Chapter 2 - The Door Opened
Gregory crossed the distance between us fast.
But anger had made him careless.
He reached for my wrist.
I turned sideways, slipped free, and moved behind the dining table before he could get hold of me.
“Give me the phone.”
“No.”
“Ashlynn, stop making this worse.”
“You already made it worse.”
I dialed the emergency services number printed on the card beside the cabin telephone.
Gregory knocked my phone out of my hand before the call connected.
It landed beneath the chair.
He moved toward it.
I stepped between him and the phone.
He stopped.
For the first time, neither of us spoke.
The strange thing was that I could still hear music from somewhere outside the cabin.
A cheerful piano version of an old love song floated faintly through the corridor.
People were laughing.
Glasses clinked.
Someone pushed a housekeeping cart past our door.
The world outside continued as if nothing had happened.
I raised my voice.
“Security.”
Gregory’s eyes widened.
“Don’t.”
I shouted again.
“SECURITY.”
He rushed toward me.
I did not strike him.
I stepped aside and drove my shoulder into his chest just hard enough to redirect his momentum.
He stumbled against the sofa.
Then I grabbed the metal ice bucket from the counter and hurled it toward the cabin door.
The crash was enormous.
Gregory froze.
I hit the door with my palm.
“HELP.”
Footsteps stopped outside.
A man’s voice answered.
“Ma’am?”
Gregory moved toward me.
I lifted the bat from the floor again.
“Stay where you are.”
He stopped immediately.
“Ma’am, are you all right?”
“Call security.”
Gregory whispered my name.
I ignored him.
“Tell them there is a weapon inside the cabin and my husband locked me in.”
Silence followed.
Then the man outside said, “Security is coming.”
Gregory turned pale.
“You have no idea what you just did.”
“Yes, I do.”
“You’re going to humiliate both of us.”
“You threatened me.”
“You think anyone is going to believe that?”
I looked at the bat.
Then the documents.
Then his phone.
“Yes.”
He moved toward the folder.
I stepped in front of it.
“Don’t touch anything.”
“Ashlynn.”
“Back away.”
“You cannot order me around.”
“Tonight I can.”
His mouth opened.
Then three heavy knocks hit the door.
“Ship security.”
Gregory looked at me.
I looked at him.
“Open it.”
He did not.
The officer outside repeated himself.
Gregory suddenly smiled.
That smile frightened me in an entirely different way.
He straightened his shirt.
Smoothed his hair.
Then he whispered, “Fine.”
He unlocked the door.
Three security officers stood outside.
The first was a broad-shouldered woman in her forties.
The second was a younger man holding a radio.
The third officer had already noticed the baseball bat.
The woman looked from Gregory to me.
“Who requested assistance?”
“I did.”
Gregory spoke at the same time.
“My wife had some kind of emotional episode.”
I stared at him.
He continued before I could answer.
“She became upset after drinking.”
I had not touched the champagne.
“She grabbed the bat from my luggage and threatened me.”
The lie came out smoothly.
Too smoothly.
He had prepared for this possibility.
The female officer looked at me.
“Ma’am?”
“My husband locked the door, pulled the bat from his suitcase, and told me he was going to teach me how marriage works.”
Gregory shook his head sadly.
“She’s not herself.”
I pointed toward the bed.
“He also brought documents transferring control of my company to his father.”
One officer stepped toward the scattered papers.
Gregory moved quickly.
“Those are private financial documents.”
The officer stopped him with one raised hand.
“Sir, remain where you are.”
Gregory’s expression hardened.
The female officer asked, “Was anyone struck?”
“No.”
Gregory immediately said, “She attacked me.”
I kept my eyes on the officer.
“He swung the bat.”
“Did it make contact?”
“No.”
“I disarmed him.”
The younger security officer looked at me.
“You took the bat from him?”
“Yes.”
Gregory gave a sarcastic laugh.
“She was in the Marines.”
I looked at him.
The female officer noticed.
“What did you do in the Marines?”
“Hand-to-hand combat instruction.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
Gregory realized too late that his comment had supported my story rather than his.
The officer took out a small notebook.
“Sir, why did you bring the bat?”
Gregory hesitated.
“It was a gift.”
“For your honeymoon?”
“Yes.”
“From whom?”
“My father.”
I watched the female officer’s expression change.
Only slightly.
But I noticed it.
She asked the younger officer to photograph the room.
Everything.
The bat.
The papers.
The lock.
The suitcase.
Then she looked at Gregory’s phone.
“Sir, place your phone on the table.”
His face went blank.
“No.”
The air shifted.
The officer’s voice became firm.
“Place the phone on the table.”
Gregory clutched it tighter.
“You don’t have authority to take my property.”
“I did not say I was taking it.”
She pointed toward the table.
“I said place it there while we establish what happened.”
Gregory glanced at me.
Then he looked toward the hallway.
For one terrible second, I thought he might run.
Instead, he slowly put the phone down.
The screen lit up.
Another message from Walter appeared.
GET HER SIGNATURE BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
Nobody spoke.
The female officer looked at the message.
May you like
Then at Gregory.
And Gregory Hartman finally stopped pretending this was a misunderstanding.
