Jenna Rivers was tired of searching for Ronin Logan. It had been almost an hour since she lost sight of him, and now he was nowhere to be found. It was annoying, really, to keep tabs on him as if he were some two-year-old toddler who didn't know what he was doing. But she couldn't leave him alone either. They would kill her.
In fact, alone time had been exactly what she had been looking for since the day she returned. But Ronin had been playing not only deaf but blind, too, to all her advances. It was as if the boy she had grown up with, the one who was madly in love with her, didn't find her as desirable as he did once upon a time.
Perhaps that was the reason, she wanted to see it for herself, to see if her assumptions were right and not something her mind had made up out of jealousy for his ex-wife. Clearly, that would be I N S A N E. Ronin would never fall for the witch. Never.
Fortunately, she had run into Erik Logan a while ago, and he was much too kind to inform her that Ronin had gone down to his room to answer a call in quiet, away from all the loud music and commotion of the people on board. And hence she found herself standing outside his suite door, ready to knock and seduce the bloody hell out of him.
"Ronin? Hey, honey, it's me. Jenna. Open the door, please."
Two minutes passed, but no one answered the door. Jenna frowned and knocked twice more. "Ronin? Are you in there, darling?" She turned the knob, but nothing happened.
She frowned harder. "Did that Erik fucking Logan lie to me?" She muttered to herself, glaring at the door that was obviously locked. She shook her head and looked around. When an elderly couple walked out of their room and passed her, she smiled kindly at them, she smiled sweetly to them, brilliantly masking her annoyance. They returned her smile with nods of their heads. They were heading towards the elevator.
Jenna ran a hand through her hair and dialled his number one more time. It went to voicemail.
"Where in the freaking hell are you, Ronin?"
Jenna's shoulders stiffened when she heard someone gasp and bark out loud profanities. She had just halfway turned towards the elevator when two giant men slammed into her.
They growled at her, looking angry and in a rush.
Jenna gasped, determined to tell them off, but she didn't get the time to. The men had left before she could even steady herself against the wall.
Weird! She thought to herself.
"Oh, my sweet lord, kid, are you okay?"
Jenna's ears perked up, and she spun back to the voice, only to realize the elderly couple were hovering over someone in the elevator.
"Yes, yes," said the guy, wheezing and grabbing his side. "I'm all right. Thank…thank you."
Jenna could never mistake that voice for anybody else's.
She ran down the corridor, gently moved the elderly couple aside, and came face to face with Ronin Logan, who looked pale, befuddled, and completely dishevelled. He had a cut on the bottom lip and a bruise under his right eye. The suit he was wearing had creases that weren't there back when she had seen him on the deck a while ago.
"What the hell happened?" Then, she remembered those two giant men, and her jaw dropped open. "Did they do this to you?" She helped him leave the elevator, trying but failing to support his weight. It seemed like they had scored him badly. "Who were those men? Why would they do this to you? Ronin? What's happening?"
Ronin slumped against the wall, gasping for air, and tossed the keys to his room to Jenna.
"If only I knew." He scoffed, feeling the cut on his lip and wincing. "But they couldn't finish the job for sure."
"What do you mean didn't finish the job?" Jenna opened the door and watched as he dumped himself on the couch and took off his suit jacket, the side of his white shirt was soaked with blood.
He had been stabbed.
"What was the job?" She gasped, her eyes wide with dread.
"To kill me, of course," Ronin unbuttoned his shirt and tried to take a good look at how much damage had been done. He winced, a drop of sweat rolling off his cheek. "Wow, that looks nasty. They really did a number on me this time." He sighed, gazing up at Jenna and pointing at the bathroom. "I believe I noticed a first-aid kit in the cabinet. Can you get it for me?"
Jenna was too busy staring at the blood. But once she heard Ronin snap his fingers, she blinked back to reality.
"First aid kit. In the bathroom cabinet." Ronin said, stressing each word with a little force.
Jenna nodded hastily and dashed into the bathroom.
However, before getting the first aid kit, she made a brief stop at the sink and hurled her guts out.
* * *
[LATER THAT EVENING]
"Watch it!" The tipsy woman who had just slammed into Carmen's back snapped. "Can't you see, bitch?"
Well, not from the back of my skull....? Carmen thought before she took a step away from the voice and turned around, only to come face-to-face with the actual bitch of the century.
Jenna Rivers.
Of course, she is here. Just my luck!
Carmen frowned before scrunching up her nose at the amount of booze this woman was reeking of. "How much are you drunk?"
Jenna looked like she was about to puke, but instead of succumbing to the urge, she poked a finger in front of Carmen's face, wobbly on her feet. "You!" She hissed, slightly confused but mostly annoyed. "What the hell are you doing here? Didn't you get the memo? Bitches not allowed! Nope, not here, Carmen Price. You don't belong here. This place ain't for a whore like you."
Jenna's words should not have bothered Carmen. She'd grown accustomed to the back and forth of hurtful words. Jenna was almost expected to make a scene and make Carmen look like the real culprit. And, to be honest, it wouldn't have bothered her even now if it weren't for the situation they were in.
The atrium, which had been bustling and humming with music, gossip, and assorted conversations, had now fallen silent.
After she had agreed to stay for the three-day cruise, Simon had led her back to the party on the deck. He was still with her until a few minutes ago, when one of the guests swiped him away for a private conversation.
For obvious reasons, she missed having him by her side.
Carmen felt a sharp chill run down her spine as she looked around and noticed everyone's gaze on them, mostly on her, as Jenna kept pointing that damn finger in front of her face. It didn't help that her last few words were almost screeched, as if she deliberately wanted everyone to hear the way "whore" came out of her mouth.
Carmen swallowed, humiliation cutting like a knife at the back of her neck. Her first move was to grab Jenna's wrist and slap it away. "I'm going to be the bigger person and leave first because you're not in your right mind." She told Jenna, knowing that the only sophisticated solution was to avoid this spoiled, rich brat.
Besides, the fact that she was on a cruise was enough to make Carmen reconsider the whole vacation thing. Perhaps choosing to stay was a poor mistake. She should have known better than to think her life would be easier now that Ronin was not in it.
About halfway through the turn, Carmen felt something cold wrap around her upper arm.
"Where do you think you're going, huh? You think you can come and go whenever you please?" She yanked at Carmen's arm as she took another shaky step closer, being rude and helluva loud. Not to mention the assault of her bad breath. "Now I know the reason for his bad mood. It's you! You ruined everything. You always ruin everything. Not only that, but you're like a bad omen; wherever you go, bad things happen. Take a look at what happened to Ronin. My baby is hurt. And it's all because of you. You fucking witch!"
Carmen had no idea what the hell this woman was going on about. She squirmed to free herself, trying to break free. "Let me go, Jenna," she warned her, frowning. "And go, get some rest. You look like hell."
Jenna did look like hell. Her hair was a nest, and her dress was wrinkled. Not to mention her eye makeup was leaking down her cheeks, as if she had cried for hours. For a brief moment, Carmen even felt bad for her, wondering what had led her to look like she had just walked out of a rave.
But then Jenna's eyes zeroed in on something around Carmen's neck, and she lunged at her, wrapping her fingers around the thin gold chain and whipping it away from her.
Any sympathy that Carmen felt for Jenna was shattered at that point.
The clasp broke, and while the chain stayed in Jenna's hand, the pendant fell to the ground and hid out of sight.
Carmen reached for her bare neck, anxious, and when she couldn't feel the chain, her eyes widened and anger bubbled inside her. Her jaw tightened.
Carmen slapped Jenna across the face without giving it a second thought.
It was probably instinct, because the minute it happened, and after a few more moments passed, huffing and glowering, she came to the realization of what she had done and winced, hard, horrified out of her freaking mind.
"Jenna..." she was saying when Jenna whipped her head around, her hair flying, her legs swaying, and her eyes brimming with rage.
Carmen lifted her hands as if she could still explain...
"I'm going to murder you!" Jenna charged at Carmen like a raging bull, and she was about to knock her down if it hadn't been for someone grabbing Carmen out of the way.
Jenna, on the other hand, couldn't stop once she started. She sprinted towards Carmen, head first, missing the hit, and went straight for the cohort of guests, who conveniently cleared the path until she rammed with the ship's railing and toppled over.
The splash of water was loud and clear, while gasps echoed throughout the deck.
"Holy crap!" someone in the crowd exclaimed.
"Did you see that?"
Oh, my goodness. Did she just...?"
"Fuck, man, this is going to be huge."
"Do you believe there are sharks in the water?"
"Help! Someone fell into the water! Help!"
Carmen was too paralyzed to react. While most of the people rushed over to the metal railing to see what happened to the drunk woman, she couldn't even breathe without breaking out in a sweat.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she heard the sirens going off and lifeguards pushing people away from the railings to prevent any further accidents.
Carmen suddenly felt too cold and started rubbing her arms, her eyes glued to the spot Jenna had fallen off from.
"Hey," someone said close to her ear, still holding her close and cupping her face with one hand. "Carmen, look at me."
She tried, but all she saw was a blurry face.
She whimpered.
Her face was suddenly pressed against someone's warm neck, and a pair of strong arms wrapped around her to keep her close. "Carmen, you're safe. Do you hear what I'm saying?"
She nodded, unable to speak due to an enormous lump in her throat.
"Come on, let me show you to your room."
"But Jenna...?" she asked, turning her head towards the spot Jenna had fallen off, blinking her tears away to see if she had come up.
She didn't.
"She'll be fine," said the same voice, and led her in the opposite direction of the accident. "Besides, she's probably safer down there." He grunted under his breath. "Because once she comes up, I'm about to teach her a lesson she will never forget."