Page 12 of Baby for the Bratva

“You here alone? On second thought… no… I saw you with someone earlier, I think. Big guy. Really attractive. Was that your husband?”

I feel an immediate pang of jealousy, not unlike the way I felt when I realized Tyler was cheating on me. I don’t want to lie, but I also don’t want Molly swooping in and stealing Yuri before I’ve even gotten the chance to decide what I want to do with him.

“We’re… talking,” I say with a lopsided grin. “Probably going to have a few drinks together later.”

She nods, not the least bit bothered. I don’t know if that’s intimidating or reassuring.

“Anyway,” I say, looking back down the hallway in the direction the medical team went. I’m eager to turn the conversation away from Yuri. “You think that guy was really dead?”

Molly raises her small eyebrows. “Oh, I know he was. Room B309. A guy named Yuri. Security guy told me all about it.”

My stomach drops harder than a bowling ball when I hear his name. I’m visibly stunned, and Molly frowns, taking a step back and frowning. “Everything cool, or…?”

I don’t know what to say. How many Yuris can there be on this ship? If he ended up in someone else’s room, maybe after too many drinks, and they shot him…

I think I’m going to be sick.

“I have to go. Sorry,” I blurt, keying into my room and slamming the door shut before she can follow me. I rush to the toilet, barely making it there before I empty the contents of my stomach — mostly booze and shrimp — into the bowl.

The sway of the boat, the adrenaline dump from the shooting, all that alcohol, and now… this?

I don’t think I want to continue this cruise.

Big mistake. Big fucking mistake.

I hear a knock on my door as I empty the rest of my stomach into the toilet. I know it’s Molly, but I’m not sure I want to let her in. I need to know if Yuri’s okay first, but maybe she can help me figure that out.

So, with my head still spinning and my stomach churning up more bile to vomit, I stumble to the door and open it for her, rushing back to the toilet to puke again a second later.

“I always get seasick too,” she says, standing in the bathroom doorway with a blank expression. “Sucks…”

“It certainly does,” I mumble, reaching for some toilet paper and cleaning off my mouth.

I feel like I’m in college again. I’m sure I drank away a few IQ points during those formative years. Maybe that’s how I ended up dating Tyler.

“It should go away from soon, though. Your body gets used to it,” Molly chirps, coming into the bathroom fully. She looks around as I attempt to stand up again. “Wow, you have a much bigger bathroom than me. I thought all the rooms were pretty much the same.”

I laugh through another wave of nausea. “Maybe you want to switch.”

“No, yours doesn’t have a TV for some reason. I’d be bummed,” she says.

I hadn’t noticed, but I’m taking a break from staring at pixels on a screen. I already do that enough at work, and getting a break from both my computer and phone for an entire month is a blessing I’m not going to ruin by sitting in front of the TV.

I check myself in the mirror while Molly scans the rest of my room. She’s a curious woman, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. She’s just a little different. There’s a charm to the way she acts, much like the charm that Yuri has. She doesn’t fit in with the rest of the world, and she doesn’t seem the least bit bothered by it.

Thinking about Yuri again reminds me that he could’ve been the one who got shot. I have to ask Molly about that. I can’t stand the idea of waiting and seeing if he ever returns to his room.

I join Molly in my room, where she’s looking around like she still can’t believe there’s not a TV. “I don’t want to be nosey, but this guy, the guy who got shot… You said his name was Yuri?” I ask.

“Yuri. Larry. Something like that,” she replies. “Why?”

“Um, just curious. I thought maybe I met him at some point.”

“It’s a small world.”

“Certainly is.”

She looks at me and smiles. “I guess you really don’t have a TV in your room. You can watch it in mine sometime if you want. They have a lot of shows and no commercials, and room service is fast. Well, it is for me, anyway. I already tested it.”

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