Chapter 2 - The Locked Cabin
Gregory slowly raised both hands.
“You knew about the bat.”
Ashlynn kept the barrel angled toward the floor.
“I knew your father carried one in his car.”
“My father is dead.”
“That’s what he wanted people to believe.”
Gregory’s eyes moved toward the bedside telephone.
Ashlynn noticed.
“Don’t.”
“You can’t keep me trapped here.”
“You locked the door.”
His jaw tightened.
The honeymoon suite had been designed for romance.
Champagne chilled beside two crystal glasses. White luggage rested near the wardrobe. A handwritten welcome card sat beside the telephone.
None of it felt romantic now.
Gregory had locked the door after Ashlynn refused to sign a document he removed from his suitcase.
He called it a marital protection agreement.
It granted him authority over her medical care, personal accounts, and legal decisions if she became “emotionally unstable.”
When Ashlynn laughed, Gregory’s expression changed.
He reached into the suitcase.
The bat had belonged to his father, Senator William Mercer, a celebrated businessman and decorated former intelligence adviser who had supposedly died in a plane crash three years earlier.
Gregory said the bat reminded him that every Mercer man knew how to enforce respect.
Then he swung it at his bride.
Ashlynn crossed the room and removed the key card from Gregory’s trouser pocket.
He did not resist.
Not while she held the weapon.
“You planned this,” he said.
“I planned to marry you.”
“Why?”
“To find out what your family did.”
Gregory forced a laugh.
“You’re insane.”
Ashlynn reached into the open suitcase and removed the old photograph.
She placed it on the bed.
Gregory looked at it.
His face lost color.
“Where did you find that?”
“Under the false lining.”
“You searched my things.”
“You attacked me with a bat.”
He stared at the younger version of his father standing near the aircraft.
Then he looked at Ashlynn.
Her hair was shorter in the photograph. She wore an unmarked tactical uniform and carried no visible insignia.
“You were military?”
“Marine Corps.”
“You told me you worked in logistics.”
“I did.”
Gregory pointed at the armed men beside her.
“Who are they?”
“Three Marines who never came home.”
His voice weakened.
“And my father?”
“The man who made sure no one looked for them.”
Gregory shook his head.
“My father served this country.”
Ashlynn looked toward the distant Florida coastline.
“So did we.”
A sudden knock struck the locked cabin door.
Three measured taps.
Then a man’s voice said:
May you like
“Mr. Mercer, your father would like a word.”
👉 Gregory’s dead father was apparently aboard the ship—and Ashlynn had known he would come.
