She’d never been more frightened in her life. Every day she worked in the shop, waiting for Scott Trydent to approach. Every evening she locked up, went home and waited for the phone to ring. Jonas said little. She no longer knew what he did with the hours they were apart, but she was aware that he was planning his own move, in his own time. It only frightened her more.
Two days passed until her nerves were stretched thinner and tighter than she would have believed possible. On the beach, people slept or read novels, lovers walked by arm in arm. Children chattered and ran. Snorkelers splashed around the reef. She wondered why nothing seemed normal, or if it ever would again. At sundown she emptied her cash box, stacked gear and began to lock up.
“How about that drink?”
Though she’d thought she’d braced herself for the moment when it would begin, Liz jolted. Her head began to throb in a slow, steady rhythm she knew would last for hours. In the pit of her stomach she felt the twist come and go from panicked excitement. From this point on, she reminded herself, she had no room to panic. She turned and looked at Scott. “I was wondering if you’d come back.”
“Told you I’d be around. I always figure people need a couple of days to mull things over.”
She had a part to play, Liz reminded herself. She had to do it well. Carefully, she finished locking up, then turned back to him. She didn’t smile. It was to be a business discussion, cut-and-dried. “We can get a drink over there.” She pointed to the open-air thatched-roof restaurant overhanging the reef. “It’s public.”
“Suits me.” Though he offered his hand, she ignored it and began to walk.
“You used to be friendlier.”
“You used to be a customer.” She sent him a sideways look. “Not a business partner.”
“So…” She saw him glance right, then left. “You’ve mulled.”
“You need a diver, I need money.” Liz walked up the two wooden stairs and chose a chair that had her back to the water. Seconds after she sat, a man settled himself into a corner table. One of Moralas’s, she thought, and ordered herself to be calm. She’d been briefed and rebriefed. She knew what to say, how to say it, and that the waiter who would serve them carried a badge and a gun. “Jerry didn’t tell me a great deal,” she began, and ordered an American soft drink. “Just that he made the drop and collected the money.”
“He was a good diver.”
Liz swallowed the little bubble of fear. “I’m better.”
Scott grinned at her. “So I’m told.”
A movement beside her had her glancing over, then freezing. A dark man with a pitted face took the chair beside her. Liz knew he wore a thin silver band on his wrist before she looked for it.
“Pablo Manchez, Liz Palmer. Though I think you two have met.”
“Señorita.” Manchez’s thin mouth curved as he took her hand.
“Tell your friend to keep his hands to himself.” Calmly, Jonas pulled a chair up to the table. “Why don’t you introduce me, Liz?” When she could do no more than stare at him, he settled back. “I’m Jonas Sharpe. Liz and I are partners.” He leveled his gaze to Manchez. This was the man, he thought, whom he’d come thousands of miles to see. This was the man he’d kill. Jonas felt the hatred and the fury rise. But he knew how to strap the emotions and wait. “I believe you knew my brother.”
Manchez’s hand dropped from Liz’s and went to his side. “Your brother was greedy and stupid.”
Liz held her breath as Jonas reached in his pocket. Slowly, he pulled out his cigarettes. “I’m greedy,” he said easily as he lit one. “But I’m not stupid. I’ve been looking for you.” He leaned across the table. With a slow smile, he offered Manchez the cigarettes.
Manchez took one and broke off the filter. His hands were beautiful, with long spidery fingers and narrow palms. Liz fought back a shudder as she looked at them. “So you found me.”
Jonas was still smiling as he ordered a beer. “You need a diver.”
Scott sent Manchez a warning look. “We have a diver.”
“What you have is a team. Liz and I work together.” Jonas blew out a stream of smoke. “Isn’t that right, Liz?”
He wanted them. He wasn’t going to back off until he had them. And she had no choice. “That’s right.”
“We don’t need no team.” Manchez started to rise.
“You need us.” Jonas took his beer as it was served. “We already know a good bit about your operation. Jerry wasn’t good at keeping secrets.” Jonas took a swig from the bottle. “Liz and I are more discreet. Five thousand a drop?”
Scott waited a beat, then held a hand up, signaling Manchez. “Five. If you want to work as a team, it’s your business how you split it.”
“Fifty-fifty.” Liz spread her fingers around Jonas’s beer. “One of us goes down, one stays in the dive boat.”
“Tomorrow night. Eleven o’clock. You come to the shop. Go inside. You’ll find a waterproof case. It’ll be locked.”
“So will the shop,” Liz put in. “How does the case get inside?”
Manchez blew smoke between his teeth. “I got no problem getting in.”
“Just take the case,” Scott interrupted. “The coordinates will be attached to the handle. Take the boat out, take the case down, leave it. Then come back up and wait exactly an hour. That’s when you dive again. All you have to do is take the case that’s waiting for you back to the shop and leave it.”
“Sounds smooth,” Jonas decided. “When do we get paid?”
“After you do the job.”
“Half up front.” Liz took a long swallow of beer and hoped her heart would settle. “Leave twenty-five hundred with the case or I don’t dive.”
Scott smiled. “Not as trusting as Jerry.”
She gave him a cold, bitter look. “And I intend to stay alive.”
“Just follow the rules.”
“Who makes them?” Jonas took the beer back from Liz. Her hand slipped down to his leg and stayed steady.
“You don’t want to worry about that,” Manchez advised. The cigarette was clamped between his teeth as he smiled. “He knows who you are.”
“Just follow the coordinates and keep an eye on your watch.” Scott dropped bills on the table as he rose. “The rest is gravy.”
“Stay smart, Jerry’s brother.” Manchez gave them both a slow smile. “Adios, señorita.”
Jonas calmly finished his beer as the two men walked away.
“You weren’t supposed to interfere during the meeting,” Liz began in a furious undertone. “Moralas said—”
“The hell with Moralas.” He crushed out his cigarette, watching as the smoke plumed up. “Is that the man who put the bruises on your neck?”
Her hand moved up before she could stop it. Halfway to her throat, Liz curled her fingers into a ball and set her hand on the table. “I told you I didn’t see him.”
Jonas turned his head. His eyes, as they had before, reminded her of frozen smoke. “Was it the man?”
He didn’t need to be told. Liz leaned closer and spoke softly. “I want it over, Jonas. And I don’t need revenge. You were supposed to let me meet with Scott and set things up by myself.”
In an idle move, he tilted the candle on the table toward him and lit it. “I changed my mind.”
“Damn you, you could’ve messed everything up. I don’t want to be involved but I am. The only way to get uninvolved is to finish it. How do we know they won’t just back off now that you’ve come into it?”
“Because you’re right in the middle, and you always have been.” Before she could speak, he took her arm. His face was close, his voice cool and steady. “I was going to use you. From the minute I walked into your house, I was going to use you to get to Jerry’s killer. If I had to walk all over you, if I had to knock you out of the way or drag you along with me, I was going to use you. Just the way Moralas is going to use you. Just the way the others are going to use you.” The heat of the candle flickered between them as he drew her closer. “The way Jerry used you.”
She swallowed the tremor and fought against the pain. “And now?”
He didn’t speak. They were so close that he could see himself reflected in her eyes. In them, surrounding his own reflection, he saw the doubts and the defiance. His hand came to the back of her neck, held there until he could feel the rhythm of her pulse. With a simmering violence, he pulled her against him and covered her mouth with his. A flare that was passion, a glimmer that was hope—he didn’t know which to reach for. So he let her go.
“No one’s going to hurt you again,” he murmured. “Especially not me.”
It was the longest day of her life. Liz worked and waited as the hours crawled by. Moralas’s men mixed with the vacationers on the beach. So obviously, it seemed to Liz, that she wondered everyone else didn’t notice them as though they wore badges around their necks. Her boats went out, returned and went out again. Tanks and equipment were checked and rented. She filled out invoices and accepted credit cards as if there were some importance to daily routine. She wished for the day to end. She hoped the night would never come.
A thousand times she thought of telling Moralas she couldn’t go through with it. A thousand times she called herself a coward. But as the sun went down and the beach began to clear, she realized courage wasn’t something that could be willed into place. She would run, if she had the choice. But as long as she was in danger, Faith was in danger. When the sun went down, she locked the shop as if it were the end of any ordinary day. Before she’d pocketed her keys, Jonas was beside her.
“There’s still time to change your mind.”
“And do what? Hide?” She looked out at the beach, at the sea, at the island that was her home. And her prison. Why had she never seen it as a prison until Jonas had come to it? “You’ve already told me how good I am at hiding.”
“Liz—”
She shook her head to stop him. “I can’t talk about it. I just have to do it.”
They drove home in silence. In her mind, Liz went over her instructions, every point, every word Moralas had pushed at her. She was to follow the routine, make the exchange, then turn the case with the money over to the police who’d be waiting near the dock. She’d wait for the next move. And while she waited, she’d never be more than ten feet away from a cop. It sounded foolproof. It made her stomach churn.
There was a man walking a dog along the street in front of her house. One of Moralas’s men. The man whittling on her neighbor’s porch had a gun under his denim vest. Liz tried to look at neither of them.
“You’re going to have a drink, some food and a nap,” Jonas ordered as he steered her inside.
“Just the nap.”
“The nap first then.” After securing the lock, Jonas followed her into the bedroom. He lowered the shades. “Do you want anything?”
It was still so hard to ask. “Would you lie down with me?”
He came to her. She was already curled on her side, so he drew her back against him and wrapped her close. “Will you sleep?”
“I think so.” In sleep she could find escape, if only temporarily. But she didn’t close her eyes. “Jonas?”
“Hmm?”
“After tonight—after we’ve finished, will you hold me like this again?”
He pressed his lips to her hair. He didn’t think he could love her any more. He was nearly certain if he told her she’d pull away. “As long as you want. Just sleep.”
Liz let her eyes close and her mind empty.
The case was small, the size of an executive briefcase. It seemed too inconspicuous to be the catalyst for so much danger. Beside it, on the counter of Liz’s shop, was an envelope. Inside was a slip of paper with longitude and latitude printed. With the slip of paper were twenty-five one-hundred-dollar bills.
“They kept their part of the bargain,” Jonas commented.
Liz merely shoved the envelope into a drawer. “I’ll get my equipment.”
Jonas watched her. She’d rather do this on her own, he reflected. She’d rather not think she had someone to lean on, to turn to. He took her tanks before she could heft them. She was going to learn, he reminded himself, that she had a great deal more than that. “The coordinates?”
“The same that were in Jerry’s book.” She found herself amazingly calm as she waited to lock the door behind him. They were being watched. She was aware that Moralas had staked men in the hotel. She was just as certain Manchez was somewhere close. She and Jonas didn’t speak again until they were on the dive boat and had cast off. “This could end it.” She glanced at him as she set her course.
“This could end it.”
She was silent for a moment. All during the evening hours she’d thought about what she would say to him, how she would say it. “Jonas, what will you do?”
The flame of his lighter hissed, flared, then was quiet. “What I have to do.”
The fear tasted like copper in her mouth, but it had nothing to do with herself and everything to do with Jonas. “If we make the exchange tonight, turn the second case over to Moralas. They’ll have to come out in the open. Manchez, and the man who gives the orders.”
“What are you getting at, Liz?”
“Manchez killed your brother.”
Jonas looked beyond her. The sea was black. The sky was black. Only the hum of the motor broke the silence. “He was the trigger.”
“Are you going to kill him?”
Slowly, he turned back to her. The question had been quiet, but her eyes weren’t. They sent messages, posed argument, issued pleas. “It doesn’t involve you.”
That hurt deeply, sharply. With a nod, she followed the shimmer of light on the water. “Maybe not. But if you let hate rule what you do, how you think, you’ll never be free of it. Manchez will be dead, Jerry will still be dead and you…” She turned to look at him again. “You’ll never really be alive again.”
“I didn’t come all this way, spend all this time, to let Manchez walk away. He kills for money and because he enjoys it. He enjoys it,” Jonas repeated viciously. “You can see it in his eyes.”
And she had. But she didn’t give a damn about Manchez. “Do you remember telling me once that everyone was entitled to representation?”
He remembered. He remembered everything he’d once believed in. He remembered how Jerry had looked in the cold white light of the morgue. “It didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“I suppose you change the rules when it’s personal.”
“He was my brother.”
“And he’s dead.” With a sigh she lifted her face so that the wind could cool her skin. “I’m sorry, Jonas. Jerry’s dead and if you go through with what you’ve planned, you’re going to kill something in yourself.” And, though she couldn’t tell him, something in her. “Don’t you trust the law?”
He tossed his cigarette into the water, then leaned on the rail. “I’ve been playing with it for years. It’s the last thing I’d trust.”
She wanted to go to him but didn’t know how. Still, no matter what he did, she was beside him. “Then you’ll have to trust yourself. And so will I.”
Slowly, he crossed to her. Taking her face in his hands, he tried to understand what she was telling him, what she was still holding back. “Will you?”
“Yes.”
He leaned to press a kiss to her forehead. Inside there was a need, a fierce desire to tell her to head the boat out to sea and keep going. But that would never work, not for either of them. They stood on the boat together, and stood at the crossroads. “Then start now.” He kissed her again before he turned and lifted one of the compartment seats. Liz frowned as she saw the wet suit.
“What are you doing?”
“I arranged to have Luis leave this here for me.”
“Why? We can’t both go down.”
Jonas stripped down to his trunks. “That’s right. I’m diving, you’re staying with the boat.”
Liz stood very straight. It wouldn’t do any good to lose her temper. “The arrangements were made on all sides, Jonas. I’m diving.”
“I’m changing the arrangements.” He tugged the wet suit up to his waist before he looked at her. “I’m not taking any more chances with you.”
“You’re not taking chances with me. I am. Jonas, you don’t know these waters. I do. You’ve never gone down here at night. I have.”
“I’m about to.”
“The last thing we need right now is for you to start behaving like an overprotective man.”
He nearly laughed as he snapped the suit over his shoulders. “That’s too bad, then, because that’s just what we’ve got.”
“I told Manchez and Trydent I was going down.”
“I guess your reputation’s shot when you lie to murderers and drug smugglers.”
“Jonas, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
He strapped on his diver’s knife, adjusted his weight belt, then reached for his mask. “Maybe not. And maybe you’re not in the mood to hear this. I care about you. Too damn much.” He reached out, gripping her chin. “My brother dragged you into this because he never wasted two thoughts about anyone else in his life. I pulled you in deeper because all I was thinking about was payback. Now I’m thinking about you, about us. You’re not going down. If I have to tie you to the wheel, you’re not going down.”
“I don’t want you to go.” She balled her fists against his chest. “If I was down, all I’d think about was what I was doing. If I stay up here, I won’t be able to stop thinking about what could happen to you.”
“Time me.” He lifted the tanks and held them out to her. “Help me get them on.”
Hadn’t she told herself weeks before that he wasn’t a man who’d lose an argument? Her hands trembled a bit as she slipped the straps over his shoulders. “I don’t know how to handle being protected.”
He hooked the tanks as he turned back to her. “Practice.”
She closed her eyes. It was too late for talk, too late for arguments. “Bear northeast as you dive. The cave’s at eighty feet.” She hesitated only a moment, then picked up a spear gun. “Watch out for sharks.”
When he was over the side, she lowered the case to him. In seconds, he was gone and the sea was black and still. In her mind, Liz followed him fathom by fathom. The water would be dark so that he would be dependent on his gauges and the thin beam of light. Night creatures would be feeding. Squid, the moray, barracuda. Sharks. Liz closed her mind to it.
She should have forced him to let her go. How? Pacing the deck, she pushed the hair back from her face. He’d gone to protect her. He’d gone because he cared about her. Shivering, she sat down to rub her arms warm again. Was this what it was like to be cared for by a man? Did it mean you had to sit and wait? She was up again and pacing. She’d lived too much of her life doing to suddenly become passive. And yet… To hear him say he cared. Liz sat again and waited.
She’d checked her watch four times before she heard him at the ladder. On a shudder of relief, she dashed over to the side to help him. “I’m going down the next time,” she began.
Jonas pulled off his light, then his tanks. “Forget it.” Before she could protest, he dragged her against him. “We’ve got an hour,” he murmured against her ear. “You want to spend it arguing?”
He was wet and cold. Liz wrapped herself around him. “I don’t like being bossed around.”
“Next time you can boss me around.” He dropped onto a bench and pulled her with him. “I’d forgotten what it was like down there at night. Fabulous.” And it was nearly over, he told himself. The first step had been taken, the second one had to follow. “I saw a giant squid. Scared the hell out of him with the light. I swear he was thirty feet long.”
“They get bigger.” She rested her head on his shoulder and tried to relax. They had an hour. “I was diving with my father once. We saw one that was nearly sixty.”
“Made you nervous?”
“No. I was fascinated. I remember I swam close enough to touch the tentacles. My father gave me a twenty-minute lecture when we surfaced.”
“I imagine you’d do the same thing with Faith.”
“I’d be proud of her,” Liz began, then laughed. “Then I’d give her a twenty-minute lecture.”
For the first time that night he noticed the stars. The sky was alive with them. It made him think of his mother’s porch swing and long summer nights. “Tell me about her.”
“You don’t want to get me started.”
“Yes, I do.” He slipped an arm around her shoulder. “Tell me about her.”
With a half smile, Liz closed her eyes. It was good to think of Faith, to talk of Faith. A picture began to emerge for Jonas of a young girl who liked school because there was plenty to do and lots of people. He heard the love and the pride, and the wistfulness. He saw the dark, sunny-faced girl in the photo and learned she spoke two languages, liked basketball and hated vegetables.
“She’s always been sweet,” Liz reflected. “But she’s no angel. She’s very stubborn, and when she’s crossed, her temper isn’t pretty. Faith wants to do things herself. When she was two she’d get very annoyed if I wanted to help her down the stairs.”
“Independence seems to run in the family.”
Liz moved her shoulders. “We’ve needed it.”
“Ever thought about sharing?”
Her nerves began to hum. Though she shifted only a bit, it was away from him. “When you share, you have to give something up. I’ve never been able to afford to give up anything.”
It was an answer he’d expected. It was an answer he intended to change. “It’s time to go back down.”
Liz helped him back on with his tanks. “Take the spear gun. Jonas…” He was already at the rail before she ran to him. “Hurry back,” she murmured. “I want to go home. I want to make love with you.”
“Hell of a time to bring that up.” He sent her a grin, curled and fell back into the water.
Within five minutes Liz was pacing again. Why hadn’t she thought to bring any coffee? She’d concentrate on that. In little more than an hour they could be huddled in her kitchen with a pot brewing. It wouldn’t matter that there would be police surrounding the house. She and Jonas would be inside. Together. Perhaps she was wrong about sharing. Perhaps… When she heard the splash at the side of the boat, she was at the rail like a shot.
“Jonas, did something happen? Why—” She found herself looking down the barrel of a .22.
“Señorita.” Manchez tossed his mask and snorkel onto a bench as he climbed over the side. “Buenas noches.”
“What are you doing here?” She struggled to sound indignant as the blood rushed from her face. No, she wasn’t brave, she realized. She wasn’t brave at all. “We had a deal.”
“You’re an amateur,” he told her. “Like Sharpe was an amateur. You think we’d just forget about the money?”
“I don’t know anything about the money Jerry took.” She gripped the rail. “I’ve told you that all along.”
“The boss decided you were a loose end, pretty lady. You do us a favor and make this delivery. We do you a favor. We kill you quickly.”
She didn’t look at the gun again. She didn’t dare. “If you keep killing your divers, you’re going to be out of business.”
“We’re finished in Cozumel. When your friend brings up the case, I take it and go to Merida. I live in style. You don’t live at all.”
She wanted to sit because her knees were shaking. She stood because she thought she might never be able to again. “If you’re finished in Cozumel, why did you set up this drop?”
“Clancy likes things tidy.”
“Clancy?” The name David Merriworth had mentioned, Liz remembered, and strained to hear any sound from the water.
“There’s a few thousand in cocaine down there, that’s all. A few thousand dollars in the case coming up. The boss figures it’s worth the investment to make it look like you were doing the dealing with Sharpe. Then you two have an argument and shoot each other. Case closed.”
“You killed Erika too, didn’t you?”
“She asked too many questions.” He lowered the gun. “You ask too many questions.”
Light flooded the boat and the water so quickly that Liz’s first instinct was to freeze. Before the next reaction had fully registered, she was tumbling into the water and diving blind.
How could she warn Jonas? Liz groped frantically in the water as lights played on the surface above her. She had no tanks, no mask, no protection. Any moment he’d be surfacing, unaware of any danger. He had no protection but her.
Without equipment, she’d be helpless in a matter of moments. She fought to stay down, keeping as close to the ladder as she dared. Her lungs were ready to burst when she felt the movement in the water. Liz turned toward the beam of light.
When he saw her, his heart nearly stopped. She looked like a ghost clinging to the hull of the boat. Her hair was pale and floating out in the current, her face was nearly as white as his light. Before his mind could begin to question, he was pushing his mouthpiece between her lips and giving her air. There could be no communication but emotion. He felt the fear. Jonas steadied the spear gun in his arm and surfaced.
“Mr. Sharpe.” Moralas caught him in the beam of a spotlight. Liz rose up beside him. “We have everything under control.” On the deck of her boat, Liz saw Manchez handcuffed and flanked by two divers. “Perhaps you will give my men and their prisoner a ride back to Cozumel.”
She felt Jonas tense. The spear gun was set and aimed. Even through the mask, she could see his eyes burning, burning as only ice can. “Jonas, please.” But he was already starting up the ladder. She hauled herself over the rail and tumbled onto the deck, cold and dripping. “Jonas, you can’t. Jonas, it’s over.”
He barely heard her. All his emotion, all his concentration was on the man who stood only feet away. Their eyes were locked. It gave him no satisfaction to watch the blood drain from Manchez’s face, or the knowledge leap frantically into his eyes. It was what he’d come for, what he’d promised himself. The medallion on the edge of his chain dangled and reminded him of his brother. His brother was dead. No satisfaction. Jonas lowered the gun.
Manchez tossed back his head. “I’ll get out,” he said quietly. The smile started to spread. “I’ll get out.”
The spear shot out and plowed into the deck between Manchez’s feet. Liz saw the smile freeze on his face an instant before one formed on Jonas’s. “I’ll be waiting.”
Could it really be over? It was all Liz could think when she awoke, warm and dry, in her own bed. She was safe, Jonas was safe, and the smuggling ring on Cozumel was broken. Of course, Jonas had been furious. Manchez had been watched, they had been watched, but the police had made their presence known only after Liz had been held at gunpoint.
But he’d gotten what he’d come for, she thought. His brother’s killer was behind bars. He’d face a trial and justice. She hoped it was enough for Jonas.
The morning was enough for her. The normality of it. Happy, she rolled over and pressed her body against Jonas’s. He only drew her closer.
“Let’s stay right here until noon.”
She laughed and nuzzled against his throat. “I have—”
“A business to run,” he finished.
“Exactly. And for the first time in weeks I can run it without having this urge to look over my shoulder. I’m happy.” She looked at him, then tossed her arms around his neck and squeezed. “I’m so happy.”
“Happy enough to marry me?”
She went still as a stone, then slowly, very slowly drew away. “What?”
“Marry me. Come home with me. Start a life with me.”
She wanted to say yes. It shocked her that her heart burned to say yes. Pulling away from him was the hardest thing she’d ever done. “I can’t.”
He stopped her before she could scramble out of bed. It hurt, he realized, more than he could possibly have anticipated. “Why?”
“Jonas, we’re two different people with two totally separate lives.”
“We stopped having separate lives weeks ago.” He took her hands. “They’re not ever going to be separate again.”
“But they will.” She drew her hands away. “After you’re back in Philadelphia for a few weeks, you’ll barely remember what I look like.”
He had her wrists handcuffed in his hands. The fury that surfaced so seldom in him seemed always on simmer when he was around her. “Why do you do that?” he demanded. “Why can’t you ever take what you’re given?” He swung her around until she was beneath him on the bed. “I love you.”
“Don’t.” She closed her eyes as the wish nearly eclipsed the reason. “Don’t say that to me.”
Shut out. She was shutting him out. Jonas felt the panic come first, then the anger. Then the determination. “I will say it. If I say it enough, sooner or later you’ll start to believe it. Do you think all these nights have been a game? Haven’t you felt it? Don’t you feel anything?”
“I thought I felt something once before.”
“You were a child.” When she started to shake her head, he gripped her tighter. “Yes, you were. In some ways you still are, but I know what goes through you when you’re with me. I know. I’m not a ghost, I’m not a memory. I’m real and I want you.”
“I’m afraid of you,” she whispered. “I’m afraid because you make me want what I can’t have. I won’t marry you, Jonas, because I’m through taking chances with my life and I won’t take chances with my child’s life. Please let me go.”
He released her, but when she stood, his arms went around her. “It isn’t over for us.”
She dropped her head against his chest, pressed her cheek close. “Let me have the few days we have left. Please let me have them.”
He lifted her chin. Everything he needed to know was in her eyes. A man who knew and who planned to win could afford to wait. “You haven’t dealt with anyone as stubborn as you are before this. And you haven’t nearly finished dealing with me.” Then his hand gentled as he stroked her hair. “Get dressed. I’ll take you to work.”
Because he acted as though nothing had been said, Liz relaxed. It was impossible, and she knew it. They’d known each other only weeks, and under circumstances that were bound to intensify any feelings. He cared. She believed that he cared, but love—the kind of love needed to build a marriage—was too much to risk.
She loved. She loved so much that she pushed him away when she wanted to pull him closer. He needed to go back to his life, back to his world. After time had passed, if he thought of her he’d think with gratitude that she had closed a door he’d opened on impulse. She would think of him. Always.
By the time Liz was walking toward the shop, she’d settled her mind. “What are you going to do today?”
“Me?” Jonas, too, had settled his mind. “I’m going to sit in the sun and do nothing.”
“Nothing?” Incredulous, Liz stared at him. “All day?”
“It’s known as relaxing, or taking a day off. If you do it several days running, it’s called a vacation. I was supposed to have one in Paris.”
Paris, she thought. It would suit him. She wondered briefly how the air smelled in Paris. “If you get bored, I’m sure one of the boats could use the extra crew.”
“I’ve had enough diving for a few days, thanks.” Jonas plopped down on a chaise in front of the shop. It was the best place to keep an eye on her.
“Miguel.” Liz automatically looked around for Luis. “You’re here early.”
“I came with Luis. He’s checking out the dive boat—got an early tour.”
“Yes, I know.” But she wouldn’t trust Miguel to run the shop alone for long. “Why don’t you help him? I’ll take care of the counter.”
“Bueno. Oh, there were a couple of guys looking at the fishing boat. Maybe they want to rent.”
“I’ll take a look. You go ahead.” Walking back, she crouched beside Jonas. “Keep an eye on the shop for me, will you? I’ve got a couple of customers over by the Expatriate.”
Jonas adjusted his sunglasses. “What do you pay per hour?”
Liz narrowed her eyes. “I might cook dinner tonight.”
With a smile, he got up to go behind the counter. “Take all the time you need.”
He made her laugh. Liz strolled down the walkway and to the pier, drinking up the morning. She could use a good fishing cruise. The aqua bikes had been ordered, but they still had to be paid for. Besides, she’d like the ride herself. It made her think of Jonas and his unwanted catch a few weeks before. Liz laughed again as she approached the men beside her boat.
“Buenos días,” she began. “Mr. Ambuckle.” Beaming a smile, Liz held out a hand. “I didn’t know you were back. Is this one of your quick weekend trips?”
“That’s right.” His almost bald head gleamed in the sun as he patted her hand. “When the mood strikes me I just gotta move.”
“Thinking about some big-game fishing this time around?”
“Funny you should mention it. I was just saying to my associate here that I only go for the big game.”
“Only the big game.” Scott Trydent turned around and pushed back his straw hat. “That’s right, Clancy.”
“Now don’t turn around, honey.” Ambuckle’s fingers clamped over hers before she could move. “You’re going to get on the boat, nice and quiet. We have some talking to do, then we might just take a little ride.”
“How long have you been using my dive shop to smuggle?” Liz saw the gun under Scott’s jacket. She couldn’t signal to Jonas, didn’t dare.
“For the past couple of years I’ve found your shop’s location unbeatable. You know, they ship that stuff up from Colombia and dump in Miami. The way the heat’s been on the past few years, you take a big chance using the regular routes. It takes longer this way, but I lose less merchandise.”
“And you’re the organizer,” she murmured. “You’re the man the police want.”
“I’m a businessman,” he said with a smile. “Let’s get on board, little lady.”
“The police are watching,” Liz told him as she climbed on deck.
“The police have Manchez. If he hadn’t tried to pull a double cross, the last shipment would have gone down smooth.”
“A double cross?”
“That’s right,” Scott put in as he flanked her. “Pablo decided he could make more free-lancing than by being a company man.”
“And by reporting on his fellow employee, Mr. Trydent moves up in rank. I work my organization on the incentive program.”
Scott grinned at Ambuckle. “Can’t beat the system.”
“You had Jerry Sharpe killed.” Struggling to believe what was happening, Liz stared at the round little man who’d chatted with her and rented her tanks. “You had him shot.”
“He stole a great deal of money from me.” Ambuckle’s face puckered as he thought of it. “A great deal. I had Manchez dispose of him. The truth is, I’d considered you as a liaison for some time. It seemed simpler, however, just to use your shop. My wife’s very fond of you.”
“Your wife.” Liz thought of the neat, matronly woman in skirted bathing suits. “She knows you smuggle drugs, and she knows you kill people?”
“She thinks we have a great stockbroker.” Ambuckle grinned. “I’ve been moving snow for ten years, and my wife wouldn’t know coke from powdered sugar. I like to keep business and family separate. The little woman’s going to be sick when she finds out you had an accident. Now we’re going to take a little ride. And we’re going to talk about the three hundred thousand our friend Jerry slipped out from under my nose. Cast off, Scott.”
“No!” Thinking only of survival, Liz made a lunge toward the dock. Ambuckle had her on the deck with one shove. He shook his head, dusted his hands and turned to her. “I’d wanted to keep this from getting messy. You know, I switched gauges on your tanks, figuring you’d back off. Always had a soft spot for you, little lady. But business is business.” With a wheezy sigh, he turned to Scott. “Since you’ve taken over Pablo’s position, I assume you know how to deal with this.”
“I certainly do.” He took out a revolver. His eyes locked on Liz’s. When she caught her breath, he turned the barrel toward Ambuckle. “You’re under arrest.” With his other hand, he pulled out a badge. “You have the right to remain silent…” It was the last thing Liz heard before she buried her face in her hands and wept.