“How does three thousand sound for one dive?”Briar said, drawing her gaze back.“And if my crew finds something, I’ll double that for each subsequent dive.”
How did that sound?It sounded like more money than she’d see in months of hard work.Not to mention funds that would go a long way toward helping her sister.
“Of course, we’ll take your business.”Camila laughed nervously as if the alternative was unfathomable before she speared Desi with a hard gaze.“Won’t we, Desi?”
We?Camila always conveniently forgot she was only an employee.
What to do?Everything in Desi told her this man was bad news.But she desperately needed the money.“I suppose one dive wouldn’t hurt, just to see what’s down there.”
Especially since she intended to visit the site again anyway.
Briar’s grin was brilliant.He extended his hand toward her to seal the deal.That’s when she saw the odd engraving on his ring—a red cross, swords and words that looked like Latin.She took his hand and shook it, and once again a shiver filtered through her.
Exhausted, Desi plopped onto her bed and leaned back against the headboard with a heavy sigh.Thank goodness, Briar had a business meeting and left right after they made plans for a dive next week.Camila walked him out, casting a smile over her shoulder while hanging on the man as if he were a royal prince.
Ethan raised both brows and shook his head.“Something’s off with that guy.I don’t trust him.”
Desi agreed, but what choice did she have?She didn’t have to like her clients to take their money.
After everyone left, she closed up shop, ordered some take-out, and took a hot bath, trying her best to put the day behind her.Leaping on her bed, she drew her knees to her chest and gazed over the moonlit waters of the marina, sparkling like diamonds strung across rolling ink.
She had to go down there again…to the site of that wreck before she allowed Briar’s men to muddy it up.She had to find out if it was the ship her Pops told her about, the story that had intrigued her from childhood, the first recorded ship to have disappeared mysteriously in the Bermuda Triangle, a privateer called theSentinel.Such a find would putOcean’s Echoon the map.Business would boom.
Then maybe she wouldn’t need Briar’s money.
“You’ll find all you need upon that ship, my little urchin,” her pops had said.“All you’ve ever desired…an eternal story that echoes across the ages and will change your life.”He eased a boney, veined hand over hers.“It will call to you as it did me.But it was not meant for me.”
Pops always spoke in mysterious riddles.He filled her childhood with tales of lost fleets, ancient relics, and love stories torn apart by time.
Nothing but the incoherent mutterings of an old man.
Chapter 5: Come back to Me
“I can’t believe you’re doing this!”Camila handed Desi her mask and crossed arms over her chest.“You made a deal with Briar, and now you’re going ahead without him.”
Desi glanced at the turquoise sea stroking theSea Starrand longed to plunge beneath its waves where peace reigned.And where the sound of Camila’s nagging voice would fade into oblivion.
Ethan seemed to know what she was thinking as he smiled at her from the helm where he’d just locked the wheel in place and ran up the dive flag.
Slipping the mask on, Desi adjusted the straps.“I’ll only be gone a few minutes.I need to make sure the site is safe before I bring anyone else down there.”It wasn’t a lie, but not the truth either.
“His men are experienced divers,” Camila countered.
“Good.Then there won’t be any problems.”Desi slipped the regulator in her mouth, checked the pressure gauge, and let herself fall backward off the gunwale.
“It wasn’t part of…” Camila’s complaint was muffled by the rush of warm seawater caressing every inch of Desi.Her first mate’s figure blurred and distorted through the water as the bubbles from her regulator sped upward.She allowed herself to float for a minute as she sank into the deep, enjoying the soothing sounds of the sea that always washed away the troubles of life above.Maybe she was meant to be a mermaid, after all.
Turning, she kicked her fins and swam deeper, the water cooling slightly and enfolding her like one of those weighted blankets that made you feel secure.Corals in every imaginable shape and color spread over the ocean floor in a painting that would put the best artist to shame—a living, breathing painting full of bright, vibrant fish.
Desi could stay down here for hours watching them.But she was on a mission.
Moving forward, she approached the drop-off, flipped on her light, and headed down.Sunbeams slanted through the turquoise water like ghostly fingers, illuminating the outline of the ancient vessel imbedded in the seafloor.If possible, she needed to discover the name of the ship.But she also wanted to find that Ring again.It could be worth something.It could be a clue to the ship itself.Yet more than that, it intrigued her.Frightened her a little, if she were honest.
She needed to know if what she’d seen was merely her imagination, a hallucination, or maybe just nitrogen narcosis.Or…?
She shook her head.Or what, Des?What else could it be?
But something within those deep blue eyes,hiseyes, lingered in her thoughts like an unfinished melody.
