Roxanne St. Claire - Make Her Pay

“Surely, if that’s true, they boarded the ship and took the bounty.”

“He threw it overboard as they were being attacked. It’s deep here, almost fifty feet, and they probably didn’t have any diving equipment on board. Salvaging was done in shallow waters back then. The guy who chased him-and before you ask, I don’t know who that is, because Aramis only refers to him as CB-might have gone back to land or even home to put together the equipment necessary to salvage the area. But whatever happened, no one ever recovered the Bombay Blue scepters. At least, they’ve never turned up in the past hundred and fifty years.”

He fluttered a few pages. “How did you get on this dive if you hate Paxton so much? How did you know that this was El Falcone ?”

“A little serendipity, a little hunch, and friends. Before he died, my father developed the cannon theory, and surmised that the ship wasn’t in shallow water, and knew it had probably been about ten miles off the coast. He was killed before he could figure out a way to finance a site exploration, and I decided if I ever could figure out a way, I would do it. But, man, does that take money! So when Sam Gorman called and told me about this secret, high-paying dive, I was interested.”

“But you couldn’t have known that it was El Falcone .”

“No, but then I found this.” She opened to the last page and pulled out a sketched oceanic chart and pointed to a spot in the Atlantic Ocean. “The map my dad had. Out of curiosity, I called Sam and convinced him to tell me the exact location of this salvage effort. When he did, I said I’d go.”

“Does Sam know?”

She shook her head. “And believe me, I’ve been tempted to tell him.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t want to get him involved. I could get into a boatload of trouble, and he has a reputation to maintain.”

“And I don’t?” His half smile was so droll, her heart rolled over at it.

“You seem like you could handle a little controversy. Plus, I told you, I’ll keep you out of it. All you have to do is work the air hose for me on a night dive.” She dug her fingers into his arm. “I swear, that’s all.”

He didn’t say a word.

She pulled him closer, drawing him around to face her again. “My father died with this one dream that mattered to him. I’m all he has to make that happen. I mean, I didn’t promise him, because he died when I wasn’t there…” She fought the lump in her throat, the strangling guilt and remorse. “But if I had been, I would have sworn on our name that I would do this for him.”

“Lizzie, does anyone else know what you’re doing?”

“My sister, Brianna. And believe me, she’s batshit that I’m here without her. But I couldn’t risk bringing her into this, plus she had to stay home and go through all of Dad’s files. I convinced her that was as important as what I’m doing. And we’re keeping each other posted when we find anything important.”

For a long time he didn’t respond, but paged through the notebook, glanced at the diamond, considering it all. Finally he shook his head, and disappointment lurched in her.

“No, you won’t help me?”

“You can’t dive with no blower down to the ballast pile in the middle of the night and bring up an eighteen-inch-long hunk of gold and hide it.”

“ I can’t,” she agreed, hope making its way up into her chest again. “But we could.”

“Will you answer a question for me, entirely honestly?”

“I’ve been completely honest with you,” she said defensively. “You can ask me anything.”

“Have you taken anything at all from the treasure hold?”

“I’ve taken pictures, so I could match items to the sketches I had. And I’ve taken that diamond and hidden that scepter. That’s all, I swear.”

“Then there is a thief on board this boat.”

“Flynn Paxton would be my guess.”

“The boss’s stepson?”

She rolled her eyes. “The boss’s albatross is more like it. Have you ever seen a company dive manager do a more pathetic job? He’s not even on the boat, sleeping in his own cabin cruiser like some kind of royalty.”

“I got the impression he was being groomed to head the company when Judd retires.”

She snorted softly. “There’s no love lost between those two. Flynn was sixteen or seventeen when Judd married his mom, and though he took his stepfather’s last name, there’s a lot of animosity there. I don’t like Judd Paxton, but I give him grudging respect for being a hard worker. Flynn? He’s like a rich kid, breezing in and out of dives, never serious except to get the treasure off and out as fast as he can. If anyone is dipping into the gold till, I bet it’s him.”

Con turned a page of the journal and tapped a drawing. “Someone has that.”

“The Our Lady of Sorrows medallion,” Lizzie said, turning the page to look at it. “I bet Flynn took it.”

“I considered that,” he admitted.

“He knows that medallion is very, very valuable.”

He nodded in agreement.

“And see what a big deal he made about appointing you to watch the treasure, then blaming you for losing it? And now he’s got that medallion, and he probably has a buyer for it. He left me dangling on the dock for two hours today while he went to some meeting. I was his cover.” She tucked her knees under her, determined to get into his face to make her point. “Can’t you see that I’m right?”

“I can see the possibility,” he conceded.

“The possibility? I bet you a million dollars he’s got that medallion. If we could get on his boat tonight, we’d probably find him fondling it right now.”

“You don’t have a million dollars, Lizzie.”

“No,” she agreed, turning toward the diamond on the pillow. “But I have that.”

He looked hard at her. “Then let’s make a bet.”

“A bet? For the diamond?” She laughed softly. “Not a chance.”

“If Paxton has the medallion, if he really stole it from me and set me up, then you’re on. I’ll help you.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“You’re on your own, kid.” He stood up, scooping up the diamond in a flash so fast, she didn’t have a chance to get it first.

“Hey!”

“I’m keeping this for you.”

“You are not,” she said, practically lunging at him.

He held it out of her reach. “Lizzie, you are not safe with this in your cabin. If someone knows you have it, you could be killed for something that valuable. I’ll keep it.” As she started to protest, he held up his hand. “First of all, no one knows I have it. Secondly, I’m armed and dangerous and will kill anyone who tries to get near it.”

Her eyes widened and her jaw opened, but he stepped forward and closed it with a single finger. “Regardless of that, I am one of the good guys. Now go back to your cabin. Wait for me to come and get you in about ten minutes, and be sure you have your camera.”

“What are you going to do? Take pictures of the diamond?”

“Nope.” He finally lifted his finger, only to graze it under her chin, lifting her face a fraction like he wanted a kiss. “We’re going to settle our bet.”

“Flynn, I have to go now.”

Alita’s announcement, delivered with a poke of her fingers, pulled him out of a dream, forcing Flynn to roll over with a grunt. “So row back.”

“You would let me do that? At four in the morning?” Alita’s voice grew shrill. She was a great diver, a terrific source of inside crew information, and a fine fuck, but, Jesus, the woman could whine.

“You rowed over here at one in the morning. What difference does it make?”

“It’s just crude to do me and send me back in the middle of the night.”