Risky Business

cigarette, struggling with temper. “Let’s go home, Liz.”
    “I wonder if you’re any different from the men you’re looking for.” She pushed back from the table. “Just as a matter of interest, the man who broke into my house and attacked me wore a thin band at his wrist. I felt it when he held the knife to my throat.”
    She watched as his gaze lifted from the flame at the end of the cigarette and came to hers. “I think you two might recognize each other when the time comes.”

5
    “A lways check your gauges,” Liz instructed, carefully indicating each one on her own equipment as she spoke. “Each one of these gauges is vital to your safety when you dive. That’s true if it’s your first dive or your fiftieth. It’s very easy to become so fascinated not only by the fish and coral, but the sensation of diving itself, that you can forget you’re dependent on your air tank. Always be certain you start your ascent while you have five or ten minutes of air left.”
    She’d covered everything, she decided, in the hour lesson. If she lectured any more, her students would be too impatient to listen. It was time to give them a taste of what they were paying for.
    “We’ll dive as a group. Some of you may want to explore on your own, but remember, always swim in pairs. As a final precaution, check the gear of the diver next to you.”
    Liz strapped on her own weight belt as her group of novices followed instructions. So many of them, she knew, looked on scuba diving as an adventure. That was fine, as long as they remembered safety. Whenever she instructed, she stressed the what ifs just as thoroughly as the how tos. Anyone who wentdown under her supervision would know what steps to take under any circumstances. Diving accidents were most often the result of carelessness. Liz was never careless with herself or with her students. Most of them were talking excitedly as they strapped on tanks.
    “This group.” Luis hefted his tank. “Very green.”
    “Yeah.” Liz helped him with the straps. As she did with all her employees, Liz supplied Luis’s gear. It was checked just as thoroughly as any paying customer’s. “Keep an eye on the honeymoon couple, Luis. They’re more interested in each other than their regulators.”
    “No problem.” He assisted Liz with her tank, then stepped back while she cinched the straps. “You look tired, kid.”
    “No, I’m fine.”
    When she turned, he glanced at the marks on her neck. The story had already made the rounds. “You sure? You don’t look so fine.”
    She lifted a brow as she hooked on her diving knife. “Sweet of you.”
    “Well, I mean it. You got me worried about you.”
    “No need to worry.” As Liz pulled on her mask, she glanced over at the roly-poly fatherly type who was struggling with his flippers. He was her bodyguard for the day. “The police have everything under control,” she said, and hoped it was true. She wasn’t nearly as sure about Jonas.
    He hadn’t shocked her the night before. She’d sensed that dangerously waiting violence in him from the first. But seeing his face as he’d grabbed Erika, hearing his voice, had left her with a cold, flat feeling in her stomach. She didn’t know him well enough to be certain if he would choose to control the violence or let it free. More, how could she know he was capable of leashing it? Revenge, she thought, was never pretty.And that’s what he wanted. Remembering the look in his eyes, Liz was very much afraid he’d get it.
    The boat listed, bringing her back to the moment. She couldn’t think about Jonas now, she told herself. She had a business to run and customers to satisfy.
    “Miss Palmer.” A young American with a thin chest and a winning smile maneuvered over to her. “Would you mind giving me a check?”
    “Sure.” In her brisk, efficient way, Liz began to check gauges and hoses.
    “I’m a little nervous,” he confessed. “I’ve never done this sort of thing before.”
    “It doesn’t hurt to be a little nervous. You’ll be more careful. Here, pull your mask down. Make sure it’s comfortable but snug.”
    He obeyed, and his eyes looked wide and pale through the glass. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll stick close to you down there.”
    She smiled at him. “That’s what I’m here for. The depth here is thirty feet,” she told the group in general. “Remember to make your adjustments for pressure and gravity as you descend. Please keep the group in