Fatal Freeze. Michelle Karl
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grabbing pieces off the floor and throwing them at bemused passersby. Shaun and Lexie’s coffees sat abandoned on the edge of an empty table. Okay, maybe he wasn’t all bad. It had been nearly a decade since he’d callously dumped Nikki at the end of the trip. People could change, right?
Lexie sighed and turned her attention to the fading light through the window. Why did life have to be so complicated? Now was not the time or place for a walk down memory lane, despite Shaun’s earlier eagerness for it. Getting him out of her business had to be the first priority or she’d get nothing done. If she could ditch Mr. Wannabe Superhero and investigate the attack on her own, maybe she could shove away the memories of Nikki for a little while longer.
She jumped at a sudden touch on her shoulder, but relief flooded through her body when a paper coffee cup with her name scrawled on the side crossed her field of vision. She took it and placed her folder on the coffee table. One seat over, Shaun took a sip from his own cup while scanning the room. He had a quiet strength about him, an air of confidence that made her want to trust him—despite the lumberjack outfit and his two-day scruff. That was new. At nineteen, but he’d kept his appearance immaculate, despite working in a dusty village in rural Africa. Nikki had found it appealing. Lexie had found it pretentious and ignorant. Now, it gave him a rugged handsomeness that made Lexie shift uncomfortably in her seat.
A stray curl of light brown hair escaped from underneath his toque, and Lexie resisted a sudden urge to lean forward and brush it out of his eyes. Shame blossomed in her belly. How could she even think that way, after how he’d hurt her sister? Heat stung her eyes, and Lexie blinked away another rising tide of memories and guilt. She needed to refocus on the job she’d come here to do. Her fingers tightened on the coffee cup, and she savored the sensation of fresh, hot coffee dancing across her tongue, heating her up from the inside. She held on to that, pulling her attention away from Shaun’s searching gaze.
A few minutes later, two blue-uniformed ferry employees entered the lounge and scanned the room as though looking for someone. Before Lexie made the mental connection, Shaun had crossed the distance and ushered them out of the lounge and into the hallway. Security personnel! She tried to sit upright and push herself out of the chair, but her limbs felt heavy. She blinked, trying to clear a growing haze in her vision. The sounds around her grew muffled. Wasn’t the coffee supposed to keep her—
“Lexie?”
Lexie’s eyes fluttered open. She jerked up in her seat and stared at Shaun, whose look of concern had turned into a satisfied smirk. “What happened? I was about to follow you, but—”
“Need another coffee?” Shaun ran his fingers through his mop of hair, toque nowhere to be seen. “Though we should probably get you to your bunk. You can’t sleep here overnight.”
“It’s not like I planned to do so.” Had she been more tired than she’d realized? Lexie yawned and lifted her coffee cup from where she’d rested it between her hip and the chair. She raised the cup to take a sip, but set it down again in disappointment when no warmth radiated through the lid. A fresh cup would be nice, but she’d already accepted too much charity from someone who might as well be a stranger. Eight years was a long time. “It’s okay, thanks. I want to do a little more thinking before I turn in for the night. And talk to security on my own. I can’t believe you talked to them without me.”
The smirk slipped, and he rubbed a hand across his jaw. “I thought you were following me to talk with them, honest. When I looked back and saw you weren’t with us, I figured you’d changed your mind about letting me do the talking.”
“I didn’t plan to fall asleep. It was sudden. I just blacked out.”
Shaun frowned. “Can I see your cup?” She handed it to him and he sniffed the contents. “No strange smell. You sure you’re not just exhausted from what happened downstairs?”
“I wish you’d stop acting like I’m incapable of rational thought. You’re the one who left the cups unattended while you cleaned up a toy spill. Maybe...maybe I was drugged. My name is on the cup here, plain as day.”
“You’re right.” He rubbed his hand across his face. “But why would someone drug your coffee, Lexie?”
She rested her head against the back of her seat. “I don’t know. It sounds crazy. And why me? I should call the police.”
Shaun pulled a phone out of his pocket and waved it at her. “The reception out here is terrible, and I’ve already talked to security. But if you’re determined, I know exactly where the police station is in Argentia. I can show you the way once we dock.”
She scowled at him, considering his offer. If he’d already talked to security, what good would her statement do? “Won’t that be too late? The guy will have escaped by then.”
“For all we know, he might have already jumped ship. But we’d cast off when I found you on the parking deck, and no one can survive more than a minute or two in ocean waters at these winter temperatures. Tell you what, we’ll call the police station as soon as we get cell service back. Deal?”
It sounded reasonable. That way the ship could be locked down and searched before anyone disembarked. “Deal.”
Shaun nodded and locked his fingers together, stretching his arms in front of him. “All right. Let’s have a look at the folder, then. Maybe that contains some clues about why someone would go to the trouble of making sure you’d be asleep for a few minutes.”
Lexie glanced at her lap and at the coffee table where Shaun’s cup sat. “Don’t you have it?”
Shaun shook his head and pointed at her bag. “Didn’t you put it away when I brought the coffee over?”
Alarm bells rang in Lexie’s head. “No, I thought I’d look through it when the caffeine kicked in. It was right here, I had my eye on it when you handed me the coffee.” She refused to entertain the obvious notion before exploring all other possibilities.
She knelt on the floor and looked under the chairs and table, while Shaun stood and surveyed the area around them. They both came up empty-handed.
“It’s gone,” Lexie said, panic rising in her chest. “How can it be gone? I took a few sips and it sat right here, while you were—”
“Talking to security,” he said in a flat voice. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but someone may have come by and taken it. Best-case scenario, it was a passenger playing a prank, or someone mistook your folder for theirs.”
He left the other option unspoken, but Lexie saw it in his eyes. He feared that the man who’d assaulted her had drugged her so he could steal it while she slept.
“All my notes are in there.” Lexie groaned, reality setting in. “My photo of the girl I’m looking for, plus sensitive information on contacts.”
Shaun frowned and scanned the room again. “You left a folder with sensitive information on a table? In a public area?”
“I didn’t plan on falling asleep.”
“I only walked away for a few minutes.” He grimaced and ran his fingers through his hair. “Not good. Someone’s watching you. Whatever information you have in that folder, it’s important to them. Or they suspect it might be. Combined with the attack earlier, it seems like the situation is more serious than you thought. This girl might be in a lot of danger.”
“I know.” Lexie’s voice carried across the room, and she felt her cheeks warm as several passengers turned to look at her. “I know,” she continued, voice quieter. “But it’s not like I expected someone to drug my coffee. It’s not like I’ve done this before.”
“Done what? Look for someone?” Shaun’s eyebrows scrunched together as Lexie flopped back down into her chair. “I thought you said you worked for a missing-persons organization.”
She nodded, feeling a weight in her chest. “I do. But I haven’t tackled a search like this on my own before. I’ve spent several