𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 | 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

０１３．

Grey was the first one to notice the running makeup on Ren's neck after he had unceremoniously tossed her off of the lower deck of the yacht and into the ocean below.

He'd grabbed her arm and dragged her to the cabin, signaling at Vanessa to follow them, and had stood her in front of a mirror without a word as she cringed upon realizing just how noticeable the hickeys had become.

And he'd remained wordless as Vanessa had set to fixing the carefully-blended foundation at Ren's throat, repairing it until her skin again appeared completely unblemished.

"So, I tell you to be careful with this guy, and your natural response is to take him to bed?" Grey finally whisper-yelled as Ren tied up her hair, careful to keep it from brushing against the makeup.

She rolled her eyes as she turned to him. "I'm a big girl, Grey. I can take care of myself. Promise," she said, holding out her pinky finger in a gesture that they'd considered the law when they were smaller.

Grey just pushed her hand down. "Yeah, don't make any promises you can't keep," he snapped. "Think about who you're dealing with. The crew on the Coastal are so afraid of this family that even Mack won't tell you what they brought or why they're here. They randomly upped and left America to move to a foreign island; don't you think something about this is off? You have to think before you do shit like this."

Part of Ren was irritated solely on the premise that she was an adult and needed no lectures from her him, but another part of her warmed. It had been a long time since Grey had acted like a protective big brother, and Ren missed it. Missed him.

Things had changed since their father had skipped over his eldest son to bestow the inheritance upon Ren instead.

But that fact alone wasn't encouraging enough for her to admit that maybe, just maybe, Grey was right.

"Okay, Grey, I'll make sure to run a background check on all my hookups. My mistake," she said sarcastically, sliding past Grey and dragging a confused Vanessa by the elbow as she left him standing in the cabin.

Ren could see her friend's wheels turning. Could see the question forming on Vanessa's lips, her eyes narrowing as she glanced over.

But before Vanessa could ask anything that Ren wasn't prepared to answer, Medina was waving them over to the lounge chair she sunned herself from, a tray of mimosas resting beside her.

"I know we're returning to port, but I figured I'd send you off with the rest of the mimosas," she said, gesturing half-heartedly toward the tray. "I certainly won't be finishing them."

Vanessa, grinning like a fiend, accepted them eagerly, all questions put out of her mind for the time being. For once, Ren was more than grateful for her mother's interruption. She nodded her thanks as she sat down beside Medina, watching as Sainte-Anne drew nearer.

Soon enough, the boat was docked and Ren was saying goodbye to her family as she led a now-drunk Vanessa back onto the dock and up the daunting hill to her apartment.

"Soooo," Vanessa began, gesturing wildly with her heels in hand as she swayed on her feet, "when you said Rafe was a 'special client', I thought you meant you just wanted to get with him. But it would appear that you not only wanted to get with him, but were participating in... reconnaissance?"

Ren paused, looking at Vanessa with her brows knit in confusion. "What does that even mean?"

"You know," Ness said as she shook her head, shrugging, "Recon. Spy shit. Double-oh-seven. I don't know."

"Dad just wanted to know more about them after they came in on one of the container ships I sell to. I ran into him on the ship, invited him over to see if he'd tell me anything, the rest is history. It's not really that deep," Ren said, intentionally passive, praying that Vanessa would drop it.