Risky Business

with faded the moment he saw her eyes. Recognizing her signal, he immediately removed his regulator and passed it to her. Liz drew in air. Nodding, she handed it back to him. Their bodies brushing, her hand firm on his shoulder, they began their slow ascent.
    Buddy-breathing, they rose closer to the surface, restraining themselves from rushing. What took only a matter of minutes seemed to drag on endlessly. The moment Liz’s head broke water, she pushed back her mask and gulped in fresh air.
    “What happened?” Jonas demanded, but when he felt her begin to shake, he only swore and pulled her with him to the ladder. “Take it easy.” His hand was firm at her back as she climbed up.
    “I’m all right.” But she collapsed on a bench, without the energy to draw off her tanks. Her body shuddered once with relief as Jonas took the weight from her. With her head between her knees, she waited for the mists to clear. “I’ve never had anything like that happen,” she managed. “Not at eighty feet.”
    He was rubbing her hands to warm them. “What did happen?”
    “I ran out of air.”
    Enraged, he took her by the shoulders and dragged her back to a sitting position. “Ran out of air? That’s unforgivably careless. How can you give lessons when you haven’t the sense to watch your own gauges?”
    “I watched my gauge.” She drew air in and let it out slowly. “I should have had another ten minutes.”
    “You rent diving equipment, for God’s sake! How can you be negligent with your own? You might’ve died.”
    The insult to her competence went a long way toward smothering the fear. “I’m never careless,” she snapped at him. “Not with rental equipment or my own.” She dragged the mask from her head and tossed it on the bench. “Look at my gauge. I should have had ten minutes left.”
    He looked, but it didn’t relieve his anger. “Your equipment should be checked. If you go down with a faulty gauge you’re inviting an accident.”
    “My equipment has been checked. I check it myself afterevery dive, and it was fine before I stored it. I filled those tanks myself.” The alternative came to her even as she finished speaking. Her face, already pale, went white. “God, Jonas, I filled them myself. I checked every piece of equipment the last time I went down.”
    He closed a hand over hers hard enough to make her wince. “You keep it in the shop, in that closet.”
    “I lock it up.”
    “How many keys?”
    “Mine—and an extra set in the drawer. They’re rarely used because I always leave mine there when I go out on the boats.”
    “But the extra set would have been used when we were away?”
    The shaking was starting again. This time it wasn’t as simple to control it. “Yes.”
    “And someone used the key to the closet to get in and tamper with your equipment.”
    She moistened her lips. “Yes.”
    The rage ripped inside him until he was nearly blind with it. Hadn’t he just promised to watch out for her, to keep her safe? With intensely controlled movements, he pulled off his flippers and discarded his mask. “You’re going back. You’re going to pack, then I’m putting you on a plane. You can stay with my family until this is over.”
    “No.”
    “You’re going to do exactly what I say.”
    “No,” she said again and managed to draw the strength to stand. “I’m not going anywhere. This is the second time someone’s threatened my life.”
    “And they’re not going to have a chance to do it again.”
    “I’m not leaving my home.”
    “Don’t be a fool.” He rose. Knowing he couldn’t touch her,he unzipped his wet suit and began to strip it off. “Your business isn’t going to fall apart. You can come back when it’s safe.”
    “I’m not leaving.” She took a step toward him. “You came here looking for revenge. When you have it, you can leave and be satisfied. Now I’m looking for answers. I can’t leave because they’re here.”
    Struggling to keep his hands gentle, he took her face between them. “I’ll find them for you.”
    “You know better than that, don’t you, Jonas? Answers don’t mean anything unless you find them yourself. I want my daughter to be able to come home. Until I find those answers, until it’s safe, she can’t.” She lifted her hands to his face so that they stood as a unit. “We both have reasons to look now.”
    He sat, took his pack of cigarettes and spoke flatly. “Erika’s dead.”
    The anger that had given her