him as Josh vanished through a staff door. A physical attack, drugged coffee, stolen folder, hacked email and no leads. Complications would abound if he continued to exclude Lexie from his op, but she clearly had trust issues when it came to men. Or when it came to him, for some reason.
“I have a theory about your hacked email, but we can’t talk about it here. We need either a public place with plenty of noise or a closed room where no one can overhear. Did you have enough time to see if anything is missing?”
Lexie frowned and looked between the bank of computers and the door. “Oh no, you don’t. Mind telling me what that was about?”
“I will, as soon as we get somewhere that isn’t full of listening ears.” He inclined his head toward the teens, who were involved in an apparently hilarious game on a social networking website.
“Fine. Hang on a sec.” Lexie crossed her arms and returned to the computer. She tapped on the keyboard a few times before turning off the screen. “We can talk in my cabin, but I’d like to pick up another coffee since I didn’t get much out of that first one.”
Shaun pressed his lips together. He wanted to get this conversation over with, but it would do no good if she stayed on the defensive. Maybe with another coffee and a snack, she’d be more amicable to discussing what had happened.
“All right, but let’s make it quick.”
She glanced at him over her shoulder, annoyance rippling through her features. “You don’t have to follow me. The halls are full of people. I can meet you at my cabin.”
Instead of responding, he shook his head and kept pace behind her. No use trying to convince her of the necessity of teamwork before he’d had a chance to explain.
“My case files were gone, by the way,” she said as they descended the stairs to the deck below. “Everything has been deleted. Somebody doesn’t want me having access to information while I’m on board.”
* * *
Lexie noticed Shaun startle and nearly miss the next step. He grabbed onto the railing to steady himself, but she didn’t regret the tone of her delivery—these halls were full of passengers already worried about the sounds coming from outside the ship. Showing alarm would just add to the high tensions in the air.
They walked to the lounge in silence, where Lexie bought another cup of coffee and a bag of trail mix.
“You’re sure stuff was deleted?” His voice was light and upbeat, following her cue as they made their way back to her room. “Just the files on the case or other things, too?”
“Just the case,” she said, smiling as they passed a family of four in the hallway. The whole family wore fuzzy pajamas, and the two young children clutched plush toy characters from a recent animated film. The worried expressions on the parents’ faces suggested that no one knew yet what was going on. Lexie wished they’d make an announcement, but the calmness of the staff was mildly reassuring. If the situation were serious, surely they’d be evacuating people by now. “In fact,” Lexie continued, looking over her shoulder as they rounded the corner into her room’s hallway, “I think—”
Without warning, Shaun jumped forward and flung his arm out in front of Lexie, grabbing her shoulder to push her behind him against the wall. She winced at the pain of being slammed against a hard surface, but gritted her teeth to stay silent.
Lexie followed Shaun’s gaze to her doorway. It stood open about three inches, and though she’d intentionally left the light on before leaving for the computer room, no light shone through the door now.
“Stay here,” Shaun whispered. He crept forward with slow, steady steps, but Lexie’s attention was drawn to his right hand. He’d placed his hand inside his puffy vest, next to his right hip. There was only one reason a person would position their hand that way in a threatening situation, and it caused Lexie’s heart to pound even faster.
Why is he armed? She had to say something. Even if he had a perfectly good explanation, drawing a concealed weapon on board a Canadian passenger ferry could send him straight to prison. “Shaun.” Lexie’s voice wavered, but he ignored her, moving toward the door. “Shaun?”
He stopped at the edge of her door, cocking his head to listen. He glanced back at her and gestured for her to move toward him. She stopped about three feet away and watched as Shaun, with the practiced grace of a professional, slid his back against the door and reached his left hand slowly through the crack. The light switch clicked on and Shaun simultaneously slammed his palm against the door, which flew open.
Lexie peeked over Shaun’s shoulder to see an empty room. There were few places to hide in these small cabins, but Lexie waited in the doorway as Shaun checked the bathroom and closet.
“It is safe? Can I come in?” Whether she wanted to come in was another question entirely. Shaun hadn’t told her the whole truth about himself, that much had become clear. But could she blame him? It wasn’t as though she’d asked the right questions. Or any questions at all.
“All clear,” he called. The sound of a sliding shower curtain was followed by his reappearance. “You’d better check if anything was taken, though. You’re sure you locked the door when you left the room?”
Lexie’s wide eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms, bristling at the implication. “Of course I did. You were standing right next to me and watched me do it.”
He shrugged. “It doesn’t make sense that someone would break into your room and not touch anything—”
Lexie crossed the room as he spoke. She lifted her bags off the bed—and screamed.
The bags tumbled from her hands and she stumbled backward, bumping into Shaun, who had moved across the room to grip her shoulders. An empty hollow formed in her stomach as tears sprang forth. She tried without success to blink them away.
Shaun’s grip tightened as he followed her gaze to the center of her bunk. Behind Lexie’s bags, someone had used a small, wood-handled hunting knife to spear the photo of Maria from the stolen folder to the bunk. Between the photo and the blade, a short braid of glossy black hair had been pinned to the image.
Lexie willed herself to step closer. There was writing on the bottom of the photo, which she didn’t recall seeing before. “Shaun?” The effort to raise her voice above a whisper was too much, and the bruises along her throat began to throb from shock. Almost every time Lexie had seen Maria, the young woman had worn her hair in a beautiful long braid. This had to be hers. Someone had cut her hair. But why?
Shaun turned her to face him, forcing her attentions away from the photo and threatening knife. To her surprise, Shaun had a hint of a smile on his face. “Breathe, Lexie. I know this is beyond scary, but it’s not as bad as it seems.”
Fury rose in her gut. “Not as bad as it seems? What’s wrong with you? I’m trying to find a girl who has either run away from home or had something horrible happen to her and now there’s a lock of her hair on my bedspread—”
Shaun placed gentle hands on her cheeks, commanding focus. “Yes, it’s terrible. But think about it this way. If that’s Maria’s hair? That means she’s on board this ship.”
Lexie felt the blood drain from her face. She blinked against light-headedness, willing herself to focus on the man in front of her. “That means
