Undercurrent

“Is he?” Kat murmured, resistant to the turn in conversation. Alice clearly had an agenda that included finding a woman for her grandson, and Kat didn’t want to encourage her. She’d learned at a young age to take care of herself, and she’d done it well until Max had come along with his charming words and pretty promises. She’d let herself start dreaming then. What a mistake that had been.

“Oh, yes. He likes rules and quiet and order.” She said it as if it was a bad word, and Kat laughed.

“I like those things, too,” she admitted.

Alice smiled. “But Sammy, he’s got an edge to him, too. His mom calls him her adrenaline junky.”

“I guess that explains the Secret Service job.”

“Yes. And he even looks the part,” she said slyly. “Quite a good-looking young man, isn’t he?”

Kat laughed again, heat flushing her cheeks. Good-looking wasn’t the right term. Devastating. Yes, that was the one. And Kat had experienced enough devastation for one year. For a lifetime, really. “Very, and you’re quite the matchmaker, aren’t you?”

“Guilty as charged.” Alice smiled. “I can’t help myself. After nearly fifty years with the love of my life, I’m always eager to see others find their perfect match.”

“Nothing is perfect in this life,” Kat responded, pushing back the image of Max as it rose in her mind. If he wasn’t happy, he should have broken off their relationship. Instead, he got involved with another woman. While Kat was in the hospital. She didn’t want him back, but the betrayal still burned.

“You’re right, but there are some things that come very close. This moment, for one.” Alice gestured to the broad expanse of dark ocean. “The soft sound of waves lapping against the ship. The dark swirl of clouds filling the night sky. Is that not close to perfect?”

Kat was cold, the sky looked dreary, and the clouds seemed a little foreboding. “I think your Frank wasn’t the only one in the family with an artistic soul.”

“You’re right about that, dear. Maybe that’s why we had such a wonderful marriage.”

Someone knocked on the door before Kat could ask more questions about Alice and her husband, about the family that seemed almost too good to be true. For a while, her own family had seemed that way, too...but she’d learned that most things that were too good to be true simply didn’t last.

“Sit tight, Kat,” Alice said as she stood. “You’ve been through a big scare. And it does these bones good to move around.”

“I’m ready to go inside anyway,” Kat said, following behind as Alice answered the door.

“I have a keycard for Kathryn Brooks.” Johann stood just outside the door, blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, a tight smile on his angular face. “May I do anything else for you ladies this evening?”

“Not unless you can break us out of this joint.”

Kat laughed behind Alice, but Johann cocked his head, the joke lost in translation.

“Just a little joke,” Alice said. “Actually, would it be too much trouble to get some tea brought up?”

Johann nodded and quickly headed back down the hall.

“I’m sure the cabin stewards are getting a run for their money right now with everyone trapped in their rooms,” Alice said as she handed Kat her key. “Now, you go on down to your room and take that shower you’ve been waiting on.”

Kat hesitated. As desperate as she was to get into her room, Sam wasn’t back yet. “I told Sam I’d stay—”

“Actually, you didn’t. You said you’d stay while you waited for your key. You did. Now, go on to your room, clean up and come back to share some tea with me. I guess my Red Hat friends are stuck in their rooms, too, and I get lonely without company.”

Next thing Kat knew, she was out in the corridor, her keycard in hand, not quite sure how she’d gotten there. She considered knocking on Alice’s door, but she was just relieved and more than ready to change out of the smoky, wet clothes.

The hall was silent and empty, unusual and eerie for eight in the evening on a cruise ship. She hurried along the teal carpet, unsettled by the quiet. She almost turned back. Everyone else was following the captain’s instructions to stay in their rooms. Except her. But the promise of a hot shower was too enticing to pass up. She ignored the unnatural silence, the hairs rising at the nape of her neck. What had happened down in the atrium had been a freak accident, she was sure, and she wouldn’t let it throw her into an anxiety attack.

Maybe cruising hadn’t been the best idea, so soon after so much trauma. But the stint had seemed to come at the perfect time. She had needed desperately to get away. To find some solace. To regroup.

The hall seemed longer than it had been earlier. And much emptier. Yet she had a haunting feeling she wasn’t alone.

She glanced behind her. No one there. She quickened her steps, the quiet settling around her, eerie and thick. She looked back again. Hunted. That was how she felt, but she shook the thought away. She’d almost been killed a few hours ago, and she was probably still shaken from that.

Trust your instincts.

Wasn’t that what every police officer who taught women’s safety classes said? Go with your gut. Listen to your instincts. When you think you’re in danger, don’t second-guess yourself.

She shivered, quickening her pace even more, anxious to get to her cabin. Almost there. When she finally reached her door, Kat moved to swipe her keycard. But she sensed movement to her right. She peered down the hallway to where it darkened and veered left. Empty and quiet and lonely.

And then a shadowy figure emerged and sharp terror washed over her. She couldn’t see his eyes behind the dark glasses he wore and the black cap he’d pulled low. But there was no mistaking his stride was aimed at her.