Chapter 3 Logan
LOGAN
Day two, and the first port stop was completed with zero issues. Major win.
We’d spent the day docked at Serenity Cay, an exclusive island that was worlds away from most vacation beaches.
Most of the guests enjoyed the beautiful white sands, but of course I’d stayed on the ship to work on our media outreach.
The marketing team had been keeping me posted with the feedback online—and so far, it was one hundred percent positive.
Thankfully, there hadn’t been a single mention of expletive-spewing children. Another win.
Speaking of children…I glanced to where Noah was curled up in a swivel chair across from me, furiously swatting at his iPad screen. We were having a mellow evening in our suite, but my hopes for a father-son hang had evaporated the second he picked up his tablet.
He looked so much younger than his six years now, like the trauma of what he’d been through had regressed him. It sure had done a number on our relationship, but I was confident we were on the road to recovery.
“What are you up to, bud?” I asked him.
“Robot games,” he answered without looking up.
“Did you have fun today?”
He shrugged.
“Sorry I couldn’t go to the beach with you,” I said. “You know I have to work really hard on this trip, but once we get back home, we’ll have lots more time to hang out.”
“Home where?” Noah asked, his eyes wide and finally locked onto me.
“Back in California, bud. We talked about it, remember?”
He nodded, a frown on his face.
“But it won’t always be like this, I promise,” I explained, hoping he’d finally focus on me. “We’ll be able to do more fun stuff once we get back, once this trip is over.”
I sighed when I received zero response.
I’d been doing everything I could to help him navigate his emotions, but I felt like every attempt failed.
I was following his therapist’s suggestions to the letter, giving Noah the consistency that would help him settle into his new life, and I kept hoping that eventually I’d see the boy I used to know again.
I didn’t fault Noah for feeling overwhelmed by life, though. I just wanted him to remember the way we used to be, and understand that I would always, always be on his team.
“Do you want to go back to the Kids’ Club? It’s open for a couple more hours tonight. Maybe you could play with your new friends?”
Noah shook his head. “No.”
I wondered if he’d even made any friends, because whenever I peeked at the surveillance camera to check on him in the Kids’ Club, he was doing his own thing.
I thought I knew my son, but he felt like a stranger now.
This was supposed to be part of our healing: just hanging out together, breathing the same air, and leaving the floor open to conversation. His therapist assured me that being physically present was enough. It didn’t feel that way to me. The wall between us seemed to be taller than ever.
“Hey, you,” I called out to Noah.
He raised his eyes to meet mine, his little face illuminated by the tablet in his hands.
“I love you. Do you know that? A ton.”
“Love you too, Dad,” he replied, the hint of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. “Maybe we can—”
The video conferencing app on my computer chimed, signaling an incoming call. A furrow formed between my brows.
I gave Noah the “one second” finger and opened up my laptop on the table in front of me.
The marketing team had updates, including a bunch of interviews they wanted to schedule during the trip and when we returned.
I wound up so engrossed in our discussion that I barely noticed when Noah slipped away.
I divided my attention between the call and trying to spot him, but things got complicated, and I needed to completely focus on the projections my team was discussing.
I hung up and glanced around our suite. “Noe? Where are you, bud?”
He was at the age where he wanted privacy for anything bathroom-related, so I avoided barging in to check on him, but after a few minutes of silence, I needed to make sure he hadn’t fallen in the toilet.
I rapped in the door. “Hey, Noah? You okay?”
When I didn’t get an answer, I peeked my head in to find the room empty. “Noe? Where are you, bud?”
My heart started pounding; even though our suite was much larger than the average cabin, there weren’t a ton of places for him to hide. And he certainly should be able to hear and respond to me.
“Noah! Quit screwing around.”
I sounded angry. No, calm down.
I swept the entire suite, holding my breath, and finally came to the conclusion that he’d taken off. I grabbed my phone and dialed our head of security.
“Noah left our room,” I explained to Mike. “I’m not sure where he is. Can you send someone to sweep the main floors? I’ll check this one.”
“Roger that. Do you want us to send someone to help you?”
“No, I’ve got it.”
Wrong. Bad idea. For once in my life, I had to admit I needed help. I didn’t give a damn about my pride when it came to my kid’s safety.
“Actually, yeah, can you send someone to sweep up here as well? And check the security footage for me too.”
I hung up and sprinted out of the room trying to ignore the nightmare scenarios in my brain.
The biggest? Overboard.
My stomach seized at the thought.
I speed walked down the hallway, trying to keep from sounding frantic as I asked the passengers I jogged by if they’d seen an adorable towheaded boy. I didn’t want to get folks upset if there was no need. We were fine.
But every “no” made my heart pound harder.
Maybe he’d decided to go to the Kids’ Club by himself? That would definitely be the best-case scenario. I started charging in that direction, so caught up imagining all of the things that could go wrong that I careened right into the one person I didn’t want to see.
“Nina.”
I could tell she was winding up to make a crack about my clumsiness, but she stopped abruptly after scanning my face.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I glanced beyond her. “Noah’s missing.”
She shifted into work mode. “Last place you saw him?”
“Our suite, about ten minutes ago.”
She nodded. “Let’s go.”
Nina was half the hallway away from me by the time I finally shook out of my stupor.
“Kids’ Club first. I haven’t been in there in thirty minutes,” she said as she walked briskly.
I didn’t say anything as I followed along.
“Don’t worry, he’s okay,” she assured me. She reached back to give my arm a squeeze, barely breaking stride. “He’s a smart kid.”
It was exactly what I needed to hear.
We arrived at the doors that led into the Kids’ Club and Nina yanked it open.
“Noah, you in here?” she called out in the deserted space. “Noah?”
She covered the room quickly, going to all of the places I assumed he liked to hang out. The suspended rattan chair, the bench under one of the portholes, the nook beneath the faux tree.
“Let’s move on,” I said. “Though I have no idea where to go next.”
“The snack deck,” Nina said with a confident nod. “We did a field trip there yesterday, and he went nuts for Chef’s homemade Pop-Tarts.”
“Okay.”
As we galloped to the next location, my stomach sank, not only because Noah was missing, but also because this woman who’d only known him for a couple of days had a better idea of what he liked to do than I did.
No, that wasn’t true. I knew Noah. Just not this new version of him.
And was it such a bad thing for him to be finding comfort with Nina? She was clearly good at her job. When Noah opted to speak to me beyond “yes” or “no” since we’d boarded, it was always about the fun stuff they were doing together. He didn’t normally attach himself to someone so quickly.
“So how does one lose a six-year-old?” Nina asked me as we headed up the back staff staircase they’d used with the kids.
I gripped the handrail a little tighter; there was judgment in her voice that rubbed me the wrong way.
“He slipped out of the room while I was on a call with the marketing team,” I fired back at her, because what exactly was she suggesting?
“Ah, of course,” she said, climbing the steps faster.
I took them two at a time to catch up to her. “What does that mean?”
She shot me a look out of the corner of her eye then reached for the door handle before I could. “You run an empire. I guess work has to come first.”
I slammed the door shut and turned to face her, blocking access so that the two of us were trapped in the empty stairwell. I was worried about Noah, but now angry as hell too. “Hold on. I’ll have you know that my son comes first, no matter what.”
I expected her to cower a little since I was practically breathing fire, but Nina stood her ground and stared back at me silently, her eyes scanning my face.
It looked like she was holding back from saying something.
“Well, okay then,” she finally replied. “Let’s go find him.”
I wrenched the door open and walked through it without holding it for her. My phone rang.
“Mike, any news?”
“Negative, but we’ve checked footage from, uh, the most pressing areas of concern, and everything has been clear for the past hour.”
That meant he’d checked the bridge, bow, stern, and deck cameras that pointed toward the water. I dropped my head and let out a sigh. “Okay, thank you.”
“We also haven’t seen him show up on any of the other floors.
Stair and elevator footage is clear as well.
Though…I hate to bring this up now, but the cameras on the passenger decks aren’t really angled with someone of Noah’s height in mind.
There are blind spots. Noah might’ve slipped by without being recorded. ”
“Damn it,” I muttered. “Okay, so that means there’s a chance he’s still on my floor, somewhere.”
I hung up abruptly and took off down the hall at a jog.
“What happened?” Nina called after me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said over my shoulder.
I didn’t need her help. I didn’t want it either. Not when the implication of what she’d said earlier made it clear that Nina thought I was an unfit parent.
I had enough doubts of my own, thanks. I didn’t need someone else piling on.
I was so caught up in my thoughts that I didn’t realize she was trailing me until I hit our floor. I fished my keycard out of my pocket to check if he’d magically reappeared in our suite.
“Wait.”
I paused to look at Nina.
“I heard something. Down here.”
She ran to a supply room door that was usually locked and pulled it open.
“Noah,” she exclaimed and dropped to her knees in the doorway.
The door was positioned so that I could only see her as I got closer, but at least I could see she was smiling.
That had to mean Noah was okay. Relief hit like a gut punch, and I actually had to put a hand out to steady myself for a second, but finally I managed to make my way over to the closet.
When I looked in, I froze. Noah was sitting cross-legged on the ground clutching what looked like a piece of wadded up newspaper.
“Look what I found!”
Noah lifted his hands to show me the furry, dirty thing. And then it meowed.
“A kitten? Where the hell did that come from?”
“I’d like to know as well,” Nina breathed. “How long has this poor baby been trapped in here?”
Noah shook his head, glancing between the two of us. “I’m not sure. I heard it, or…her, or maybe him? He raised the kitten to look into its blue eyes. “What are you?”
“Here, let me check,” Nina held out her hand, and he placed the scrawny thing in her palm.
She ran her hand down its back then slowly flipped it over like she was a kitten whisperer. The kitten didn’t struggle as Nina peered to look at the equipment.
“This little baby is a girl,” she said as she righted the kitten and handed her back to Noah.
He kissed the top of the kitten’s head and clutched it against his chest, to my dismay.
I didn’t want him to get too comfortable with the thing, cute as it was. Or, I assumed that it had the potential to be cute, if it was cleaned and possibly fumigated. Right now, it looked like it came from a dumpster.
“I love you already,” he whispered in the kitten’s ear. “You’re the best kitty. Don’t be scared, little baby. I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you.”
I shuffled. I could already tell where this was headed, and I didn’t like it one bit. I could feel Nina studying me.
“Dad?” Noah asked.
“Yeah?”
He stroked the squirming little thing, and it seemed to calm the kitten. It crawled up the front of his shirt and nestled below his chin.
My son looked up at me with an expression that almost knocked me backward.
Fear, hope, confusion as he clutched the now drowsy kitten.
“Can I keep her?”