Page 59 of The Second Chance in the Mediterranean
My heart started to pound, and I tried to wiggle out from under his hand. “Andre—”
He cut me off. “It seems like Natasha’s bitchiness is rubbing off on you.” He pulled me in tighter. “You could put in a good word for me. You need me to pull off this event.”
I gritted my teeth. His grip tightened, his fingers digging into my skin. I’d dealt with misogyny and sexism in the workplace, but for the first time, it seemed like someone was willing to hurt me. “Let me go.”
And just like I’d said the magic words, Seb appeared in the doorway. He stepped menacingly into the room. “Get. Out.” His jaw was tense, his eyes angry.
Andre’s hand lifted off my shoulder, the corner of his mouth ticking down in a slight frown. I slid away from him, standing up and slinking across the room. Andre’s eyes were calculating and my heart sunk. Seb was just guessing, running off instinct when he didn’t even know the language. “Hey, man,” Andre said in English, clocking Seb’s American accent. “We were just talking about tomorrow’s menu.”
Seb’s eyes narrowed. “We know exactly what you were talking about, Andre. Get. Out.” He shifted, revealing Gio standing right behind him.
“Vaffanculo,”Gio bit out.
Andre set his jaw and rose to his feet. “How do you think Natasha is going to take this, eh? There’s no way your team can pull off the event tomorrow alone. It’ll be a disgrace toThemis.Youneedmy help.”
“No we don’t,” Seb ground out.
“Fine. I’ll tell the Kozlovas that you don’t need me.” Andre held his hands up. “If you think you can do so well without me, with your,” he gestured at me and Seb stepped threateningly toward him, “new chef, turn down my help. I have years of experience on yachts with events like this. If you think you can do this on your own, fine.”
The blood drained from my face. He was right: my job hung on a precarious balance, and refusing Andre’s help would certainly tip it over.
He tossed a look back at me. “Maybe if you beg.”
Fortunately, Gio shoved Seb aside before he could do something dumb like punch Andre. They stepped out of the way and Gio followed Andre up to escort him off the boat.
Seb turned his gaze to me, running up and down my body. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I took a big inhale and breathed out, trying to quell the sense of panic. How were we going to pull off the party when suddenly I had twice as much work to do? I had been counting on the staff onPegasusto keep doing prep work tomorrow, to help with washing dishes and use of their ovens. I blinked away my terror. “How did you even overhear us? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
Seb threw a glance at the doorway and stepped toward me. One hand grasped mine, and the other came up to gently touch my cheek. “Roy mentioned that guy earlier, and seemed worried about him. I couldn’t sleep, so I wandered over, and when I heard you talking in Italian...I didn’t want to make a big deal out of nothing, and I knew Gio was doing the late-night rounds, so I asked him to eavesdrop.”
“Wow.” My heart wasn’t calming down. Yes, in some sense I had been lucky for Seb’s hunch, but at what cost?
He chuckled. “Yeah, pretty lucky, right?”
“Lucky?” I said incredulously. “How was losing half our kitchen staff for tomorrow lucky?” All the anger Andre had stirred up suddenly had a new target.
Seb’s face fell, and his eyes lit with anger. “That’s what you are going to worry about, Marce?” His jaw tensed in the moment suspended between us. Then he continued, his voice low. “I willneverlet you sacrifice your safety for your job.”
We were interrupted by Gio coming back down the stairs, Dom on his heels. Seb dropped contact with me, and I recounted the story to Dom, who assured me he’d talk it over with Natasha and Justin.
“What, exactly, do we do now?” I said, throttling to keep the panic out of my voice. “Andre’s going to blame us, say we refused his help and wash his hands of this. Even if we wanted his help, it’s going to be a huge mess. I have to assume that I’m on my own for tomorrow.”
Seb let out a deep breath next to me, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Goddamn it.”
“You aren’t on your own.” Dom placed a hand on my shoulder, firm and strong. “You’ve got all the crew with you, okay? This is important to Natasha, and it’s important to all of us. Go get some sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning.”
Seb trailed behind me as I walked through to my cabin. When we arrived at my door, he shoved his hands into his pockets and searched my face. “Do you want me to stay?”
“No.”
Seb let my response hang for a moment. “Are you going to be able to sleep?”
I snapped. “I’m not a child, Seb. You don’t need to hover and fix everything for me.”
“Whoa, whoa. Marcella, I know this isn’t ideal—”
“It’s not ideal?” I sneered at him.
