Friends Wanting Benefits (16 page)

"What about those who don't go ashore?" A woman at the table asked.

"Well, yes, we'll setup scanning stations throughout the ship and then later that day we'll actually come to individual cabins to obtain any prints we're missing."

"Is this for all passengers?"

"Of course, children under the age of thirteen will be excluded, but we will be fingerprinting everyone else, including women." Waterbrook put his hand on Victoria's wrist and smiled. "While Agent Wilde was assisting us with our initial investigation something she said made us realize we were being shortsighted by not considering female subjects."

Jillian glared at Victoria then reflexively kicked her under the table.

"Ouch." Agent Wilde looked to Jillian and they shared a snide look.

"You all right?" The captain asked.

"Oh, yes, sorry…" Victoria shook her head and winced, "... leg cramp. I get them sometimes."

The remainder of the dinner was spent with Jillian picking at her food, pounding drinks and glaring at Victoria while the rest of the group discussed the miracles of technology in assisting investigations along with assorted police cases they had seen profiled on shows like
48 Hours
and
Dateline NBC
.

As coffee was being served, Waterbrook smiled. "Maybe tonight's special edition of The Love and Marriage Game will help take our minds off this unpleasant business— at least for the remainder of the night."

"Oh crap." Jillian muttered under her breath.

Ethan asked, "What's happening tonight?"

"Our three authors and their spouses will compete in a celebrity version of our famous game— it's like the newlywed game… For mature audiences only." He flashed the group a raised eyebrow grin.

George leaned over to Jillian. "You didn't tell me about this."

"I forgot." She gave him an apologetic shrug.

"Unfortunately, I'm going to have to miss all the fun. We still have some last minute tasks to attend to in order to prepare for tomorrow's mass fingerprint collection." Waterbrook frowned. "Many of my crew will again be pulling an all-nighter."

Jillian fired off a mouth curling, eye narrowing glare at Victoria.

The captain checked his watch then directed a grin to the celebrity authors. "You all have about thirty minutes before your big game, you might want to relax before the embarrassing questions start, but remember no cheating."

All except the guilty party and the pretend agent shared a laugh as everyone rose from their chairs and moved away from the table.

Jillian marched over to Victoria, pulled her aside and whispered, "What the hell did you say to him?"

"I really don't know." She shrugged.

"Great, just great! And why the hell are you quoting training scenes from
An
Officer and a Gentleman
"

"I don't know. I panicked."

Jillian sighed. "Can you believe they're still working on this damn thing?"

Victoria rubbed her hands together. "Maybe… maybe I could—"

"What, you think you're going to flash him your boobs or give him a blowjob and he's going to forget all about this?"

"I do give an excellent blow job." Victoria tilted her head to the side and put on an uneasy smile.

"I'm sure." Jillian rolled her eyes. "But somehow I don't think that's going to work."

"It might."

"No, I've got to put an end to this now. I'm going to tell him." Turning, Jillian headed away and called out, "Captain?"

Victoria took off after her and grabbed her shoulder. "Wait."

"What?"

"I'm going with you. I'll tell him it was me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, um, it'll be fine." Victoria shrugged. "I'm sure he won't be too upset and they can call off the whole thing and…"

"You would really do that for me?" Jillian asked.

"Sure, it was my idea and I think—"

"Great." Jillian grabbed Victoria's hand and yanked her toward the captain.

In Captain Waterbrook's office, he gazed wide-eyed and smiling to Jillian and Victoria as they sat in chairs in front of his desk. "So, what can I do for you ladies?"

Jillian cleared her throat. "We, um, we believe that you should call off this investigation."

"What? Why?"

The two ladies shared an uneasy look.

"We think that the incident was just a misunderstanding… A case of mistaken identity if you will." Victoria gave him a timid smile.

"So you know who it is?" Waterbrook leaned over the desk and looked pointedly to Agent Wilde.

"Uh, well…" Victoria motioned with a few head nods and widened eyes toward Jillian.

Jillian scoffed. "And
this
is you telling him you did it!"

Victoria leaned to Jillian and whispered in her ear.

Waterbrook watched as the two exchanged angry looks and muffled whispers until they sat back in their respective chairs and folded their arms.

"Well it was
your
idea," Jillian said.

Victoria sighed. "I figured you could at least tell your husband from an old man. I mean, who mistakes—"

"Ladies… What's going on here?"

The two women once again exchanged dirty looks.

"Mrs. Grayson…" Narrowing his eyes, he turned his attention to Jillian. "Do you have something to tell me?"

"It was me okay?" Jillian raised her palms in the air. "I was just trying to surprise my husband and things went horribly wrong."

"What?" The captain shot her a mystified look.

"It was all her idea." Jillian nodded toward Victoria with an angry glare.

"You see my boyfriend and I enjoyed a little…" Victoria motioned apologetically with hands, "… alone time in your steam room a few days ago."

"You did what?"

"Yeah, and Jillian here was sorta going through a rough patch in her marriage and I, um, I told her this might help," Victoria explained, her eyes pleading for understanding.

"So, was that you in the robe on Monday's security footage?" He looked to Victoria.

She nodded, embarrassed. "Um, yeah..."

"And it was you on Wednesday?" He pointed to Jillian.

"Yes," Jillian admitted.

His stunned expression moved from Victoria to Jillian then back to the agent. "This investigation has disrupted this cruise, cost the line at least twenty thousand dollars in overtime and put an unbelievable amount of stress on everyone aboard."

"We know and we're sorry." Victoria said as she moved to the edge of her seat.

"Yes, we're sorry." Jillian gave him an apologetic look.

"You're sorry?" He scoffed.

The each nodded, grimacing.

"You're sorry." Spinning his chair until he faced the wall, he looked to the ceiling and exhaled deeply. "This is…" With his blood obviously boiling and his face turning red, he spun back and looked pointedly at Victoria. "I assume that the F.B.I. does not know you use your position with the agency in this manner."

"Well…" Victoria cringed. "That's another thing, um, I'm not—"

"What?"

"I'm not actually with the F.B.I." She cringed, dreading his reaction.

"What!" His face turned a deeper shade of red.

"I was just trying to save you the work of looking through all the picture and, um—"

"Uh-huh." He picked up the phone and dialed a number.

"What are you doing?" Jillian asked.

Staring at the two criminals, he spoke into the phone. "Yes, I need you to escort two prisoners to the brig."

"I told you they still had a brig." Victoria turned to Jillian and frowned.

"You can't do this," Jillian said with as much authority as she could muster.

He hung up the phone and glared at them. "You are onboard my ship and on my ship I am the judge and jury. When we return to San Juan you will be handed over to local authorities and I believe charged as international terrorists."

"International terrorists?" Victoria scoffed. "For blowing my boyfriend in the steam room?"

"No!" Waterbrook groaned. "For impeding this investigation, lying to security personnel… for impersonating an F.B.I. agent and yes, for performing a sex act in a public place!"

"Well, that's just ridiculous." Victoria shot him a snarky look.

"I assure you that the Puerto Rican government will treat this matter with the utmost seriousness."

Clutching her chest, Jillian closed her eyes. "Oh my God."

"Don't worry." Victoria said.

"Don't worry?" Jillian shot her a horrified look. "Have you even seen Bridget Jones'
The Edge of Reason
?"

"What?"

"The second Bridget Jones movie— the one where she gets sent to a third world jail." Jillian widened her eyes in a panic. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to be locked up in a crappy jail in some foreign country."

"Oh, yeah…" Victoria's eyes brightened then after a few moments she frowned. "That movie wasn't very good. The first one was so much better… So funny."

Jillian nodded casually. "You're right I did like the first one a—"

"Ladies!" Waterbrook snarled. "Could you please shut up?"

"Sorry." Victoria replied sheepishly then curled her lip.

"Yeah, sorry," Jillian replied.

"Captain, sir…" Victoria put on a sexy smile, "… isn't there some way that maybe I could reimburse you for the overtime and we could just all forget about this little incident?"

"No, I don't think so."

Jillian and Victoria exchanged concerned looks then Victoria's expression brightened. She rubbed her chin and said casually, "Okay, I suppose when all the details come out about this whole thing that the executives over at Royal International Cruises won't have any issue with you letting a phony F.B.I. agent have complete access to your ship and all its critical computer systems."

"What?" Suddenly alarmed, the captain sat up straight.

"I mean, you didn't check my credentials or anything, but I'm sure they'll be just fine with that." She looked to Jillian. "Don't you think?"

"Oh, now I'm sure that won't raise any red flags," Jillian replied sarcastically.

The door opened and two security officers entered the room.

One of the officers asked skeptically, "These are the prisoners?"

"Uh…" Waterbrook looked like a deer caught in headlights as he seemingly attempted to process the potential backlash of the situation.

"Captain?"

"Return to your stations. I'll call if I need you." Waterbrook waved them away with his hand.

The three waited in silence until the officers backed out of the room and closed the door.

"I guess when we're interrogated I'll just have tell them all about how I simply flashed you a little skin and you gave me the keys to the castle." Victoria shrugged. "I'm sure your bosses won't care."

Wearing a hopeful smiled, Jillian moved to the edge of her seat as Victoria sat back in her chair and folded her arms wearing a smug look.

Waterbrook sighed and ran his hands over his face. "You know, I think maybe I overreacted a bit. No sense in getting the authorities involved unnecessarily."

"I think you're right." Victoria replied.

"So we can go?" Jillian asked.

"Yes," he grumbled.

Jillian rose from her seat as Victoria asked, "Just one more question."

"What is it?" He sighed.

"You mentioned the brig… Is it like a jail with bars or is just some room with a locking door?"

"It has bars." Waterbrook looked at her confused. "Why?"

"Oh, good." Victoria smiled. "Do you think… now feel free to say no, but I sorta have this prison fantasy, you know, the whole guard slash prisoner thing…"

"No, I don't know Miss Wilde." Waterbrook gazed at her, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, you see since your…" she made quote marks with her fingers, "… jail has bars, the prison guard could present his… his… let's call it a baton, if you will, through the bars and the prisoner could, you know, service it."

"Uh-huh." Waterbrook and Jillian shared a mystified look.

"Or…or..." Victoria poked a finger in the air. "I could play the guard and Ethan could be the prisoner. That would be kind of hot too." After shrugging, she looked to him wide-eyed. "So what do you think?"