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He just wants what’s best for me.Hollis felt a reluctant smile tug on her lips as she jumped in behind him.
Air bubbles floated up as Hollis and Chaz made their way down into the ocean depths and it didn’t take long for a ship to come into view.
Down, down, down...to the depths of 30 feet where the wreck crash-landed forever ago and now laid frozen in time. The large, rotting wreck sat sideways on a sandbar ledge. They swam above it, their fins slicing gracefully through the silent depths, as they scoped out the decaying mass.
For awhile, they swam along its length, past schools of fish, examining and admiring the haunted beauty around them. When they came to a hole in the hull, Hollis pointed it out and Chaz motioned for her to wait as he went inside first to make sure it was safe. As he disappeared into the darkness, Hollis spotted a yellow-gray flash nearby. Just a harmless lemon shark, she realized, approximately 6-feet long. She watched it swim around the base of the wreck.
Armed with a dive light, Chaz swept the interior of the sunken ship. Small fish flashed by, the light reflecting off their scales, and he moved further inside.
Hollis swam closer to the entrance of the sunken ship and peered inside. Her Dad swam in the far corner. As though he felt her gaze, he turned around and raised a hand to wave. He floated there, suspended in the water, and she remembered smiling in her mask as she swam into the hull.
Then, without warning, a portion of the rotted deck above Chaz broke apart and fell down. Her father disappeared from view, pinned in a pile of wood and a sudden storm of silt, sand and other debris.
Inside her mask, Hollis’s eyes widened in horror and she screamed around her mouthpiece causing an explosion of bubbles.
Chapter Two
Wrapped in a blanket, dark smudges beneath her eyes, Hollis sat curled up on the couch. Empty mugs, wrappers, crusty dishes and day-old fast food containers littered the coffee table in front of her. She massaged her temple with two fingers as she re-read the invitation in her other hand:Please join us in honoring the extraordinary life of Charles “Chaz” Quinn. Exhibits of his most famous finds and a reception to follow at the Atlantic Aquarium.
Hollis tossed the invite aside and dropped her face into her hands. She had no idea how she was going to get through this event, much less speak about her Dad in front of a crowd. Oh, God, she was dreading it.
But, Hollis knew she couldn’t let her Dad down. She would peel herself up off this couch, get dressed up, cover her puffy eyes with concealer and dig deep.
After all, it’s what he would have done.
Her Dad had died a week ago and the last seven days had been the worst of her life. Thoughts about that day swirled in her head constantly, haunting her. After the collapse, Hollis had swam through the silt and debris, trying to reach her father, but it was difficult and treacherous.
And, she had inevitably failed him. By the time she dug down through the wooden beams and wreckage, saw his cracked, water-filled face mask, it was too late.
He was gone.
Drowned because she had been too slow.
The guilt weighed so heavily on her heart that she had stopped functioning for the past week. If only she had dissuaded him from entering the wreck or insisted they go to a different site. If only she had done something differently then maybe her Dad would still be alive.
If only, her broken heart cried.
∞∞∞
Throughout the marina, seagulls squawked and dive-bombed into the ocean to snag fish.The Fortune & Glory, moored at a dock, wasn’t nearly as fancy as theSea Struck, but she had a lot of modifications that made her even better.
Dylan Ford’s long frame leaned against the rail, the salty breeze rustling his dark hair, still a bit shaggy, and he gazed out across the ocean, his brown gaze thoughtful. Five years ago, he may have wavered between raider and hunter, but today he sat at the top of the tech food-chain and developed the best equipment to locate long-lost treasure. His reputation was still far from sterling, but he was working on it.
A gold coin hung around Dylan’s tanned neck, gleaming in a flash of sunlight as he half-listened to Hiro, and ran a hand over the dark scruff on the lower half of his face. He resembled a pirate, no doubt, but he had worked hard the last five years to clean his act up, pay off his debts and establish a clean business. Beside him, his shepherd mix, Fisher, looked up with soulful brown eyes. Dylan had found the dog wandering around the marina a few years ago and taken pity on him. They’d been inseparable ever since.
“It’ll fly up and down by itself, not attached to anything, and scan the seabed across the grid you plot,” Hiro said. The 20-something, Asian, ex-Silicon Valley kid had grown bored of corporate life, left San Jose and moved down to Florida a few years earlier. Now, he took Dylan’s ideas and turned them into reality. He was a damn genius.
“Mm-hm,” Dylan mumbled, his mind obviously a million miles away, as he ran a hand over Fisher’s head. He couldn’t focus today and so many thoughts buzzed around in his head. Recently, he discovered his useless father had another kid which meant Dylan had a half-brother.
It was a shock at first, but, at the same time, it really wasn’t too surprising. Frank Ford had gotten around in his younger years. Dylan had always wanted a sibling or two so the idea that he now had a brother he never knew about intrigued the hell out of him. He looked forward to meeting Chase. So far, all Dylan knew was that Chase Ford was 32 and lived in New Orleans.
Dylan and Chase spoke once over the phone briefly and, as soon as their schedules allowed it, they were planning a visit. In the meantime, Dylan knew the Gala celebrating Chaz Quinn’s life was happening tonight at the Atlantic Aquarium and he really wanted to go. Needed to go. The fact that he wasn’t invited weighed heavily on his heart and mind.
Besides being a huge inspiration and role model, Chaz Quinn had paid attention and encouraged Dylan to pursue his dreams when no one else had. He owed it to Chaz to be there.
Unfortunately, Chaz’s prickly daughter couldn’t stand him. Dylan knew he deserved it, to a certain extent, but Hollis Quinn really took it to the next level.
“No other underwater drone has the capability to-” Hiro stopped speaking and raised a brow at Dylan’s lack of enthusiasm. “Dylan! Dude, where are you?”
