54. Jasmine
Jasmine felt a flutter of excitement as Edgar led her to the bar, her eyes widening at the sight of Marina and Larissa, both decked out in beautiful evening dresses. The women were accompanied by two hunky guys, who were hovering over them like bees over honey.
”Jasmine.” Marina pursed her lips. ”You look absolutely stunning. Are you attending the wedding tonight?”
”I am.” Jasmine grinned. ”Amanda convinced her brother to let me out of the lower decks dungeon. And I have to say that you ladies look gorgeous.” She slanted a glance at Edgar. ”Ed, these are my friends, Marina and Larissa. Ed is my escort to the party tonight.”
He wrapped his arm around her waist. ”I hope that I am much more than that.”
”Of course, darling.” She turned to kiss the side of his face. ”But you are my escort tonight because I wouldn”t be attending the wedding if you didn”t invite me as your date.”
He cast her an amused look before turning to the men. ”Peter, Jay, this is Jasmine. The lady we rescued from the drug cartel.”
”Everyone on this ship knows who you are.” The dark-haired one who was standing next to Marina extended his hand. ”You are famous, Jasmine. I”m Peter, and it”s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I”m glad that we got to you in time.”
She put her hand in his and smiled. ”Not as glad as I am. If not for Margo and your security team, my life, as I know it, would have been over. I would have become the plaything of a mobster until he tired of me and got rid of me, and by getting rid, I don”t mean letting me go free.”
Jasmine shivered.
She didn”t like to think of what would have happened to her if she hadn”t befriended Margo and been rescued along with her. One thing was certain. She would never have touched a tarot deck again or lit white candles asking for true love.
”I”m Jay.” The blond guy, who looked a little like David Beckham, offered her his hand. ”I”m glad that you are not going to be swimming with the fishes anytime soon.”
Marina gasped at his crude comment, but Jasmine laughed. ”Yeah, I”m glad too.”
As she sat down next to the women at the bar, Edgar joined the two men, and the six of them continued chatting. Jasmine tried to rein in her flirtatious persona, but it was so second nature to her that she didn”t know how to act differently, especially around men.
It was so easy and fun to engage in playful banter, so entertaining to make even the most stoic of males melt with a simple bat of her lashes or a well-timed laugh. She knew the power of her own charm and felt helpless not to use it.
Perhaps she could channel Edna.
After all, as an actress, she should be able to assume any role she pleased, but what was the fun in acting so dry and reserved? Edna was a young woman, but she acted as if she was ancient.
Jasmine meant nothing by her lighthearted banter, and it was too enjoyable to flex her flirting powers over men to stop.
Still, her charms seemed to be lost on Peter, whose eyes never left Marina”s face. The intensity of his stare sent a shiver down Jasmine”s spine. There was something there, a connection that ran deep, a bond that made her a little jealous.
Did Edgar look at her this way? Like she was the most wonderful creature in the world, and he was happy to bask in her glow?
Casting him a sidelong glance, she caught him looking at her with annoyance in his eyes instead of the adoration she”d hoped for. Obviously, Ed didn”t like the way she was interacting with the other men, but he should have known that her flirting was harmless.
She smiled and cupped his cheek. ”Can you be a dear and get me a drink, please?”
”Of course. What would you like?”
”A classic margarita, please. With salt.”
As Ed turned to the bartender and placed the order, Jay gave Jasmine a suggestive smile, his gaze roving over her figure with an appreciative gleam that made her skin prickle with awareness.
If she wanted to, she could have him wrapped around her little finger in no time, but she wouldn”t, and not just because she was with Ed.
Larissa”s eyes followed Jay”s every move, the longing and adoration in her gaze so plain and raw that it made Jasmine”s heart ache. The poor girl was clearly enamored with the handsome guy, and her feelings were written all over her face for anyone to see.
Jay, on the other hand, was either oblivious or simply not interested in anything serious with her. Curiously, though, his attention wandered to Jasmine but not to Marina. It was probably because he considered Peter his friend and didn”t wish to antagonize him.
Did it mean that Jay and Edgar were not on friendly terms?
Maybe there was some bad blood between them and that was why Jay was allowing himself to pay Jasmine so much attention even though she was with Ed?
”Here you go.” Edgar handed her the margarita and then turned to the other two men. ”We should go.”
Jay glanced at his watch and nodded. ”Fifteen minutes to show time.” He leaned over and kissed Larissa”s cheek. ”I”ll be back for you in about forty-five minutes to an hour. Don”t go anywhere.”
”I be here,” she said in heavily accented English.
Peter leaned over Marina, but instead of kissing her cheek, he took her mouth in a passionate kiss as if he was leaving her for weeks and not less than an hour.
Ed was less inclined to make a public show of affection and just pecked Jasmine”s cheek. ”Be good,” he murmured against her ear.
She laughed. ”The term good can refer to a lot of things.”
He didn”t look amused.
As Edgar and the other men excused themselves, leaving Jasmine alone with Marina and Larissa, she lifted the glass to her lips and took a grateful sip.
”So, now that I”m finally allowed to attend a wedding, can you tell me who is getting married?”
Marina and Larissa exchanged looks, and then Marina shook her head. ”I”m sorry. We can”t tell you.”
”Can you at least tell me if it”s anyone famous?”
Marina hesitated and then shook her head. ”Not that I know of, but I”m new to this country, and I don”t know all the famous people here.”
Jasmine was impressed. She”d thought that Marina had been in the US for many years. ”Your English is very good. Where did you learn to speak it so well?”
”I started back in Russia, and I kept practicing for long hours after we got here.”
Jasmine knew better than to ask again how they had found their way to the US and got work on the cruise ship. When she”d asked her poker buddies, she”d been told that it was confidential.
Even after being allowed on the upper decks, Jasmine still had a nagging sense that something wasn”t quite right, and that she had no idea what was really going on. When she asked questions and tried to probe for information, she once again found herself running up against a wall of secrecy and evasion.
Looking nervous, Larissa said something in Russian to Marina while her fingers were plucking at the fabric of her dress, the same one she had worn the night before.
Marina laughed and clapped her friend on her back. ”Larissa is not happy about wearing the same dress two nights in a row,” she translated for Jasmine. ”I told her that Jay doesn”t mind.”
Larissa mumbled something under her breath and blushed profusely.
”What did she say?” Jasmine asked.
”That Jay only cares about taking the dress off her.”
As the three of them laughed, Marina turned to her. ”So, how did you and the handsome Edgar meet?”
”He”s the helicopter pilot who flew Kevin over to the mobster yacht. We talked a little on the way to the ship, but then I didn”t see him until yesterday when he suddenly came down to see me and brought me delicious food from the wedding party.”
Marina regarded her with a wicked gleam in her eye. ”I”ve heard that he left your cabin early this morning.”
”You”ve heard right.”
”Good for you.” Marina let out a whoop of laughter, her hand coming up for a high five that Jasmine met with a grin. ”Life is too short to wait for pleasure.”
”I”ll drink to that.” Jasmine lifted her margarita glass.
As they giggled and gossiped like schoolgirls, with Marina translating for Larissa, who was too tipsy to concentrate on finding the right words, Jasmine still couldn”t shake off the nagging sense of unease.
There was something different about Marina and Larissa. Jasmine was no stranger to girl talk, and women usually had much more to say about their lovers, their friends, and their life in general than those two were sharing.
Maybe it was the difference in cultures.
She tried to probe deeper, to ask about their pasts, their families, the places they had come from. But each time, she was met with vague, evasive answers, a polite but firm deflection that left her feeling even more frustrated and confused.
”We”re from a remote region of Russia that is near Finland,” Marina finally said after being asked for the umpteenth time where they were from. ”You”ve probably never heard of it.”
Jasmine decided to let it go.
It was just no use.
And then there was the matter of the nondisclosure agreement that, for some reason, no one had mentioned to her.
Margo had told her that everyone on the ship was supposedly required to sign one and that she wouldn”t be allowed to mingle with the guests without it.
And yet, Jasmine hadn”t been asked to sign anything.
Heck, no one had even told her what she could and couldn”t say about her time on board.
Things didn”t add up, and the more Jasmine thought about it, the more worried she became. There were too many secrets and too many unanswered questions.
Thankfully, it wouldn”t be long before the ship docked back in Los Angeles, and she would be back on solid ground and in control of her own life.
But what if the cartel was looking for her?
Julio Modana had been made to forget about her, but what about Carlos? Kevin hadn”t hypnotized the other brother, who was supposed to be even more evil than Julio. What if he decided to come after her?
Jasmine shivered, her hand coming up to rub at her arm as a sudden chill raced down her spine. She needed to talk to Kian and find out what he knew. He seemed to be the only one with any real answers.