Chapter 672: Shared Space

It was days later when Nael returned to his suite, and when he walked in, he was amazed to find it had been completely rearranged and decorated. Ami had turned his rugged room into a dainty one, but he was not entirely mad at her. It smelled nice, and based on the sounds coming from the kitchen, the woman was still hard at work. When her eyes landed on his, she smiled at him, and despite not being physically attracted to the woman at all, his heart fluttered.

"Have you eaten?" she asked, and Nael became suspicious. She shrugged, serving herself only and taking a seat in front of the laptop, and getting back to work.

"Where is my brother?" Nael questioned, but before she could respond Leal exited the shower room and looked over the woman's shoulder "You two f*cking?" he asked, causing Ami to choke on her food. Nael could not help but laugh at the reaction, but it was his brother's face that gave him his answer. "You know how I am," Nael said, feeling guilty for putting Leal in a weird situation.

Ami was not an attractive woman, and while she had a pleasant personality, there was no way his brother was interested in her in a sexual manner. He knew Leal saw in her the same attributes their mother possessed and kept even though everything around her was dark. She was barely fourteen when she had given birth to him, and only seventeen when she had his brother. As a result, she kept a lot of her childlike tendencies, and Ami mirrored a lot of her attributes.

Calling his brother to the kitchen, Leal started to tell him about the information he picked up, but Leal did not look like he wanted to take the risk. It was odd to see his brother turn down an opportunity to make money, and he assumed it had something to do with Ami.

"You got a better idea?" Nael snarled. He did not like that a woman was coming between his relationship with his brother. It had only survived because it was his mother's dying wish, and Leal's hate for their father surpassed any grudge his brother may have had for him.

"I do," Leal said confidently, "but you won't like it."

"Try me." His brother explained his plan, but Nael just laughed at it. "We'll be dead before we get anything."

"You're both wrong," Mina interjected. "You already know where the boat is going, meet them there. Get your men into the cargo crew before they start offloading and walk away with as much as you want."

"That will never work," Nael said, hating that he kind of liked the woman's suggestion. "Security is tight when a shipment is coming in."

"Yes, but you just said they aren't leaving the harbor for a few days. If you sail ahead, rent a smaller boat, and come in as fishermen who just want to make extra money, no one will suspect you."

"What is it with you and fish?" Nael asked, but the woman shrugged again.

"It just fits." She took a spoonful of food into her mouth before her face became pensive. "How much does a military grade weapon go for on the black market?" she randomly asked, and Nael had to fight back the urge to shoot her. He did not like that she was asking targeted questions, but Leal answered without consulting him. "What?!" Mina shouted.

Leal explained to her that weapons of any sort had high sale values on the black-market and military grade weapons could range from 100k to one million; it all depended on the buyer and type. The woman literally stared at him with eyes so wide it looked painful, and when she swallowed her food, she stood to move closer to them.

"I know of a place," she said, and Leal worried it was Mills' shipment, but Ami started to talk about something that sounded made up. "Trust me, I saw the maps. It's there."

"You're telling me that in the middle of the ocean, there are floating cargo drums filled with guns." Mina nodded vigorously.

"I was told that they are put in hostile locations. It's hard to get a military into unfriendly ocean territory, but trade ships go undisturbed with incentives."

"Ami who did you hear this from?"

"He was… We used to…" Mina no longer knew how to describe President Lee. She was heartbroken and while he told his aunt that she was his girlfriend, that was the same night everything between them was shattered. "There is a man by the name of Sasha. He does not like me very much. The weapons were put near to his country to get back at him if he tried anything again."

"Sasha Ivanov?" Nael questioned. "How the hell do you know him?"

"You aren't friends, are you?" Leal scoffed, and Nael glared at her as if she should have just known the answer.

"The bastard is a drunk. He sent my crew and I on a death mission then stiffed us on the remainder of the bill by saying we damaged the product."

"What was he buying?" Mina innocently asked, but she threw her hands up in surrender when both men shot her a look that told her she crossed a line. "The guns probably won't be there for long, and I'm more than sure the containers they are in are tracked. Maybe even the guns themselves." Nael winked at her, pulling her up by the wrist and bringing her to the deck where he pulled back a tarp that revealed a hidden door.

"There is no signal once they enter the hold, but the distance your talking is a lot of fuel, if I make that trip for nothing-"

"Forget it," Mina interrupted. "I'm not paying for your fuel, and I won't bet my life that the weapons are still there, but if what Leal said is true, there is easily 120 million dollars floating in the middle of nowhere.

As badly as Nael wanted to pursue Mina's claim, he could not risk it, and Leal backed him up saying that they would lose money and men for no reason. Mina could understand that, so she dropped the conversation, but instead of letting her go back to work, Nael told her she needed to practice shooting again.

Mina found herself shooting at a silhouette, and when she started to get frustrated, Nael steadied her arms for her, and showed her the proper way to hold the weapon. That time, she hit the target, and she cheered for herself, but was met with a cold stare. Nael explained to her that shooting people and shooting targets were two different things, but Mina knew that.

Nael took the gun from Mina, winking at her when he realized he had dampened her mood, and she was relieved when he told her that she could leave. She started to run toward the waiting car, but Leal was not on the ship, and she did not have the key to the suite, so she doubled back. As she approached, she could hear Nael talking about her, and why her heart burned with his words, she did not understand. He was nothing but a vile and cruel man, and not even her kindness could change him.

"That square b*tch wishes I would touch her," Nael said.

"I don't know man, you looked like you were enjoying teaching her."

"Whatever as*hole. You got a look at that face of hers; sh*ts nauseating to me. The only way I would be able to f*ck her is if I turned her around." The men who were in the room laughed, and Mina found herself reluctant to enter.

"What the hell is she doing with you then? I know you say it's nothing, but you looked pretty f*cking cozy if you ask me."

"I didn't ask you, and like I said, she's just some sl*t who f*cked with the wrong woman's husband or some sh*t. The scars on her face are proof enough; she's just useful to me right now, so if I have to make her think that we're friends…" Nael let his sentence drop, and Mina imagined the man shrugging.

With all the mental strength she could muster, she stepped into the room, making Nael who had been leaning against a wall stand up straight before walking over to her in a menacing stride.

"I-I-I don't have the key," she blurted out, making Nael skip half a step. She knew he was going to hit her; he had done it to her in the past and he had done it to many other women on board. He was non-discriminate in the way he treated people, and there were not many who were spared from his flying hands; herself included.

"Were you listening to me?" The man asked in a low growl, and not wanting to draw out the inevitable, Mina nodded.

"No time seemed like the right time to interrupt," she said honestly. Mina's eyes glanced at the men who were sitting on the couch, and each one was wearing a grin that told her they were enjoying what they were seeing. They were not crew members, but she had seen them before.

Without warning, Nael fisted her hair, and Mina shut her eyes tightly, waiting for a slap to come but instead she could feel the man's hot breath on her face. He barked his orders at her, making her lips quiver as he berated her as a 'scarred b*tch who was lucky he was letting her occupy his space.' He released her hair with a shove that made her stumble backward, and the small sense of comradery that she had developed with the man shriveled away and died.

"I'm not giving you my f*cking key, if you can't get in, you can sleep outside until one of us gets back." Mina nodded, and in that moment, she realized that Nael was embarrassed about sharing a suite with her. His entire outburst was to prove that he was not attracted to her, but she did not care about that, all she cared about was the way he was treating her, and, in that moment, Mina decided that he would regret every word.

Mina left the range, climbing into the waiting car with a depressed expression that the driver picked up, but wisely ignored. He rode the ferry across with her, and when she got to the room, she curled up outside of it, just as Nael had suggested. The man who was with her, did not take his eyes off her, but she did her best not to make eye contact with him lest she cry.

"You know, you could always just leave the ship. I don't know what you're running from, but it can't be worse than whatever you're going through now."

"It's much worse," Mina admitted. "The only thing waiting for me back there is heartache or death, and to be quite honest, I'm so used to being miserable that it just feels normal now."

----

Leal returned to the ship late in the evening. It was windy and rainy and all he wanted to do was plop down into his bed and rest, but the sight of a curled-up Ami, in front of the captain's cabin drained his exhaustion away, and he found himself jogging in her direction. She was soaked, and it was obvious she had been outside of the room for a long time. She had a man's jacket shielding her head from the rain, but he was sure it had leaked through based solely on the water dripping from her face. Quickly, he opened the door, and Ami literally crawled inside.

"Where is my brother? Why didn't he give you the key?" Leal questioned.

"He said I should wait outside."