Trapped by Isla Whitcroft Page A

quickly.
    â€˜Wendy,’ she said. ‘Now everyone’s on board do you mind if I have a quick break to freshen up and have something to eat before we start serving dinner. Is that OK?’
    Wendy, still in a dreamlike state, waved her hand vaguely and Cate shot off down below decks. To her relief, the bodyguards had not yet made their way to the crew quarters. She thought fast. It was way too late to hand the gun into the police and she didn’t want to just pitch it overboard in case it somehow got washed ashore.
    She had to be honest with herself. The events of the last two days meant that she actually liked the thought of having a gun around. It was her protection if the worst came to the worst. She shook her head, amazed at how much her world – and her attitudes – had changed in just a few days.
    Cate suddenly had a brainwave. She headed to the mess room and opened the small chest freezer in the kitchenette. A few seconds of rummaging around and she had what she was looking for – a packet of frozen vegetables. Her heart racing, she double checked that the corridor was still empty and nipped back into her room, fished the gun from under the bed and slipped it inside her T-shirt.
    No one ever eats brussels sprouts
, she thought to herself as sheslid the pistol inside the packet of stubby vegetables. She pushed it right down to the bottom of the freezer. ‘And no one ever looks more than three quarters of the way down a freezer.’
    She was just re-arranging the chips and frozen burgers over the gun when she heard a noise in the corridor. The bodyguards were on their way. For an instant she panicked, but then, as the steps drew nearer, she reached for a frozen dish marked
Chicken curry
. A few seconds later, as the bodyguards walked stealthily into the room, she was sitting at the bench gazing at the whirring microwave.
    â€˜Starving,’ she said brightly. Her heart was racing, petrified by just how close she had come to disaster.
    The two men nodded in return and got to work carrying out a thorough search of the mess room, checking the TV cables and behind the pictures on the walls.
    To Cate’s horror, Ahmed lifted up the lid of the freezer and had a quick look inside, moving a few bits of food around. But the gun stayed hidden.
    â€˜Fanks,’ said Mikey over his shoulder as he left the room, the only word either of the men had spoken since they came in. Friendliness was clearly not their priority.
    The microwave pinged and Cate sank back onto the bar seat, unsure whether or not to be relieved or terrified.
God, that was close
, she thought. And the evening had hardly even begun.

C HAPTER 7
    Carrying a bucket containing cloths and numerous polishes and sprays, Cate walked towards Nancy’s bedroom feeling sick with fear and excitement. It was her first real spying assignment.
    Just half an hour earlier, she had been up on the top deck serving champagne to a slightly drunk Nancy who was clinging to a rather bored-looking Tass.
    Jules and Lulu stood to one side, pointedly ignoring the display of awkward affection. Cate even thought she saw contempt in Lulu’s face as she watched Nancy planting kisses on the handsome Russian’s cheek, but she could have been wrong.
    The soft, early evening darkness had pushed back the last of the sun’s rays and the splash pool, lit up by underwater lights, stood out against the twilight like a huge shimmering sapphire.
    After such a hot day, the cool night-time air felt like a caresson Cate’s bare arms as she handed out drinks to the four adults, none of whom bothered to thank her.
    A table for two, laid with crisp white linen and furnished with silver cutlery and a double candelabra had been set by the side of the pool. As Marcus carried in a seafood paella and lobster platter, Lulu and Jules stood up.
    â€˜We’re off to town,’ announced Jules. ‘We’ll see you guys in the morning.’
    Neither Tass