In Too Deep (40 page)

Piper focused on the bridge of his
nose, pretending to make eye contact.

Because damned if she’d let him
see her soul raked to shreds at his indifference.

Chapter 19

The four mates
making up the tour group on her last shark cage dive were
weenies.

But they were paying
weenies.

A banker, a sales rep, a real
estate agent and some computer something-or-another hotshot. All
out to prove they were real men by strutting around with their
wetsuits peeled to the waist to show off their real manly chests.
All laughing and shoving each other as they descended into the
cage, and all going strangely still when the first Great White
appeared out of the gloom.

Piper floated at the far end of
the cage, making sure the real-men’s masks hadn’t fogged up or
their air lines tangled. So far two sharks had visited. One, a huge
mature female with a ragged dorsal fin she’d nicknamed Shabby
Sally, and the second, a juvenile male she hadn’t seen
before.

The female glided by, regal and
powerful—eying them with her beady black eye as she swept past with
lazy tail sweeps. After dives, their clients often gushed about how
beautiful these creatures were. But to Piper?
Oh, hey, look, a
tank with teeth.
Not beautiful. Majestic, impressive,
memorable—she conceded. But an animal with a one ton bite capable
of chomping off a limb if you were dumb enough to poke it out of
the cage didn’t deserve “beautiful” as an adjective.

She tapped the guy next to her on
the shoulder and positioned her gloved fingers into an “okay” sign.
Eyes wide behind his mask, Raymond-the-banker didn’t appear to
require an adult diaper just yet. She bent forward to check on the
other three men and a grey blur exploded into her peripheral
vision.

A shark’s conical shaped snout
jammed into the horizontal gap of the cage, its body whipping and
shuddering. Her heart bolted into a gallop and she jerked back.
Crap!

Pandemonium erupted as the four
real men panicked. Raymond flailed backward, ripping the regulator
from her mouth in an eruption of bubbles. Keeping her lips sealed,
Piper swept her hand through the chaos to relocate her regulator,
but good ol’ Raymond still thrashed around like a total spaz
keeping it from her reach.
Double crap!

Two of his mates vamoosed out of
the cage and the other cowered in the back corner. The juvenile
shark, smaller and more agile than the female, twisted forward
wedging its bullet-like head and toothy maw further into the gap.
The Great White might give her a case of the screaming heebies, but
its bulk couldn’t squeeze through solid steel. At least, she hoped
not. But West couldn’t raise the cage with two terrified clients
and one instructor with no freakin’ air, all while a
two-thousand-pound teenage shark had a hissy-fit, half in
it.

Sudden motion to her right. A foam
of bubbles cleared as legs clad in black board shorts, followed by
West’s bare chest and grim face, appeared in the cage beside her.
He held a fishing gaff in one hand and moved to her side, using the
top bars of the cage to steady himself as the shark struggled.
Whether it still wanted to eat them or had changed its mind and was
trying to free itself, she didn’t know. But West seemed unconcerned
that Jaws attacked only inches away.

Real man number three in the cage
corner unfroze and floundered up the boat ladder. Piper recovered
the regulator and shoved it back in her mouth, sucking in great
gulps of air. Raymond-the-banker looked near to a coronary episode,
so with a meaningful glance at West they each grabbed a wrist and
stilled his flailing arms.

She dragged the regulator from her
lips and held it out to West, who just rolled his eyes behind the
face mask. Yeah, got it. Free-divers didn’t need bottled air—show
off. She patted the banker’s arm, willing him with her intense
stare to
calm the hell down.

West turned in a tight circle and
aimed the blunt wooden end of the gaff at the shark’s head. A
couple of well-aimed jabs to the gills and a smack across the snout
made the shark fight more. The cage vibrated and clanked, while
above, voices shouted in hollow booms.

Piper sucked in another gulp of
air and although her heart still thudded in a quickstep, the sick,
spilling-over feeling of panic didn’t follow. Though the Great
White’s razor-sharp teeth flashed close to her face, her concern
was directed toward the trembling banker hiding behind her. And
West. West who jumped into the cage with only a fishing gaff and a
face mask.

West jabbed the creature again and
it wrenched away from the cage in a flurry of white water,
disappearing into the murky gloom. West turned back toward them,
since he’d placed his body between her and the shark, and gestured
to the ladder. This time she didn’t argue. Raymond-the-banker
didn’t need to be told twice either.

Fifteen minutes after West shook
off the backslaps and hails of, “You’re a bloody legend, mate,”
from the real men, he cornered her in the galley.

“
You okay?” He placed his hands
either side of her hips, trapping her back against the
counter.

No doubt he meant:
You’re not
going to wig out on me, are you?

“
I’m fine.” She tried to shove one
of his arms away, but his muscled forearm under her palm wouldn’t
budge.

He raised an eyebrow and she
sighed. “I am, West. A little shaky, but I’m not about to
hyperventilate or bawl my way through a box of Kleenex.”

“
That’s my girl.” West shifted his
hand to her hip, squeezed. “Tough as nails.”

“
Speak for yourself, Westlake.
Your four groupies out there are hailing you as the Kiwi version of
Bear Grylls and Steve Irwin rolled into one.”

“
Would’ve looked bad if I’d stayed
on the boat squealing with the other two guys.”

Piper squirmed when West’s other
hand dropped to her hip and then slid around to cup her
bottom.

“
Squealing, huh?” she
said.

“
Like little girls.”

“
I suppose I’m grateful you showed
up when you did.”

“
Well, your banker may have
drowned himself with clumsiness before the shark decided his skinny
ass wasn’t worth the bother.”

“
So you didn’t jump in to save
me?”

He stared at her thoughtfully.
“This is one of those female trick questions, isn’t it? Damned if I
do, damned if I don’t.”

“
Answer the question.”

“
I wouldn’t let anything happen to
you, Pipe, but I also knew you could hold your own. Consider me
your backup shark wrangler.”

“
You’re still my hero.” She meant
the words to come out with a heavy note of sarcasm, but as West’s
lips grazed a sensitive spot under her jaw, they instead sounded
breathy and soft.

West hauled her into a
bone-crushing hug. Piper clung back, burying her face in his
throat. His pulse hammered so fast it bumped against her lips. She
kissed the throbbing bump and closed her eyes. The hard length of
him warmed her from chest to knees and she inhaled eau de West, the
salty, earthy scent of his skin.

He’d saved her, and not just from
the shark. West believed in her like no one else ever had. He’d
jumped in the cage not because he doubted her ability, but as an
equal partner. Once, she’d been devastated when West called her
tough. Now the look in his eyes told her that “tough” in his
vocabulary translated to “hot.”

But would that be enough to warm
her on all the empty nights yawning in her future after this
weekend?

***

Piper walked into The Great Flat
White café, the grumble of The Mollymawk’s engine receding as it
chugged toward the marker buoys in Halfmoon Bay behind her. West
would lay anchor and meet them inside for a brief rundown before
they headed to Due South for another evening shift. Though greasy
dishwater appealed a lot more than suffering through Ben’s teasing
about “Piper-shaped shark bait.”

West radioed in earlier to let Ben
know their clients were safe, and the four real men bragged the
whole way back. Their city friends would no doubt hear a modified
version of events—one in which they were cool and heroic. She hoped
it would boost Ben’s business.

“
No shark jokes.” She sat at Ben’s
table and pinched a French fry off his plate. “I heard every
variation on the way in.”

Ben’s lips twitched, the only
indication of amusement since his brown eyes remained steady.
“You’re okay?”

“
It was a freaky fluke. No harm,
no foul.” She finished the French fry and stole another. “The shark
was probably more unhinged than me.”

“
Could you climb into the cage
again?”

Piper upended the tomato sauce
bottle over Ben’s plate, the thick red sauce oozing onto the white
porcelain. “Are you implying I’m a wuss because some dumbass shark
got disoriented and thought we were dinner?”

“
You’re the bravest woman I
know.”

Piper froze, her half-eaten fry
hovering between Ben’s plate and her mouth, fat red globules
dripping onto the table. Had lightning struck, or had The Rapture
started?

“
Did you just pay me a
compliment?”

“
I’m serious. And I need to know,
could you take another tour into the cage?”

Nibbling on the fry, Piper leaned
back in her chair and crossed her ankles. Could she do it? Even
with a lost regulator and a big-ass shark snapping its jaws in her
face, she’d remained focused.
She hadn’t
panicked.

“
Yeah, I could.” For some reason
sharks no longer worried her as much as the thought of coming
across another drowning victim. “Have you got another booking this
week?”

Ben shook his head. “So, are you
still planning to board that ferry on Saturday?”

She’d reached across the table for
another fry when Ben’s words killed her appetite. She dropped her
hand, her fingers clenched. “Already bought and paid for my ticket.
Plus the connecting flight from Invercargill to
Wellington.”

“
Back to police headquarters. The
guys miss you, huh?”

“
They do.” She blew out a breath.
“But I’m going to resign from the squad.”

Ben’s gaze shifted to the windows
opening out toward the harbor. In the distance The Mollymawk bobbed
on the swells with a circle of gulls wheeling overhead. A tiny
figure moved around on deck.

“
Your decision, but you should be
proud of what you’ve achieved.” Ben’s voice dropped. “Because we’re
all proud of you.”

“
Thanks,” she managed before her
throat clamped shut.

He leaned forward, his large hand
covering her fist. The unexpected touch turned the lump in her
throat to a boulder. “I’ve been a sorry excuse for a brother and
you know apologies aren’t my thing, but I’m sorry. For
everything.”

She blinked and looked down at
their hands.

“
So I’m asking you for time to
make up for being such a jerk all these years. You don’t have to go
back, Pipe. Stay, and work with me.”

“
As your safety diver?”

“
And to run your weekend shagging
cruises, which, yeah, yeah, have turned out to be wildly popular. I
also thought we could offer more comprehensive learn-to-dive
training courses—that way, you could spare your squad some
work.”

“
You want me to work for
you?”

“
Nope. I want you as my
partner.”

So much swirled around in her
head, her palms sweaty at the idea of staying and working with Ben,
that she repeated his words like an imbecile. “Be your
partner
?”

His brow creased and he rapped two
knuckles against her forehead. “Didn’t I just say that?”

She swatted his hand away and he
grinned. They were good now. Or, on the way to being
good.

Studying his face, she said, “I’ll
have to think about it.”

Ben turned his head toward the
window and she followed his gaze. Out in the harbor West rowed the
dinghy back to shore. Pressure, like boiling magma, bubbled in her
belly and seared her lungs.

Ben offered her a way back to her
roots, a way back to herself—if she could admit these last six
weeks diving recreationally were the happiest she’d spent in the
water for years.

“
Will you tell him?”

Her gaze darted back to Ben’s face
at the tone in his voice. “Tell him what?”

“
Tell him you’re considering
staying? You ripped his heart out last time you left.”

“
I
ripped
his
heart
out?”

“
At first I thought West was just
busted up about Dad dying, like me. Then I caught him with your
photo—and twigged to why he was a basket case for
months.”

“
But
he
dumped
me
.”

Ben barked a harsh laugh. “No
kidding?”

“
He told me I meant nothing more
to him than a quick summer screw.”