Read Online DOUBLE KNOT by Gretchen Archer - Free Book Online

clapped my hand over Fantasy’s mouth and pinned her to the bed so she wouldn’t kill
     me. Instead, she bit the fire out of me. Anderson Cooper jumped to my defense and
     onto Fantasy’s face. There was wrestling and meowing. Anderson didn’t vocalize often
     and when she did, because she couldn’t hear herself, it was loud, raw, and cannon-shot
     unexpected. I grabbed for (my cat) a pillow and slammed it over Fantasy’s head to
     muffle the language. “It’s me, Fantasy! It’s me!”
    We both panted for a full minute.
    She clicked on a bedside lamp and sat up. “Davis! What the hell ? What happened?”
    “Shhhh!” I scream-whispered. “Be quiet!”
    “Me be quiet? How about that crazy cat of yours?” She gave Anderson a very dirty look.
     “Besides,” she whispered, “who’s going to hear us?”
    My mother.
    “Come with me.”
    “Davis, what’s wrong?”
    “Do you have your gun?”
    “No.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I smuggled your cat on, which
     was hard enough, thank you. No Hair has my gun.”
    I doubted that.
    “What’s happened? Who do we need to shoot?”
    “Just get up,” I said. “I need you to see something in my room.”
    She read my face. “Uh-oh.”
    “Don’t make a peep.” I stepped toward the door. “We do not want to wake up my mother.”
    Fantasy, wearing almost nothing but a tank top, tied her robe around her waist, but
     her robe was so short it didn’t do any good. She stepped into her fuzzy slippers.
     “What the hell is going on?”
      
    * * *
      
    We tiptoed from one end of 704 to the other by the light of the moon. When we reached
     my stateroom, I closed and locked the door. I held a finger to my lips and led her
     through the sitting room to the bedroom.
    “You’re freaking me out, Davis.”
    I passed the envelope. She passed out. (No, she didn’t.)
    She went back and forth between the picture of No Hair and the letter. “Oh my God.
     We’re prisoners.”
    Yes.
    “Who is this? Who’s doing this?” She shook the letter. “And where is he?”
    She shook the picture.
    I had no answers.
    We sank to sit on the edge of the bed.
    “Do you think they mean it?” she whispered.
    “Which part?” I whispered back. “Yes, I think they mean it. We’re trapped and they
     have No Hair.”
    “Who are they ?”
    “I have no idea,” I said. “Whoever it is, they want us out of the way.”
    “Of what?” she asked. “A heist? A con?”
    “Or a target,” I whispered. “One of the bazillionaires. Extortion. Blackmail. Kidnapping.”
    “It could be escaped prisoners hitching a ride,” Fantasy said. “Or there’s a Bernie
     Madoff on this boat. A homicidal first wife. It could be anyone with any number of
     agendas.”
    “A homicidal first wife wouldn’t lock us in here. Or No Hair there.”
    We stared at the photograph of our boss.
    We stared at the photograph of our friend.
    “Where’s there?” Fantasy asked. “And where did you find this?”
    “It was taped to the bathroom mirror.”
    “Who taped it to the mirror?” She grabbed my arm. “Davis! Either Jessica, Poppy, the
     butler, or all three of them are in on this! One of them did it!”
    “No.” I shook my head. “Not necessarily.”
    “I didn’t put it on the mirror. Your mother didn’t put it on the mirror.”
    “It could have been on the mirror when we left Biloxi, Fantasy. Anyone could have put it on the mirror.”
    “But you just found it.”
    “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t there earlier.”
    “Well, think, Davis. Was it or wasn’t it?”
    “I don’t know! I can’t remember. I didn’t see it before we left, but I didn’t not see it before we left.”
    “Which is it, Davis? You did or you didn’t?”
    “I don’t know.” I fell back on the bed. “I know I went in there, but I wasn’t looking
     for a note on the mirror. I found it ten minutes ago and I have no idea how long it’s
     been there.”
    “Oh, holy crap.” She fell beside me.