Chapter 21
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B ecause Grant couldn’t take them out, they walked into the cove from the beach. “You need to learn how to enter the water from the beach anyway. You may have to do it in Australia,” Tucker said.
Once in knee-deep water, they turned their backs to the water and, holding their fins, walked backward against the surf. When the water reached chest-high, they put on their flippers and submerged.
The water was colder than she remembered. The extra weight of the camera, video light, and strobe, in its two-armed formation on either side of the camera, demanded an adjustment. There was going to be a steep learning curve that only practice could satisfy.
With Tucker swimming beside her, she could depend on him to keep track of their bottom time and plan their decompression times if they went too deep. But she was going to have to figure things out for herself eventually. He might deploy at a moment’s notice, and she couldn’t see herself diving alone. Ever. It was just too dangerous without a partner.
She wasn’t afraid with him by her side. He pointed out possible points of interest she could photograph. She caught several photos of him. No one would recognize him outfitted in his gear.
One of the small sharks they had seen on their last dive came near to explore them. She caught a quick picture of it using the strobe light. It darted away into the kelp forest. She started as a giant black sea bass glided slowly along the bottom, like a huge silent shadow. The monster fish seemed uninterested in them.
Seeing a small lobster hiding in a clump of seagrass, she attempted to capture a close-up before it could scamper away. The bright yellow-orange Garibaldi were easy to spot and photograph. After that, she made several other attempts at various subjects. Her last photo at the kelp forest was of a sheepshead fish with its bold strips and funny human-like teeth.
As they surfaced, a young sea lion whipped by and circled to investigate her and her camera. She caught some playful pictures of it coming close to nose against her equipment, and she was actually able to touch it before it darted away. It was then she felt she’d at least started to understand how to use the equipment and the lights.
She’d have to practice as often as she could.
Once ashore, Tucker helped her take off her Camera rig, BCD, and tank and carried them up the beach for her. He shucked his own tank and set it beside hers. She didn’t realize how tired she was until she sat down in the sand.
“Thanks for this. I appreciate you taking the time to teach me scuba, but having my back while I learn how to use my camera equipment is going the extra mile.”
“That was the job all along, Brynn.” He shrugged. “It’s funny how the fish sort of gravitated toward you.” He shoved his hood back.
“I think they were interested in the light.” She removed her dive gloves, shoved her hood back, and dragged her hair out from beneath it.
“Whatever it was, even the sea lion came to play with you. The only one you were afraid of was that black sea bass. He might look like a slow-moving car, but they’re not aggressive unless they’re fighting to get off your hook.”
“I was shocked at the size of him. That huge head and mouth…”
“We didn’t see any seven-gill sharks today. Well, not up close, anyway. There were several in the distance. Maybe next time.”
She shook her head and half laughed. “I’m okay without the sharks.”
“You deal with Natalie all the time. You’ll do fine with the real thing.”
She bumped him in the side with her elbow, and he grinned. He looked so relaxed and happy in that moment. He’d looked so exhausted and grim when he’d returned from his trip and gotten the news about his friend.
A little more serious, he said. “It was pretty impressive how you used the camera and lights down there.”
“We’ll see if the pictures look as impressive when we get back to the house, and I download them.”
He offered his hand to help her up. “I’m going to drop our tanks off on the way home to have them filled. We’ll go by and pick up Chinese.”
They loaded her camera equipment and their diving gear into the car, then went to one of the bathrooms close by to change into street clothes. Brynn took a moment to smear some moisturizer onto her face and arms and brushed her hair. Tucker was seeing her at her worst and her best. It had been a long time since she’d wanted to look her best for someone. It was another sign she was moving on from the past.
*
After lunch, Tucker watched Brynn as she settled at the bar and opened her laptop. She removed her camera from the waterproof housing, took the SD card from it, and downloaded it onto her laptop. She opened the file and motioned to him. The pictures she’d taken were impressive. She seemed to have a real knack for capturing the moment. The shots of the sea lion were especially entertaining. The cub had gotten up close and personal with her camera.
“This was your first try with your camera and strobe rig. I think it was a success.”
“I’ll keep practicing until I leave for Australia. Luckily, three-quarters of the trip will be above water. I’ll always feel more at home on dry land, but learning to scuba has been a wonderful experience so far. And a new challenge.” She turned toward him on the stool. “I need to upload a new podcast about all of this. Can I use the one shot of you I took? You’re in all your gear, and all you can see is your eyes.”
He felt wary about it, even with her.
She reached out a hand and brushed his hair back from his forehead. “It’s okay. I have plenty of pictures for the program. Next time, I’ll get you to take a picture of me in my wetsuit.”
He leaned forward to press a kiss against her temple. “While you work, I’ll do some work on the pool and yard.”
His phone rang. He recognized the number, and his stomach clenched. Jordan’s Dad. He quickly answered it.
Collin Toliver sounded tired, more than tired. He sounded dull, as though grief had wiped his personality away. “I thought I’d call and let you know the funeral will be on Thursday at two. We’re just having a service on the base. Lieutenant Commander Yazzie has arranged an honor guard and a place. We would like you to be a pallbearer, Tucker?”
“I’ll do whatever you need me to do, sir. Anything.”
“We’ll be flying home with him,” Collin’s voice shook. “You were my son’s friend, even though you were on different teams. He shared his problems and his triumphs with you. He wasn’t depressed, or you would’ve known.”
“No, sir. He wasn’t depressed. He was crazy about Savannah and looking forward to marriage and having a family. Did someone say something speculating about the cause of his accident?”
“One of the agents was asking.”
“Byers or Cline?”
“Byers, I think.”
Fucking asshole! “What happened to Jordan wasn’t self-inflicted—and he certainly wasn’t depressed. His chute didn’t open as it should have, and for some reason, he couldn’t cut away the main to deploy the reserve. He had nothing to do with why it didn’t function correctly.”
“And if something more happened and they want to keep it under wraps…?” Collin asked.
Fuck them! “If I find out anything, sir, I’ll call you. You have my word.”
“Thank you, Tucker.”
The sound of a single strangled sob twisted Tucker’s stomach that much tighter, and his own emotions threatened to break through.
Collin took a moment to regain control. “If you could be here for breakfast on Thursday around nine, we’d appreciate it. We’d like to see you. We’re staying at the Del.”
“I’ll be there, sir.” He ended the call and moved to stare out the sliding glass door while he waited for the ache in the pit of his stomach to ease.
Brynn’s arms came around him from behind, and she laid her cheek against his back. They stood like that for a few minutes. She didn’t say anything, just held him. He’d inspired lust in quite a few women, affection, anger, irritation, and impatience, but he couldn’t remember a time when anyone other than his grandmother had offered him comfort.
He turned to slip an arm around her and hold her. “I’m going to go do some yard work while you work.”
“Okay.”
*
While she worked, the sound of the lawn mower running was a low-level buzz. She did some update work to a website and filmed a podcast, sharing some of the pictures she’d taken and talking about her second ocean dive experience.
She wouldn’t talk to Tucker about the possibility of having a picture of the cabin cruiser. It seemed unimportant compared to what he was going through. He’d been so close to losing his composure while talking on the phone. She hadn’t asked who he was talking to, but she hadn’t needed him to tell her. It had to be Jordan Toliver’s father.
Tucker was hurting, and he didn’t need to worry about anything but getting through the funeral on Thursday.
She went through the files she stored in the cloud and found the photos she’d taken to commemorate their first ocean dive. Then, she went through the marina pictures she’d taken for the brochure and found two shots of the same boat from a closer perspective.
Next, she went through photos she’d taken on board the Aurora, where the cabin cruiser edged into the background, and downloaded them. She remembered she’d taken some the day she’d photographed the sea lions and went through searching by date for those photos as well.
She chose the best image from the day of their dive. She copied it and then cropped it to focus on figures on the vessel’s deck. She started the program. It multiplied the pixels using intelligent image mapping.
She watched the program work.
After a few minutes, she could make out three people standing on the deck, but the image wasn’t clear enough to identify them. One looked to be a woman, and one of the men was standing close, but she couldn’t see how they were positioned.
She tweaked and toyed with the image, increasing the pixels to try to improve clarity. The image improved and became less blurry. She continued to save and tweak several times. The figures on board became clearer. There were two men and a woman, and one man appeared to be restraining the woman. Her dark hair whipped through the air as her body bowed away from him.
Brynn went back to the other image from the day of the dive and went through the same process several times. In this one, the woman was falling, and the man’s body was bent toward her, his arm drawn back as though he meant to strike her or had just done so. He was obviously pushing her down onto the deck.
A sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Ahmad thought they were transporting drugs, but this was something else.
She saved both images to a folder on her desktop while she debated what to do. It had been fourteen days since they’d done that dive. She opened her browser and typed in news from that date. She ran through local news stories for that day and two days after.
A breaking story about an unidentified woman’s body found washed up on the beach gave her pause. It was believed that the woman of Mexican descent had fallen off a boat and drowned. But no one had reported an accident. Plus, no one had come forward to identify her after an artist’s rendering had been published in the paper.
She thought about that man’s cocked fist, ready to strike. The woman might have been thrown off the boat on purpose.
Would the police accept this as evidence? And how would they figure out if the woman had come from the cabin cruiser after the body had been in the water for hours or days?
The woman’s face was obscured in both pictures…. It might not be her.
She could send the photos to the police and let them sort it out. But she’d have to print them out first. She’d have to wait until she got back home to do it.
She moved around the kitchen restlessly. She needed to tell Tucker, but not right now. He was outside working on the yard to get his mind off his grief.
She finally fixed a glass of tea and went back to work on other projects, and was almost caught up with everything by the time Tucker came in. His cheeks were flushed from the heat, and his hair was glued to his head with sweat. He moved to the refrigerator and took out a bottle of water. His throat worked as he drank thirstily. He rolled the bottle over his forehead.
“I’m finished with my work for the day,” Brynn said as she closed the laptop. “Do you need help with anything in the yard?”
“No. It’s done, too.”
“I thought I’d take a shower, and then a nap sounds good.” She pulled loose the ponytail holder, and her hair swung forward over her shoulders.
He raised one eyebrow. “I thought we were going to work on your directional issues.”
“We have plenty of time for that—after a nap.” She unbuttoned her cotton shirt and slipped it free as she turned and walked toward the hallway.
“Do you usually take a nap during the day?” Tucker asked as he followed.
“No, but I’m a little sore and stiff from all the extra activity. I thought I’d work some of that out in the shower. Besides, I smell like my wetsuit.” She shucked her tank top but kept her back to him. She dropped both shirts on the bed on her way into the bathroom. The tiled shower stretched the width of the room. She dropped her shorts and panties on the mat, then stepped through the three-foot gap at the end of the sheet of tempered glass secured from ceiling to floor that acted as an exterior shower wall and turned on the water. She sensed movement behind her and looked over her shoulder to find Tucker shedding his T-shirt and shorts. His body was so lean and masculine that her mouth went dry, and she ached with need down low. “I’ve never been like this with anyone, Tucker.”
His eyes had never seemed so green or his expression so intense. “Good.”
He brushed her hair forward over one shoulder, then pumped his palm full of the shower gel and used it as a lubricant as he massaged her shoulders. When he ran his hands down her back and over her ass, her legs went weak. He turned her to the side so the shower spray would activate the gel. Then he stepped close to rub his chest and abdomen against her from behind while his hands cupped her abdomen, holding her back against him. The brush of his erection against her intensified her arousal. She reached behind her to rest her hands against his thighs.
Tucker pumped more shower gel and spread it over her breasts and stomach. She turned against him, and he kissed her, his lips and tongue moving hungrily against hers. The spray hit his shoulder, splattering them both. He caressed her breasts while the water rinsed the soap away. He turned his back to the water, and it ran down over his shoulders. She skimmed her hands over his chest and well-muscled abdomen, where the soap had bubbled, rinsing it away, then lower to lightly stroke his erection.
Tucker caught her hand and drew her out of the shower. Their feet left puddles as he tugged her into the bedroom and urged her onto the bed. He got a condom from the bedside table and covered himself.
When he rose above her, she ran her hands up his chest and dragged his mouth to hers. Had she ever wanted anything as much as she wanted him at that moment? He thrust inside her, and pleasure caught her in its grip, building to a peak with every movement. It rolled through her in a rush.
The room was filled with the sound of their breathing. He eased away from her to lay on his side.
It was several seconds before she could speak. “How does that nap sound now?”
He laughed. “I’ll go turn off the water.”