Page 20 of Tripwire


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Bundling her close, I rolled until I was on my back and she was tucked against me. I managed to get the condom off and threw it in the trash can next to her bed.

She was already dozing off. I brushed a kiss over her temple. “Stay with me, Siren.”

Her eyes fluttered opened and she studied me. “Okay.”

I was surprised because I’d been pretty sure she was going to break things off. She must have changed her mind and I sure as shit wasn’t going to question it. I tightened my hold on her and relaxed.

CHAPTER10

Marina

Smiling down at the equipment I was moving, I thought about how Trip had woken me this morning. There was something about him. He made me so damn happy. Trip and I had spent nearly every night together over the last month. He’d asked me to give him a chance and I’d agreed. Now here I was in love with him. He hadn’t said the words to me, but I was still enjoying the getting to know each other stage.

I wasn’t surprised I’d fallen in love with him so quickly. It was the way my family worked. My parents fell in love quickly and so had my siblings. My brother married his wife two days after he met her. Not that I was planning on telling Trip any of this. He was the kind of guy that had to do things in his own time. Placing any kind of expectations on him was the perfect way to force him into running away. That, I definitely didn’t want.

“Good morning!”

I looked up from where I was securing scuba tanks into the boat. Waving, I called out, “Morning, Donna.”

Donna, Greg, and I were a team. The dive shop we worked for figured out a while ago that it was easier to find a team who worked well together and leave them together rather than having us all swap new teams every day. This ensured we all got along and we grew comfortable with each other and our routines. When you were in charge of a group of people—especially taking them into a place where the environment alone could kill them—consistency was key.

Donna and I were the dive guides and Greg was the boat captain. He was around, checking his craft, making sure it was ready to take us and our guests to the spots we needed to get to.

I met Donna at the side of the boat. She passed over each of the tanks until there were none left on the dock. I turned to finish securing them while she laid out the equipment that our guests were going to need. Buoyancy control devices—known as BCDs— regulators, dive computers, masks, fins and weights lined the docks.

Once we had everything set up, we went around loading our own equipment and the water jug, cups, and snacks that we’d offer between dives. Thanks to the nature of diving—the things that the pressure can do to your body while under water—we needed to do an hour long break up on the boat before we’d be able to complete our second dive for the day. It let our guests rehydrate and rest, but more importantly it allowed the nitrogen bubbles that built up while we were down below to work their way safely from our bodies.

Our guests usually ranged from beginners to advanced. This area was a beautiful place to dive, but the water was cold and we had to keep a close eye on the newbies. Everyone had to have an open water dive certification in order to dive with any shop, but the Pacific Ocean, especially along the northern California coast could be a challenge.

“We have seven today,” Donna told me. We’d both gone to the dive shop, but I’d loaded up the tanks and gear, while she’d gone in to get the details about our guests from the owner.

“Okay, I’ll partner up with the singleton,” I answered. “You guide the dive.”

She nodded in agreement. It wasn’t uncommon to have lone divers sign up for a dive. If we had enough we paired them up together. When the numbers were uneven one of us dove as their dive partner. It was important to have a partner under the water.

There was nothing more chilling than having something go wrong and you can’t vocalize it to anyone. Because of the masks your peripheral vision was zero. This means it could be hard to get someone’s attention unless you were in their direct line of sight, or had a metal bang stick you could knock on your tank with. Either way, it was important to have another person close by, paying attention and checking in with you continuously. It could very well save your life underwater.

“All set,” Greg called up from the engine room on the boat. He began climbing up the ladder right as our guests began walking down the dock.

It took us about half an hour to get everyone fitted in their equipment and go over the dive plan for the day. There were six smiling faces. The lone man who I’d be diving with today hadn’t cracked a smile yet.Great.

I stepped over toward him. “Alright everyone, go ahead and check all your gear over, climb into your wetsuits, then we’ll load everything else up. You’ll be attaching your equipment to the tanks on the boat once we get to our first site for the day.”

As soon as everyone started double checking they had everything they needed, they handed their bags containing their gear to Donna and Greg.

Turning to the man, I smiled. “Hi, I’m Marina. I’ll be your dive buddy today.”

“Eric.”

Okay. Maybe he’s nervous.

“Great, well it’s nice to meet you. This first dive will be our deepest, but at about fifty feet, it’s a pretty easy dive. There can be some swells, depending on the weather.”

“Fine.” He stepped past me and handed his gear over to Greg.

An uneasy feeling swept over me, but I shook it away. It wasn’t like this guy and I had to be best friends. That was another great thing about being underwater. There was no talking. I pulled my wetsuit on, leaving the hood and gloves for after we got to the site.

It was a foggy morning, but it was already starting to clear off and it should end up being a beautiful day. I studied Eric as I pulled the long trailing string on my wetsuit zipper in order to close it. His intense and focused silence was making me nervous. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was off about him.

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