Chapter 4

Cammie POV

The day passed a lot quicker than I expected. And even more surprising, I had a lot of fun with Zach. I was expecting more cockiness and arrogance, but when he wasn't trying to put up a show, the boy was actually pretty nice.

The weather was pretty nice, so we had spent a good amount of time with the rides and activities outside, playing mini golf and riding the ferris wheel. By six-thirty, dusk had arrived, and while we had kept our eyes peeled all day, neither of us had seen a ring with the crystal embedded.

I sat down on a bench. Turns out, gladiator shoes are not the kind you want when you're planning on walking around all day.

Zach raised an eyebrow. "Boat?"

I smiled and pulled the tickets out from my bag. "Thank god…" I muttered, as I handed the two slips to him.

"Come on," he said, helping me to my feet. You'll have plenty of time to sit down during dinner."

I kept an eye out for the ring as we walked down towards the dock. The crew was helping take pictures of every couple that went on board, but I immediately knew it was trouble. We couldn't have our pictures floating around as evidence that we'd been here today.

"Riley, we have to get around them," I whispered through gritted teeth.

"Just refuse to have your picture taken," he whispered back.

I felt crew members trying to grasp my arm and pull us back for a picture as Zach and I headed for the gangplank but Zach wrapped an arm around me and smiled apologetically back at them.

"Charlotte has a headache," he excused. "No flash pictures tonight."

But I heard a camera go off behind us. I might have excused it as the photographer taking a picture of someone else if I hadn't heard it was a digital camera. The crew had been using the old-fashioned, large-flash kind. Something was wrong.

I pulled Zach forward even faster until we were among the throng of people waiting to board the boat. We blended in immediately and fervently hoped we had lost the tail. One picture was bad, but if they were still following us, we knew many pictures would follow.

We sat down in our seats at a small table, making meaningless small talk. The boat eventually pushed off, but neither of us relaxed like the rest of the couples around us. This wasn't a fun ride. In fact, the whole boat trip had us stuck in close quarters with people that may have been tailing us.

A waiter came over.

"Hello, madam, monsieur." He handed us menus, and I absently ordered something. I was looking around for anybody with a ring on.

Nothing.

The waiter had a slight groove in his ring finger as if he normally wore a ring, but he could've just taken it off because he was required to, as part of his job. I tucked it away in the back of my mind, but I was already overflowing with information. All day, I had observed every little detail and, little as I liked to admit it, I was starting to develop a headache.

"This is crazy!" I finally hissed to Zach. "How are we supposed to find anything in this mess?"

Zach grabbed my hand as if we were just having a friendly relationship talk.

"Don't worry," he said in a soothing voice, but underneath it, I could hear: he was worried. "We'll get it eventually. We have to get it eventually."

"Welcome aboard, ladies and gentlemen!" a voice interjected suddenly. "I hope you have a fine cruise tonight. My name is Adele. Just call me or the crew if you need any assistance for anything."

The lady that was speaking was a tall, busty redhead. She was wearing green dress that wrapped around her nicely, and a ring.

"Riley, would you like to go to the buffet with me?" I asked, turning to Zach. "I think there's something up there-" (at this, I nodded imperceptibly towards Adele) "-that I'd like."

Zach stood up with me and wrapped an arm around my waist. As we looked around the buffet table, I stole a glance at the ring on Adele's finger. A huge weight was suddenly lifted off of me, and a responsibility dropped on me, when I realized…that was it. That was the ring. That was the crystal.

A smile spread across my face. The hardest part about the whole mission was finding the ring. Now that we knew where it was, it wouldn't take long to get it. Hopefully.

I turned my smile up to him. "This is exactly what I wanted," I laughed while piling about five artichokes onto my plate. But Zach's face wasn't like I expected it to be. It was closed, expressionless. He was hiding something.

Hopefully, to everybody else, it would look like I was just a huge artichoke-enthusiast, and Zach just wasn't a huge supporter of that.

After we got back to our seat, the waiter soon arrived with our food. As I ate, I sat formulating a plan in my head. There were too many questions. What was up with Zach? It was like a cloud had just fallen over him. And how was I going to get the crystal?

Finally I got up. "Stay here," I commanded Zach. "I'll be right back."

"Yeah right. We're in this together, Gallagher Girl." He stood up with me.

I laughed. "Suit yourself, but I'm going to the restroom."

Zach immediately turned red in the face and sat back down. "Five minutes," he growled. "Or I'm coming after you, bathroom or not. And don't try anything funny. Don't go after Adele."

His warning bothered me a little, like he knew more about her than he was letting on. I raised an eyebrow but left without saying a word. As soon as I was in the privacy of a stall, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Liz. Immediately I could hear clacking on her end.

"Hey Lizzie, I need you to look up an 'Adele' for me. I only have her first name, but she has bright red hair you can't miss. See if you can match her description with the name in the database."

I immediately heard the clacking of Liz's keyboard stop, and then Bex grabbed the line.

"Cammie, you gotta hear this. You will not believe what we found out about Zach. We've been dying to call you but didn't know if it was an appropriate time."

"Well tell me now!" I whisper-shouted. "I have…two minutes and forty-five seconds left!"

"If we're talking about the same Adele," Bex started, but Macey cut her off. "We think she's Zach's aunt!" she shouted.

I almost choked on my own spit. Zach was connected to the target!

"I'm sorry, but I could almost swear you said she's Zach's aunt," I said, baffled. But it kind of made sense – his reaction to her appearance, his warning. "I guess I gotta ditch him," I said, thinking out loud. "He'll just be trouble if they're related. Or working together. What if he's honeypotting on this mission?"

I heard Macey sigh. "And just when things were getting interesting with him. Why do you always pick the off-limit boys, Cammie?"

I rolled my eyes. "Really, Macey? That's what you're thinking at a time like this? And besides, I didn't pick him. I barely know him."

Macey didn't say anything but I totally knew what she was thinking: Whatever, Cams.

"'Kay guys. Thanks so much for your help. I'll check back in with you later."

I hung up almost at a loss for what to do. I had just under two minutes before Zach would come barging over looking for me, and I had to get that ring and get out quick. Before I could think anymore, my phone pinged with a text message from Liz.

Adele Whitemore
Hotel Marx
394 Michigan Ave., Chicago
Suite #2214
(A/N totally made up hotel, address, etc. But the street is real!)

I had to smile. Liz was always prepared. I went back to the table and sat down across from Zach, sliding my phone into my purse without him noticing.

"So what's the plan of action?" he asked.

I buttered a roll nonchalantly. "Nothing tonight."

But in my head, I added another word to my answer. Yet.

Zach POV

I had had an unpleasant shock when I saw the ring on my aunt's finger. It was just my luck that she had it. Being the professional that she was, she hadn't acknowledged me in any way, but I knew she was keeping an eye on me. Our cover was totally blown.

Cammie left for the bathroom and when she came back, something felt off. She was planning something. I could feel it in my bones. I didn't know when, and I didn't know where. But I knew I had to follow her when she went to make sure my aunt didn't hurt her.

Hi guys! So, you like? Thank you so much to all the people who followed and favorited me, and thank you especially to Loveydovey3000 who was my first ever reviewer! You put a huge smile on my face 3
So...next chapter, we see Grant! If you review, I'll totally send you a teaser of his dashing wit and humor haha. But just to be clear, I'm not DEMANDING for you to review...it really bothers me when people complain about not getting reviews, so I don't want to be like that. But just saying, if you DO review, I'll send you a teaser. But anyway, next chapter should be up tomorrow. I already have around fifteen chapters written and I'll try to post them once a day, or maybe once every other day if school gets too busy. But I won't leave ya hangin' :)