Risky Business

going to kill him?”
    Slowly, he turned back to her. The question had been quiet, but her eyes weren’t. They sent messages, posed argument, issued pleas. “It doesn’t involve you.”
    That hurt deeply, sharply. With a nod, she followed the shimmer of light on the water. “Maybe not. But if you let hate rule what you do, how you think, you’ll never be free of it. Manchez will be dead, Jerry will still be dead and you…” She turned to look at him again. “You’ll never really be alive again.”
    “I didn’t come all this way, spend all this time, to let Manchez walk away. He kills for money and because he enjoys it. He enjoys it,” Jonas repeated viciously. “You can see it in his eyes.”
    And she had. But she didn’t give a damn about Manchez. “Do you remember telling me once that everyone was entitled to representation?”
    He remembered. He remembered everything he’d once believed in. He remembered how Jerry had looked in the cold white light of the morgue. “It didn’t have anything to do with this.”
    “I suppose you change the rules when it’s personal.”
    “He was my brother.”
    “And he’s dead.” With a sigh she lifted her face so that the wind could cool her skin. “I’m sorry, Jonas. Jerry’s dead and if you go through with what you’ve planned, you’re going to kill something in yourself.” And, though she couldn’t tell him, something in her. “Don’t you trust the law?”
    He tossed his cigarette into the water, then leaned on the rail. “I’ve been playing with it for years. It’s the last thing I’d trust.”
    She wanted to go to him but didn’t know how. Still, nomatter what he did, she was beside him. “Then you’ll have to trust yourself. And so will I.”
    Slowly, he crossed to her. Taking her face in his hands, he tried to understand what she was telling him, what she was still holding back. “Will you?”
    “Yes.”
    He leaned to press a kiss to her forehead. Inside there was a need, a fierce desire to tell her to head the boat out to sea and keep going. But that would never work, not for either of them. They stood on the boat together, and stood at the crossroads. “Then start now.” He kissed her again before he turned and lifted one of the compartment seats. Liz frowned as she saw the wet suit.
    “What are you doing?”
    “I arranged to have Luis leave this here for me.”
    “Why? We can’t both go down.”
    Jonas stripped down to his trunks. “That’s right. I’m diving, you’re staying with the boat.”
    Liz stood very straight. It wouldn’t do any good to lose her temper. “The arrangements were made on all sides, Jonas. I’m diving.”
    “I’m changing the arrangements.” He tugged the wet suit up to his waist before he looked at her. “I’m not taking any more chances with you.”
    “You’re not taking chances with me. I am. Jonas, you don’t know these waters. I do. You’ve never gone down here at night. I have.”
    “I’m about to.”
    “The last thing we need right now is for you to start behaving like an overprotective man.”
    He nearly laughed as he snapped the suit over his shoulders. “That’s too bad, then, because that’s just what we’ve got.”
    “I told Manchez and Trydent I was going down.”
    “I guess your reputation’s shot when you lie to murderers and drug smugglers.”
    “Jonas, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
    He strapped on his diver’s knife, adjusted his weight belt, then reached for his mask. “Maybe not. And maybe you’re not in the mood to hear this. I care about you. Too damn much.” He reached out, gripping her chin. “My brother dragged you into this because he never wasted two thoughts about anyone else in his life. I pulled you in deeper because all I was thinking about was payback. Now I’m thinking about you, about us. You’re not going down. If I have to tie you to the wheel, you’re not going down.”
    “I don’t want you to go.” She balled her fists against his chest. “If I was down, all I’d think about was what I was doing. If I stay up here, I won’t be able to stop thinking about what could happen to you.”
    “Time me.” He lifted the tanks and held them out to her. “Help me get them on.”
    Hadn’t she told herself weeks before that he wasn’t a man who’d lose an argument? Her hands trembled a bit as she slipped the straps over his shoulders. “I don’t know how to handle being protected.”
    He hooked the tanks as he turned back to