Page 64 of Sunburned
Tyson jogged down the stairs, his eyes hidden behind mirrored aviators. “The swim-through is gonna be epic,” he said with a grin, slapping his brother so hard on the shoulder that he nearly lost his balance. “Hoping we see some sharks.”
“Sharks?” Jennifer asked, her eyes wide.
“Most likely nurse sharks, which are harmless,” I said.
“Just don’t provoke them,” Tyson said, grabbing her knee so quickly she jumped. He laughed. I wanted to punch him, and Jennifer looked like she did too.
We weren’t the only ones. Allison glanced up from her equipment at Tyson’s back, a look of pure hatred crossing her face before she arranged her features into a more accommodating expression.
“We saw a beautiful hammerhead yesterday,” Rémy said, joining us. Clearly, he hadn’t heard Jennifer’s minor freakout. “And a school of eagle rays. There’s a little current that will take us through the Snares, easy.”
“The Snares?” I echoed.
“This is the name of the tunnel through the reef,” Rémy explained.
“Conditions look perfect,” Cody said, casting a glance at the crystal-clear water.
“It’s pretty cool all you guys dive,” I said, taking the bottle of no-fog from Jennifer when she was done rubbing it into her goggles.
Tyson threw an arm around Samira’s shoulders and she gave him a kiss. “Tyson told me he couldn’t marry me if I didn’t dive.”
“What’s up with that guy?” Jennifer asked, staring across the water.
I followed her line of sight to a nearby yacht—gray in tone and smaller than ours but still sizable—where a tall man in black board shorts and a rash guard was standing on the bow with his arms crossed, looking down at us with what appeared to be disdain. He was wearing sunglasses and I couldn’t fully make out his features, but he definitely seemed displeased.
“That’s Marcel,” Allison answered, her voice low. “One of the developers who’d like to kill us.”
Jennifer spun to face her, a look of alarm on her face. “What’s he doing here?”
A crew member came up behind Marcel with a pair of fins in his hand, and Marcel turned to follow the man, out of our view. “Looks like he’s diving,” Cody commented.
Cody, Tyson, and Allison exchanged a dubious glance. “Seems awfully coincidental,” Allison said.
I had to agree.
“Let’s beat him to it,” Tyson said.
I glanced behind me to see Laurent exiting a crew door under the stairs. Rémy pointed to his pile of gear, and he began checking it as I sidled over to him, my flippers and mask in hand. “We’re partners,” I said.
He smiled, rising as he adjusted his air supply knob. “You will like this dive.” He breathed into the yellow emergency regulator, then shouldered his pack. “It’s one of my favorites.”
His eyes traveled the length of my body as I inserted my arms in the sleeves of my wetsuit and zipped it up. “What?” I asked.
He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “Just memorizing your wetsuit so I don’t lose you.”
“Shit,” I heard Tyson say. “My O-ring’s broken.”
Laurent and I both frowned as our eyes met. Without the O-ring, air would escape the tank or water would enter it, rendering the regulator inoperable and necessitating an emergency ascent.
“That wouldn’t have been fun to discover in the water,” Cody said dryly.
“This is why we check,” Rémy said calmly. “Don’t worry, I have another pack.”
As he scurried over to fetch the other pack, Tyson pointed a finger at the rest of us. “One of you fuckers trying to knock me off?”
Allison slapped Tyson on the back, her lips curling into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “If any of us were trying to knock you off, I think we’d do a better job than that.”
It was meant to be funny, but it fell flat.
