Nora Roberts - Risky Business

Risky Business

Nora Roberts

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Publisher: Mills and Boon (March 5, 2010)

ISBN-10: 0263877264

ISBN-13: 978-0263877267

Chapter 1

Watch your step, please. Please, watchyour step. Thank you. Liz took a ticket from a sunburned man with palm treeson his shirt, then waited patiently for a woman with two bulging straw basketsto dig out another one.

I hope you havent lost it, Mabel. I toldyou to let me hold it.

I havent lost it, the woman said testilybefore she pulled out the little piece of blue cardboard.

Thank you. Please take your seats. It wasseveral more minutes before everyone was settled and she could take her own.Welcome aboard the Fantasy, ladies and gentlemen.

With her mind on a half dozen other things,Liz began her opening monologue. She gave an absentminded nod to the man on thedock who cast off the ropes before she started the engine. Her voice waspleasant and easy as she took another look at her watch. They were alreadyfifteen minutes behind schedule. She gave one last scan of the beach, skimmingby lounge chairs, over bodies already stretched and oiled slick, like offeringsto the sun. She couldnt hold the tour any longer.

The boat swayed a bit as she backed it fromthe dock and took an eastern course. Though her thoughts were scattered, shemade the turn from the coast expertly. She could have navigated the boat withher eyes closed. The air that ruffled around her face was soft and alreadywarming, though the hour was early. Harmless and powder-puff white cloudsdotted the horizon. The water, churned by the engine, was as blue as theguidebooks promised. Even after ten years, Liz took none of it forgrantedespecially her livelihood. Part of that depended on an atmosphere thatmade muscles relax and problems disappear.

Behind her in the long, bullet-shaped craftwere eighteen people seated on padded benches. They were already murmuringabout the fish and formations they saw through the glass bottom. She doubted ifany of them thought of the worries theyd left behind at home.

Well be passing Paraiso Reef North, Lizbegan in a low, flowing voice. Diving depths range from thirty to fifty feet.Visibility is excellent, so youll be able to see star and brain corals, seafans and sponges, as well as schools of sergeant majors, groupers and parrotfish. The grouper isnt one of your prettier fish, but its versatile. Theyreall born female and produce eggs before they change sex and become functioningmales.

Liz set her course and kept the speedsteady. She went on to describe the elegantly colored angelfish, the shy,silvery smallmouth grunts, and the intriguing and dangerous sea urchin. Herclients would find the information useful when she stopped for two hours ofsnorkeling at Palancar Reef.

Shed made the run before, too many timesto count. It might have become routine, but it was never monotonous. She feltnow, as she always did, the freedom of open water, blue sky and the hum ofengine with her at the controls. The boat was hers, as were three others, andthe little concrete block dive shop close to shore. Shed worked for all of it,sweating through months when the bills were steep and the cash flow slight.Shed made it. Ten years of struggle had been a small price to pay for havingsomething of her own. Turning her back on her country, leaving behind thefamiliar, had been a small price to pay for peace of mind.

The tiny, rustic island of Cozumelin the Mexican Caribbean promoted peace of mind. It was her home now, the onlyone that mattered. She was accepted there, respected. No one on the island knewof the humiliation and pain shed gone through before shed fled to Mexico. Lizrarely thought of it, though she had a vivid reminder.

Faith. Just the thought of her daughtermade her smile. Faith was small and bright and precious, and so far away. Justsix weeks, Liz thought, and shed be home from school for the summer.

Sending her to Houston to her grandparents had been for thebest, Liz reminded herself whenever the ache of loneliness became acute.Faiths education was more important than a mothers needs. Liz had worked,gambled, struggled so that Faith could have everything she was entitled to,everything she would have had if her father

Determined, Liz set her mind on otherthings. Shed promised herself a decade before that she would cut Faithsfather from her mind, just as he had cut her from his life. It had been amistake, one made in navet and passion, one that had changed the course ofher life forever. But shed won something precious from it: Faith.

Below, you see the wreck of aforty-passenger Convair airliner lying upside down. She slowed the boat sothat her passengers could examine the wreck and the divers out for earlyexplorations. Bubbles rose from air tanks like small silver disks. The wrecksno tragedy, she continued. It was sunk for a scene in a movie and provides diverswith easy entertainment.

Her job was to do the same for herpassengers, she reminded herself. It was simple enough when she had a mate onboard. Alone, she had to captain the boat, keep up the light, informativebanter, deal with snorkel equipment, serve lunch and count heads. It justhadnt been possible to wait any longer for Jerry.

She muttered to herself a bit as sheincreased speed. It wasnt so much that she minded the extra work, but she felther paying customers were entitled to the best she could offer. She should haveknown better than to depend on him. She could have easily arranged for someoneelse to come along. As it was, she had two men on the dive boat and two more inthe shop. Because her second dive boat was due to launch at noon, no one couldbe spared to mate the glass bottom on a day trip. And Jerry had come throughbefore, she reminded herself. With him on board, the women passengers were socharmed that Liz didnt think they even noticed the watery world the boatpassed over.

Who could blame them? she thought with ahalf smile. If she hadnt been immune to men in general, Jerry might have hadher falling over her own feet. Most women had a difficult time resisting dark,cocky looks, a cleft chin and smoky gray eyes. Add to that a lean, muscularbuild and a glib tongue, and no female was safe.

But that hadnt been why Liz had agreed torent him a room, or give him a part-time job. Shed needed the extra income, aswell as the extra help, and she was shrewd enough to recognize an operator whenshe saw one. Previous experience had taught her that it made good businesssense to have an operator on your side. She told herself hed better have agood excuse for leaving her without a crew, then forgot him.

The ride, the sun, the breeze relaxed her.Liz continued to speak of the sea life below, twining facts shed learned whilestudying marine biology in college with facts shed learned firsthand in thewaters of the Mexican Caribbean. Occasionally one of her passengers would ask aquestion or call out in excitement over something that skimmed beneath them.She answered, commented and instructed while keeping the flow light. Becausethree of her passengers were Mexican, she repeated all her information inSpanish. Because there were several children on board, she made certain thefacts were fun.

If things had been different, she wouldhave been a teacher. Liz had long since pushed that early dream from her mind,telling herself she was more suited to the business world. Her business world.She glanced over where the clouds floated lazily over the horizon. The sundanced white and sharp on the surface of blue water. Below, coral rose likecastles or waved like fans. Yes, shed chosen her world and had no regrets.

When a woman screamed behind her, Liz letoff the throttle. Before she could turn, the scream was joined by another. Herfirst thought was that perhaps theyd seen one of the sharks that occasionallyvisited the reefs. Set to calm and soothe, Liz let the boat drift in the current.A woman was weeping in her husbands arms, another held her childs faceprotectively against her shoulder. The rest were staring down through the clearglass. Liz took off her sunglasses as she walked down the two steps into thecabin.