Markus was a little drunk. “I’m not mad at you, Gabs.”
She took his arm. “I’m not mad at you either. I mean, depending. Have you done anything I don’t know about?”
With a laugh, he said, “Noooo!”
“Markus,” she said, “I know you’re drunk, but in all seriousness, I’m going to finish this mission and get us our jobs back.”
“Gabby—” He let her name hang in the air, not jumping up and down with enthusiasm about her proposal, but also not saying no.
“Are you in?”
“Do I have to be?”
“Actually, yes. Our cover is all about the wedding. You can’t give up before me.”
“You could switch me out for Phil.”
“Markus.” She stopped walking.
Halfway back to the cottage, he relented. “Might as well. What else am I going to do, fly home and meal prep?”
She laughed a little too hard. “Your lunches are so dumb. All those little containers.”
“You know you’re jealous,” he teased.
“Of course I’m jealous.”
At the door to the honeymoon cottage, her stomach flip-flopped with nerves. After their day from hell—attempted murder, her mom and Phil arriving, all the spying, and now getting thrown off the case—she couldn’t handle awkwardness with him too. But it was inevitable.
The porch light cut across his face, leaving him partially illuminated. “Markus, don’t sleep on the couch tonight. I don’t know what we’re doing, but I don’t want to be alone in bed. I hate this awkwardness.” When he didn’t jump in with a response, she said, “We don’t have to do anything. I just…”
“Me too, Gabs. It’s been a lot. Let’s just—”
“I just want to lie down, shut my eyes, and forget our troubles for a few hours.”
He reached out. “I’ve got you. I want that too.”
Five minutes later, she lay with her head on Markus’s chest as he pulled her in close. With his warm, solid body pressed against hers, she was overcome by a sense of peace, especially after their hot mess of a day. Lying to her family, lying to the people at the resort, lying to Markus.
Remembering how she’d started the day following him around, ready to report him to Valentina, filled her with shame. She squeezed him harder, overcome by tenderness. If they made it through today, what couldn’t they do?
0600 hours, waking up with regret, the honeymoon cottage
Gabby woke up before Markus. In the light of a new day, her uncertainty was gone. She’d had a decent amount of sleep, a satisfying cuddle, and was ready to Be More, Do More her way out of this mess. No one was going to save Gabby’s ass but Gabby, so she might as well get to it.
The Top Gun action hero always went rogue and got fired until they saved the day, and the boss saw how great they were and begged them to come back. When she thought about it, she was just following the script. Lose big. Win big. Get hired back.
She buzzed Geeves for coffee and breakfast because, if you have a butler, you should use him.
“Markus.” She walked back into the bedroom with a cup of coffee for him. “Are you ready to save the day?”
He rolled in her direction without sitting up. In a tired voice, he said, “Gabby, we’re government employees.”
“Not anymore,” she reminded him cheerfully. “It’s time to get up and action hero our way back into your ex-wife’s good graces and catch us some bad guys.” Her voice crackled with a little toomuch energy, like she’d finally accessed her Inner-G and added caffeine.
Markus gave a muffled laugh but sat up enough to accept the coffee.
After she’d chugged three G-shots and wolfed down some sort of high-protein, raw, vegan something or other, she gave Markus a salute because that’s how keyed up she was. Risking prison to save their jobs and the mission was hitting her harder than a couple of lines of coke, energy-wise.
