A strong hand touches me on the shoulder. “I’m sorry. I thought you were playing a game. I didn’t realize you hadn’t remembered. She was your friend?”

He hands me the bottle of water and I twist the cap until the plastic seal breaks and I take a sip.

“I don’t know why Tet didn’t kill her as he was instructed. I don’t understand why the child didn’t finish the job I sent her to do. She had the element of surprise and she handled herself very well when I sent the assassins to kill her grandparents. So the only thing I can assume is that they were playing off each other. Do you know what they were doing, Harper?”

I swallow my water and look up at my father towering above me. He scares me. For the first time in my life, he scares me. “I don’t know.”

“We need to move,” he says, finally answering my question about the ship. “Her body wasn’t found and it hasn’t washed up. But we can’t risk searching anymore. So it’s better to get out into international waters in case the local authorities come asking questions.” He places a bottle of pills on the table. The orange bottle with the white top the same size and shape as all the others he’s given me over the years.

“I’m not taking those,” I say, immediately pulling myself together.

“No?” He walks back over to his seat just as the servers come in and place a covered plate in front of him. One is placed in front of me as well, and then the two servers remove the silver domed tops at the same time to reveal shark steaks, rice pilaf, and two slices of lime. “You’ve said that before, darling. But you know the pills help. So why deny yourself?”

I just stare at him. Deny myself? That’s an unusual way to put it.

“I’m not going to make you do anything, Harper. You’re a grown woman now. I’ve already stated, you’re not a prisoner.”

“Then let me go.”

“We’re out to sea.”

“We have a tender.”

“Yes, but it’s in need of repair. Which is why Tet had to hire a boat to bring you out to the ship.”

I stop listening and instead take my attention to my food. I’m starving and there’s no way in hell I could resist this meal. I don’t know how many days I’ve really missed, but it’s several by the pain in my stomach. I cut the tender shark steak with my knife and start shoveling it into my mouth. Aside from that one nice dinner with James, I haven’t had many decent meals since I left home.

“So,” my father continues, “now that you’re safe and Tet is off looking for your brother so he can bring that file to me, I’d like to make you a proposition.”

I stop chewing and just stare at my plate. And then I regain my composer and swallow. “What kind of proposition?”

“Your promise.”

I look up at that and my father tisks his tongue. “No, Harper. Darling. You were not promised to Tet. Please have more faith in me that that. Why would I give you to a demented killer?”

I have no idea. “Then who?”

“No one on the ship that night. He’s a secret. A secret so powerful it will rock this Company to the core. You see, Harper, regardless of what most people think, I’m not the head of this organization. I’m just a convenient figure our enemies can focus on when they feel the need for revenge. I’m… a distraction. The real power belongs to someone else.”

“Who?”

“You’ll see.”

“What do you think James will do when he figures this out? And what if I’d prefer James over this… new person?”

“Harper. I know you think I’m out to get you, but I’m only trying to keep you safe.”

“Like you kept my mother safe?”

His expression hardens immediately. “Do not mention her again.”

“Why, because you let her be killed?”

He pounds his fists on the table, making all the silver jump. I jump as well and I find myself scooting back from the table, ready to flee. But then I realize I’m on a fucking ship. There’s nowhere to go.

“Dinner’s over.” And then he stands up and walks a few steps before turning back to me. “Don’t forget your pills, Harper. The deeper you dig, and the more you want to know, the more likely you are to take them.”

Chapter Twelve

Harper

“I’m not done,” I tell the server who comes to take my plate. I will be damned if I will be sent back to my cabin like a child when I’m still hungry. “Bring me dessert and then leave me alone to eat in peace.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the server closest to me says. And then with a nod, she signals her co-worker and they walk away.

I eat every last bite of my shark steak, most of the rice, and the dessert—which is apple cobbler à la mode.

I let out a long sigh.

OK. So my father is still a prick and he’s got the upper hand. I’m stuck on this ship and I have no idea what he’s doing or where we’re going. But… I have to think up a but, because I need one right now. I need some inner reassurance that this is not over yet.

But. I’m not that weak and scared little girl who left here last year. I’m different. And I don’t believe half that stuff he says about James. I accept that James can’t be all there. He’s responsible for too many atrocities to not be affected by it.

But James was lucid and in control one hundred percent of the time we were together. Isn’t that all that matters? He was not indecisive or confused. So even if some of that stuff is true about his psyche, does it matter if it doesn’t affect him in his day to day life?

But Harper, the reasonable me points out. You were only really with him for a few days. It’s one small snapshot of who he is.

True. But he was always thinking of us.

Except he killed Sasha.

That makes me bring my napkin to my mouth to stifle my shock.

How? How could he do that? We were only together for a short while, but we were like family. Why would he bother to care about her if his objective was to shoot her in the end? I don’t understand that.

God, I wish I had a friend to talk to.

My mind immediately goes to the phone. I want to text him so bad.

I get up and go back to my room to change. The phone is still there. Right where I left it. I pick it up and find the message.