“What about him?” Jasmine said as if she’d never given the man a second thought.
Gabby would have face-palmed if her hands weren’t tied behind her back. After all that, the president had nothing to do withit. Amanda’s murder and attacking Sheridan—it was all about protecting Inner-G’s reputation. One spot-on Substack piece had caused all the trouble. How many followers had Amanda even had?
“You know, Jasmine, you can’t blame G completely. If you’d talked to him, he would have known—”
“Would have known that I had spent all the money he wanted for that stupid movie, and I’d killed a reporter to protect myself?” She shook her head.
“What are you going to do, kill us all? There are a lot of people on this boat, Jasmine.” Markus looked at her seriously.
She didn’t respond.
“And how are you going to explain this?” Markus asked. “Have you thought of that?”
“Yep. I think it’s plausible that you two undercover idiots and Genesis get in a big fight after he realizes who you are. There’s a struggle, the boat catches on fire, somehow, and… I’m the only survivor.”
“It seems like there could be a simpler solution than lighting a brand-new yacht on fire and burning us all alive.” As Gabby said this, she recalled her conversation with Phil. If Jasmine sank the ship, she could collect the insurance and get out from under her North Korean debt. It sounded crazy, but that hadn’t stopped anyone yet this week.
And thanks to Gabby, Jasmine might just get away with it. Last time Gabby had talked to Valentina, she’d told her that Naomi and Jasmine needed immunity and that Genesis was behind everything.
“Jasmine!” A yell came from the other side of the boat. It was Genesis.
She muttered a swear word and growled before composing herself. “Yes, baby,” Jasmine said. “I’m coming.”
For a split second, it seemed like G was in on it, until Jasmine muttered, “I should have given his three-hundred-pound ass more drugs.”
She pointed a finger at them like a mom telling them to behave themselves. “Don’t get into trouble. I’ll be right back.”
As her footsteps faded, Markus whispered, “We’re about to do that wedding game where the groom gets up under the bride’s dress and rips off the garter with his teeth.”
“I’ve always hated that one,” Gabby said.
“Can you help me? Move in this direction. I don’t have free hands here.”
From the other side of the boat, Jasmine’s voice was rising in pitch.
Gabby spread her legs and tented her dress as best she could. Markus wormed his way under the full white skirt until he got to the thigh holster.
“This would have been nice yesterday,” Gabby joked. She shivered at the touch of his lips along the tender skin of her thigh. He planted a kiss in response. “Later, baby,” he said.
“Promise?”
“Mm-hmm. Let’s just take care of the bad guys first.” Apparently, there was nothing like the threat of death to show two people what matters more in life.
From across the boat, they heard Jasmine and Genesis still talking.
“Hurry,” Gabby gasped.
“You can’t hurry me when I’m between your legs.” His voicewas muffled because he was so busy doing other things, but she understood him well enough.
“Ohmygod, Markus. The knife is on the outside of my thigh!”
“Oops, yeah. Just going on muscle memory down here.”
Gabby maneuvered one leg over his head, and he gripped the handle between his teeth and managed to get it out of the holster. He backed out from under her skirt with a knife between his teeth.
“Here. Come over here, and I’ll try to saw through those cords.”
Before Markus had finished, Jasmine yelled, “I want a divorce, G!”
