can get back and celebrate.”
He pulled on his mask and waited while she slipped into the water. She still looked a little uncertain, but there wasn’t a heck of a lot he could do about it at this point. When all but her head was submerged, he followed.
He’d dived in some pretty amazing locations, but nothing prepared him for the underwater view he was getting now. As Lisa flipped on her light, he caught his first glimpse of a world few get to see.
The walls of the hole were magnified by the turquoise water. Stalagmites rose around the edges, surprisingly fragile looking in the eerie light. Below, darkness beckoned, indicating the tunnel went straight down. The water was warmer than he’d expected, and when he looked up, the dim sunlight at the surface glittered like jewels.
Lisa caught his attention, and he shook off the wonder as he gave her the okay signal. She nodded and pointed down. He waited while she secured the guideline that would lead them back to the surface and then followed as she turned for the bottom.
She’d been right again. It was a fairly straight drop with only a few small turns in the cave. His rhythmic breathing calmed him as they dove deeper, enough so he barely noticed the tube growing progressively smaller.
Twenty minutes into the dive Lisa pulled up and signaled they were near the bottom. Rafe checked his equipment, saw his tanks were fine and nodded at her.
The room was small, no more than ten feet by ten feet. Openings on both sides indicated the tunnel veered off in different directions. He’d glimpsed Lisa’s map before they’d come down and knew this cave went on for hundreds of meters below the surface.
Lisa’s light swept over the cave floor. Stalagmites rose from the ground as they had above, and she swam around each one, taking a careful visual exploration before fanning the sand.
Rafe hung back by the guideline and let her explore. He recognized the importance of this moment, that if Tisiphone were really down here, Lisa needed to be the one to find it. She was the expert, he was the novice.
Besides, hanging back gave him the opportunity to watch her work. To see her in her element. And damn, she was good. She was meticulous and careful, and absolutely gorgeous in her curve-molding wet suit without even intending to be.
She darted out from behind a stalagmite and motioned for him to join her. His adrenaline jumped and thoughts of her sinful centerfold curves slipped to the back of his mind. He swam forward in anticipation.
But when she pointed down, his heart nearly stopped.
Shane checked his watch, glanced at the sinkhole at his right and frowned. Lisa and Rafe had been down going on twenty minutes now. It was too soon to stress, but he couldn’t help it.
Sitting back waiting while someone else put their life on the line wasn’t easy for him. Watching Lisa do it for a piece of rock didn’t sit well with him, either. He felt better being here, but being here was a relative term under the circumstances.
He’d set up a beach chair along the edge of the hole, tucked the ropes into a bag underneath his seat and was now wishing like hell he’d remembered his Tic Tacs. A light layer of sand covered the ground. Beach grass grew like weeds everywhere. Flowering shrubs he didn’t have a clue how to identify were littered across the ground and around the edge of the hole.
Part of him wished he was back on the boat with Hailey. Man, she was a looker, blonde and stacked and exactly what he didn’t need. He sure as hell hadn’t expected her when he’d hopped a plane to rescue his sister.
They hadn’t seen another soul since they’d left the beach, so when a blonde in a yellow bikini sauntered up wearing dark sunglasses, a beach bag slung over her shoulder, he sat up and withdrew his thoughts from the voluptuous police officer who’d been occupying way too much of his mind lately.
The girl in front of him was long legged and wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat that shielded her face partially from view.
“Now this is a surprise,” she said as she got closer.
Shane stood, thankful for the leather holster pressed against his lower back where he’d concealed his Glock in the waistband of his cargo shorts. People on this small island were friendly, and her presence shouldn’t have thrown him off guard, but