Chapter 4

The wind off the water was cold enough to bite through my thin navy dress.

The yacht's twin diesel engines thrummed through the wet deck boards into my bare feet.

Hanging from the steel crane over the black ocean was the shark cage.

It was a heavy iron box, painted safety yellow, four feet wide and six feet high.

Reid used it twice a year to entertain city councilmen on offshore fishing trips.

Sabine followed us onto the stern in her green dress. The wind lifted the thin satin against her legs. Reid took off his coat and settled it around her shoulders before he told Kellan to remove my boots.

I stood barefoot on the wet deck while Sabine closed both hands around the coat I had repaired for him last winter.

Kellan pulled off my boots and wool socks, leaving my feet bare against the wet teak.

The mask strap caught in my hair. Kellan stopped and worked it loose instead of pulling. "Breathe slowly through the regulator," he said under his breath. Reid looked over. Kellan stepped away from me.

He strapped a small yellow air cylinder to my back, fitted a clear mask over my face, fastened a glowing pressure gauge to my wrist, and secured a small dive knife against my calf.

On our third date, the ferry had lost power after sunset. I had gripped Reid's coat until the buttons marked my palm. He had covered my hand with his and promised I would never have to be afraid of dark water while he was beside me.

Fourteen years later, he was fastening an air tank to my back.

"Ten minutes," Reid said, standing a few feet away with a cigarette burning between his fingers. "The cold will clear your head."

He pointed to the yellow cord hanging inside the cage.

"Pull it when you're ready to give me the town. Kellan brings you up."

"And if I don't?"

"You will."

"Mr. Varden," Kellan muttered, keeping his eyes fixed on the deck bolts. "Boss, give me five minutes to check the backup."

Reid's hand settled over the gun beneath his coat.

"You've had enough time," Reid said. "Lower it."

I kept waiting for Reid to call it off. Fourteen years had trained that hope into me. He frightened people, hurt them, made them beg—but afterward, he always told me there were lines he would never cross with me.

Kellan didn't look at me as he pushed me toward the open hatch.

I planted my bare feet against the deck. The guard behind me drew his gun far enough for the metal to clear the holster. Kellan caught my elbow before I could turn. Fighting four armed men would only put me in the cage unconscious.

Before I stepped through the narrow iron door, I looked up at the overhead crane arm.

A steel ring hung empty in the opposite corner.

Nothing was clipped to it. One single cable held the entire weight of the cage.

My fingers began to shake when I saw the empty steel ring. I closed my shaking hand around the harness buckle and dragged it to the front of my body, adjusting the strap until my right hand could easily reach the dive knife on my calf.

I climbed inside the cramped iron box.

The heavy latch dropped into place with a sharp bite of metal.

Through the yellow mesh, Reid stood at the edge of the teak deck, the wind blowing his dark hair across his forehead.

"Give me the town now, and you don't touch the water," Reid said.

Behind him, Sabine pulled his coat tighter around her body.

"Where is she, Corinne?" his voice came through the small waterproof speaker bolted to the cage ceiling.

I shoved the yellow mouthpiece between my teeth.

I bit down hard on the rubber tabs.

Reid closed the cage himself.

I didn't reach for the yellow cord.

I lifted the yellow emergency rope where Reid could see it, held it for three seconds, and then let it fall from my hand.

Reid's mouth set into a thin, pale line.

"Drop it," he said into the radio.

The single cable unspooled with a harsh mechanical groan, and the ocean swallowed me whole.