Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Maverick
I stand off to the side on deck as Eve and Kindra fuss over Frankie’s wounds.
When Jim saw her state and heard what happened to her, he finally came to his senses and offered to call off the final round so we could get her back to the Bruise Cruise.
Frankie would have none of it. She’s bound and determined to play the fourth game, and she’s adamant that Castle will be our Cattle.
When she said that, Jim couldn’t have looked more pleased. I should feel the same.
So why don’t I?
The goal was to get her to turn against her own and side with us, and for all intents and purposes, that has been achieved, but I can’t pat myself on the back for this.
I don’t feel as if I’ve accomplished anything.
The only thing I feel is awful. The kill she made before served a purpose—an unavoidable means to an end—but the bloodlust lighting her eyes ablaze is different now.
This is personal. I’ve taken an incredible woman with proper values and ironclad morals and turned her into a fucking psychopath.
When the girls have had their fill of the retelling, they meander back to their respective groups to prepare for the final round of the game.
I take this moment to pull Frankie aside.
I haven’t had a chance to check on her fully, and I want to be sure she’s up for whatever game Jim has in store.
Though it goes against my mission, I almost hope she’s had a change of heart and wants to back out.
I pull her against me and embrace her openly, not caring who sees. “Are you okay? Truly?”
“The swelling is already going down in my eye, and at least I now know that lip fillers are definitely not for me. My lip looks worse than it feels, though.” She smiles up at me, looking adorable in a scruffy, beaten-to-hell-and-back kind of way.
“My throat is a little worse for wear, not gonna lie, but I think I’ll be okay. Thank you, by the way.”
“If you want to thank me properly, I gladly accept blow jobs.” I lean closer to her ear and drop my voice to a whisper.
“In fact, we could skip out on the last game entirely and head back to the ship. Think about it, sweetheart. You could knock me around a little, and then I could replace every ounce of pain with double the pleasure.” I nip her earlobe and revel in the way she shudders against me.
“That . . . actually sounds really nice.”
My spirits rise as her hand secretly gropes the front of my pants. Maybe I can get her out of this mess yet.
She squeezes my limp cock, sending a spike of pain through my groin. “But I’m not skipping the game, Maverick. Whatever fucked-up shitshow lies in store for Castle, I don’t want to miss a second of it.”
I smile down at her and hope she doesn’t see the way I’m breaking inside. This isn’t who she is, and I feel responsible for her coming into her villain era. It’s not a nice feeling.
“Hey,” she says as she places her hand on the side of my face, stroking my cheek and offering a wan smile.
“This new way of thinking isn’t a bad thing.
If anything, it’s the best thing because it’s pretty much what you wanted.
I get it now. I understand why you people kill, and you were right.
Some shit stains are too dirty to run through the wash.
Instead of wasting resources on scrubbing what can’t be cleansed, it makes more sense to toss out the ruined garment. ”
I search my brain for something that will snap her out of this. “What about your career?”
The smile shifts, looking sadder by the second but still remaining on her face. “What career, Maverick? Didn’t anyone tell you?” She utters a wry laugh and shakes her head. “There was never a mission to hand over any of you. This was a suicide trip. We weren’t expected to return. None of us.”
“Wait, why would you think that?”
“Castle said as much.”
I hold her at arm’s length and stare into her eyes. “You can’t be serious. How can you believe anything that came out of that asshole’s mouth? He just said that to hurt you.”
“No, it tracks. When I went to the bathroom, Gary, that weird little man who helped you out, told me Castle had been running his mouth about some vile shit he’s done.
Castle didn’t know that, but when he mentioned that we were set up, he said it was because a higher-up demanded a hard cull of any agents with skeletons in their closets. Vile shit sounds like skeletons to me.”
“Then why are you here? Are you secretly a mass murderer?” I shake my head and drop my hands. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“No clue. I have no secrets. I guess King grew tired of me trying to climb the ladder, so he figured this was the best way to be rid of me.” She keeps her voice steady, but the hurt shines in her eyes. “I just don’t know how I’ll tell my mother. This was her greatest fear.”
“That you’d give up your government job?”
“No,” she says with a laugh. “That I’d fall in love with a serial killer and abandon my scruples.” Her eyes widen and her lips clamp shut. “Not that I’m in love. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Sure it’s not,” I say as I drag her against me again. She struggles to pull away, but I just hold her tighter. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I tend to have this effect on women.”
She lands a punch to my side. How cute. “I’m not in love with you. I just like you.” She punches again, a little weaker this time. “A lot.”
I lean down and kiss the top of her hat. “I like you too. A lot. And that’s why I don’t think you should do this.”
Leaning back, she looks up at me. “You don’t think I should kill Castle?”
“No, I don’t. I think you should let me do it.”
The pirate music cranks up again, and Jim shouts for everyone to man their stations. Still locked in an embrace, Frankie and I watch as people scurry to and fro, some setting up for the event and some preparing to play.
The crew drags pieces of a small metal stage to the middle of the deck, where they begin a speedrun assembly of the multiple pieces. Another group rolls the barrels up a shallow ramp and onto the stage. This must mean they were part of the games all along, not just set dressing.
“What’s in the barrels?” Frankie asks.
Eve steps up beside us. “No clue, but what the fuck is happening on the island?”
Frankie and I turn toward the blip of land. Most of the Normies still sit at their tables, but toward the right end of the line, some sort of commotion has broken out.
I motion for Frankie to hand over the spyglass, and she does. As I peer down the long metal tube, I can’t believe what I’m seeing.
“It’s Ice Pick,” I say. “He’s fighting one of the...” I lower the spyglass. “Shit.”
“What?” Eve squeals. “Don’t leave us hanging like this, honey! Spit it out!”
I push the device into Eve’s hands and motion for her to see for herself. She ends up as speechless as I am as she passes the spyglass to Frankie. They had to see it for themselves. No one would have believed me otherwise.
Because on the island, Ice Pick is currently refereeing a vicious cat fight, and they appear to be fighting over him .
“Oh, the money I would pay to be the fly on that potato salad,” Frankie says. “I want to know what they’re saying.”
Eve takes the spyglass from Frankie and holds it to her eye again. “I don’t know, but the brunette is finally walking away. Well, hobbling away. She’s missing one of her Red Bottoms, so she’s moving a bit funny.”
“Damn, I was rooting for the brunette,” Frankie says.
“Seems like you prefer blondes, though,” I say with a wink, and she swats my chest.
“Yall’s little fling ain’t no secret, honey,” Eve says with a flick of her wrist. “No need to keep playing coy when you already announced that you’re fucking him.”
Frankie’s cheeks blaze red, but she smiles before cracking her knuckles and looking around. “Where is everyone? It seems there aren’t as many people out here now.”
“Since Grim killed the fed, they were down a man, so their team bowed out. Rosie joined up with Bennett, Ezra, and Kindra because Cat had to go downstairs to die. I don’t know where the other team disappeared to,” Eve says. “Aven went to use the bathroom and hasn’t come back.”
A woman approaches from our left, and we turn to look at her. Her gray hair says she’s over forty, but like Frankie, her face and body could easily pass for much younger. I’ve seen her here and there in passing, but we haven’t spoken before, and this is definitely her first trip with us.
“Hello,” she says with a wiggle of her fingers. “Jim said I should join you guys because Aven no longer wishes to play. Something about being too hot. I’m Anne, by the way.”
Frankie looks her up and down and cocks her head. “What’s your designation, Anne?”
Anne blinks, her head slightly rearing back. “Pardon? I’m not sure what you mean.”
“What’s your assignment, then, if you feel the need to play dumb?”
I grab Frankie’s arm. “What are you doing, sweetheart?”
She snatches out of my grip, her eyes still trained on the woman. “Did they tell you to catch one of us big baddies? Did you believe you would have the opportunity to work your way to the top rather than sucking your way there?”
“Oh shit,” Eve says through a laugh. “Do you think she’s a fed?”
“What? I’m not one of them!” Anne says as her hand flies to her chest. “What makes you think that?”
Yeah, I’d like to know too. The alternative is that Frankie has truly lost her fucking mind.
Frankie glances around, finds what she’s looking for, then yells, “Jim! Permission to kill Anne...” She looks at the woman.
“Wilcox,” Anne says.
Frankie’s eyebrows rise, and she smiles. “Wilcox...really? My grandmother on my mother’s side was a Wilcox.”
“I married into the name,” Anne says. “My maiden name is Smith.”
“Anne Smith. What a tragically mundane name.” Frankie shakes her head and turns again. “Wilcox!” Frankie shouts toward Jim.
“Permission granted!” Jim shouts back.
And the chase is on.
Anne takes off toward the other side of the deck, but she soon realizes she’s trapped.
Frankie and Eve take off after her, the latter having the forethought to find a weapon on the way.
Eve snatches a broadsword from Ezra’s side, but it isn’t needed.
Anne takes one look back at the women rushing toward her before hoisting herself over the side and disappearing.
Her scream cuts off abruptly when she smacks against the water.
I hurry to join Frankie and Eve as they peer over the side of the ship. Anne resurfaces seconds later, though one of her arms dangles in the water as she pinwheels the working limb to compensate and stay afloat.
“Fuck, she survived,” Frankie says. “Where’s a bucket of chum when you need it?”
A crowd gathers, and we watch as Anne treads water for several minutes before finally disappearing below a rogue wave. She doesn’t resurface.
“How’d you know?” I ask Frankie as Jim yells for us to prepare for the game.
“I’ll tell you later,” she whispers. “Right now, I want to prepare for what I’m about to do. That wasn’t satisfying enough, so this one has to be better.”
“Didn’t they teach you about the desire for escalation in fed school?” I whisper back. “This isn’t you, sweetheart. You don’t have to do this.”
Frankie stops walking. She faces me as she thrusts a pointed finger toward the railing Anne threw herself from.
“No, Maverick. That isn’t me. I have never been accepted as one of them, but here on this ship, with all of you, I finally feel like I belong somewhere.
I’ve been in my line of work for most of my life, and do you know how many friends I’ve made?
Zero. Not a single one. I’ve been telling myself that I don’t have relationships because of work, but it’s because of me.
I’ve crammed myself into spaces where I didn’t belong, and now that I’ve slotted in so nicely here, I can finally see that. ”
“Frankie—”
She holds up her hand, silencing me. “You broke down a fucking door to save my ass, but the people I was supposed to trust put me in that room.”
“You don’t know that. He could have been lying.”
“He wasn’t.”
She looks down at her feet, and the cracks in her veneer show through. The woman is angry, hurt, and betrayed. Whether her emotions stem from fact or fiction doesn’t matter because the emotions are very real, and I’ve been an ass. She doesn’t need a lecture. She needs comfort.
“Come here,” I say as I pull her into me, and I’m pleased when she lets me. “If you need to kill Castle, then I’ll support you. Just don’t let this change who you are, okay?”
She looks up at me, and my heart breaks when I see the tears forming in her eyes. “At nearly forty, you’d think I’d know who I am, huh?”
I lean down and kiss her forehead, and she sighs.
“If I kill Castle, can I still knock you around and get fucked stupid when we get back to the room?”
Smirking against her skin, I close my eyes and accept defeat. “Definitely.”