Chapter 15

Stiff and sore, Grace forced herself out of bed. She’d slept in her clothes, so after a quick sniff in the armpit region to assure herself that she could get by in the same outfit, she brushed her teeth, grabbed a navy windbreaker, and slipped on a pair of flipflops.

She gingerly ran her fingertips over the bandage at her neck, the gash stinging, and headed to the galley for tea. Once she had a cup in hand, she went to the upper deck.

Climbing the steep steps—no easy feat while balancing the steaming mug in her right hand—she found Alec fiddling with his drone. His pale blue t-shirt stretched across his broad shoulders, hinting at a coiled physicality, and a flash of deep kisses and sweaty sheets filled her head.

For God’s sake. She wasn’t that starved for a man.

Just for Alec.

“Morning,” she said.

He glanced up, and a grin split his face, warming her much more than the hot tea.

“How you feelin’?” he asked.

Hot and bothered…for you.

“Like I went ten rounds with Muhammad Ali.” She sat on a nearby bench as she tried to get a naked Alec out of her head. It had to be the life-threatening experience. Weren’t sex and death linked somehow?

Leaning over the black flying camera, Alec fiddled with a small screwdriver and a bunch of wires. “Maybe you should stay out of the water today.”

Grace sipped her drink and took in the picturesque, cloud-mottled lavender sky and the glassy ocean surrounding them. She couldn’t have crafted a more perfect moment. The pull of the water and sharks below made the thought of spending even one day topside and not down in the peaceful sea unbearable. Grace almost screamed in frustration.

“No.” Her gaze caught Alec’s.

“You want to talk about it?”

She gifted him with a quizzical tilt of her head, the muscles in her forehead bunching together. About Felix or about us? Was Missy right about Alec’s interest? Uncertainty made her hesitate. But then there’d been that hug after they’d rescued Felix. Surely Alec didn’t embrace every scientist he worked with as if he were desperately happy they were alive.

In the end, she chickened out and opted for the safe route.

“Okay, yes, I’m a little unsettled by the incident yesterday, but I wasn’t afraid to die then and I’m not now. I know Brad thinks I was reckless, but Felix might not have made it otherwise. I could never stand by and watch an animal die, especially if there was something I could do to help it. I’ll always feel this way, until the end of my days.”

“You want to give me a hand?”

She set her mug on the bench seat and kneeled beside Alec.

“Can you hold that covering in place while I secure it?” he asked.

She nodded and did as he asked, moving close enough that she could feel his body heat. She caught a whiff of soap-showered skin and freshly-laundered t-shirt, the pale blue material emphasizing his tan arms. They were nice arms—taut and lean, not too muscular. She liked his hands, too—steady and sure as he twisted the screws into place.

Her lips scrunched into a grimace. She really shouldn’t sit so close to Alec while the word screw flitted through her head.

“Don’t worry, almost done,” he said, misinterpreting her response.

She quickly schooled her features.

“What’s it like to be in a cage with a great white?” he asked, his attention still on the drone.

She swore under her breath, mostly because she was starting to get annoyed by the way her feminine parts came to life around Galloway. “All right, you’ve beaten it out of me,” she said, needing to release some of the frustration. “I was afraid. The power in Felix humbled me right down to my toes. I knew I was up shit creek the moment he blasted into me.”

Alec looked at her, close enough that she could see the changing hue of his eyes—not blue, not green, but something in between.

“You were lucky, Grace.” There was no reproach in his quiet tone, instead the statement sounded almost reverent.

“I was lucky because of you. Don’t think I don’t know that.”

“You should take care,” he added. “Post-traumatic stress and all that.”

Concern gripped her. “Did you have that with Elliott?”

Pain flitted across those lush blue-green eyes that reminded her of an underwater garden. “Yep.” He shifted his focus back to the drone. “I’m done. You can move your hand.”

She reluctantly sat back on her heels.

He shifted to a crouch and examined a different part of the apparatus, taking him farther from her. “If you ever have a bad dream, come find me. We can have a hot chocolate and talk about it.”

It wasn’t exactly a request for a date, but the sincerity in his voice filled Grace with warm anticipation. “Thanks. I’ll remember that.”

Fortunately, she’d slept soundly during the night, her body in need of deep recovery rather than a recounting of the incident that had nearly killed her. She usually never dwelled on the scary encounters she’d had over the years, and her reward was a relatively tame dream world when it came to the sharks. But she didn’t mention that to Alec. She’d never had a friend killed right before her eyes. A chilling reminder that her beloved sharks were, always and forever, wild animals.

But she also knew the truth. Man was the wildest animal of them all. And by far the most lethal.

Alec didn’t get in the water with Grace. While he worked the drone topside, Double D and Stephie went down to record the freedive, which included Tony and Mackenzie. Frank and Missy were in the surface cage, and Brad monitored the array. Three sharks came to visit—two males and a small female—but no Bonnie or, thankfully, Felix. Maybe Felix had decided he’d had enough of human interaction for a while.

The lighting was good, and Alec got a chunk of usable footage of the boat, the rocky shoreline of Guadalupe Island, and the sharks while they were at the surface.

He had just landed the drone when Mackenzie surfaced and climbed onto the diving deck.

“That was amazing,” she said, setting down her mask and snorkel, and then squeezing water from her shoulder-length hair.

“Where’s Grace?”

“She and Tony wanted a few more dives.” She stepped closer to look at the drone. “I’m pretty beat. I’m not quite at their level.” She grabbed a towel and wiped her face. “Did you get some good footage?”

“I think so.”

She stepped closer still, bumping against him. “Could you unzip me?”

She easily could do it herself with the cord attached in the back, but Alec obliged, then returned to inspecting the drone.

Mackenzie wasn’t an unattractive girl, but he was more interested in a certain canary yellow diver currently swimming with great whites below the boat.

He’d been gripped with more than a desire to get sky footage this morning—he’d stayed out of the water because he’d honestly needed a break from worrying about Grace.

Yesterday’s incident kept replaying in his head.

He wavered between gratitude that Grace was safe and wanting to chew her head off for putting herself at risk.

I could never stand by and watch an animal die, especially if there was something I could do....

It seemed better if Double D filmed her today.

“Did Grace really almost die yesterday?” Mackenzie asked, shedding her wetsuit and standing before him in a fairly provocative purple bikini.

He should really tell her to stop trying so hard. Maybe Brad would be interested. Alec glanced through the window of the salon. Michaels sat at the computer, engrossed in whatever was on the screen.

Returning his focus to the drone, Alec replied in a flat tone, “Yes.”

What if she hadn’t come back?

He turned to Mackenzie. “How was she down there?”

The girl seemed a bit taken aback by the intensity of Alec’s gaze. “She seemed fine. It was impressive, actually.”

“What do you mean?”

“The sharks always came to her. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Shit.

He turned and entered the salon, popping the memory card from the drone into his computer. He sat down and started pulling up the playback, so he could review his footage.

He was an underwater filmmaker, for crissakes. Grace’s love of sharks should inspire him. And it had, in the beginning, at least. He needed to get a grip on this irrational fear he had of her getting hurt.

Irrational? That was rich. She’d nearly been killed yesterday.

His fear was completely rational.

Fuck.

Mackenzie trailed after him. At least she had the good sense to wrap a towel around her, although it was probably because of the air-conditioned office more than a need to be modest.

Mackenzie turned to Brad. “Could you see us?”

“Yeah. And I got a good read on human versus shark. Grace’ll want to cross-reference it with Donovan’s footage, but....”

Brad’s voice trailed off, and the tone snapped Alec out of his angry stupor.

“What the hell?” Brad stared at his computer.

Fear crept up Alec’s spine. He stood and looked at the grid outlined on Brad’s desktop screen. “What is it?”

“This can’t be right.” Brad shook his head. “I’m showing twelve sharks right below us.”

Alec slammed open the salon door and ran to the diving deck. Two sharks skimmed the surface near the cage. Erik and Pete were watching the hookah system sending air to Missy and Frank. “Brad says there’s twelve sharks in the water.”

“That might be right,” Erik said. “There was a lot of activity all of a sudden.”

“Where’s Grace and Tony?”

“They just dove again.”

Alec grabbed the radio receiver. “Donovan, do you copy?”

“Roger that.”

“What’s happening?”

“There’s a shitload of sharks down here.”

“Signal Grace and Tony to come up.”

“Roger that.”

“Are they boys or girls?”

“We’ve got one girl, and the rest are males.”

Not good. The males might jockey for position with the female. No one had ever witnessed white sharks mating, but Harry had mentioned that several of the girls they’d seen in the last few weeks were sporting fresh bitemarks, a sure indication of sharks copulating.

“Keep shooting, but get Grace the hell out of there.”

She probably had about three minutes remaining before she’d need to surface, but when sharks were concerned, anything could go wrong in a matter of seconds.

“Are they aggressive?” Mackenzie asked over his shoulder. “I was just down there, and everything was fine.”

Alec was about to grab his wetsuit and a tank when a violent thrashing of caudal fins and sharks created a whirlpool, slapping Alec with water.

Grace’s head, clad in a yellow hood, surfaced just beyond the brouhaha.

“Get out of the water!” Alec yelled.

Tony pulled himself onto the diving deck, sitting as he tried to catch his breath. “There’s a bit of a tussle going on.” He yanked off his diving mask.

Frank and Missy had started to exit the surface cage, Erik and Pete focusing on them. Panic coursed through Alec. He ran along the side of the boat and jumped into the outboard tethered to the Mercado.

Please let the key be in the ignition.

He cast off the lines both fore and aft, and thankfully the key was right where it needed to be. He revved the engine and made a sharp right turn, then crashed through the water toward Grace and cut the engine so hard he fell against the steering wheel.

He moved to the back of the boat and leaned over to reach for her, but a large white moved directly between them, a violent torpedo in the water. Grace’s eyes widened through her mask.

“C’mon, Gracie. I’ve got you.” He extended his hand as far as he could without falling in the water himself.

She spun around when another shark bolted behind her, then bumped her hard, shoving her through the water at least five feet.

“Grace, get the fuck in the boat!”

He was about to jump in the water, knowing it was the worst possible move he could make, when Grace came to her senses and swam quickly to him. He grabbed her hand and yanked her over the side, so hard that she hit the floor head first. He gripped under her shoulders and pulled her upright, her overly-long flippers snagging on the driver’s seat. He wiggled one and then the other off her feet, then sat beside her, breathing heavily.

Coughing, she pushed her mask and hood off and wiped a hand down her wet face. “Wow. That happened fast. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think they were trying to mate.” She paused, her chest rising and falling in rapid succession. “I hope Double D gets it on film.”

Alec reached behind her to unclip the harness that held the go-pro camera between her breasts. She helped remove the straps from her arms and he set the camera aside. Turning, she leaned over the boat.

“I wonder if we could see anything from here,” she said.

The outboard bobbed back and forth in the current, the sun setting as the afternoon began turning to night. Alec watched Grace as she searched the frothy water for sharks. Her face was red, her hair was stuck to her forehead in a clump, and her nose was running.

“You have a booger,” he said.

“What?” Her hand flew to her nose. She turned away from him and started swiping at her nose, first with her fingers and then the back of her hand. When she acquired the culprit, she hung over the boat and washed her hands in the water. She looked back at him and laughed. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to gross you out.”

“You could never do that.”

Another bout of thrashing occurred at the surface, diverting Grace’s attention. She shook her head, mesmerized. “Damn. I wish I could’ve stayed down there. Double D and Stephie got lucky, being in the cage.”

“They’re no doubt close to their bottom time limit.”

“You’re probably right.”

She rolled her shoulders and stretched her neck from side to side.

“How’s your wound?” he asked.

“Good. We had a fantastic day. I wish you’d been there.”

He was glad he hadn’t been. Who would have plucked Grace out of the water before a few white sharks roughed her up, or worse?

“I didn’t think the sharks mated over here,” he said.

“This might not have been mating behavior. Maybe it was just a territorial thing. But wouldn’t it be awesome if they’re out there right now, fornicating? I wonder if she’s an opportunist and goes at it with more than one guy? You know she can store the sperm for later.”

Alec released a long, deep chuckle. As the tension seeped out of him, he sat back and extended his arms along the gunwale, putting an arm around Grace in the process. “This is the strangest conversation I’ve ever had with a woman.”

“You’ve never talked to anyone about sharks doing their sharky thing?” She shifted to a sitting position but maintained her proximity to him.

“You’re gonna be the death of me, Grace Mann.”

“Why would you say that? You’ve surely logged more hours in the water than me.”

“Why didn’t you go to the backup tanks in the submersible?”

She shrugged. “I didn’t think I needed to. It all happened fairly quickly.”

“And you were the common denominator.”

Her blue eyes stared at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Mackenzie said the sharks love to come to you.”

She worried her lower lip. “I guess. What’s so bad about that? I think my yellow wetsuit is working.”

She glanced down at herself, and Alec’s gaze followed, enjoying every curve and contour she possessed.

“Yeah, that must be it,” he murmured, thinking how her modest breasts would fit perfectly in his hands.

“All right, I’m going to tell you a secret.” She squinted toward Guadalupe Island as she spoke. “I don’t have nightmares about sharks, even after something dicey or dangerous occurs, like the Felix thing. But I do dream a lot about them, and more so when I’m in a place where they are, like here. It started when I first went to the Farallones with my dad, when I was a young girl, but it still continues to this day.”

“What are you talking about?”

She looked down at her hands. “I dream about the sharks.”

Alec’s forehead furrowed, and his gaze became fixed on her profile.

She peeked up at him. “I talk to them, Alec,” she whispered. “That’s how I know them.”

He hesitated to answer, sensing that if he gave the wrong response, he’d inadvertently push her away.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she continued, her voice back to normal, then switched to a mocking tone. “She’s so shark happy, she thinks she can talk to them in her dreams.”

She straightened and angled her body towards him. “I’m not crazy, and I’m truly not that shark-obsessed, but I’ve always had some deep kinship with them. I talked to a shaman once, and he explained that some people have an extra ability to hear the wild creatures of the earth, and that, over time, this ability can grow. And no, I can’t chat with great whites while I’m frolicking with them in the water, but I do have some extraordinary dream encounters with them. I used to think they were just dreams, but I’m not so sure now. It’s really weird, but when I dive, I feel like I know them. Or at least some of them. And I think they know me.”

She paused, twisting her hands together.

“I probably shouldn’t have told you that,” she added.

Alec would have kissed her if they weren’t clearly visible to the occupants on the Mercado.

“I’m glad you did. Your sonar array employs deep learning. Maybe we could hook something up to one of the sharks, and you could converse with it?”

She narrowed her gaze and slapped his ribs with the back of her hand.

He laughed. “What?”

“Now you’re teasing me.”

He continued to chuckle, enjoying the levity between them.

“I’ve never told anyone about it, except for the shaman, and my mom, and my sister, Chloe.”

“You never told Brad?” But he already knew the answer.

“Are you kidding? He’d call me a mutant and tell me it was all in my head.”

“What did you ever see in him?”

She slumped back against the seat. “The truth is, I’ve never had much experience with boyfriends. In college, I was usually too busy studying to date. I suppose I was easy pickings for someone like Brad. To be honest, I was flattered by his attention in the beginning.” She shrugged, looking embarrassed.

It was getting dark, and they needed to return to the Mercado, but Alec rather liked having Grace all to himself, her near-miss with the sharks notwithstanding.

“You didn’t want to hire me because I was friends with Michaels.” It was a statement, not a question.

Her gaze softened. Stripped of her armor, her interest in him was raw and stark.

“In the beginning, yes,” she said.

Somebody yelled in their direction from the larger boat, and while Alec couldn’t quite make it out, he knew his time with Grace had come to an end. Reluctantly, he tore his eyes from her, looked past her shoulder, and gave a nod. He stood and went to the captain’s seat.

“I take it you still don’t want me here,” he said over his shoulder.

She laughed. “Now it’s for an entirely different reason,” she said, her voice lower, huskier, the longing unmistakable.

He started the engine and took it slow this time as he drove the outboard back to its berth beside the larger vessel.

But he was in no mood to go slow with Grace any longer. Unfortunately, privacy was in short supply on the crowded Mercado.