Earlier, Maggie had left a stunning red dress folded neatly on her bedrol in the engine room.
Clearly stil walking on eggshel s after their little tiff, Maggie had included a gentle note. It simply said that Teal would look wonderful in red, and Maggie looked forward to seeing her in the dress someday. There was no mention of the party, though she knew that was Maggie·s real intention for leaving it for her.
For a moment, Teal even considered wearing it. Then she thought better of it.
She stil didn·t feel ready for that kind of attention ³especial y not from Zane.
She hated knowing that her marriage to Denny had colored every aspect of her life. He wasn·t worth awarding that kind of power. But try as she might to be a better, stronger , more proactive version of her former self, she saw her ex in the Cutter brothers. And particularly Zane. It was hard not to. Al three were ridiculously handsome, al were tal , dark, and dangerous looking, and they al had charm and a natural charisma that was hard to resist.
Denny
was al that.
And he·d almost destroyed her. Belittling her with digging comments that had shredded her already thin self-esteem.
Resisting that brand of male sensuality was imperative to Teal·s continued emotional growth. Hel . To her freaking sanity. Denny had sucked the backbone and self -worth right out of her. It had been so slow and so insidious that she hadn·t even realized it was happening until it had been almost too late and she·d lost herself altogether.
He·d separated her from her friends, interfered with her job by trash -talking her to her boss enough times that the poor guy had apologized profusely as he·d fired her. Denny had wanted to keep her al to himself.
Teal didn·t need counseling to tel her that it was a to xic relationship, one of verbal and mental abuse. She·d been a slow learner³but she
had
learned. Part of the reason she·d been so attracted to Denny in the first place was because he·d been so much like Zane. At least on the surface. She·d learned too late that underneath there was nothing honorable about him.
Regardless of that difference, the similarities between the two men shoved the bul shit meter way over into the red danger zone with Zane.
Crazy. Intel ectual y, she was perfectly aware that he·d never crossed any of her numerous lines in the sand. He hadn·t pushed her to do anything she hadn·t practical y leapt at the opportunity to do. A kiss. A brush of hands. But he was a shoe waiting to drop. It wasn·t logical. It wasn·t adult. It wasn·t even fair. It was just the way life had hardwired her. From her absent father to her mother·s druggie boyfriends, she·d kept the male species at arm·s length. Denny had tricked her into believing she was worth loving. Her childhood crush on Zane Cutter had made Denny the perfect man to slip past her defenses.
The reality was, Zane Cutter wasn·t
ever
going to love her. If she offered herself to him³
again³she wasn·t even certain he·d accept. That just made her a poor, pathetic fool. Screw me once, shame on me; screw me twice, shame on me double, to paraphrase.
So when Zane cut through the crowd, she put on her toughest armor.
´Would you do me a favor?µ
Ńo.µ
Zane laughed. ´You don·t even know what it is.µ
´Does it have anything to do with my engines?µ
Ńo.µ
´Diving?µ
Śort of.µ
´The answer is stil no.µ
´Have mercy, sweetheart. That boat over there is fil ed with³µ
Śkimpily dressed, sex-starved, beautiful women? Yes, hard to miss. What do you want me to do? Pick out one each for breakfast, lunch, and dinne r?µ
´Pretend to be my girlfriend. I need to work. They won·t bug me if they think we·re an item.µ
´You·re delusional. Both in the fact that you think you·re God·s gift to women, and that those surgical y enhanced specimens would believe³for a second³that
I·m
your
girlfriend.µ
Ćome on. Please, Wil iams? I·l get a new engine for
Decrepit
if you put your heart and soul into it. Keep them off my back and don·t let them distract me.
Consider yourself my handler.µ
´That·s like trying to wrangle a tomcat.µ
She was here. In her chair. Minding her own freaking business because she had no interest in minding anyone else·s. She wasn·t going to pretend to be Zane·s girlfriend. She wasn·t that good an actress, and as stupid as these women looked, no one was stupid enough to believe a man like him would look twice at a woman like her.
Í said no! What do you not understand about that? I told you I didn·t want to come on this dive, I didn·t want to kiss you, I didn·t want to come to this stupid party, and I certainly don·t want to pretend to be your frigging girlfriend! I·m warning you.
Back off, Cutter.µ
Teal left him standing alone before she made a scene.
* * *
They kept each other in line of sight. Visibility was good, about two hundred feet, which was awesome, but that wouldn·t last with the impending storm.
The seabed was relatively flat sand, with an occasional coral reef outcropping.
He and Ryan had run th e airlift yesterday and cleared an area of about thirty feet in diameter, exposing the hard mal bottom six feet beneath the sand and sediment.
When the sand had settled, they had a nice big hole, and the exercise had exposed two bronze cannon. Ten-foot sakers with slender barrels that were wel preserved, because like gold, bronze wasn·t prone to conglomerate. Even though the
Decrepit
carried a crane, there was no reason to bring the cannon to the surface.
Zane opted to leave the śix-poundersµ where they were. He expected to find more cannon, different sizes, different materials. He·d log them and leave them too.
The hole they·d made had several things of interest that he and Ryan had brought to the
Decrepit
yesterday. A dozen Mexican silver coins dated between 1550 and 1575, an ivory elephant tusk, and a few wormy timbers. Ben and Teal had taken a turn and returned with one gold coin between them.
Despite the king·s ransom in treasure they·d already found, Zane·s gut told him they·d only scratched the surface of what the
Vrijheid
had in store for them. He ran his gaze across the area they·d cleared yesterday. Nothing appeared to be missing. But if anyone had come down after they·d closed shop, how the hel would he know what
could
be missing?
He glanced in Teal·s direction. She was like a terrier with a bone since she·d made the first big find and had stuck to that location al week. Spanning al her dives, she·d found several more gold chains, and a few gold and silver coins, some personal artifacts, probably carried by passengers, but she hadn·t found any more emeralds. She was bound and determined to do so.
Brian·s estimate of the beauty she·d found the week before was around the one -point-five mil mark. Not shabby for her first official dive. He spotted something; another box, similar to the one Teal had uncovered? Smal er though. Zane swam over to investigate. A smal pile of sand had drifted over the area he and Ryan had dusted and he fanned it to see what he·d found.
While discovering an amazing and valuable artifact was extra sweet, he enjoyed coming across a four-hundred-year-old nail or a piece of worm-eaten timber almost as much. Al were intriguing pieces of a greater puzzle.
That he·d already won the bet with his brothers was a given. Maggie and C olson, as wel as Brian and his extensive team, hadn·t cleaned or priced a quarter of what they had, and their heads were spinning like that kid·s in
The
Exorcist
.
Zane grinned around his regulator as he started systematical y fanning the section of sand he was interested in. He exposed a man-sized length of worm-eaten timber and prolonged the anticipation of finding another box by swimming down the length of the chunk of wood.
Even while curiosity ate at him, he took his time trying to figure out what par t of his virgin wreck this timber could be. Hard to tel . Several yel ow-flecked French Angelfish accompanied his exploration, fol owing him like puppies, weaving between chunks of gray coral and the worn wood as Zane moved slowly down its length.
A grouper darted out of hiding inches in front of his mask as he reached the jagged, broken -
off end of his timber. Possibly a piece of the hul .
Now
.
He put on more speed as he swam back to where he·d seen that intriguing square corner.
Dusting the surface, he saw it was a smal ish box about the size of a loaf of bread. His heart raced as he picked it up. Hard to guess weight in the water, but it felt heavy enough to be interesting.
The first box Teal had found had been sealed shut by conglomerate. The bastard who stole it had probably pried the thing open with a can opener to discover the contents. It chapped Zane·s hide, and he knew Teal was stil pissed as hel that someone had swipe d it right from under her nose.
But this little oblong gem, with a little help from his diver·s knife, opened easily.
Inside lay a nest of finely wrought gold chains. He didn·t remove them, just sifted through the delicate links with his finger. Looked l ike a woman·s jewelry box. He found three bracelets with good-sized, square-cut emeralds on them, and a gold ring with a slightly bigger emerald in the center. Zane tucked the ring into the sleeve of his wetsuit for safekeeping since it was so smal , and once open, the box wouldn·t close again. Maggie was going to have his ass for prying it open with his knife instead of the usual procedure.
Finders, keepers. He placed it in his basket to take back to the surface.
Glints of gold caught his eye, dots in the pale sand that had shifted with his movement. He picked one up. A gold coin. And another, and yet another. He didn·t need to run the metal detector across the sand. The doubloons were as plentiful as pebbles on a beach. He fil ed his basket until there was no more room. Pumped, he went in search of what he·d seen an hour before. Christ, what could be better than hands ful of coin?
Gold bars!
His heart pounded hard as he reached out and picked up a worn bar from the pile.
Hot damn. He wasn·t cal ed Ace for nothing. The soft metal had been worn away by the sandpaper effect of the shifting sand over hundreds of years, but the protection of the reef, and the sediment that had covered it wel , preserved it for him to find. The gold bar on his palm caught the sunlight filtering through the clear water.
He rapped on his tank to alert Teal. She glanced over his way, then started swimming toward him, agile as a seal in her dense black wet suit, her short hair fanning around her head.
As his own elevated heartbeat throbbed in his ears, Zane had an insane urge to peel her out of her wet suit. He wanted to see her pale, sleek body here, where he was going to make his name in the salvage world. He had a crazy thought that he wanted to stake his claim on Teal, just as he was doing on the
Vrijheid
. Take her right there, a hundred feet under the water.
Here. Now.
He held up a finger. Wait. He scooped a double handful of coins out of the basket. When he turned around, he raised his arms and dropped them over her head. Gol den confetti.
Bubbles rose from her regulator as she spun in slow motion, hands extended to catch the fal ing coins. Her face said it al .
He motioned for her to wait again and grinned when she scowled and shook her head no.
He motioned for her to close her eyes, and when she did so, took her hand and laid a gold bar across her palm. He tapped her on the shoulder and she opened her eyes. Inside her mask her gaze went wide.
Hel ya! They·d hit the mother lode.
Zane reclined on a padded lounge chair in the dark on the foredeck, listening to the faint sound of a piano and watching the tiny pinpoints of lights from the other boats reflect in the dark water. He breathed in the heavy air.
Storm coming.
Mixed with the faint wisp of ozone was the fragrance of the barbecued chicken Ben and Ryan had taken turns burning for the current crowd. Logan would·ve hated al those people talking and laughing. He claimed crowds exhausted him. So did Teal. The only person Zane knew who wanted to be left the hel alone more than his oldest brother did was Teal.
Nick had cal ed a few minutes ago to tel him he had people on the trail of Dennis Ross, who was currently somewhere in Europe. Zane found the vague hints about his older brothe r·s
´peopleµ fascinating. But Nick always laughed it off as friends he made through his
´hobby.µ Zane would love to know what that hobby was, but Nick usual y told him he·d have to kil him if he told him.
Zane grinned, appreciating the theatrics of Nick·s secret. Stil his brother·s
´friendsµ had gathered quite a bit of information about Teal·s ex in a few short days.
Ross sounded like an arrogant prick. He was old money and part of San Francisco·s society.
He and Teal had been the golden couple for the th ree years they·d been married, then Teal had stopped attending parties with her husband.
Eventual y Ross had announced their quiet divorce. Nick had told him, Ín the press, his friends claim the split was due to Teal being so far beneath him on the socia l register. She never fit in. But the reality,
off
the record, was that he was a bul y and a womanizer and tried to control every aspect of her life. Teal wasn·t shitting me when she said he wasn·t a nice guy. He·s a self-entitled asshole.µ
Śhe told me some of this already. I should kick his ass.µ
´From what I hear, he doesn·t sound like the kind of guy who·d go
mano a
mano
with a man.
His kind likes to control women. Stil , I·d keep a lookout for the guy. He·s definitely a possible contender for your saboteur, and if he·s stil got a thing for Teal, he might come after her.µ
´He·l have to fucking come through me first,µ Zane had told Nick grimly.