he might have left behind. I knew Ben and Charlie were killers. Polo incapable, but Yuri and Reid were violent…so what were my responsibilities here? If I didn’t say anything to the police when the time came, then any deaths or injuries that occurred after this because of these guys would also be partially my fault. Still, the briefest image of Charlie spending twenty or so years behind bars on my account made me nauseous.
I could see it all very clearly—if the police caught one of them, Charlie would turn himself in. He would never let any of them go to prison for him. I could only hope that any of them would do the same, though I didn’t know any of them well enough to know if they would sacrifice for him.
So what was I going to do?
I waited a few minutes, looking through large cans of vegetables, running my thumbnail over the ripple of the tin cans. The last thing I wanted to do was drive any sort of wedge between Charlie and his friends. Given the way they interacted together, it seemed as though they had not only worked together for a long time, but had endured one of those long-term friendships that was only made better over the years. I had seen Robbie come home from his deployment with a few friendships like that, and he seemed like a better man for it. If Charlie was endangering his relationship with his friends even a little bit because of me, then I didn’t want to be a part of that.
“Hey Addie, there you are!” Polo bounced into the storage area, practically at a gallop.
“Hi, Polo.” I hoped he wouldn’t catch my sad smile. “What are the boys up to?”
He rolled his eyes. “Yuri is all up in a tear about something. He got Charlie in it too for a minute, but I think it’s okay now that Ben broke it up.”
“Polo, what exactly was the fighting about?”
Polo tapped his head, struggling to remember. “Um, something about what we’d do when we got to port and ah, ah…Yuri said Charlie needed to get his head straightened.”
I held my hand out to keep him from anything more. “Okay, Polo, I think I’ve got it. Um—when are we supposed to get to Singapore?” I tried not to sound too obvious. “Is everything on schedule, I mean?” I twisted my thumbs around themselves anxiously; I no longer knew what I wanted the answer to be. More time on the ship meant more time with Charlie, but it also meant more time that I kept Dad and Robbie worrying.
“Oh, um, we should get there, like, the day after tomorrow, I think.”
Only two more days?
I only had two full days left with Charlie. It seemed unbearably unfair.
I swallowed my feelings and headed back to the kitchen. “Is Charlie still in the galley?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Ben told Yuri to take a walk, though. So we get first dibs on sandwiches.”
I pretended to be enthusiastic. “That’s really good, Polo…really great.”
Charlie was no longer sitting with the same light composure I had come across when I first walked into the galley. Instead, he was bent over his chair, his neck craning to see the floor as though there were something intensely wonderful only he could see. He was frowning now and it pained me to see it. I walked over to him quietly while he wrung his hands together—trying to shake something out.
“Hi there.” I sat in his lap, leaning back while he caught me in his arms. His face lightened up considerably while I reclined back and pretended to swoon. “What’s with all of the drama?” My overdrawn southern imitation managed to make him smile just a little.
“Nothin’ I can’t handle.” His voice was quiet, bordering on anxious.
I straightened myself up and wrestled his nose between my index and middle finger. It was a lame but effective enough interrogation technique that was applied often enough on Robbie and me when we tried to cover up a misdeed.
“You better get talking, sir.” I did the best imitation of an authority figure I could manage.
He flinched and pulled himself away. “You vicious little thing. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
I pulled him closer by the sleeve of his shirt. “Don’t change the subject. Is everything okay?”
He sighed and wallowed in the crook of my neck. Maybe I should have harped him further about what was going on, but I couldn’t pull him away from