Stolen Chances (13 page)

She thought back over their conversation, and then, like a bullet to her brain, reality hit. He was trying to butter her up so she’d go along with him and tell Thad about Isabel. Why, she didn’t know, but it was obvious he wanted her to do things his way.
That
was the Patrick Hudson she knew so well.

He wouldn’t get his way on this one. Maren rolled up the charts, flipped off the light, and headed to bed as she tried to will away the headache threatening to descend on her already overstressed brain.

No matter what Patrick had to say, she was sticking to her plan.

She had to.

“
S
omething’s up with her.”

A gentle wind blew across the sand in the early evening hours. Kicked back in a chair on his back porch with his feet resting on the railing and the warm breeze blowing across his bare toes, Thad lifted the beer in his hand and took a long sip.

“Maybe she just doesn’t like you anymore, man,” Drummer said, tossing a pistachio shell into the bowl at his feet and popping the nut in his mouth.

Thad frowned and looked out at the water. No, it couldn’t be that. He’d felt Maren’s increased pulse when he’d had her cornered at the market. Had watched the way her eyes had dilated slightly and her breaths had sped up when he’d teased her. She definitely still liked him. She was just fighting it for some reason.

“She’s hiding something. I’m just not sure what.”

Drummer harrumphed and rocked back in his chair while he cracked another nut. “You just can’t fathom the fact a looker like Maren isn’t interested in you. Maybe she’s got the hots for me. Ever think of that?”

Thad glanced to his right. Drummer’s red hair stood out in all directions, and his cocky grin curled his lips, accentuating the faint lines around his eyes and the plethora of freckles across the bridge of his nose. “Dream on, Sideshow Bob.”

Drummer chuckled and popped another nut in his mouth. “Maybe she’s ready to go ginger. You know the saying, homeboy. Once they go ginger, they never go back.”

Thad rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’s it.”

Drummer grinned and went on chewing.

Water lapped at the shore yards from their hut. Thad watched the fading light over the water and ran back through Maren’s weird reaction during their dive. Several seconds passed before Drummer said, “You’ve still got it bad, don’t you?”

Thad’s chest grew tight, and he rubbed the palm of his hand over the spot. No, that couldn’t be what was bothering him. He’d gotten over Maren a long time ago, and he’d be stupid to want to start something up with her now. If there was one thing he’d learned over the years it was that he and happily ever after did not go together. And yet…he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

Frustrated with himself, he pushed out of his chair. “I’m going for a walk.”

“Yeah, you do that,” Drummer said as he cracked another nut. “When you see Maren, tell her this ginger’s ready and waiting for her, anytime.”

Thad snorted. “That so isn’t happening.”

Drummer burst out laughing as Thad headed down the beach. “Oh yeah. You’ve got it real bad. This is gonna be fun to watch.”

T
hey dove for five days straight, searching for the wreckage of the
Conquistador
as Patrick and his grunts mapped the coastline, but so far they’d come up empty-handed. Every day that passed inched Maren’s anxiety a little bit higher. So far Evan was staying away, but if she didn’t give him some kind of news soon, she knew he’d get antsy. And if there was one thing she’d learned over the years about the man, it was that an antsy Evan meant danger.

She tried not to think about that too much as she stood on the edge of the cenote, staring down at the murky water. How the hell she’d let her father talk her into this, she’d never know. She should be with Lisa and Drummer on the
Escapade
, mapping the sea floor and looking for anomalies, not standing here, staring into what looked like a dark, lurking tomb.

“Blondie? You okay?”

Maren glanced toward Thad, standing feet away, zipping his wet suit. Sunlight glinted off his dark hair as he studied her, and above, palms swayed in the sweltering heat so far inland. But the way his wet suit shimmered dragged at her attention, the way it showcased his toned shoulders, his carved abdomen, his strong, muscular thighs…

“Blondie?”

She blinked twice and focused on his face. “What?”

A slow smile spread across his lips. “You sure you’re up for this? You seem…distracted.”

Oh, holy hell. Maren rubbed a hand over her face. She
was
distracted. First by what she was about to do, and now by the sex god in front of her. She seriously wasn’t up for this, but she needed the peace and quiet a dive could give her. And if it got her away from her father, even better.

As if the thought had summoned him, Patrick stepped up on her right. “Andy and Jill have already been down in this cenote. Be sure you set the guideline. Even though you’ve both done this before, I don’t want there to be any mistakes.

Andy and Jill were two of his grunts, and Maren knew he’d asked her and Thad to participate in this dive because of the depth he wanted to explore today and because they were the more experienced divers. But she also wondered if he’d done it to keep her interested. Last night, he’d commented about their lack of progress with the
Conquistador
, and she knew he sensed her frustration. Was he afraid she’d give up and go home? Or was there something down here in this hole that he wasn’t telling her?

She pushed the questions from her mind, strapped on her tanks, and clasped her belt.

“Two hours,” he said as both she and Thad slipped into the water. “We’ve got weather moving in later today, and I want the team out of here before it hits.”

No affectionate parting words. No well-wishes or “be carefuls,” not that she expected them from him. But they would have been nice today, especially considering the last time she’d been in a cenote a member of their team had been killed.

Not wanting to delve into those memories right now, Maren gave her father the thumbs-up signal and looked to Thad. When he nodded, she drew a deep breath and dropped beneath the swirling surface.

Quiet, peaceful, beautiful.

A tomb.

She shook her head. God, she was in a mood. But never before had a water-filled cave opening looked more like a doorway to Xibalba, what the ancient Maya believed was the underworld.

Thad swam up next to her and pointed ahead. Maren nodded and let him take the lead. Flipping on her light, she looked back and watched the daylight disappear at the glittering surface.

The entrance to the cave was shallow, barely five meters, which led through a small narrow passageway full of thick organic silt. There was no way to keep from disturbing the debris, and Maren quickly found her visibility waning. She placed a hand on the guideline Thad was following and eased through the passageway.

The water this shallow was warm, like bathwater, and they swam for a bit; then the tunnel opened to a large room that plunged to at least twelve meters. The visibility cleared some, enough so Maren could make out freshwater tetras and catfish swimming around. Huge stalagmites rose from the floor of the cave, and the walls seemed to grow from the bottom of the cave floor. Monumental columns surrounded them, as if carved and created by ancient architects.

From just a look, it seemed like this was the end of the line, the walls rising and towering above, closing them in, but Maren knew better. Thad turned and signaled to her, and they dove again toward another tunnel farther down.

At fifteen meters, the water grew blurry. The halocline zone, where fresh water and salt water mixed. It would clear again, but the effect of swimming between the two layers messed with Maren’s mind…as if there weren’t enough other things messing with it.

Refocusing, she swam on. The next tunnel was narrower, and she had to work to keep her tanks from hitting the ceiling above. It was a constant struggle to stay off the floor of the cave and keep from stirring up debris while maintaining a safe distance from the walls and ceiling of the passageway that could snag and damage her equipment.

They swam for what seemed a long time, weaving in and out, through tunnels, over and around stalagmites that erupted from the cave floor. At one point they swam through a massive chain of stalagmites that looked like shark teeth lined up in neat and linear rows. Maren retrieved her underwater camera and snapped a picture, knowing Isabel would never believe her if she tried to explain what she’d seen.

Twenty minutes into the dive, the tunnel opened again to another enormous cavern littered with more of the ever-present stalactites and stalagmites. The deeper they went, the colder the water grew, and she could tell they were now hitting the saltwater zone. As if by magic, everything became crystal clear with that typical blue hue associated with the Caribbean. Bleach-white limestone walls rose around them, sparkling when their lights reflected off their surfaces. The floor of the cave was easily visible, and Maren swam down to take a closer look.

Littered in the soft sand and limestone silt of the cave floor, she recognized bone fragments, pieces of broken pottery, glints of metal sparkling in the artificial light. Her heart beat faster when she realized this was a virgin cenote, undisturbed by the pleasure divers who frequent the sinkholes of the Yucatan. She glanced back at Thad, who was watching her with an amused expression.

History. She was looking at something that had lain undisturbed for possibly hundreds of years. No wonder Patrick wanted her to see this.

Thad secured the second guideline and gestured toward another cave to their right. Maren eyed the dark opening and drew a deep breath from her regulator. From here on out, they’d be blazing a new trail. Why that left her uneasy, she didn’t know.

She checked her gauges, found her air was still good, and gave Thad the thumbs-up signal. With the spinning wheel in hand, Thad took off again, and Maren followed, her camera at the ready in case they found anything of interest.

Normally, Maren loved diving, but something about this just felt wrong. She couldn’t pinpoint why. She told herself it was because of what had happened to Colin, because she’d heard those voices the other day on her dive, because of everything she was worried about…but none of that felt right either.

They swam for another thirty minutes, through small and large tunnels, around stalagmites and across large, open rooms. She stowed her camera as her nerves inched up. The beauty was lost on her. The longer they swam, the more she just wanted to get out. She checked her dive watch and realized they were getting close to the end of their bottom time.

She signaled for Thad, but he didn’t see her. He’d already headed into another tunnel. Frustrated, Maren swam after him. Something brushed her ear, and halfway through the tunnel, she paused and looked back.

The dark silhouette of a diver swam across the arc of light from her headlamp, and then disappeared.

Her pulse shot up. They weren’t alone down here. Someone was in the cenote with them.

Memories from nine years ago swamped her. Caused her breathing to quicken and her heart to race.

She kicked hard to join Thad in the next room. This one wasn’t very big but wide enough that she could swim up next to him. She grabbed his arm and tugged. When he looked her way, she pointed back the way they’d come.

He frowned, looked at his dive watch, and shook his head.

Dammit, he thought she was telling him their bottom time was up. And though they were getting close, that wasn’t their biggest threat at this moment.

She tugged him hard and pointed toward the tunnel. A muffled boom shook the cenote, followed by debris shooting every direction.

Rocks slammed into her body and cracked against her mask. A hand closed around Maren’s ankle, followed by what sounded like her name being yelled underwater.

Through murky water, she glanced up just in time to see a stalactite break free from the roof of the cave. She tried to move, but it felt like she was swimming through syrup. The giant rock hit her back, knocking into her tanks, pushing her down to the cenote floor. Pain ricocheted through her limbs, and she groaned. Her regulator dropped from her mouth. Debris swirled as she tried to right herself. The rumbling continued, and other stalactites broke free, tumbling through the cloudy liquid, straight for her.