Making Waves Read Online Free Page B

squealed in protest, then popped loudly as the man waved his hands to the crowd.
    “Hey, hey, hey! Welcome to the CoCo Bar, boys and girls. How many happily married couples do we have with us tonight?”
    There were a few whoops and shrieks from the crowd, along with some steely looks from people clearly not pleased with the interruption. Undeterred, the emcee plunged onward.
    “You know the drill, kids! It’s time for the CoCo Bar’s weekly Newlywed Game. A thousand dollars to our top couple tonight, so someone’s walking out of here with some nice pocket change. If you want to play, throw your hands in the air and our screener will come over and ask you just a few little questions.”
    The crowd’s enthusiasm was underwhelming. One drunk guy sitting alone in the front row put his hand in the air. Someone in the corner belched. Most of the other guests went back to eating coconut shrimp and sipping drinks with umbrellas.
    Juli looked at Alex. A thousand dollars? Even split two ways, that was a lot of cash. After the Feds had seized Uncle Frank’s assets, what he’d left her had barely covered her airfare down here.
    “Want to play?” she asked, taking a sip of her drink.
    He stared at her. “Hi, I’m Alex. We just met. I believe you’re confusing me with someone you’ve exchanged rings with.”
    “Don’t be a spoilsport, it’s easy,” Juli said, raising her hand. “You’ve seen how these things are played. We just need a system beforehand so we have a shot at picking the right answers.”
    “Are you nuts?”
    “No, are you married or here with a girlfriend or something?”
    Alex flinched. “No.”
    Interesting , Juli thought, and wondered if there was a story there.
    “Then there’s no problem here if you aren’t already attached,” she pointed out. “The first question is number one. That means if it’s a multiple-choice question, you go with the first one. If the answer has to be a random word, make it start with the first letter of the alphabet. If the answer has to be a number—”
    “Right, I get it,” Alex said, reaching across the table to pull her hand down. “I just don’t think we should—”
    “For the second question, we go with two. The answer is two or starts with a B or—”
    “Hey there, you two,” chirped a perky blonde in a pink halter top with a clipboard in her hands. Juli admired the product of several thousand dollars’ worth of plastic surgery, blinking against the blinding whiteness of the woman’s teeth. She rested her manicured hand on Juli’s shoulder and kept right on chirping. “We’re having a tough time getting volunteers tonight, so if you’re reasonably sane, you’re up. How long have you been married?”
    “We’re on our honeymoon,” Juli chirped right back, taking a sip of her drink. She stole a look at Alex, whose expression suggested he was dubious about the sanity requirement.
    “You know how this game works?” the blonde asked.
    Juli beamed. “Absolutely.”
    The woman turned her attention to Alex. “How about you, gorgeous? You ready to do this?”
    For a brief moment, Juli wasn’t sure what he’d say. Hell, she couldn’t believe she was roping him into it, but now that the ball was rolling, she didn’t want to stop. She gulped the rest of her drink and signaled the waiter for another, wondering if she’d be doing this without all the liquid courage.
    She looked at Alex and felt her stomach do a somersault of lust. Probably.
    He met her eyes, his expression unreadable. A thousand dollars , Juli mouthed, giving him her best smile. He shook his head and took a swallow of beer. Then he tipped the bottle at her.
    “Come on, honey . Let’s kick some ass.”
    ***
    Three weeks ago, Alex had been sitting in a stuffy office reviewing a fifty-six-page report on shipping export trends in East Asia. Now here he was, penniless and jobless, sitting on a lopsided stage on a Caribbean island, preparing to hijack a cargo ship as he faked