Page 27 of He Had It Coming

Her head shot up. “What do we do with him now?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. We need to walk through more steps.” I gestured toward the stairs. “Let’s go up.”

She froze as she stared at Jerek’s motionless body, still tied to the chair by his wrists. He laid on his side. One arm dangled in the air due to the rope. Blood seeped out of his leg and chest. It pooled beneath him, staining the gray carpet.

She watched him as if waiting for him to gasp or jackknife and sit up. But it was too late.

“We need to go.” I couldn’t be any clearer.

My comment had her dragging her gaze back to me. She blinked a few times. “Go where?”

She’d never asked about the “after” through all the planning and discussion leading up to today. She shifted responsibility for getting Jerek where he needed to be to me while she handled issues in the office and the Anonymous posts. It didn’t take a business degree to know she moved based on emotion. Hearing her father’s admission sent her spinning in my direction. With the deed done, she’d be looking for cover.

I never credited Jerek with common sense or any other positive trait, but he hadn’t been wrong about Maeve’s intentions going forward. She’d let me take the lead in the scheming because she believed any fallout from today would blow back on me, not her.

Once she snapped out of her stupor, her mind would begin racing. She’d lean into her “real” plan, which was to absolve herself of responsibility. She’d likely call a press conference to point a finger at me.

I wasn’t going to let that happen. “Maeve. Now.”

I walked up behind her, watching her take careful steps as she twitched and glanced over her shoulder. We stepped into the kitchen. The sun lit the enclosed space and gleamed off the stainless-steel appliances.

The boat bobbed in the open water. A sheet of glorious, uninterrupted blue that stretched out for miles in every direction. Sailboats glided across the waves in the distance. White caps filled the horizon. San Diego’s skyline was visible but not within easy reach.

I’d tucked the boat behind a small outcropping of rocks that might have been big enough to call an island. I used them as a shield as I turned off the engine and dropped the anchor. The last thing I needed was some Good Samaritan to think we were stranded and needed help.

“We need to . . . I don’t know. Dump the body? Is that the plan?” Maeve sat down hard on the banquette.

“I told you this was a one-way ride for him. That was our agreement.” If she wanted plausible deniability she’d screwed up. We were way past that point.

“I thought it was tough talk.”

She didn’t. Not possible.

She groaned and put her face in her hands. It was almost a minute before she looked up again. “We have to get back to the marina.”

She really sucked at this. “Soon.”

“What does that mean?”

I checked my watch, then glanced out the window. “The yacht has GPS and that’s a problem for disposing of a body.”

She jumped in the seat. “You didn’t disable it?”

She thought I wasn’t very bright. That much was clear. “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been suspicious.”

Her mouth pulled into a tight line. “You can’t—”

“Stop talking and listen.” Honestly, I wasn’t in the mood for Maeve Hayes to start issuing orders. Dealing with her panic didn’t sound like a great option either. “This boat has been on a pleasure outing all day. The marina security cameras will show it going out and coming in. No sign of Jerek. No dead body. Just an easily traceable trip.”

“No. That’s not possible. We can’t leave him on here to be discovered by someone else.” Her mouth dropped open then closed again. “The cameras at the dock will show Jerek here and us. There’s no way to explain this.”

“I sense a lack of trust in my abilities.”

“This isn’t a joke.”

“No, it’s very serious.” I looked out the tinted window again. “And the way we’re going to handle it is almost here.”

Maeve turned, following my gaze. Her fingers clenched the edge of the table in front of her. “A boat is coming.”