the large space, hidden behind multiple milling people, sat a boat. Not just any boat but one Fort Knoxed with guns and canopies, big enough to hold everyone in the room.
What on earth?
My gaze shot to the back wall where a small slope in the floor disappeared into nowhere. There weren’t windows, but the wall wasn’t just a wall. It was a door—a large exit ramp for the lifeboat.
“What is this place?” I blinked at staff members—some wired and awake, others blurry-eyed and napping on the uncomfortable couches.
A guy I’d seen tending to the helicopter said, “It’s the safe room.”
“Safe from what?”
“Pirates, of course.”
My mouth hung open. “There’s no such thing.”
“Not the typical ones in storybooks, no. But there are many rogue ships that board, rob, rape, and kill. It’s a maritime requirement to have a safe room with enough food and water for all souls on board. Normally, the protocol is to call for help and wait it out, or the pirates take what they want and leave. But Mr. Prest went one step further and ensured we had a way off the yacht in case something catastrophic happens.”
My heart was what turned catastrophic. Bombs detonated inside me, sending shrapnel ripping through my blood.
Why was Elder out there and not in here? Who would protect him and the men on the bridge?
The longer I stood in safety with food and escape at my fingertips, the more I couldn’t stand it. Elder. The captain. They were out there...fighting for us.
What the hell are we doing?
Why were our lives worth more than theirs? Why should we be out of danger when they faced it head on?
I-I can’t stay here.
I needed to be with him. If the Chinmoku were paying a visit, I couldn’t let him face them on his own.
I wouldn’t.
I didn’t care it was stupid to put myself in danger. I didn’t care that Elder would be livid at me for getting in the way.
I literally couldn’t stand here while he was out there facing who knew what.
A loud foghorn shattered the tense murmurings in the room, dragging our eyes to the ceiling. A loudhailer sounded, but the words were warbled and hard to hear.
“Oh, God. We’re being boarded,” the head cleaner said, pacing by the lifeboat.
Staff members forgot about me as another horn sounded—this time vibrating and echoing through the Phantom. The captain had replied with his own thundering call.
Was it a call to war or surrender?
Elder will never surrender.
I still didn’t know all his secrets, but if it was the Chinmoku, then he would kill or be killed. There were only two scenarios available, and I refused to stand here and let him face such terrible choices alone.
Pretending to keep my eyes on the ceiling like everyone else—waiting for another boom of gunfire or horn of retaliation, I inched toward the door. No one paid attention as I fumbled with the locking mechanism and unhooked multiple deadbolts.
Safety did that to people. The knowledge they were untouchable in their special bunker allowed them to focus on the way life had split. Them versus us. The soon-to-be extinct and the ones who would survive.
My hands worked faster at the thought of Elder being hurt.
Please let him be okay...
Another loudhailer bellowed, chopped and incomprehensible. Whatever they were telling Elder and his crew to do, I didn’t think he’d obey. My skin prickled for the first round of gunshots, already picturing carnage and hoping to God my over-active imagination never came true.
With shaking fingers, I finally managed to unlock the door. The damn thing weighed a ton. I struggled to pull it wide enough to slip through. Pushing my leg through first, I angled my hips and slinked past the gap.
At the last second, a young maid spotted me. She opened her mouth to say something, but I shook my head, pressing my fingers to my lips.
This was my decision. Not hers.
If I wanted to risk my life, it was my choice. I’d had far too many choices taken away to let her take that away from me, too.