Risky Business

choose his equipment.
    “You got the best teacher,” Luis told him, but couldn’t manage more than another quick look at Jonas.
    “I’m sure you’re right.” Idly, Jonas swiveled the newspaper Luis had tossed on the counter around to face him. He missed being able to sit down with the morning paper over coffee. TheSpanish headlines told him nothing. “Anything going on I should know about?” Jonas asked, indicating the paper.
    Luis relaxed a bit as he wrote. Jonas’s voice wasn’t so much like Jerry’s when you weren’t looking at him. “Haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. Busy morning.”
    Going with habit, Jonas turned the paper over. There, in a faded black-and-white picture, was Erika. Jonas’s fingers tightened. He glanced back and saw that Liz was busy, her back to him. Without a word, he slid the paper over the receipt Luis was writing.
    “Hey, that’s the—”
    “I know,” Jonas said in an undertone. “What does it say?”
    Luis bent over the paper to read. He straightened again very slowly, and his face was ashen. “Dead,” he whispered. “She’s dead.”
    “How?”
    Luis’s fingers opened and closed on the pen he held. “Stabbed.”
    Jonas thought of the knife held at Liz’s throat. “When?”
    “Last night.” Luis had to swallow twice. “They found her last night.”
    “Jonas,” Liz called from the back, “how much do you weigh?”
    Keeping his eyes on Luis, Jonas turned the paper over again. “One seventy. She doesn’t need to hear this now,” he added under his breath. He pulled bills from his wallet and laid them on the counter. “Finish writing the receipt.”
    After a struggle, Luis mastered his own fear and straightened. “I don’t want anything to happen to Liz.”
    Jonas met the look with a challenge that held for several humming seconds before he relaxed. The smaller man was terrified, but he was thinking of Liz. “Neither do I. I’m going to see nothing does.”
    “You brought trouble.”
    “I know.” His gaze shifted beyond Luis to Liz. “But if I leave, the trouble doesn’t.”
    For the first time, Luis forced himself to study Jonas’s face. After a moment, he blew out a long breath. “I liked your brother, but I think it was him who brought trouble.”
    “It doesn’t matter anymore who brought it. I’m going to look out for her.”
    “Then you look good,” Luis warned softly. “You look real good.”
    “First lesson,” Liz said as she unlocked her storage closet. “Each diver carries and is responsible for his own gear.” She jerked her head back to where Jonas’s was stacked. With a last look at Luis, he walked through the doorway to gather it up.
    “Preparing for a dive is twice as much work as diving itself,” she began as she hefted her tanks. “It’s a good thing it’s worth it. We’ll be back before sundown, Luis. Hasta luego. ”
    “Liz.” She stopped, turning back to where Luis hovered in the doorway. His gaze passed over Jonas, then returned to her. “Hasta luego,” he managed, and closed his fingers over the medal he wore around his neck.
    The moment she was on board, Liz restacked her gear. As a matter of routine, she checked all the Expatriate ’s gauges. “Can you cast off?” she asked Jonas.
    He ran a hand down her hair, surprising her. She looked so competent, so in charge. He wondered if by staying close he was protecting or endangering. It was becoming vital to believe the first. “I can handle it.”
    She felt her stomach flutter as he continued to stare at her. “Then you’d better stop looking at me and do it.”
    “I like looking at you.” He drew her close, just to hold her. “I could spend years looking at you.”
    Her arms came up, hesitated, then dropped back to hersides. It would be so easy to believe. To trust again, give again, be hurt again. She wanted to tell him of the love growing inside her, spreading and strengthening with each moment. But if she told him she’d no longer have even the illusion of control. Without control, she was defenseless.
    “I clocked you on at eleven,” she said, but couldn’t resist breathing deeply of his scent and committing it to memory.
    Because she made him smile again, he drew her back. “I’m paying the bill, I’ll worry about the time.”
    “Diving lesson,” she reminded him. “And you can’t dive until you cast off.”
    “Aye, aye, sir.” But he gave her a hard, breath-stealing kiss before he jumped back on the dock.
    Liz drew