Page 11 of Baby for the Bratva

6

Stella

Day one and someone has already died. That doesn’t bode well at all.

I slip out into the hallway, watching as a man is carried away on a stretcher in such a hurry that the medics are almost sprinting. Whispers are running down the hall, rumors of how it happened.

A heart attack?

No, someone swears they heard a gunshot.

I sniff the air, and maybe it’s my imagination, but it does smell a bit like smoke in here.

Two hours after drinking, and I’m already sober. Adrenaline pumps through me, and I feel awake and alert again. More people are coming out into the hallway, whispering to each other and asking questions.

Who was it that got shot? Was it really a gunshot? How did they get a gun through security?

I look over to room B676, one number away from the devil, but Yuri doesn’t come out. He doesn’t appear to be around right now, which might be a good thing. He stresses me out. Not really his fault, but it’s still the truth.

“You hear what happened?” A woman’s voice just to my right startles me, and I nearly scream.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” she says as I turn to her.

I put my hand over my heart, letting out a sigh. “Sorry, no, I should be apologizing. It’s just a bit scary.”

She nods, pushing a strand of curly ginger hair behind her ear. She has so much of it, piled up on her head like a messy basket of yarn, but it suits her face. There’s a wildness in her green eyes, and a sharpness to her smirk.

“I didn’t really hear anything,” I lie, not wanting to bring up the gunshot and perpetuate a rumor.

“Someone died,” she says, her pupils expanding as she leans in. I can smell the faintest scent of mint and eucalyptus on her. “Murdered, actually. That’s what I heard.”

“Murdered?” I ask, fearing the gunshot story to be true.

“Yes, and you might notice that nobody has been arrested yet,” she says, an edge of excitement in her voice. “Which means we have a killer on board. A proper murder mystery.”

A nervous laugh escapes my mouth. “I think the cruise is excitement enough already.”

“Pretty boring until now, if you ask me,” she replies, looking at her long baby blue fingernails. “Sometimes you get a fight on the first day, and occasionally, someone fucks someone else’s wife.”

“With a few thousand on board, I would expect a little drama, but nothing like this,” I reply, leaning back against my door.

“Yeah, I’ll admit I’ve never been on a cruise where someone was brutally murdered,” she says, her voice dead serious, without a hint of remorse or even amusement.

I give her a confused look. “How do you know all this?”

She smirks. “Fucked one of the security guys this afternoon. He was a little shy, but I like them better that way. I texted him immediately when I heard the shots.”

“You heard them?” I ask, leaning in. “You’re sure someone was actually shot?”

“Oh yeah, for sure. Like I said, he wasn’t just murdered. It was brutal. They shot him at least a dozen times.”

I cringe. “Who would do something like that? I mean, aren’t their cameras, like, everywhere?”

“Probably fucked someone’s wife,” she mutters, and I can’t tell if she’s being serious. I’ve been meeting the strangest people on this cruise, and she’s certainly one of them.

She looks down at her feet for a moment, and I consider going back into my room, but then she turns to me, extending her hand. “I’m Molly, by the way.”

“Stella,” I reply, shaking her hand.

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