by Matt Lincoln
He spun, and the full force of his glare hit me worse than a fist would have. Betrayal and fury reddened his face.
“You’re breaking orders to warn me that you’ll enforce orders?” he growled. “That’s a fine line you’re walking, brother.”
“Tessa is coming with us,” I told him. “Take her camera before she sees the boat, give it back for the dive. I swear to God she won’t screw you over.”
Header stepped close and jabbed his forefinger into my chest. “She better not, Marston. It’ll be your hide if she does.”
He stalked off toward the boathouse. I couldn’t help wondering if we’d still be friends after this mission was over. Telling him about the order meant he could vanish as soon as we were out of sight. I blew out a long breath and ran my hand through my hair.
Bonnie waved at me from the boathouse door with a grand smile. She clutched the shielded canister in her other arm. I summoned a cheerful face… or a grimace. It was hard to tell at the moment.
“What’s up?” I asked.
“I called Joe and TJ,” she informed me. “They have a specialist from the university coming in to help look at the tag you found. We’re also going to play with the water that came in the container, see if there’s a difference between finding something like that in the open ocean with currents and everything versus the stillness of the Blue Hole.”
“Go for it,” I told her. “The thing I need, though, is information about what that tag is and where it’s from. After that, you can do whatever you want with it.”
Her toothy grin was hard to ignore, and I relaxed a little. Until that grin turned evil, and she rubbed her hands like a mad scientist.
“Uh, or maybe dispose of it…”
“Uh-uh.” She laughed. “You said. Seriously, though, it’ll be a good sample for university students.”
“After the case is closed, Bonnie.”
“Yes, of course.” She held the canister out before her. “This baby will be studied with joy.” I shook my head and started toward the Wraith. “With joy, Ethan!”
“With multitudes of joy, Bonnie,” I chuckled. “No mutant species, okay?”
“You never know what will happen with science.”
With that, I excused myself and popped into the boathouse. There wasn’t much left to move from the Wraith, and Header leaned back against the pilot seat with his arms crossed.
“I’ll give you this, Ethan. Your people didn’t pry into my systems when we stepped away.”
I raised a brow. “Of course not. Each of us stands by their word.” I glanced around and saw that our gear was cleared out, but then I looked back to Header. “How do you know they didn’t try to get into your systems?”
The frown lifted a little. “Everything’s on lockdown. If someone messes with something they shouldn’t, they get tased.” Now the frown quirked upward. “I got a guy who wanted the deterrents to be a little more lethal, but we don’t play with lives.”
“A little tasing in the morning won’t hurt most people.” I grinned. “At least not once it wears off.”
“If that girl of yours tries anything, she’ll be the one shaking it off,” he warned. “You tell her to stay out of my way and not to pull any shit. We clear?”
“Copy that,” I answered. A little twinge hit me when I thought of Tessa arriving in a little while. “Once she signs the NDAs and everything, I’ll brief her on the need for secrecy. To be honest, I think she’ll like what you’re doing… but don’t tell her I said that.”
“She doesn’t tell, I won't tell.” Normally, Header would laugh, but he still looked more like a grumpy old seadog. “I will make sure there are no images of my boat on her camera.”
“Totally fair, man.”
“We’re ready to move out,” Holm called from the rear of the boathouse. “Header, you sure you don’t want us to get your tanks filled?”
“I’m sure. I only trust… I only trust certain people.” Pain flashed through his expression. I wondered about it, but he didn’t elaborate. “It’ll be handled, and they’ll be ready for tomorrow’s dive.”
We had cleared two of the main vertical sections of the area around the last dive the Lemons made. There was one last area, and then local teams could take over from outside that area. Our answers were going to be on this side and maybe the bottom.
“What about the submersible?” I asked. Branson and Cousteau’s trip last winter mapped the floor of the Hole, but it was still a large area. “We’ll need an operator.”
Header shook his head. “I’m running it. I can take you and one other person, but it’s gonna take a couple of days to get it here.” At my look, he shrugged. “I don’t carry it everywhere I go. Like I said earlier, it just barely fits in the Wraith. So if we find a lot of garbage, I’m leaving it. We only pick up what you need for your investigation and that I can carry back.”
“That’ll have to work,” I agreed. “I’m looking for evidence and photos of whatever’s down there. There has to be some way to trace this stuff.” I started toward the back hatch and stopped. “Jake, I don’t want you getting hurt after this. Be careful. Catch some bad guys.”
“Only the worst, brother,” he promised. “Innocent types don’t have anything to worry about from my people.” He gave a short wave. “See you tomorrow. And this Tessa of yours.”
I left the Wraith and wondered whether I’d ever see it again.
10
At her insistence, Tessa rode in coach for the flight to Belize. Donald had wanted to put her in business class, but since learning that she was the only one on staff he spoiled, she’d made sure he treated her the same. She had a feeling that the long flight with connections was a passive-aggressive move on his part, but she was determined to move on from it.
As the 747 made a lazy circle around the international airport north of Belize City, she appreciated the jungle toward the western part of the small country and Guatemala. Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula stretched up north. Off the coast, the Atlantic provided a home to an incredible amount of biodiversity, with the Belize Barrier Reef being second only to the one off Australia’s northeastern coast.
The pilot and flight attendants announced their imminent landing. Tessa watched the land grow closer. Small neighborhoods lay north and east of the airport, many of which were in the building phases with lots and streets but no houses yet.
They touched down and made their way to the small terminal with little fuss. Belize was not a large nation, and tourism was its primary industry. Although they exported a lot of bananas, citrus, and sugar, they needed to keep the tourists flowing through. She was dying to know why the Great Blue Hole was mysteriously closed to tourism, inasmuch as one could close a feature in the ocean.
Going over the economic facts allowed her a minute not to dwell on meeting Ethan Marston outside the terminal. A minute. It had been months since she got pulled into a case his agency was investigating and eventually into his arms and bed. She had no regrets other than they lived so far apart. Now that she was about to see him, though, she felt a spike of anxiety.
She entered the terminal and collected her bags and checked her phone for messages. There was one, and it was from Donald.
Good luck and be safe.
Tessa had a feeling that any time she spent with Ethan was going to involve an element of danger, at least in this case. For that matter, would they ever meet under normal circumstances? She took a deep breath and adjusted her camera bag on top of her wheeled suitcase. All she had to do was play it calm and cool and see how it went from there.
She left the terminal with head high and posture straight… only to trip over something outside the doors. A strong pair of arms caught her and stopped her bags from flying forward.
“Hey, you okay?”
Oh God, it was Ethan. She felt her cheeks reddening.
“Yeah, yeah. My toe caught on something.”
A look down revealed an ugly, uneven crack in the sidewalk. One of the terminal work
ers rushed to her side.
“I’m so sorry, miss,” the young woman said. “That was supposed to be marked, but the cone got moved.”
“I’m fine.” Tessa smiled and made a show of dusting off her perfectly clean khaki Capris. “No harm, no foul.”
The attendant’s shoulders dropped in relief. Ethan’s did not. His left arm was still around her, not that she minded. She looked up and realized that her memory of those crystal blue eyes did not do them justice.
“Hi, I’m okay,” she blurted out. Ethan’s easy grin was easily contagious. “Thanks for giving me a ride.”
“My pleasure,” he said. “You want me to carry something?”
She picked up the camera bag and put the strap over her shoulder. The humid air smelled of the sea, jungle, and jet fuel. The sun was sinking to the west, and she was more than ready to get busy. On the case. Yes, busy on the case, she reminded herself as she caught a whiff of the light cologne Ethan wore. The same cologne she’d noticed that night at his houseboat.
“You can get the suitcase,” she told him. “Um, thank you.”
“I parked in one of the police spots,” he confessed only loud enough for her to hear.
“I think those are for local police.” She stifled a chuckle. “Couldn’t you get in trouble for that?”
“Nah. I’m an international cop. More or less.”
She followed him to a small parking area with signs promising to tow violators. When Ethan walked up to a slick-looking Audi, she couldn’t tell how it was supposed to be a police car. She rolled her eyes and got in. Soon, they headed south on a coastal road.
“I wasn’t sure I’d see you again,” he said in a soft tone. “We should meet when I’m not investigating a case.”
They lived on the same coast yet over a thousand miles apart. Over the past several months, Tessa had imagined being able to reach down all those miles to touch his hand, his cheek. The few times they’d spoken over the phone had been like wrapping a favorite blanket around her shoulders.
“And call when it’s not about those pirate coins,” she added with a slight smile. “I heard they auctioned off well.”
He nodded. “I kept one, though. Gramps would’ve liked that I held on to at least one.” He glanced over with a mischievous grin. “I keep it in my wallet. I’ll kick myself if I ever lose it, but it’s like he’s close by.” He looked back to the road and switched on the headlights in the deepening twilight.
“I’m glad you did that,” she said. “What did you do with the cannonball and those silver coins you found down in Barbados?”
He’d emailed her about finding proof of a story about a man forced to walk the plank from the Dragon’s Rogue, a pirate ship he’d been searching for his whole life.
“I loaned the cannonball to a traveling exhibit on the Golden Age of Pirating in the Caribbean.” He sounded happy, and she liked that, but then he hesitated. “I gave the coins to the man who helped me auction the gold ones you and I found. They’re too fragile to do much with, sale or display, but he loves them.”
Tessa almost told him the news she was working on, but she bit her tongue. She had a good feeling about a lead she might have on his pirate ship from a historian she was working with in Charleston, but she didn’t want to get Ethan’s hopes up. The timing couldn’t be better, because she expected an email any time now, and it would be far more satisfying to give him the news in person.
The twinkling lights of Belize City came into view as she searched for the right way to ask about the case. Tessa knew full well that her assignment was not going to be a popular decision. Donald had warned her as much, and Ethan’s initial reaction confirmed it. Considering how well she got along with the MBLIS people last time, she hoped they’d work through the discomfort and come to trust her not to get in the way or make them look bad.
“Ethan, about—”
He held a hand up. “We have some planning to do with the team,” he said in a gruff tone that stung a little. “Hang on until we’re situated.”
“Okay…”
She folded her arms across her chest and stared out the window. If Ethan thought of her as an interloper, there might not be a place for them to rekindle things. On the other hand, she didn’t know if it was a good idea. She snuck a glance at his face. It lit up as they passed streetlights, and all she saw was a man intent on finding answers in an unforgiving world.
The drive took them through parts of the city that she doubted most tourists got to see. Like much of Central America and the Caribbean, Belize had its share of crime and poverty. Sagging houses with discolored siding looked like orange ghouls in the glow of sodium-vapor streetlights. Makeshift fencing cobbled together out of old doors, and sheet metal surrounded many of the homes they saw. Pedestrians gave odd looks to the expensive car that rolled through their neighborhoods.
“This place gets hit hard by hurricanes,” Ethan quietly told her as he rolled through the neighborhood. “The storms have gotten worse over the years. The Barrier Reef does a lot to protect the coast. In the States, we don’t hear about it as much as we do about the one in Australia, but we should. These people depend on it during storms but also for the tourism dollars.”
“I read that.” She watched as a young, barefoot child ran after a dog. “The government is doing a lot to help the people.” She looked over at Ethan. “You want me to get this part of the story, too, don’t you?”
He nodded. “If you’re going to tell this story, tell about what happens when a few selfish actions can cause a chain of repercussions.”
“It’s a good perspective,” she admitted. “When you tell me more about the case, I’ll know how to frame it.”
“We’re almost at the house.” He turned down a side road and then got onto one of the main roads. “Funny thing,” he went on. “This is considered one of the most dangerous countries in the region. As long as people aren’t reminded of the slums, they conveniently forget the crime and poverty.”
“True.” How many cities and nations had she covered with similar situations? Too many.
Ethan pulled in to a large villa. The property was well kept, and lights shone from most of the windows. He parked in a large garage with two identical Audis. He started to get out.
“Huh,” she murmured.
He held up. “What?”
“It’s interesting that you told me about the poverty and everything, and yet here we are at an expensive house with expensive cars.” She lifted a brow. “It seems a little on the nose.”
“Yeah, that is interesting, isn’t it?” He motioned for her to get out as he popped the trunk. “We’re here on government business, so they’re loaning us these cars and the house while we’re here.”
He held his finger up to his lips as she stepped out of the car. Now that she was out of the air conditioning and not at the airport, the humid air carried the scent of lush blooms, the sea, and no jet fuel.
“Is something going on?” she asked.
“At the moment? No.” He lifted her suitcase out of the trunk and set it on the ground. “I just didn’t want the others to notice I’m back yet.”
“Why—”
His eyes, those blue eyes, felt like they were burrowing into her soul, and she lost the ability to form words. Ethan seemed to have the same problem. Well, maybe not a problem. Not really. She touched his hand, and they laced their fingers together for a moment. Her heart thrilled at the contact.
“I missed you,” he rasped.
“Me too.” She leaned in and wrapped her arms around him. “I wanted to visit, but I never had time.”
Ethan curved one arm around her back and used the other hand to tip her chin up toward him. When their eyes met again, he used both his arms to pull her in tight.
“You’re here now.”
His lips brushed hers when the door to the house creaked open.
“Marston’s back,” someone yelled. “And, oh, boy…”
The door slammed shut. Ethan said som
ething under his breath and let her go. Her body hummed, and she wanted to do anything but let go, but it was too late.
“Sorry, Tessa.” He grabbed her suitcase. “Let’s get you settled in, introduce you to our two new people, and then I’ll fill you in on the case details.”
His jaw muscles flexed as if he wanted to say more… or do more. Instead, he shook his head and led her inside. As she followed, she had the sudden feeling that this trip would make or break their relationship forever.
11
After I helped Tessa get her things into the last open bedroom, I took her to the small conference room and introduced her to the team. Even though Muñoz and Warner were the only ones who hadn’t met her before, it was good form… and it was a reminder that we had to act in a professional capacity. Mostly.
“Tessa has signed a non-disclosure agreement about what she’s going to see and hear over the next few days,” I informed everyone. “It lays out what she may and may not include in the piece the EcoStar is going to publish about our department.”
“What I don’t understand,” Muñoz said, “is why a retired fleet admiral gets to have a say in our case. No offense, Miss Bleu, but I don’t care if he was also one of the Joint Chiefs, retired is retired. What does he have to gain from manipulating us?”
“Muñoz—”
“No, Ethan, I got it.” Tessa’s emerald eyes flashed in my direction as she pushed some of her chestnut brown hair back from her face. Damn, I was in trouble now that she was back. “Agent Muñoz, believe me, I’m trying to figure it out, too. What I do know is that I take my job seriously. The Great Blue Hole is in peril. Something about this case has threatened the entire ecosystem of the Hole, not to mention tourism in a struggling nation. Given the secrecy, I’m guessing it goes deeper than that. My job is to do what I can to educate our readers about these threats. Part of that is also showing our audience how agencies like MBLIS have an impact.”
Birn leaned back, and Muñoz crossed her arms.
“How do you mean, ‘have an impact’?” she demanded.