Her Cruise Ship Surprise | ✔

Chapter Thirty-Four

Carefully and quietly, he sidestepped his way towards the guy. One crunch from his boot and things could go horribly wrong. His heart beat revved up a notch as did the adrenaline surging through him. Lives depended on them not making a mistake. He wanted to get inside the dining hall and find out if anyone else was trained in combat.

"I always wanted to be an actor," the man said, doing a few funny looking karate moves.

"It's never too late," Jason replied. "I could always give your name to my agent."

"Really?" You'd do—" He never even had a chance to finish his sentence. Logan took that final step behind him and wrapped his arms around the guy's neck in a chokehold. Jason gave him a thumb's up as the man went limp in Logan's arms.

The two of them picked him up and took him to the same room as the other guy and tied him up for safe keeping. He wanted to try to keep them alive so that they could get their just deserts by the court. Anyone willing to kidnap an entire ship of people deserved to have the book thrown at them.

"What next?" Jason asked.

Leaning over, Logan snatched the radios off the men's hip and handed one to his partner. "These should help us figure out what their plans are and keep us in the loop on what they're doing."

"Good idea."

"I was thinking that we should try to enter the kitchen through the employee entrance and then go from there. They likely only have another two or three guys inside guarding the other kitchen entrance."

"Well, here goes nothing," Jason replied as he opened the employee door.

***

Tammy paced the length of the room, not that there was a lot of room to move around. Every square inch of it was occupied. She glanced at the door. She wanted to know what was going on. She hated being in the dark. Dark meant death. And that wasn't something that was part of her game plan.

"Will you sit down? You're making me dizzy," Darla groaned, lifting a hand to cover her eyes.

Tamara turned to look at her and frowned. Her friend's cheeks were still pale, even her lips matched her cheeks. "How are you feeling, hun?"

"I'd say that I feel like I've been run over by a truck, but I think that cliché phrase has been far too overdone."

"I think it probably works in this case." Reaching over, she placed the back of her hand on Darla's forehead. "Thank god you aren't running a fever." The last thing they needed was for her to get an infection right now. It's not like they had access to all the first aid supplies in the medical bay.

Darla grabbed her hand and gave it a kiss. "You don't need to play mother hen, hun."

Tamara knew that, but she hadn't expected to make a new friend and one that she'd gotten so close to so quickly. She didn't know those types of relationships, not even with Carla. She almost felt like family. "I can't let you die."

"Come here," Darla said, holding out her arms.

Lying down, she rested her head on her friend's shoulder, careful not to jostle the injury on the opposite side. They cuddled up to each other. Tamara kissed her friend on the forehead before watching her drift off to sleep. Having friend's that were girls didn't come easy for her. Maybe that was because more than anything she was a tomboy and had different likes than most girls.

She wasn't the dressy type, or the make-up type. Give her boxing gloves or a punching bag and she was happy or even hockey skates. Nothing was the same as getting out there on the ice and knocking that puck around.

"Rest easy," she whispered, as she brushed the hair away from Darla's eyes. "I'm here for you."

If anyone tried anything, she'd take them down so fast that they wouldn't know what hit them. That was a promise. She was going to stay awake and be ever watchful to make sure no one walked in that door but their guys.

Tamara had been worried that Darla's cries of agony might alert someone walking by their door, so she was glad that she was sleeping because it brought temporary relief to her and the silence they needed. But she would need professional help before long. And that made her wonder about the boys.

"Come on, boys. Where are you?" Tamara murmured. If they didn't come back soon, she'd have to go out and find them. She wasn't going to lay here forever. If her friend woke up with more strength, she'd feel more confident to leave her. But as of right now, she had to stay.

She was used to being active though, used to getting her hands dirty. Now she knew what her brother, Caleb, felt like when he couldn't help Maria when she was held as a hostage. Not that she needed his help. That girl was one tough cookie and took the bad guys out all by herself. Maybe that's how his wife whipped Caleb into shape, turning him into a family man finally.

And she was certain that this trip was meant to do that for her. Tamara couldn't control the smile that took over her face. She did get married as odd as that sounded even to her own ears. After handling so many domestic abuse cases and her own messed up choices, she'd been determined to remain single for the rest of her life.

And then in walked Logan again. The one and only person she'd ever given her heart to and still had it in the palm of his hand. Her pulse skipped a beat as she thought of him lying dead somewhere on the ship. She had to go to him. It was her duty to protect everyone, including him. He may be a soldier of some type, but she was a cop.

Raising her forearm, she glanced at her watch. They'd been gone for over an hour and still no word. As if Darla somehow sensed her worry, she woke again. "It's like you're pacing in your imagination," her friend commented.

"Sorry, I just don't like this."

Darla grinned. "Why do I feel like you'll drive your kids crazy with your worrying?"

Tamara froze. Holy crap. She hadn't even thought of whether or not Logan wanted more kids. They hadn't even talked about that type of stuff. Her hands protectively went to her belly. Did she want any more aside from her new stepdaughter? They really had a lot of stuff to talk about.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"Nah, it's fine. I guess I never really spent much time thinking about whether I wanted to have more kids or not."

"What about Logan?"

"He already has a daughter."

"Ouch," Darla murmured.

"It's okay, really. I understand that he was trying to find a life after getting out of..." she let her words trail off. Did she really want to let Darla in on what happened between her and Logan? And she figured what the hay, if they were going to be friends, Darla would learn about it, anyway. "Jail."

That caught her friend's attention. "Holy heck, what did he wind up in jail for?"

"Long story, but he was innocent and eventually they let him go."

"Wowzers. So he had a kid with someone else instead of coming back to you?"

Getting up from the bed, Tamara began pacing again. "Again, long story."

"Well, given I can't walk and you're here to babysit me, you might as well fill me in."

And so she did.

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A/N

Thank you for patiently waiting for my updates and thank you for continuing to read this story. I'm working hard to finish it within the next two weeks. I hope you are enjoying it so far.  The next update should be on Friday.

Love you guys!