Chapter 25

Grace lay on her bunk, her foot elevated on a pillow, trying to rest now that Missy had pumped her full of pain meds. It hadn’t been as bad as they’d feared, with only two lacerations that required stitches.

As Grace hovered in that place between waking and sleeping, she kept seeing the great white shark’s eye.

It had been a transcendent moment. Even now, Grace’s chest swelled with something akin to panic, but that wasn’t an apt description. It was more like absolute awe mixed with a sense that something extraordinary had been exchanged between her and the shark.

Just thinking about it made her gasp in disbelief.

She knew it was real. She hadn’t imagined it.

Tears burned her eyes.

I’m not crazy. I’m not.

Hadn’t her father been labeled as such? Hadn’t Grace’s own mother accused him of taking stupid and unnecessary risks for a creature that could hurt him?

Had Grace turned into him?

Maybe Alec was right. And while she was loath to include Brad, maybe they both had a point: she was better off keeping her woo-woo moments with the sharks private. Still, wasn’t it better to relate her experiences in all their raw and authentic pathos to the public? Wasn’t that what grabbed people’s attention?

Grace didn’t want to jeopardize her job. She’d worked too hard to get where she was. If the doc was too fluffy, too out-there, would the board decide she was a liability instead of an asset? Could this somehow jeopardize her work on the array?

The door opened, and Missy entered. “Well, you missed the show.”

Grace dragged open her eyes. “What do you mean?”

Missy sat at the desk chair. “Alec all but spilled the beans about your relationship, and Brad went crazy. The two of them were about to fight it out like school yard bullies when Double D and the others stopped it. It was real caveman shit. All this talk about sharks and their instinctual nature—that primitive side still sits in us as well.”

Grace closed her eyes. There’d be no dealing with Brad now.

“It’s rather romantic, if you ask me,” Missy continued.

Grace sighed and looked at her friend.

“I know,” Missy said. “It’s awkward, unprofessional, maybe a little unethical? Geez, Gracie, you’re not a robot. And Alec was really sticking up for you.”

“Is that how it sounded? That’s not what I was getting from him. He agreed with Brad. I don’t see how seconds later they were in a fight.”

“Turns out Brad was chumming a little too close to us.”

“What?”

“He was wrong to do it, but did it actually make Felix more aggressive?” Missy shook her head. “That’s up for debate.”

What the hell was wrong with Brad? “I’ll tell Stewart when we get back. He’ll want to know why I never want to go on expedition with the man again.”

Missy nodded. “I’ll back you up if needed. Tony saw it. I’m sure he’ll speak up, too.”

Grace remembered that Missy had taken a big leap to get in the water today. “How are you?”

“How am I?” Missy’s aggrieved expression squeezed Grace’s heart. “I’m just glad you’re alive, Gracie.” Her eyes filled with tears.

Grace reached out, and Missy scooted the chair closer and gently clasped her hand, which still stung.

“You got in the water with great white sharks,” Grace said. “I’m so proud of you.”

Missy laughed, then started crying, which she quickly clamped down on. “How are you so calm about all of this?”

“Haven’t you heard?” Grace whispered. “I’m nuts.”

Missy sobered. “No, you’re not. And don’t be so hard on Alec. Underneath it all, he was scared for you. It’s so obvious. I don’t know why you can’t see it.”

Glancing at the top bunk, Grace said, “It’s going too fast. I’m not ready for it.” She glanced at Missy. “It unsettles me.”

“Sometimes I don’t understand you. You brave great white sharks, but you’re going to let a man like Galloway get away?”

Was she?

Grace came awake when a knock vibrated the door. The room was pitch dark.

“Come in,” she said.

It was Alec. “Can we talk?”

She nodded. She must have slept for a while, because now her ankle was really beginning to throb.

He flipped on the desk lamp and sat in the chair that Missy had recently occupied. He’d changed into his North Shore sweatshirt and a long pair of black quick-dry pants. “How do you feel?”

“I’ve been better. I won’t be getting in the water anytime soon.”

Alec raised an eyebrow. “When has that ever stopped you?”

“I hear you got into a fight over my honor.”

“Something like that. We’re not a secret anymore, Grace. I guess I should apologize, but I really don’t care. Well, I do care what you think, but I’m not sorry that we’re together.”

“Is life always so simple for you?”

He laughed. “No. What makes you think that?”

“We’re together? Be real, Alec. This is an expedition fling, and as soon as you go on the next one, you’ll find another girl to romance with your good looks and great personality.”

“You think I have a great personality?” His eyes twinkled with amusement.

She didn’t answer him.

After a long silence, she said, “You don’t believe me about what happened today.”

“That’s not true.”

“But....”

He rubbed a hand behind his neck. “I want to be careful how we portray it in the doc if we use it.”

“If?”

He released a deep exhale. “We’ve got a bit of a problem in our contract. CMI has final say on the film and basically owns all the footage I’ve shot.”

“I don’t understand. What’s the problem?”

“Brad’s the problem. And Fowler. They’ve got a blood-and-guts vision for the film. Fowler claims he’s already got distributors interested.”

“But if CMI has final say, they won’t approve a version that’s not true.”

Alec squinted. “Money does funny things to people. And I’m guessing CMI never has enough funding.”

“That doesn’t make them unethical.”

“I agree. It’s just that today’s events could be slanted one way or another. If we showcase your interpretation, I fear your credibility might suffer.”

Grace quieted. “And the other side?”

“That Bonnie—if it was actually her; Double D’s downloading the footage now—was on the hunt for you. That she stalked you with the intention of killing you.”

“That’s absurd! Stewart and the Board would never go for that.”

Alec’s lack of response told Grace that he thought otherwise.

“So, we’re damned either way,” she said.

“Not entirely,” Alec said quietly. “We have one other option. We can destroy the footage.”

“No!” It was proof of a remarkable interaction. Grace was certain of it. Without the video documentation, it would always just be a funny story she shared at dinner parties.

“No, Alec, please don’t.” She shook her head in emphasis.

The sharks deserved better. Bonnie deserved to be seen as the intelligent creature that she was.

A knock at the door interrupted them.

“It’s me.” Double D’s muffled voice reached them.

“Come in,” Alec called out.

Donovan stepped into the room. “Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds, but you really gotta come see this.”

Alec stood and helped Grace to her feet. Although her ankle pulsated with pain, she could stand on it. Since she was wearing only a thin t-shirt and no bra, Alec pulled off his sweatshirt and offered it to her. Surrounded by his lingering body heat, she settled into the warmth it offered along with the heady aroma of Alec.

God, he smells good.

He wrapped an arm around her waist and guided her to the office crowded with bodies, nothing but black sky visible through the salon windows. Tony, Stephie, Missy, and Mackenzie sat at the table, crowded around a laptop computer screen. Brad and Frank stood to the side, hovering over their shoulders, their expressions unreadable. Corky was pouring a cup of joe from the small coffee maker tucked into the counter above the mini-fridge.

“She lives.” Stephie’s dry tone surprised Grace. She’d never heard the stalwart photographer crack a joke.

Grace gave a rueful laugh. “The sharks haven’t gotten me yet.”

Corky waved a finger at her. “You’re like your father. He took ridiculous risks, too.”

Grace had come to suspect as much. She hobbled into the room using Alec’s arm for support.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Corky added.

Grace smiled. “Thanks.”

Tony jumped up, offering his seat, and Alec guided her into it.

Corky took a sip from his mug, then said, “You’re drawn to the whites as much as your father was, and they to you. Despite the daredevil that seems to run in the Mann lineage, I can honestly say it was a privilege to be in the water with you, Grace. There aren’t many like you out there.”

“Careful, Corky,” Alec cut in. “This might go to her head.”

The older scientist shifted his gaze to Alec, who remained standing beside her. “You’d better do her justice in this film.” Corky’s easy-going countenance had been replaced with a hard-edged stance.

“I will,” Alec said quietly. “I promise.”

Missy spun the laptop towards Grace. “Your magnum opus.”

A video was paused on the screen. Stephie punched the keyboard, starting the playback.

At first, the footage captured blue water and nothing else. Then out of the depths came a shark. And clinging to the top of the missile-made-flesh—or plastered might better describe it—was a tiny figure clad in yellow. She looked like a starfish hitching a ride.

Grace watched closely, goosebumps sprouting on her arms despite the warmth of Alec’s sweatshirt. She was so tiny, and the shark was so big. Her bright wetsuit only served to emphasize the dichotomy of woman and the ancient predator of the deep.

The mouth of the beast was open, the teeth clearly visible in all their savage glory, and without proper context it certainly appeared as if Grace was about to become one more kill in a long list of predations.

Grace scanned the markings, and along with the notches in the dorsal and caudal fins, her savior was identified. “It’s Bonnie.” Her voice conveyed the reverence due to the Queen of the Deep Blue. No creature was her equal, not even man.

Grace swallowed against the lump in her throat.

Double D leaned across Alec and clicked a button, freezing the frame. “Using your height, I was able to extrapolate Bonnie’s size.”

She glanced at Donovan. “How long?”

“She’s at least twenty-four feet.”

“Holy shit,” Grace murmured.

“Holy shit is right!” Double D bellowed. “She’s the biggest shark ever recorded.”

Grace glanced at Alec, willing him to read her thoughts. He couldn’t possibly destroy this footage. It was simply too important from a biological standpoint, regardless of how the incident might be portrayed on film. He held her gaze, and she sensed his ambivalence.

He reached out and clasped her fingers, wrapping his large palm around hers.

“Bonnie helped me for no reason other than she wanted to,” Grace said.

“It is curious,” Corky said. “I heard about the fishing line you removed from Mary Ann, and there was talk that this shark was her, that somehow she remembered you and how you’d helped her. It sounded like a plausible explanation for why she would try to aid you. But Bonnie had no vested interest in any of this. It was almost as if she knew Felix was misbehaving and wanted to make things right. It implies a level of intelligence that has easily been attributed to whales and dolphins but never sharks, least of all great whites. I told you that your father and I had sensed this long ago, but we could never prove it. This could have far-reaching implications.”

“This is your movie,” Double D said, looking at Brad and Frank. “Not some preposterous notion that Bonnie was on a killing spree.”

Alec’s hand tensed.

Was he right? Should she be concerned about her reputation if she claimed that she and Bonnie were buddies, that maybe the shark remembered her from the Farallones when she’d sliced into Grace’s neck all those years ago? According to that shaman Grace had spoken to, every scar she had was a mark, a bond between her and that animal, a symbol that she had been chosen.

Had Bonnie recognized a spiritual connection between them?

Would Grace be committing professional suicide by publicly making such claims?

Her sister, Chloe, in her pursuit of information on sperm whales, had recently told her of individuals who operated outside the rules of higher education and research. They jury-rigged apparatus and spent one-on-one time in the water with the whales, making huge strides in understanding the species, but no one in academia took them seriously. Everything they documented was ignored. Their only hope was to take it to the public and beg for funding.

Grace wasn’t sure she was ready for her career to spiral in that direction.

And what of the array? She’d worked damned hard and couldn’t walk away from it. She couldn’t let Brad take credit for a project that ultimately should be attributed to her father. She had to continue to fight for ownership.

Brad shook his head. “You’ll be laughed out of prominent journals. The Institute will probably fire you. You’ll become a joke, Grace.”

She inhaled a deep breath and released Alec’s hand. “I imagine that would make you happy.”

“Why would you say that?” Fowler argued. “We can cut the film to build to the moment when a great white shark becomes altruistic. It won’t be as attention-grabbing as the ‘Monster from the depths tries to eat young, nubile shark researcher,’ but it should garner a lot of buzz.”

Missy craned her neck to look at Frank standing behind her. “Nubile? Seriously? Who uses words like that anymore?”

As a heated, feminist discussion ensued—Stephie being the most vocal—Alec knelt beside Grace.

“Keep the footage,” she said, her voice low. “Let’s think about it before we do something rash.”

He nodded. “We’ve still got one more week out here. What do you want to do?”

Grace considered the options. “Rest a day or two, then tape up my ankle and get in the water.”

He shook his head in exasperation. “Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that.”

“I need to tell Bonnie thank you.”

“Any hope that you’ll do it from the safety of a cage?”

“Nope.”

His green eyes took on a brooding hue. “Then I’ve only got one thing to say.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll be right beside you.”