Murder on the High Seas - The Devereaux CaseFiles Book 3

Chapter 22

By the time two days had passed, there was still no sign of Benny. Reed was actually beginning to think he had jumped ship and escaped but he held out hope that he'd stayed on the ship until they docked in Constanta, where he already knew they had stopped to let the pirates off. If he'd done that, then the NOCS would have got hold of him sneaking off the ship and that would be Benny dealt with. Of course, he would still want to contact them once he was back on land and let them know that he had also committed a murder, just in case he tried to talk his way out of trouble and succeeded. There was only one day until they docked and he could find out if Benny was still on the ship or had actually been caught. But before then, he wanted to pack up the lab and get all the information against Benny put together into one cohesive pile, ready to pass onto the relevant people.

He could hardly believe that it was the end of their trip already, especially since most of it had been spent locked up inside their cabin. And he wasn't at all surprised that when Ayah started helping him pack up the lab, she was humming to herself. "You know, you shouldn't be so happy. Think what Gideon's going to say about all this time you haven't been in touch." Reed teased tormentingly, hoping to bring up his suggestion of a few quiet days when they got home. He knew he had to slip it sneakily into the conversation somehow, when she was least expecting it, just in case she tried to refuse him.

"Oh gosh! You're right. He'll be so worried that he couldn't get through." Ayah realized that she had kept the phone in their cabin disconnected because Griffin didn't want Benny to have a phone line to the outside world. He had been so nice about it that she hadn't thought twice. And she had forgotten all about asking Gideon to call her in a few days time, only to not be able to get put through to her cabin because it was disconnected. He would be terribly angry with her once he found out.

"You really are tenderhearted, aren't you? I wouldn't have you any other way." Reed smiled to himself as he packed away the microscope, watching Ayah adoringly as she glared at him over a box of instruments that she was carefully packing away. She wasn't at all convinced by his attempt at covering up his real intention by ransom chat. But she was going to keep it going just to see how long it would take him to mention what he really wanted to talk about.

"You'll have to take me any way I want to be because once the shop is up and running I'm going to turn into a ruthless business woman." She warned him gently. Of course, he just laughed at her, finding the whole idea a little absurd. "Be careful Reed, you'll be too busy in your job to notice the change when it happens, so you shouldn't laugh at me." She scolded him.

"I doubt that very much. How could anyone be too busy to notice their wallflower of a wife turning into a ruthless business woman? I'd have to be halfway across the world with no post and no phone not to notice you turning ruthless anything." He corrected her assumption that he wouldn't notice the change in her, if it ever happened. Every day he noticed something new and different about her that only made him love her more.

"Are you saying I can't be ruthless?" Ayah asked, amused by the fact that he thought she was all sugar and spice and couldn't be anything other than his loving wife. Well, she could. She had been before and she could be again.

"Yes." He confessed, in the sweetest, most adorable way. "I like that you can't be ruthless." He admitted it easily, and Ayah had to agree that maybe 'ruthless' was a bit of a stretch.

"Well, I suppose ruthless is a bit too much to ask for. But I will be a business woman, proper and respectable and...and not at all soft." She decided, making Reed laugh at how very offended she had been that he thought her incapable of being ruthless and malicious. But he could understand what she meant. She wanted to do the shop justice, to be happy and be herself but still run a successful business without letting people walk all over her or treat her like a naïve child.