“Excellent!” Alice exclaimed. “Even better work.”
Saturday night, Velvet Underground Speakeasy
The mob boss takedown in the back had certainly broken up the party but not completely. While the bartender played the piano, Lady Eleganza Le Tuck was slow dancing with a wrinkled, sloppy drunk, his face pressed into her bosom.
Gabby pulled up the ride-sharing app on her phone, but stopped herself before she finished ordering the car. Not that he’d want to give her a ride after she tied him up, but she couldn’t help but scan the bar for Markus. When there was no sign of him, she went back to her phone.
Betty sidled up to the booth. “You need a ride, girlfriend?”
“Yes, please.”
“Give me five minutes, and we can go home together.”
While Betty wrapped up a few things, Gabby googled “did I break a rib?” As she took some deep breaths to see if it caused pain, a queen who was about six inches taller than anyone else in the room took the mic from the drunken banker and called out, “Any of y’all men in uniform looking for a date tonight?”
After what seemed like an hour but was probably five minutes, Betty strode across the bar with several bags and a sense ofpurpose. “Get your stuff, babe. Let’s get out of here. I gotta get home to Hugh.”
“Thanks so much for your help tonight.” It was going to go down as an epic event that finance guys would talk about for years to come.
As Gabby slid out of the booth, she scanned the room, but there was still no sign of Markus. It was just as well. She was a grown-ass woman with kids, with no business acting like a teenager.
“So I take it you weren’t doing a regular executive assistant job this week?” Betty angled for more information.
“Yeah.” There was no point denying the EOD job given that Betty had seen several arrests. “It was more of a… CIA thing.”
She fanned her face. “Dear lord. This is just too good. Don’t tell me all at once because I want to savor it.”
Gabby winced as she tried to walk down the stairs.
“Are you going to need something to sleep tonight? I think I have some Vicodin from when Hugh had that root canal.”
“I might not even need it.” She hadn’t slept all week.
As they schlepped out to the parking lot, Markus caught up to them. “Gabby, hold up.”
Gabby’s breath caught in her throat. “I thought you’d already left,” she said, relief swamping her at the sight of him. It wasn’t like he’d run through the airport to stop her from leaving forever, but here she was feeling it, just a little.
“I saw you perform,” Markus said to Betty, “you have a gorgeous voice.”
Betty blushed and pressed her hand to her heart. “Aren’t you sweet,” she said, suddenly sounding like a Southern belle.
“I thought you were lip-synching?” Gabby said.
“Of course I was lip-synching, but don’t act like that’s not athing. I still can’t believe Ashlee Simpson was canceled for it. I do ‘Pieces of Me’ in her honor sometimes.”
“That’s… thoughtful.” Markus turned his focus to Gabby. “Anyway, I was thinking you might need a ride. I know you came with Fran.”
“Actually—”
Betty bodychecked her toward Markus. “That’s a great idea, Markus. Gabby’s house is really out of the way for me.”
Before she knew it, Gabby was headed for Markus’s car, her nerves on fire with awareness of him, her brain screaming that this was going to be awkward.
Markus made a show of opening the passenger-side door for her and waited until she had buckled before carefully shutting it. The feeling of being treated like a lady, especially by a man as handsome as Markus, was unsettling. She was a double agent one minute, a princess the next, and about to go home to be a Croc-wearing, lunch-making mom. It was enough to give a girl whiplash.
He started up the car and changed the playlist from what must have been his pump-up music to Sade, and he cut his eyes her direction. What was happening?
It’s not like she’d ever been relaxed around Markus, but the last few times she’d seen him had been… less than perfect. Yesterday, she had ripped out her earpiece and given him the silent treatment. Today, she’d drugged and zip-tied him. But before that, there was the kiss. Gabby stared forward at the road. “So… uh.”
