Page 9 of The Sunken Truth

Chatting with them made time go faster, and the small piece of shade under the cover on their deck was welcome, though after half an hour it was uncomfortable even in the shade.

While the women speculated about what treasure might be found, he slipped away and walked down to the back of the boat. It was one of those where the back section was almost at water level, and he was sorely tempted to remove his boots and dangle his feet in the water. He could break protocol out on the water.

Besides, he imagined a lot of emergency situations on the water would benefit from him already having his boots off.

He was still contemplating it when a head broke thesurface, halfway between the boat and the red marker buoy. Kit waved at him. Keira came up next, then Seren.

Flynn exhaled a full breath when Lily appeared. She didn’t look at him, but chatted with her fellow divers before they set off swimming towards the boats. Finally, she caught his eye and veered in his direction while the others swam to Ted’s boat.

Taking hold of the boat, she dragged her hand through the water to splash him.

“I can pull you in if you want,” she said. “You looked as though you were thinking of jumping in for a cool off – if I pull you in you can blame it on me and not get into trouble with the sergeant.”

“Tempting as that is, I was only thinking about giving my feet a dip.”

“Do it,” she said, handing her oxygen tank up to him.

He set it aside, then glanced around.

“Surely you can’t get into trouble for keeping cool,” Lily said, her brow wrinkled as she regarded him from the ladder. “Besides, you’re on a boat in the middle of nowhere. Who’s even going to know?”

She had a point. And the water did look very inviting.

Crouching, he unlaced one boot and then the other, feeling stupidly circumspect as he did.

Lily was right though – there really wasn’t any harm in letting standards drop for a few minutes.

Chapter Five

With his feet free,Flynn rolled up his trouser legs, then dangled his legs in the water and groaned at the blissful coolness.

“I’m not sure you’re supposed to enjoy yourself quite that much when you’re on duty,” Lily quipped. She’d flung her flippers onto the boat and climbed the ladder to sit beside him. “Whose boat is this?” she asked, peeling her wetsuit down to her waist.

“It belongs to the owners of the hotel. They’ve been feeding me sandwiches and trying to coax me into drinking shots with them.” He glanced behind as the three women laughed raucously. “I’d never have imagined a shipwreck would be such a cause for celebration. Find any gold, by the way?”

“Not yet.” She closed her eyes against the sun and smiled brightly.

“What’s it like down there? I’m imagining a scene from a Disney film with an almost perfectly preserved ship, sitting regally onthe sand.”

“And divers swimming in through portholes to swim around the captain’s quarters?”

“Yeah.”

“In your imagination, do the divers also have mermaid tails?”

“Yep. And there are singing sea creatures.”

“It’s not exactly like that.”

“When you saynot exactly…there are singing sea creatures, right? A grumpy crab or two?”

She laughed, and the sound made his stomach flutter. “The seabed is all stirred up, so visibility is terrible. I could just about make out what I believe is a boat’s mast and possibly a part of a ship’s deck. Mostly I could see silt and seaweed.”

“You had a good time, though?”

“I had a great time.”

“Hungry?” Seren called from Ted’s boat.