“Janine shot Hannah
while she was on the lifeboat.” Joey repeated the words in his mind, but
he still couldn’t believe it.
Joey knew that Lance was putting the
guilt for Hannah’s death on his own shoulders. But now Janine’s generosity
was beginning to make sense. Whatever Janine’s plan, it included getting
the five of them off the ship so the murder would go unnoticed. Because if
Lance knew what was going on, he would have done whatever it took to save
Hannah’s life.
“But I don’t understand,” Chris said.
“Janine wasn’t on Hannah’s lifeboat. Hannah was way gone before we even got
on ours.”
“Apparently Janine got on a lifeboat
and made sure that hers caught up to Hannah’s,” Justin said.
He had gotten the full details from
the woman that was on the lifeboat with Hannah. Lance had refused to listen
what had happened. He had run out of the dining area of the Carpathia before
the woman had begun to explain.
“And she just shot her in cold blood?”
Chris kept his voice low so Lance couldn’t hear. Lance was sleeping in the
next room, but he could be awake and Chris didn’t want to sound uncaring.
“We should have known she was up to
something,” JC muttered from his spot on the small couch. He pounded his
fist on the arm of the chair. “Damn it, why did I believe her?”
“We all believed her,” Justin murmured.
“What other choice did we have?”
Lisa, who had her head against JC’s
shoulder, couldn’t contain her anger. “Hannah lost her life because of that
twisted bitch. I can’t believe we fell for this.”
“It was her plan to fool us.” JC watched
the door. “And now because of her, there is a guy in there whose heart is
completely shattered. Who knows what Lance is going to do now?”
“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Lisa
whispered. “My best friend is gone. She was so full of life.”
“I know.” JC pulled her into his arms.
They were all upset but they couldn’t imagine what Lance was going through.
“But we’ll get through this together. But right now, Lance is who we should
be worrying about.”
And when the door cracked open, everyone
turned around. Lance eyed his friends and rubbed his eyes. He had been sleeping
for only a few hours, but peaceful sleep hadn’t come. All he had was constant
nightmares of what Hannah must have gone through her last minutes.
He knew everyone was worried about
him, but he felt he was fine. Nothing was wrong, he thought, that a little
alcohol wouldn’t fix.
But they all looked like they’d been
crying. Lance hated to cry, but since last night he’d been doing it a lot.
Not that he was ashamed, but it was so unusual for a guy that considered
himself strong and independent. But since the moment he met Hannah, he had
become a new man. Maybe not right away, but it was obvious now that she had
effected him more than he thought.
Lance just wanted to get to New York
and forget this ever happened. But he knew it was going to be difficult to
just forget because his heart was ripped in two. No, he would never be the
same again.
“How was the sleep?” Chris asked gently.
“You rest okay?”
“Fine.” Lance decided he wanted to
keep his answers to one word. No need to talk more than he had to. He knew
his voice would start breaking.
“We’re almost in New York,” Justin
told him. “You want to stay with me and Joey in our apartment?”
“Fine.” He didn’t want to be alone,
anyway.
“You haven’t eaten all day,” Joey said.
“You want to grab something on our way home?”
“Fine.” Lance grabbed his coat from
behind Lisa. He realized that everything else he owned was now down at the
bottom of the Atlantic.