Chapter Six #2
The puttering of the speedboat matched her heartbeat as they pulled into the harbor. She glanced over at Theo, seemingly deep in thought, looking out at the sea with his chin propped up in his hand resting on the side of boat. What was he thinking?
She looked at the bench seat between them where his other hand rested mere inches from hers.
She wanted to take it and give it a squeeze.
But as he turned his head slightly in her direction, she could have sworn she saw his eyes gaze downward, also noticing the closeness of their hands.
And seconds later, he pulled his hand away.
Things were worse between them than she thought.
As they eased toward the dock, Louis jumped out and Maurice tossed him a rope to tie up the boat. With Louis and Maurice distracted, Theo finally spoke to Dani.
“You’re still set on the plan, right?” he whispered to her, though his eyes were focused on the guys.
“I guess,” she answered, and his head snapped in her direction.
He wrinkled his brow, clearly wanting to rehash things like they’d done last night, but what did he expect her to say? It was a terrible idea.
She hated this plan. Sure, if everything went right, then she’d happily eat her words at the end of the day.
But right now? Leaving him alone with these criminals didn’t sit right with her.
What if they were pissed that he’d helped her to escape?
Or that he’d lied to them? What if they hurt him as a punishment?
She wasn’t going to sit there and pretend she was happy about this.
“Don’t worry,” she said before he could start lecturing her but not without rolling her eyes, “I know what I’m supposed to do.”
His shoulders relaxed.
“All right, time to get out,” Maurice said, and they turned their attention to him.
They climbed out and stood beside Louis as Maurice finished securing the boat. Dani looked at Theo and he tipped his head back and tossed a glance at the ferry terminal, signaling that it was time.
She nodded, then announced, “I need to use the bathroom.”
Maurice glared at her. “Is this another one of your tricks?” he asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry, don’t you ever have to take a shit? Or are you backed up all the time? Oh my God, is that why you’re always so grumpy?” Dani said, placing her hand over her mouth in feigned shock. “Because you’re in a constant state of constipation?”
Maurice glowered at her. “You think that’s cute?” he asked.
“No, I think it’s inhumane that you are depriving me of a basic human necessity,” Dani said, folding her arms over her chest. “Come on. It’s been over an hour since we left the island. Did you not see how much of that orange juice I had at breakfast?”
It was a remarkable amount.
Maurice stared at her for a solid beat then said, “Fine, but you stay here,” directing himself at Theo. Dani breathed a sigh of relief, until Maurice then turned to Louis and said, “And you go with her.”
Shit. Theo flashed a glance at Dani. So much for that trust. They started to walk toward the ferry terminal, and she was eyeing all the doors and exits when Theo took her hand and pulled her back into a hug.
“Be careful,” he whispered, his lips brushing against her ear.
This was it.
What might be her final goodbye to Theo forever.
She wanted to take back all the bickering and the fighting from the prior evening. Tell Theo she didn’t want to leave him. Even if he only thought of her like a sister. Except…he didn’t want her to stay. He didn’t need her.
No one did.
But it didn’t stop the warm fuzzies from dancing across her skin. Or stop her from burying her face in his chest and squeezing her arms tightly around his waist, never wanting to let go. He returned the squeeze, and she allowed herself to be enveloped by him.
Funny how letting go felt more like holding on.
“It’s a trip to the bathroom, you’re not sailing out to sea for battle,” Maurice said.
“Hurry up!” Louis followed.
Theo’s grip loosened and he stepped back, but not before saying one last thing.
“Remember why you’re Juicy.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.
As if she could ever forget how she earned the nickname that she’d loved-hated after all these years.
Dani looked back over at the terminal, searching for windows. There. It wouldn’t be easy, but as she’d learned the day she became Juicy, she could squeeze her way out of almost anything.
With a subtle nod and an ache in her heart that this quite possibly might be the last time she ever saw Theo again, she headed toward the ferry terminal with Louis.
The building was bustling with tourists and locals waiting for the next boat.
It would take only one little scream to end this nightmare they were in.
But then Dani thought about Theo, still at the boat with Maurice. She couldn’t risk it.
“We’ve learned your fiancé’s little tricks. I’ll wait for you right here,” Louis said, pointing at a spot right outside the bathroom door.
Of course he would wait.
“I might be a few minutes,” she said.
“In five minutes, I’m coming in.”
It didn’t give Dani much time. Thankfully, she was skilled in the art of climbing in and out of windows.
The instant the bathroom door clicked shut, she rushed toward the window high up on the wall.
Not that she could reach it. Damn her short legs.
She scanned the bathroom, eyeing a trash can in the corner, the only movable object in the room.
Careful not to make too much noise, she tipped the round, three-foot-high bin on its side, rotating it in the direction of the window.
It wasn’t going to be easy, but she could do this.
Once she situated the can directly underneath the window, Dani took a deep breath and placed both hands on either side of the bin.
But right as she was about to lift herself onto the edge, she looked into the can and something caught her eye.
A grocery store sale paper advertising what appeared to be a bottle of something. She couldn’t tell because the paper was torn in half. But it wasn’t the prices or the realization that, sure, they had grocery store ads in Greece like in the US. It was what was on the bottle.
A μ with an eye. Like on that clay vessel in the museum.
She dug into the trash, pulling out the paper. What if this wasn’t a coincidence? What if it meant something?
Then she couldn’t leave Theo. Not now.
She tucked the paper in her pocket, and then resituated the trash can and washed her hands, right as Louis busted into the bathroom.
“I said I’d be a minute,” Dani said, hoping Louis couldn’t sense her anxiousness.
He looked around as if not fully trusting her—fair—before they made their way back to the dock, coming up behind Maurice and Theo. Maurice noticed her first, then said, “Okay, we can go,” clearly not knowing that moments earlier, she’d been thirty seconds away from her escape.
But when Theo turned around and saw her, the color drained from his face and his eyes went wide. He shook his head as if asking what she was doing there.
She tried smiling, but he didn’t seem to be in a smiling mood.
“What happened?” he whispered into her ear as they followed a few feet behind Maurice and Louis leading the way to the parking lot.
“I found something,” she responded, staring straight ahead and trying her best not to make it seem like a big deal.
“In the bathroom?” he asked, unable to fathom any sort of great archaeological discovery lurking in the public toilet. Also fair. “Juicy, we had a plan.” He sounded exhausted.
“No, you had a plan. I came up with another.”
“This isn’t the time for competition. That was our one shot to get you out of here. We’re not going to get another opportunity like that.”
“You mean, another opportunity to use the great crapper caper?” she joked.
“This isn’t a game,” he snarled, gently pulling her in tight by the back of her arm and stopping them in their tracks.
She snapped her face toward his so they were now nose to nose—or rather, her face to his chest—and they paused for a beat. His nostrils may have been flared and his brows wrinkled with frustration, but God, she’d missed his face.
“Yet you wanted me to climb out a bathroom window and thought that wasn’t a game?
I get that I’m not some amazing archaeologist like you,” she said, waving her arms around and rolling her eyes, “but I’m not some dummy, either.
Just because I’ve never been out of the country doesn’t mean I don’t have experience. ”
“I know that. And I never said you were a dummy.”
“Then why won’t you let me help you?”
Theo put his face in his hands and groaned. “I told you, I don’t need your help.”
“Oh really? Because it looks to me like you do. Whatever happened to ‘I’ll always be there for you’? It goes both ways, Theo. We were never like this before. Why won’t you talk to me?”
He put his hands on his hips, gazed up at the sky, and then blew out a long breath.
She watched his Adam’s apple bob as he took in his thoughts, now closing his eyes to shield them from the bright Grecian sun.
The fight within him was obvious. Of course he knew at this point he had no choice but to work with her, but she didn’t know when Theo became so…
bossy. Growing up, she’d always been the bossy one. When had the tables turned?
“I know you don’t want me here,” she said, “but like it or not, I’m still here, so you might as well work with me instead of trying to push me away.”
He took one more deep breath, then returned his gaze to her.
“Fine. What did you find?”
“Here. Look,” she said, pulling the sale paper out of her pocket and handing it to him.
Theo unfolded the crumpled paper, turning it over, looking for an explanation. “You’re kidding, right?” he said.
“No, look here,” she said, pointing to the μ.
“And?”
“And I’ve seen this before!”