Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

mask.
    “Find what?”
    “The tracking gizmo,” she said impatiently. “Did the water freeze your brain?”
    “I don’t remember mentioning any tracking gizmo.” He sat down and began removing the flippers.
    Wind whipped hair across Honor’s mouth and eyes. Impatiently she pushed it away. “Contrary to my performance in the past day or so, I’m not completely stupid. The SEALs aren’t going to blow us up, but they sure might make it easier for Ellen and the boys to track us. So did you find it?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Where is it now?”
    “I attached it to the dock.”
    “Well, that should reassure them that we’re not going anywhere.”
    “That’s the idea,” he said, standing again. “C’mon. Let’s get in out of the wind.”
    Frowning, Honor followed Jake up the path, certain she was missing something. She was still trying to figure out what as he went into the bedroom to get out of his dive suit. Though the door to the bedroom stayed open, she didn’t go in. She didn’t trust herself not to offer to help unzip his high-tech skin. Worrying about him under the water had made it nearly impossible to stay mad at him on land.
    Jake stepped into the shower and rinsed off the dive suit. He dried it like a second skin, then peeled off the cold water diving hood and went to work on the rest of the suit.
    “Don’t they have someone watching the house?” Honor called from the living room. “Whoever the guy was that called and told Mather the ‘primary subjects’ were back together again?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Do you think he can see the dock?”
    “Probably.”
    “Then he’ll know you know about the gizmo.”
    Jake decided he should have left Honor out in the wind a little longer. Her mind was still too sharp.
    “It’s possible,” he said finally. His voice was muffled because he was peeling off the top half of his wet suit.
    “Then what’s to stop them from sticking another one on?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Then why did you bother to go gizmo-diving in the first place?”
    Jake sighed and told Honor what she really didn’t want to hear. “Because they won’t come back until well after dark, and by then the Tomorrow won’t be here.”
    Silence came, followed by, “Where will it be?”
    “Out there,” he said, waving in the direction of the islands.
    Honor could see the islands through the bedroom window. They rose above the wild water like distant, blue-black whales.
    “You’re kidding, right?” she asked, afraid that he wasn’t.
    “Wrong.”
    He peeled off the bottom half of the dive suit, went to the shower again, and rinsed off his flippers, dive gloves, and tank harness. He could still hear Honor above the sound of the shower, but he pretended he couldn’t. He already knew that she didn’t think much of going out in rough weather. Normally he didn’t either. Not much had been normal lately.
    Honor stalked into the bathroom, hands on hips and flags of anger flying in her cheeks. The sight of him naked but for some kind of diver’s jockstrap didn’t improve her temper one bit.
    “Jacob Mallory, look at that ocean!”
    “I’ve been out in worse.”
    “I haven’t!”
    “That’s okay. You aren’t coming with me. You’re going to call Ellen and tell her we had the mother of all fights and you’ve decided to join her team.”
    “No,” Honor said flatly.
    “That means you’re coming with me.”
    “But—”
    “There’s no other choice,” Jake said ruthlessly, brushing past her on the way from bathroom to bedroom. “I’m not leaving you alone with the likes of Snake Eyes on the loose.”
    Honor followed Jake farther into the bedroom, then wished she hadn’t. The bedroom really had a stunning water view. Up until this moment she had loved it. Now she felt like hiding; the sea was angry and violent, as bad as her nightmares of being scared and wet and facedown in a leaky boat that smelled of fish.
    “Call Ellen,” Jake said softly, touching Honor’s suddenly pale cheek. “She’ll take care of you.”
    “No.”
    “Look at me.”
    Honor turned away from the water. Despite Jake’s gentle voice, his gray eyes were no more peaceful than the sea.
    “If I find Kyle,” Jake said clearly, “I will do everything I can to bring him back safely to you. I promise you.”
    “No,” she whispered.
    Anger and impatience and something else, something painful, changed Jake’s features. “You really don’t trust me.”
    “That’s not it.”
    “The hell it isn’t.”