𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 | 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

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Ren was unsurprised to find her parents wide awake, laughing over their morning coffee on the balcony as she plopped into a seat between them.

"Dear god, Cal, look at your daughter," her mother crowed to her father as she took stock of Ren's appearance. "What are you wearing, Loren?"

It was all Ren could do not to get back on her feet and walk right back out the door as she let out an exasperated groan. "Shorts, Mom. People don't really wear ball gowns at night clubs. Maybe you should buy a pair or two, spice up your dress collection a little."

Sure enough, Medina Valetta was dressed like a modern-day Marilyn Monroe, even at the crack of dawn. Her auburn hair was in a sleek ponytail, not a strand out of place as she sat primly in her floor-length nightgown and matching robe.

Even Ren could not deny that she looked a little more than scruffy in comparison to her mother.

"You look beautiful, love," her father chimed in, peering at her over the rim of his coffee cup. "In fact," he added, "I think you look especially like your mother today."

Ren and Medina furrowed their brows in twin expressions of disbelief.

Indeed, aside from having inherited her father's almost-black hair, Ren was the spitting image of her mother. Same long legs and slender frame, ski-slope nose and pale, slightly upturned eyes. Though she'd be caught dead before admitting that she and her mother looked so much alike.

She reached across Medina, grabbing her coffee cup and taking a generous sip with an unapologetic grin. "I had to stay at the club all night, but the profit was unreal, Dad," she said between gulps.

To prove her point, Ren set down the mug and pulled her bag into her lap, fishing the hefty wad of cash out and placing it on the table before him.

Cal's brows rose as he took the money, flipping through it as he counted in his head. "Brilliantly done, Renny. I assume you're here for more?"

Ren nodded as she drained her mother's coffee. "Wanted to swing by and replenish my stock before I go to sleep so I can get back to work this afternoon," she explained. "I saw The Coastal had docked on my way over, so I'll need double what I regularly pick up. For a bunch of men working on the ocean, that crew loves their snow."

Cal and Medina exchanged a pointed glance across the table. Ren glanced between her parents, raising her brows as she waited on someone to elaborate. It was Cal who finally did, turning to her and saying, "Speaking of The Coastal... you might have to stay up for a few more hours, love."

With a dramatic sigh, Ren helped herself to her father's coffee as well. She knew better than to argue with her father, but God, she hadn't slept in nearly twenty-four hours. This certainly had to be violating some kind of worker's rights law, even if her job was highly illegal and she was his kid.

Taking his daughter's sigh as acceptance, Cal continued, "There have been some rumors since The Coastal Venture arrived at port earlier this week. Rumors about what it carried and, more intriguingly, who it carried."

He slid his phone across the table, the screen open to show a blurry picture of a family on the ship's deck. Two men, one whose head was tightly bandaged, a blonde woman, and a little girl in glasses. Ren squinted as she looked at the picture a little harder, struggling to put her finger on what about it was so familiar.

"Some of the crew were talking about the family they smuggled out of America. Lots of drama on the trip; the father was almost murdered by a handful of stowaways over something he brought on that boat. Something, it seems, very precious. Worth killing for. I'd like for you to go straight to the Coastal and see if you can get anything directly from the sailors about what went on and what they were transporting. If you can't find information there, look elsewhere. I need you to find out who and what that ship carried."