Hold Fast - Part Five
This episode is part of a larger story, Soft Touch. If you haven’t yet, you can go back and read it from the beginning right here.
I was right to think that the circle of cabins would look much more cheerful if there was only something going on here. Robin’s lantern casts a warm, jolly glow over the picnic tables at the center. Really transforming the atmosphere within its little circle of light. It looks like there’s life here again, especially now that we’ve got some food and drinks set out on the table we chose.
I pause in the middle of getting my phone linked up with my portable speakers, noticing something about Aiden’s outfit that I missed before.
“That’s not your normal watch, is it, babe? This one glows.”
“Yeah, Leo said I should borrow his Luminox for the trip.” Aiden glances down at the soft blue and yellow light emanating from the watch face. “Good thing, too, or my watch would’ve been ruined. This one’s a dive watch.”
I turn back to my phone before he can catch me smiling. Lately I’ve noticed Aiden coming back from visits to his aunt’s house with a lot of sentences that start with Leo said and Leo gave me and Leo and I were talking about… and it quietly makes me happy every time. I know Aiden has never wished that his dad had stuck around, and I totally get why. But I’m glad to see him getting a little of what he missed out on. From my dad, and now from Leo, too.
Maggie, on the other hand, needs to be gotten away from her father. For at least a few minutes, so she can tell us what the hell is going on around here. And the first step is to let her know that she’s not alone here with him, like she thinks.
Aiden sets out the ingredients he brought with him. Robin cracks two beers. I link my phone up with the speakers.
“Are we ready?” Aiden glances at Bruce’s cabin, then gives Robin a warning look. “Remember you can’t lose your cool on him, Captain.”
“I’m just not gonna say anything, then,” she says, with careful composure. “I won’t lose my patience.”
“Yeah, we’ll see,” I laugh, accepting one of the beers from her. “Well, let’s make this count.”
I hit play on one of Noah’s playlists, then turn the volume up to a level he would approve of, shattering the misty silence hanging over the campground. Aiden lights the campfire he built in the little pit, lets it blaze up high. The flames flicker and snap brightly, tossing sparks into the air. Before there was only the glow of our tiny lantern and one light in the window of Bruce’s living room. The moon and stars are hidden by lingering clouds, so the nighttime shadows are deep. Our campfire flares up like a signaling beacon in that darkness. Right at the center of all the cabins.
Bruce immediately appears in his window. Going from his expression, he’d be just as outraged if we’d just launched an actual siege on his house. The door is flung open, and he comes rushing outside, cringing and glancing over his shoulder at the upstairs windows.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he hisses, seething with rage as he stops before us.
“We’re making cinnamon roll-ups.” Aiden calmly continues wrapping tinfoil over the ends of our roasting sticks. “Do you want one? It’s easy, I’ll show you. Just wrap the crescent roll dough around the stick, dip it in the sugar and cinnamon, then toast it over the-”
“No, I don’t want a cinnamon roll!” Bruce snaps.
“Oh,” Aiden says, as if faintly puzzled by the reaction. “Then does your daughter want one? We still haven’t gotten to meet her yet. You should tell her to come down.”
“You do not want that,” Bruce answers through gritted teeth. “I promise you. Now I want you to turn off this music before she – just turn it off! It’s – it’s against the campground rules!”
This prompts Aiden to start asking a lot of very detailed questions about the campground rules, not picking up the speed of his naturally slow-spoken voice for Bruce at all, the way he does for everyone else. Evidently he’d like to know who wrote the rules, and if that sign is still up to date, and whether Bruce doesn’t agree that maybe if there was a light over the sign, it might be easier to read?
All the while the music goes on playing, and Aiden goes on preparing our cinnamon roll-ups to be toasted, and the campfire burns brightly. I shift slightly until I’m behind Aiden, then steal a glance at the keeper’s cabin.
A light just turned on upstairs. Then quickly turned back off again, as if someone up there doesn’t want anyone to know she’s awake.
Yes, I think hopefully, watching the windows. Come on, Maggie.
“I don’t see why any of this matters!” Bruce snaps, cutting Aiden off in the middle of a pointless question about what sort of music people normally play around here. “You’re – disturbing the peace of the campground, and I won’t have it! The other campers-”
“There are no other campers,” Robin dryly points out.
“Well, me ‘n my daughter live here!” Bruce hisses, still trying to keep his voice at a volume that won’t wake up Maggie.
I think it’s too late for that. I just saw one of the curtains in the upstairs window twitch aside.
There’s someone peeking out through the glass, keeping to the shadows. I can make out her silhouette with the help of my Vision, but it’s made vague by her cascade of long, dark, wavy hair.
All I can see clearly is a pair of big, bright eyes. They grow very wide with surprise when they catch sight of us. From that alone I can tell that Robin was right. Bruce didn’t tell Maggie that there were new arrivals at the campground. I’d guess that he actually went out of his way to make sure she didn’t find out.
She leans closer to the window, a wing of hair falling forward along the side of her cheek. She’s looking at me, I think.
I keep my face turned aside, pretending to listen to the conversation until Maggie’s gaze leaves me and travels to Aiden. It lingers there, then goes to Robin, who – despite all assurances to the contrary – is clearly starting to run out of patience with Bruce, and itching to say something.
Maggie’s eyes come back to me. This time I let them meet and lock with mine.
I give her a small, friendly smile. Using Aiden as cover from Bruce, I spread one hand in a tentative wave.
The eyes in the window blink in surprise, then narrow, staring intently down at me. Suddenly I remember what Kendrick said, about how Maggie seemed to scope them all out before she decided Kaden was safe to confide in. Now I see what he meant by that. I have the distinct impression of being carefully and thoughtfully regarded, by a very shrewd, discerning gaze.
I look meaningfully at Bruce, then pull an agonized face at Maggie, trying to communicate my feelings about what it’s like to talk to him. The silhouette in the window shakes with silent laughter.
All of a sudden that gaze grows warm and approving. I don’t know how, but – it’s instantly understood between the two of us that we’re friends now.
“Alright, I’ve had enough!” Bruce snaps, wrenching my attention back to him.
He goes to our speakers, stabs a finger at the off button, and glances up at the upstairs windows of the cabin. My heart freezes anxiously, but – Maggie swiftly draws back from the window, just in time to avoid being seen.
Still, Bruce is so angry that his face is starting to turn purple, and his voice is rising in volume.
“You’re the worst guests this campground has ever seen!” he spits, turning back to us. “And now I’m telling you to get back to your-”
“Just because we offered you a cinnamon roll-up?” Aiden asks innocently. “Is this really all because we might wake up your daughter? I feel like she’s probably still up anyways, if she’s sixteen. It’s not that late, is it?”
“At this rate you’re gonna wake her up yourself,” Robin points out.
“You-”
Bruce cuts himself off sharply, realizing all at once the volume his voice has climbed to. He pauses for a second, then swallows hard. He lets out a laugh, tries for a smile. It looks oddly harsh, even in the glow of the campfire.
“The truth is…” he begins, in a poor attempt at a confiding tone, “My girl, she’s – well, like I said, she’s got the devil in her. Got it from her mother, she was the same way. Runs in the blood, I suppose. She likes to act like she deserves the princess treatment, but she’s not well in her head. It’s not just the bossiness and the attitude. She’s violent, if you get her wrath turned on you. And there’s the little matter of the fires she likes to start. I’m keeping you away for your own protection, is what I’m saying. That’s why we live all the way out here. It was a hard choice, moving here to keep her where she can’t harm anyone. But if I kept her around in public, the state would probably want her committed. So I decided to make the sacrifice. For her.”
If this little speech was to try and convince us that Bruce is a caring father, it couldn’t have been more miscalculated. Aiden’s innocent, blank expression has gone markedly dark, and Robin is holding her beer so tightly that I think the neck of the bottle is going to shatter. Even I’m having trouble not glaring at Bruce.
“So if you talked to those boys that were here before,” he goes on, still with the same cloying, false friendliness, “I’d tell you not to buy into that display of hysterics she put on for their benefit. Like I said, the truth is that she’s violent-”
“I think I could handle myself against a sixteen-year-old,” Aiden cuts in flatly.
“You don’t know what a vicious little vixen I have on my hands,” Bruce says, with an icy, unpleasant smile. “Two seconds around her and you’d see what I mean.”
I suppose we have no way to know if that’s true, since we haven’t met Maggie. But other people have.
Will said that she paced around like a lioness, that she seemed angry. I don’t blame her for that at all, and obviously Will didn’t find it too off-putting, either. He was still concerned about her, checked on her again before he went home. Kendrick and Xavier seemed mostly amused by her, then troubled by the way her dad treated her. And Kaden – well, I think I know how Kaden feels.
He tried to play it cool, but I saw the heat-glow in his cheeks when he talked about her. The starry expression that came into his eyes. He was giving serious consideration to braving Bruce and his shotgun in an effort to get Maggie’s message before he left. He had to be dragged away by Kendrick. He said himself that if Maggie hadn’t waved him off he would have gone to her rescue when Bruce dragged her away in the first place. Now that I think about it, Maggie and Kaden both had to be dragged away from each other, on separate occasions.
He was pretty much ready to risk death by shotgun for her. After knowing her for about half an hour. I know from experience that it doesn’t take much for a seventeen-year-old boy to tumble headfirst into sudden love, but still, that’s fast. It’s also inexplicable, if Maggie is anything like what Bruce is describing.
“I don’t see anything wrong with a sixteen-year-old girl wanting to be treated like a princess,” Robin tells Bruce, through gritted teeth. “Sounds healthy, in fact.”
He lets out a harsh laugh.
“It’s beyond what you’re thinking. It’s delusional, the high and mighty way she-” Bruce stops, then goes on quickly, like a good idea just occurred to him. “Yeah, she – she’s delusional, that’s what it is! She imagines things. You can’t believe anything that confused child tells you, even if it seems like she believes it.”
“Is that so?” Aiden asks, his deep voice as stiff as it gets, his blue eyes very frosty.
“That’s so.” Bruce lets out a sigh, shaking his head like it’s a shame. “It’s a sad business, but that’s the fact. Thankfully she has me, and I know what’s best for her. That’s why you three need to learn some respect and follow the campground rules. So do what I say, leave the music off, and go back to your boat.”
He turns away and strides back to his cabin, where he disappears inside. Just in time, I think, or Robin would definitely have started shouting. She turns around slowly to face me and Aiden, the perfect picture of fury. Both of us draw back in alarm when we catch the look on her face.
“Okay, yes, and I agree,” I say hastily, laying a soothing hand on her arm. “But good news, though! The plan worked! Maggie knows we’re here. I saw her in the window.”
Aiden closes his eyes in relief, then hastily opens them again as Bruce leans back out of his cabin.
“Have you decided how long you’re staying?” he calls to us, unable to disguise the unfriendly gleam in his eyes.
Robin’s fuming glare suddenly falls away. Replaced with a bright smile, as if she just thought of the perfect thing to say to him.
“Probably a month or two,” she answers sweetly. “We really like it here. Decided it should be an extended vacation.”
All the color drains out of Bruce’s face. He stares at Robin in ashen silence for a second, then silently disappears into the cabin again.
Robin turns back to us, smirking with satisfaction, then steals a quick look up at Maggie’s window.
“This poor kid,” she says softly, shaking her head. “Maybe we should just sneak her out. I’ll admit I’m sorely tempted, especially if everything Bruce said was true. I love a girl with some fury fire in her.”
“Oh, yeah?” I laugh, caught by surprise. “That doesn’t sound at all like the girl you chose for yourself.”
“No, definitely not. Faith is an angel.” Robin gives me a small, sidelong smile. “But the fury fire girls make good sailors.”
I think that must be true. Robin has a great deal of that fire herself, although it only comes out when provoked.
“Well, let’s hope Maggie finds her way out to us.” Aiden flashes a dark glare in Bruce’s rough direction. “Otherwise I don’t care, we’re going in to get her.”
“Yes!” I agree earnestly, relieved to hear him say it. “We’ll – just have to think of a good story to explain why we randomly abducted a juvenile. I’m sure we can do that, right?”
“Oh, sure,” Robin laughs helplessly, then pulls her phone out of her pocket as it starts buzzing. “Gimme a sec, I’m gonna take this while I have reception. It’s Bhavini.”
“No problem.” Aiden catches my wrist, pulling me away. “We’ll be right back.”
“What are we doing?” I whisper.
“I just noticed that Bruce is on the phone again, so we’re gonna eavesdrop.” Aiden is leading me into the shadowy trees at the edge of the circle of cabins, keeping low. “Before you tell me that’s rude, Keane, I’d like to remind you that he didn’t exactly have permission to search our boat.”
“Hey, no,” I whisper back, putting my hands up in instant surrender. “If it’ll help us track down Faith or talk to Maggie, I’m in.”
“Good,” Aiden murmurs. “Because one heated phone call could be anything, but two in one night makes me wonder who he’s talking to.”
We steal quietly up to the keeper’s cabin, approaching from the side. I crouch down with Aiden between Bruce’s covered truck and the wall, where there’s a window with the curtains pulled shut. They’re thin, gauzy curtains, though. I can make out Bruce’s shadowy outline right through them as he paces around his living room.
“There he is,” I whisper, then tilt my head to the side inquiringly when Aiden looks surprised.
“Can you see him, Keane? Through the curtains?”
I draw back, startled.
“No, just his silhouette, but-” I hesitate, then just blurt out what I’ve been wondering about. “Aiden, I think when you used your magic to touch my Vision a while ago, the first time you accidentally gave me true sight – maybe you upgraded my Vision, just in general…? Left it with extra magic, or something? Because before it was strictly for seeing ghosts, but now I swear it reacts to the environment when it’s all charged up. I was the only one who could see Maggie in the window, and I can see better in the dark, and through the rain…”
“Oh, that’s cool,” he says brightly, like it’s no big deal and not once again a seriously impressive piece of magic he did completely by accident. “Although right now we need to hear, not see. Maybe there’s some magic I can-?”
He quickly shuts up as Bruce solves the problem himself by stopping just inside of the window, speaking heatedly into his phone.
“-don’t get to tell me to stop calling you,” he’s hissing, sounding furious. “This is all your fault… Working on it, my ass! You need to get back here and clean this up… okay, so what’s taking so goddamn long? You said… of course I did, she’s my daughter, you think I can’t keep her under control? But what do you want me to do, I can’t keep her locked up there forever! Those people are saying they might be here for two fucking months! Just buy the goddamn thing, then get back here, and then it won’t matter anymore! At this point I’d come there and take care of it myself if I could! But I fucking can’t, so get your shit together!”
I see my own confusion and mounting suspicion reflected back at me in Aiden’s eyes. What the hell is Bruce talking about? First he said he moved out here to keep Maggie away from bad influences, then he told us he moved her here because she’s basically a danger to society, and now… now I think neither explanation is true at all.
I have no idea what the actual truth is, though. We won’t be finding out from Bruce, because he goes pacing back to the far end of the living room, after which we hear his footsteps going up the stairs.
“The fuck was that about?” I whisper to Aiden, following him back towards the campfire. “What is this guy doing here?”
“I don’t know,” Aiden whispers back. “But I find it alarming that Ralph recognizes him from somewhere.”
I agree, but as that’s not exactly an uplifting sentiment I decide to keep it to myself.
Robin is sitting on one of the picnic tables, fidgeting with her braid as she talks to Bhavini. She sees us coming and waves us over, putting her phone on speaker when we get to her.
“One more thing, Bhavini. Did our boys reach you alright?”
“Oh, yes! We’ve got Christian and Demir tucked into a soft corner of the inn while they heal up. Their cousins and friend are hanging around to keep them company, not that they need it. They’ve been getting a constant stream of visitors from the bar who want to hear about their brush with the Siren. Mama finally put her foot down and made their room off-limits. They’re getting some sleep now.”
Robin laughs softly, relieved. “Good.”
“Christian’s dad came to see them. He offered to take them home, but they told him they want to stay. Kendrick and the others took a room, too.”
“Really?” Robin lifts her eyebrows in surprise. “Why’d they do that?”
“Is that Robin?” someone asks from Bhavini’s end of the call. “Can we talk to her?”
The phone is handed over, and Kendrick’s voice comes through it.
“Hey, Captain! We just want to thank you and your friends again for helping us out. Y’all really played down how much you did, but… we know. And we appreciate it.”
“It’s all good,” Robin tells him warmly. “You just tell Christian to stick to boats that don’t have sails. He’s better with those.”
“Fair enough,” Kendrick laughs, then quickly grows serious. “But hey, we remembered you said you’re looking for a missing person, and we interrogated Bhavini here until we got the story. Now that we know what’s going on, we feel pretty bad that we took time out of your search, so, um – we thought we’d stay here at the harbor, right? In case you need any help from afar. We can serve as – basecamp, I guess. And we can dispatch backup if you need it. The backup will be us, in case that wasn’t clear.”
Robin’s expression softens, and she breathes out a soft laugh.
“You boys are very sweet,” she answers quietly.
“What we are is grateful that the only thing we lost on this trip was a tent stake,” Kendrick says firmly.
“Yeah, and we don’t mind staying at the inn for the rest of our vacation anyways,” Xavier assures us. “We don’t normally camp? And now we’re realizing that maybe we’re much better at like, staying at a nice inn, where the drinks are really good and so is the food.”
“No shortage of entertainment, either,” Kendrick comments. “Just a few minutes ago we saw a dock manager chase two guys all the way down one of the piers, shouting at the top of his lungs about trespassing. One of those guys ran straight across somebody’s yacht to get away. It was chaos.”
I drop my face into my hands, and Aiden lets out a despairing sigh.
“Did they get away?” he asks weakly.
“Mhm, and got a cheer from the very entertained people at the nearest outdoor bar as they fled,” Xavier laughs. “Including us.”
“Well, that’s – something,” I say encouragingly, catching Aiden’s eye. “They got a cheer!”
“My god,” Aiden groans, sitting down on the picnic table in defeat.
Robin is looking at us in confusion, but she drops her gaze back to her phone as Kaden’s soft voice joins the others.
“Was that Jamie? Is he there? Can you ask him if he got a chance to talk to Maggie?”
“We haven’t yet.” I lean closer to the phone, lowering my volume. “I’m sorry! But we’re working on it right now.”
Robin glances at Bruce’s cabin, then starts edging her way back from it, drawing the phone call to where it’s more definitively out of his range of hearing. Aiden and I follow, so we end up traveling in a slow, awkward huddle as we talk.
“Oh,” Kaden is saying, a little disheartened. “No, it’s okay. It’s just that I’m here in Port Sitka now, so if you can get that message, I can give it to whoever she wants. Have you seen her? Does she seem alright?”
“I did see her, and she is alright,” I assure him, hearing the worry in his voice. And then, thinking about what Bruce said – “What’s Maggie like, Kaden? How did you feel about her?”
“She’s… I – sorry, what do you mean?” I can almost hear him blushing. “More specifically?”
“Did it seem like she was in a clear state of mind? Or was she behaving weirdly?”
“I mean… she’s definitely strange.” Kaden’s supposedly casual voice doesn’t at all disguise how smitten he is. Not one bit. “I’ve never met anyone like her before. But yeah, she was in a clear state of mind. To me she seemed sharp as a knife, like, she made me super nervous ‘cause of it, if I’m being honest… Why?”
Because Bruce tried to convince us that she’s so delusional we shouldn’t believe anything she says, I nearly answer. Mercifully I realize just in time what level of reaction that would probably draw from Kaden, and decide to keep it to myself.
“Just wanted to confirm something, and now we have! The point is, don’t worry. We’re about to eat some cinnamon roll-ups and head back to the boat for the night, but we’re hoping that Maggie will come find us tomorrow.”
“Okay,” Kaden says anxiously. “Well, if you need anything, or if there’s something I can do from here…”
“We’ll let you know,” Aiden promises. “For now we just need to wait. We’re trusting Maggie to sneak herself out of the cabin.”
“Oh,” Kaden laughs quietly, “I’m sure she can do that. Like I said, sharp as a knife.”
~~~~
When Robin walks up the little set of steps along the side of Moondancer’s deck, I can see her seaboots go past through the narrow window of our cabin. Another random little discovery about this boat, which I seem to be making all the time. I feel more and more fond of Moondancer with each night we spend here, although the hammock that lets me sleep beside Aiden is certainly a factor. I might feel differently if I was relegated to my bunk.
The bunk is nice to stretch out on before bed, though. Aiden is waiting until Robin goes to bed to make our hammock, and she’s currently on the foredeck doing some maintenance before she turns off the boat lights. As I know thanks to my tiny window. Through it I can see the moonlit dancing of the water, and hear the soft music of the crickets.
I’m not really reading, although I have my book open in front of me. I’m too exhausted from the very full day we had. Thank god for the nap we all took, but what I really need is a full night of sleep.
I close my book, then lower a hand over the side of my bunk in Aiden’s rough direction. His fingers come up to softly tangle with mine.
“Hey, Callahan…” I murmur drowsily. “Should I bother texting Ripley and telling him not to participate in any Sea-Doo thefts?”
“Sure, go ahead,” Aiden yawns. “If you want to accomplish nothing, and receive a texted wisecrack as your reward.”
“True,” I laugh tiredly. “God, what a day this has been… but at least Noah didn’t get arrested.”
“I’ve said that exact sentence before,” Aiden grumbles. “On a number of occasions.”
I breathe out another soft laugh, toying with Aiden’s fingers, then lean over my bunk to look at him. “That reminds me, did Noah tell you his sister is coming back to Ketterbridge soon?”
“Yeah, he mentioned it. He actually sounded kind of nervous. Guess he and Noelle only saw each other at his wedding before she went back to France, so I don’t think they’ve gotten too much time to actually catch up in person. Maybe he’s stressed ‘cause he still owes her some apologies.”
His blue eyes turn sheepish and guilty, and he adds - “Ralph and I definitely owe her at least one. The amount of times we had Noah ‘borrow’ her car in high school alone…”
I shake my head at him admonishingly. “How did she never catch you goons stealing her ride?”
“Trick is to push and roll it down the driveway to the road without turning the engine on, so nobody hears it and wakes up.”
“Oh, my god.” I let out a helpless laugh, pinching his wrist in gentle reprimand. “I’ll try to make a good case for her to forgive you. At least I’m starting with a clean slate. I only got to chat with her for a few minutes at the wedding, and we were both pretty fucked up. As I recall she very carefully took a tortilla chip out of the bowl on the snack table and put it in my shirt pocket.”
Aiden lets out a startled laugh. “What? Why?”
“She didn’t explain. But she was all giggles later when Noah smacked my chest while he was saying something, and it crunched loudly, and he looked like he thought he’d broken all of my bones.”
Aiden lets out a snicker of laughter, running his fingers up my wrist. “It’s been a long time since high school, but from what I remember, Noelle is, um… really fun, so long as you catch her in a fun mood.”
This is a mystifying comment. I gaze down at Aiden curiously, but Robin leans into our room before I can ask what he means by that.
“I feel stupid having to ask,” she sighs, “But will one of you put the cooler in front of my door so I don’t sleepwalk off the boat? Since apparently I’ve figured out how to unlock my cabin in my sleep.”
She looks very tired and very bewildered as she says it. Leaning heavily against the doorframe, her hands loosely clasped around her auburn braid.
“It’ll be okay, Robin,” I say gently, as Aiden stands up to get the cooler. “I know today was wild, and there’s still, um – a lot of stuff up in the air, but… we’ll figure this all out.”
I can say that earnestly. I believe in our little team, even if we’re all looking ragged at the moment.
Robin gives me a drowsy, appreciative little smile, then leads Aiden out into the passageway. By the time he comes back he looks so sleepy that I don’t even try saying anything. But I do roll over to fall directly into the hammock from the top bunk, letting out a gasp of delight at how fun it is. Smiling to myself when I hear the answering music of a soft, huffing laugh.
I snuggle up in Aiden’s arms, and in seconds, I’m out.
~~~~
It feels like I’ve only been asleep for a few minutes when I find myself waking up again. I slowly lift my head from Aiden’s chest, groaning inwardly at the thought that we already have to get up.
But – it’s still pitch black outside. Like it’s still the middle of the night. What even woke me up, come to think of it? Not Aiden, he’s still asleep.
The answer presents itself in the form of a burst of shouting from outside. Loud enough to wake Aiden up with a start. We stare at each other in alarmed, drowsy confusion for a second, then simultaneously scramble down from the hammock. It evaporates into thin air as Aiden wrenches open the door and darts out into the passageway.
We rush out onto Moondancer’s deck to find Robin standing there, looking like some goddess of anger in her pajamas, illuminated in the boat lights, her eyes blazing with fire. Her head is tilted back so she can glare up at Bruce, who’s standing on the dock with his flashlight aimed at her.
“-know she must be here!” he’s shouting, absolutely storming with rage.
“And I’m telling you for like the fifth time that she isn’t here!” Robin shouts back, then gestures sharply to me and Aiden as we come to stand with her. “We were all asleep until you showed up, as you can see!”
“She’s not at the cabins, and there’s nowhere else for her to go!”
“There’s a whole forest!” Robin says acidly. “And you better get to searching it, because she’s not on my boat!”
Bruce starts to take a step forward, like he’s going to get onto Moondancer and check for himself. Robin’s eyes flash dangerously, and Aiden steps out in front of her.
“She isn’t here, Bruce,” he says quietly, his deep voice dropping to an icy growl.
He doesn’t have to use his Aiden Callahan scariness too often these days, but he can still do it. Something in his blue eyes stops Bruce dead in his tracks. He stands there almost vibrating with fury, unsure of what to do.
“She really, honestly isn’t here,” I put in.
Bruce’s scowling expression grows even more sour than it was before. But he heard the threat in Aiden’s tone, and the honesty in mine. Without a word he turns around and lurches away, striding back down the dock. Starting to scan the beam of his flashlight over the trees.
The three of us on deck stand there to watch him go. I gingerly look at Robin to see if her eyes are still blazing with rage, then blink in surprise as she briskly heads for the door and slips back below decks. Aiden follows her, and I follow him automatically, looking one more time over my shoulder at Bruce. He’s disappeared into the path leading to the cabins. Is there some smoke hanging in the air from that direction, or am I imagining it?
“Robin,” I call softly, as she heads for her cabin. “This means that Maggie escaped!”
“I know,” Robin says, suddenly grinning.
She stops just inside her cabin, gesturing for me and Aiden to come in. We both do, then stop right where we are, staring in astonishment.
“Thank you for that, Captain,” Maggie says, sparkling with laughter, cross-legged on the bed with a lighter in her hands. “You were very convincing!”
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