I can do this.
Slowly and carefully, I slide the wooden door, revealing the cramped but functional space. There is a small kitchen corner by the giant window, a TV unit, a modular couch, and across it, a table with two chairs. That’s what catches my eye first. The table is crowded with monitors connected to a laptop and two tablets. Scattered around the devices are various types of candy and snacks, soda, energy drinks…
It’s a mess. And I hate messes. He knows that damn well.
Sighing, I rub my forehead and begin tidying up. But I don’t get far. No, that would be too uneventful. Too… anticlimactic. Too boring. And Aran Suwannarat’s life is anything but that as of late.
The bedroom door behind me creaks open quietly. It’s intended to be sneaky and if not for my high alertness, I might have missed it. But I don’t, and as I turn, someone rams into my side. They take advantage of my blind spot to make their attack a success, causing me to stumble back and struggle a little to maintain my foothold.
I convinced myself, and rather conveniently if I may add, that things will go according to our agreed-upon plan. That each of us will stick to the role he has to play, and as such, I expected the cabin to be clear when I arrive. So, I let my guard down, and that’s never a good thing.
My leg hits the edge of the brown modular couch. I plop onto it sideways, still at the mercy of my attacker.
“Yes! I’ve got you now!”
Seriously? Does he never learn?
With ease that comes naturally to me, I grab whichever body part I can get to first and flip us around. That puts me on top. I slide one leg between my attacker’s two and cage him against the couch. He tries to grab me by the neck, but I coil my fingers around his delicate hand and twist his arm until I have it pinned behind his back.
The little shit cackles and tries to kiss me.
But I’m faster. And I know all his moves. The back of my free hand meets his plush lips before they can do any real damage.
“Tien. Why are you still here? Your shift at the kitchens should’ve started twenty minutes ago,” I say, doing my best impression of an angry and disappointed parent.
He snorts and rolls his eyes, batting those unfairly long black lashes at me. “Chopping vegetables is hard. And boring. I switched up the roster a tiny bit. I won’t be required in the kitchen for the foreseeable future because I had a chance of post.”
Leave it up to him to pull something like that when I explicitly warned him to behave. It’s like he does it on purpose.
Shaking my head, I give him alook. As usual, it does absolutely nothing to make him feel even a smidge of remorse, and all I get for my troubles is an even wider grin. His entire face lights up, especially his expressive brown eyes, and worse yet, he looks proud of himself.
“I told you not to do anything until I get here. You are putting the entire mission in jeopardy.”
Pouting his lips, he averts his gaze. A lock of his blue hair flops in front of his face, tickling the golden hoop piercing that graces his right nostril. “No, I am not. I was careful. Besides, I’m the one who made it possible for us to even be here, and all you’ve done since walking into this room is to scold me. Where is my thanks?”
Blue is my favorite color, but I try not to focus on that. “I’m not the best pick for this, Tien. You knew that. You could’ve taken Kieran or Leo with you,” I remind him. “It’s probably not too late to get one of them to replace me…”
They are a way better choice than an old man like me. Both of them are in their twenties. Leo is the bodyguard for the Akiyama Group’s heir, and Kieran is an ex-CIA agent. They are capable and they are also still hungry for adventures, whereas I’d much rather remain on the sidelines. The years I served at the Thai Military Special Division were enough for me. Now that I am almost forty, I want a simple life. A boring life. It’s why I stepped down as Kwanchai Akiyama’s bodyguard and took on the Chief Security Officer role.
Intense browns snap to me, partially outraged. But they are also beautiful. They remind me of times past with friends, of the crazy stuff that we used to get up to in the Special Division when I was the same age. They also pierce my soul like they do every time I make the mistake of gazing into them, because they see only me. For them, no one else exists, no other person can ever come close.
It’s humbling… Scary. Forbidden.
“No. If you get off this ship, so will I, mission be damned. I don’t care how good Leo and Kieran are. It can only be you. Always.”
My heart races and my skin tingles. He’s shameless, like usual. He speaks his mind, he doesn’t care if any of this is appropriate. He’s also conveniently forgotten his profession that we must stop the bad guys so they can’t use their mind-controlling drug to take over the world.
I take a shuddering breath and let go of him. We both stand, but he doesn’t take his eyes off me. They map and devour, gleaming like the surface of the ocean at first light. It takes everything in me not to drown in them, to look away and restrain myself before it’s too late.
This was a mistake. I should’ve never agreed to come here with him. But it was the only way to find out who’s pulling the strings behind that nasty drug. We stopped its spread in Japan for the time being, but since the CIA and the US government are involved, it’s only a matter of time before we can no longer prevent that. We need to know who our enemies are—what they are planning and where they might hit us from—or we won’t be able to fight back.
I straighten my shirt’s collar and jerk my head at the clutter on the table. “Help me clean up. My shift starts in two hours, but maybe we can get the passenger manifest before I have to leave. All that was shared with us during the briefing was the number of passengers and their designations.”
“Designations?”
I grab a few empty snack packets and toss them in the bin by the cupboard. “Yes. They are like codenames. It’s to prevent the guests’ identities from leaking. Everyone will also be wearing masks in the public spaces for that same reason.”
“Oh. That’s kind of smart.” He sits cross-legged on the office chair he must’ve brought as part of his luggage. “It also explains why all I kept coming across were weirdly colored animals. I knew a pet convention sounded too good to be true.”
