Submerged

“DTO?”

“Drug traffic organization.”

Cobie hugged herself tighter. “Maybe...maybe they’re hiding drugs in the cave and didn’t want anyone to find it? Could be that’s why the man tried to kill me.”

Ray studied her, considering her words. “We’ll find out soon enough.” He reviewed his notes. “You said you knew about the cavers planning to map the cave, and you wanted to go in ahead of them. Why?”

“The truth is I wanted the cave to myself, and my friends wouldn’t distract me as much as another group might. They might prevent us or interfere with our plans.”

Ray’s manner was easygoing and so far he’d kept his face unreadable, but Cobie caught suspicion in the angle of his head. “How so?”

“What does it matter? What does any of this have to do with the man who tried to kill me?” His question made her feel as if she’d been the one to commit a crime, but she didn’t dare say that. That would give him ammunition to ask more questions about why she was getting defensive. Or if she had committed a crime, which she hadn’t.

“Humor me. Maybe it has nothing at all to do with your attacker, but I’m digging, asking questions hoping that I’ll get at why someone tried to kill you today. Okay?” His smile disarmed her.

“Okay.”

The man was good at what he did, no doubt there. “Did anyone else know you were coming here today?” Ray continued.

The back of her throat grew tight. “No, there is no one else. I’m a dentist, and my office staff knew I was heading to an island, but Laura and Jen were the only ones who knew which island.”

“Any particular reason you chose this island and cave?” Ray blinked up at her.

Again, why did her reasons matter? But she wouldn’t antagonize a man trying to help her resolve this. “I... My father wrote about this cave in his journal. It was the last entry—the most recent. I haven’t seen him in years. I thought... I wanted to see something he’d seen. Walk where he’d walked. I know it sounds crazy, but I thought I could get some closure.”

Ray had been writing in his notebook again, but he lifted his gaze and studied Cobie. “Closure?”

“He disappeared six months ago.”

Someone behind her gasped. Adam stepped forward. “Cobie, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”

“It’s... He was absent in my life long before he went missing.” She shrugged, trying for an indifference she didn’t feel. She hadn’t wanted it to mean so much. But she was at this cave for that reason. Her mother had died when she was born, and her father and brother were all she had. Except her father had barely been part of her life or Brad’s life because his occupation required travel. He was even more distant, if possible, after Brad’s death. Then last Christmas, he’d called like always, but this time he’d told her he wanted to make up for lost time. To make up for the past. He just had something to take care of first. And those last words kept Cobie from believing that anything would ever change. There was always something more important than family in her father’s life.

But her indifferent words to Ray had done damage. Something behind his eyes changed. Next to her, Adam shifted on his feet. Cobie fought to keep her composure. She didn’t need complete strangers seeing her pain. Didn’t want Adam to see it, either.

Flipping his notebook closed, Ray gestured behind Cobie. “You and your friends can wait here, or we can escort you to your boat to wait there while we search the island. It might take a while. We’ll look for your attacker, though I doubt he’s still here. We’ll gather evidence if we find any.”

That he hadn’t asked her more questions, especially at the news of her father’s disappearance, surprised her.

“Are you saying we can get into the cave today?” Nate asked.

“I can’t say for sure now, but I’ll know more in a couple of hours. I had planned to explore the cave with you, and we’ll do that together, after we decide it’s safe.”

“You don’t think he could be hiding in the cave?” Laura spoke up.

“That remains to be seen. But if he has any sense, he’s long gone,” Ray said. “What’ll it be? Stay here or go to the boats?”

“We could chow down back on the boat. I’m getting hungry,” Nate said. “Besides, Gary will want to know what’s happening.”

“Okay, that settles it,” Mel said. “Everyone back to the boats. We’ll escort you there.”

“Should we leave our things, then?” Cobie asked.

“I don’t think anyone else is going to bother your stuff. Plus, after we search the island, I might want to look at the damage done here again. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure.”

Adam stepped up to speak to her, misery apparent in his eyes. But Laura and Jen got in his way, intentionally or accidentally blocking him; Cobie wasn’t sure. She snatched up a few of her own clothes from her bag—eager to wear something that fit, eager to be free of Adam’s clothes, though she slipped back into his rain jacket. And then her friends ushered her out like bodyguards. Ray and Mel followed them to the beach.

Laura led the way and climbed into an inflatable dinghy, Jen behind her. Ray approached Cobie before she got into the dinghy. “We’re going to look for evidence of another boat on the beach, though that alone won’t prove anything. Then we’ll head up to the cave entrance where you say the attack happened. If we can find the specific rock you hit him with, we may at least get DNA evidence.”

Adam joined them. “What about Cobie, Ray? She’s not safe.”

Ray tucked his chin. “He’s right. Until we know more, you need to be aware of your surroundings.”

“That’s it?” Adam clenched his fists. “Just be aware of her surroundings? She needs protection.”

“And she has it,” Laura said, brandishing her weapon.

“Cobie, you and your friends should go home.” Adam pressed his hand on her shoulder. “This isn’t a place you should stay, with this creep still out there. He knows you’re here. He could come back and try again.”

“I came here to get answers, Adam. I’m not leaving without them.”

* * *

The rain had finally stopped.

Adam stood at the stern of Laura’s boat. He needed to speak to Cobie. When he opened the hatch to head down the steps below deck, feminine voices rose to meet him. The tone was serious. He tried to make enough noise so they’d know he was on his way down. He didn’t want to hear anything he shouldn’t. Cobie’s friends didn’t like him; of that, he was sure.

She had her reasons for being at odds with him, but in spite of that, there was some sort of crazy electricity that sparked between them every time he saw her. Did she feel it, too? Even if she did, what did it matter? After what had happened, Adam would never let himself be hurt like that again. Secretly loving his best friend’s sister from a distance, watching the pain he’d caused, had scarred him. His actions, his poor judgment, had cost a life, changed lives and caused his own pain, forever affecting them all.

The thoughts weighed heavily on him, but he shook them off. He had more important matters to focus on. He paused before taking the steps down.

“I wish we didn’t have to head back tomorrow,” Laura said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t spend more time with you.”

“That’s why we need to do this today. See the cave if the powers that be will allow us inside. We’ll join Adam and his group if we have to.”

“I’m proud of you. I know these last few years have been hard. Having Adam here makes it worse, I’m sure.”

Adam cringed. Why hadn’t they heard him? Why had he stopped and listened? Now he figured he should turn around and go back to the boat that housed people who liked him. His friends. But he would finish what he started. He clomped down the steps and into the galley, making his presence known. No turning back now.

The three women stared wide-eyed at him.

“Uh, sorry. Thought you’d hear me coming down. Didn’t mean to surprise you.” For that matter, Adam could have been Cobie’s attacker and he would have caught them all off guard. So much for the overprotective, gun-brandishing Laura.

Tension crackled in the cabin.

“Are you hungry?” Jen grabbed a plate. “Might as well eat while we wait to get back on the island. I made my special—macaroni and cheese.”

Adam pulled off his hood and ran a hand through his tangled hair, his gaze snagging on Cobie’s amazing blue eyes. But she averted them. “No, thanks. I’ve already eaten. I...came to see Cobie.”

“Well, here she is. You see her.” Laura stirred the macaroni and cheese on her plate as if she was angry with it.

They weren’t making it easy for him. He saw the hint of a smile on Cobie’s pretty lips. She thought this was funny. When she dared to glance at him, he caught her gaze and trapped it with his own. She didn’t look away this time.

“I need to talk to you when you’re done eating.”

“You can talk to me now.”

He hesitated, glancing at her friends. “All right. Mind if I sit down?”

“Make yourself at home,” Laura said.

Adam shrugged out of his extra raincoat. Hung it on the rack. He took the chair across from Cobie. “Nothing from Ray yet. Maybe they caught the guy. But he should contact us soon.”

Cobie looked down at her plate. Shoved the cheesy pasta around. Either Jen’s special wasn’t so special, or his appearance had ruined their appetites.

Adam measured his words. He’d never felt more unsure of himself. He used to be confident, even overconfident. So much had changed. Years did that to people. Years and tragedies.

“Back in the cabin. When you talked to Ray—”

“What’s really bothering you?” she asked.

Her tone begged him to get on with it. So be it.

“I’m sorry about your father, Cobie. I had no idea he’s missing.”

Cobie kept her gaze on the table. The other two stared at him as if they wished he would go away. Get out of her life and stay out. But he was caught up in this drama the same as the rest of them.

“He was already gone, to me, in a way. After Brad, he just disengaged from my life completely.”

Adam hung his head. He’d done this to her.

Cobie drew in a ragged breath. Maybe Adam should go, after all. He’d made a mistake in coming here. He’d only opened the hurt back up.

“I need some air.” She bounded up the stairs.

Adam grabbed his jacket and followed. Her friends couldn’t stop him if they tried.

Cobie stood at the bow and leaned against the handrail. The wind whipped her hair around, reminding him of when she’d jumped from the bluff. A fist clenched around his heart at the reminder. He could only thank God they’d been there to pull her from the cold water.

Clouds hung heavy in the sky and turned everything gray and dark. This morning, the forecast had said it would be a beautiful day. But beautiful was in the eye of the beholder. Maybe the meteorologist liked gray and rainy.

Standing next to Cobie, Adam half expected her to lash out at him.

“I wanted to close this awful chapter of my life,” she said. “That was my whole purpose in coming to the cave. And then after this, I’d planned to build something new and fresh for myself.”

Adam understood that sentiment. He was shooting for the same thing. Rain started up again, sprinkling her exposed skin, clinging to her long lashes. He took off his jacket and gently hung it across her shoulders. That she didn’t object surprised him.

“What do you think happened to your father?” he finally came to his reason for being here.

“I don’t know. The police opened an investigation into his whereabouts. His work travel could have taken him anywhere. Sometimes I would believe he was one place only to find out he’d been a thousand miles away. I wasn’t the one to call the police, of course. How could I know he was missing? I only talked to him on birthdays and Christmas.”

Emotion grew thick in his throat, and he cleared it. “Who called the police then?”

“Barbara Stemmons. A woman he stayed with in Seattle. An address he called home. I’ve never met her. She said he hadn’t come home in weeks, and she hadn’t been able to contact him.” Her voice sounded teary, but she stared ahead, her features hard. “The police said given his pattern, he didn’t want to be found, and that was that. They’re overworked and had nothing else to go on, but they would keep him listed as missing on their website, if anyone else had a lead. I can’t blame them for not doing more. And I can’t help but believe that I contributed to their attitude. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything. Maybe they would still be searching for him if I hadn’t been so negative about the way he traveled and lived.”

Adam was taken aback at her words. Clearly she was being too hard on herself. Blaming herself when she shouldn’t. And her desperate need for her father’s love and approval—something she might never get—rang through her words, loud and clear.

Adam said the only thing he could say. “He loved you, Cobie. You have to believe that. He just couldn’t handle—”

“I know he loved me, okay? Or loves me. I can’t stand to think he’s gone, really gone.” She swiped at another tear. “At Christmas, he told me that he wanted to make up for lost time. That he was coming back to Mountain Cove to see me, but that he had something to take care of first. I resented him for that—it was the same mantra I had heard all my life. There was always one more thing he had to do before he could make time for me. But then Barbara sent his journal to me. Said she’d found it in his things with a note from him asking her to send it to me.

“I could hear that he loved me in the words in his journal, even though he had a terrible way of showing it. He wrote that he couldn’t take the pain of losing my mother when I was born, so he threw himself into his work. After Brad died, well, that was one more reason to stay away. Seeing me only reminded him of all he’d lost. I came to see the cave because he wrote about it. It was my way of being somewhere he’d been. My only way to get close to him and say goodbye. If he’s dead. And maybe even if he isn’t. And somehow I hope to find answers in the cave. He wrote about it as though it held some secret he wanted me to find.”

For Cobie’s sake, Adam hoped her father was still alive, but a sick feeling swirled inside that made him think otherwise. “Cobie, your father is missing. Maybe he wanted you to have the journal because he believed he was in danger and that he wouldn’t have a chance to tell you in person how much he loved you in case something happened to him. Maybe he never meant for you to actually come to the cave, to find it. Or he could have been warning you away.”

She turned to face him. The cold in her blue eyes stabbed him. “Are you suggesting that my attack today had something to do with my father, a man I haven’t seen in years?”

“Maybe there’s something hidden in the cave, and that’s why you were attacked.”

FIVE

Cobie wore some old running shoes and layered her clothes under fleece and her rain gear. She put on gloves to protect not only her hands but the cave formations from the oils in her skin that could stop stalagmite growth. She wore a headlamp attached to a helmet and carried an extra flashlight.

They waited at the slim entrance to the cave while Ray and Mel took the lead as a safety measure. After searching the island, they had concluded that her assailant had fled. Ray had taken as evidence the rock she’d used to hit the man. Thankfully, it had fallen in a sheltered spot and the rain hadn’t washed it free of the blood. The slightest chance that the man had hidden in the cave remained, so Ray’s reasons for going along served more than one purpose—keeping him on the job as part of his investigation, protecting them and exploring the cave with his friends the way he’d already wanted to. He hadn’t asked more questions, only assured Cobie they would find her attacker.

Right. The man could have been anyone at all, out for a joy kill instead of a joyride. He could be anywhere by now.

Including right behind her again.

After Ray and Mel, Adam’s friends, Nate, Jared and Gary, went next, readying their tape, ropes, compass, a clinometer to map the cave and a first aid kit, just in case. They seemed genuinely excited to be part of mapping the cave for the Forest Service.

But Adam hung back, studying the place where she’d run from her attacker. Since Ray and Mel had already searched that area, she wasn’t sure what Adam thought he would find there. Still, it warmed her heart that he was searching. He seemed determined to keep her safe and to figure this out.

She leaned against the mossy limestone and thought back to when he and Brad had gone along with a more experienced team as novice surveyors. She hadn’t realized how much donning the gear would affect her. How the memories would rush back just by seeing Adam wearing the headlamp and helmet. Only this time, Brad wasn’t at his side.

The memories hurt and reminded her of the pain and anger she’d felt toward Adam all these years. But Adam—his heroic effort to save her today, his protectiveness afterward, and, yes, maybe even his sturdy form and thick hair framing his rugged, handsome face, made it hard to hold on to her resentment. Being with him seemed to soften all the hardness around her heart, and her grip on her negative attitude was slowly slipping. And with that, part of her wished her friends wouldn’t give him such a hard time.

Just then—as if Adam had heard her thoughts—he turned and glanced at her, then started back to them.

“Back off of Adam, okay?” she whispered to Laura.

Jared called from the cave. “Come on in, guys. Get out of the rain.”

“Go ahead, Cobie,” Laura said. “Jen and I will go next—then Adam can be last.”

Cobie feared what her friends might say to Adam if she left them alone. Maybe she should let them have their say, but Adam had saved her life. That couldn’t make up for the past—no way—but the least she could do in return was save him from her friends.

“No, you go ahead,” she said. “Then Jen.”

“What are you doing?” Laura angled her head, her silent question ringing loudly in Cobie’s ears. Why are you staying behind with Adam?

“I need to talk to him alone, okay?” It was the only answer Laura would accept.

Her friend frowned. Shrugging, she slipped into the cave. Jen followed. Cobie had forgotten how overbearing Laura could be.

When Laura and Jen had disappeared inside, Adam approached. He studied her. What was he thinking? Okay, maybe she made a mistake. Maybe she didn’t exactly want to be left alone with him.

“Is that true?” Adam lifted his hand as though he would reach out to her but then dropped it.

“Is what true?”

“You told Laura you needed to talk to me alone.”

How did she answer that? “Um...honestly, I was protecting you.”

His questioning frown shifted into that knee-weakening grin that had won her heart years ago. A mistake, she’d definitely made a mistake.

“I’m not sure what I need protection from, but I won’t reject your offer.”

“It’s not what—it’s who. I didn’t want my friends to say anything to you.”

His grin dropped. He scraped a hand over his face. “Yeah, they’re pretty brutal. I appreciate your effort, but I can’t blame your friends for their low opinion of me. They’re trying to help you.”

Cobie saw the question in Adam’s shimmering blue eyes. All the lush greenery had turned his eyes more blue today, and they asked Cobie if she had a low opinion of him. She hadn’t yet decided. Regardless, there could be no future for them. That much she knew. Funny how nothing much had changed there. When she was younger and Brad was still alive, she had had such a huge crush on Adam and he never once looked at her. She hadn’t thought there could be a future then, either.

An odd feeling swirled up inside and rolled over the dingy walls of her heart. The way Adam looked at her now, she almost got the sense that he looked at her as more than his best friend’s sister. He looked at her like a woman—a desirable woman. In all her years of dreaming about him, she’d never seen that in his eyes.

She gasped for air. “I’d better go.” She made for the cave.

“Hold on, Cobie.” Adam adjusted her helmet. Squatted enough to be at eye level while he did it. Why did his nearness make her insides shaky like this? She was a traitor to let the man she blamed for her brother’s death affect her this way.

“What are you doing?” She moved to step away.

“Wait.” He messed with the headlamp. Then he flashed her his triple-threat grin. Oh, God, help me. I don’t know if I can do this.

Cobie swallowed. “I can take care of myself.” She stepped back from him, but not nearly far enough.

“Of course you can.” Adam crossed his arms. “Just like I can protect myself from your friends, but I’m not opposed to letting you fight for me.”

Cobie crushed down the fierce need to express her frustration. He turned everything into playful banter, and she didn’t want to play games with him. The events of today were certainly not unfolding the way she’d expected.

Waves crashed against the rocky edges of the island, reminding her that somewhere near was the bluff she’d jumped from. Part of her wanted to back out of exploring the cave.

“Cobie, neither of us planned this today. I know being here with me, going into this cave, brings back a lot of unwanted memories. But maybe there are some good ones, too.” Adam closed the distance she’d just created. “I—”

Laura slid out of the small crack in the limestone.

“You guys coming or what?” Though half her face was covered in mud, Cobie could see that Laura’s eyes held concern. “Cobie? Are you sure you want to do this?”

Laura and Jen had both taken time off from their jobs and families and traveled to meet her. She’d asked a lot of them, especially since she hadn’t had much contact with them since Brad’s death.

“Yes. I’m sure.” Cobie glanced at Adam. “I need to finish this while I’m here. And after it’s over, I need to move on with my life.”

Something flashed in Adam’s eyes. Regret? Hurt? Cobie wasn’t sure. When he didn’t say anything, Cobie followed Laura into the cave—a dark and muddy chute that she slid down until it delivered her into a cavern. When she arrived, she was grateful for the multiple headlamps spread out like streetlights.

Cobie climbed to her feet and carefully stepped out of the slippery stream that continued twisting through the cave. Her headlamp lit up the limestone walls marbled with white and black and gray. She wanted to lay her hand over them but didn’t want to cause any damage. The limestone was fragile enough she could easily chip a small piece off with one touch. Everywhere she looked, beauty and wonder met her gaze. Adam wasn’t kidding about the mixed memories connected to caving, but for this moment, she tried to focus on the good ones. And make new ones.

Adam came down the chute after her and joined his friends in exploring and surveying the cave. They had work to do, after all, and Cobie would leave them to it. Jen and Laura explored the far wall of the ten-foot-tall room, and Cobie hadn’t caught up to them yet.

She tried to picture her father standing here, at this very spot. Had he come to the cave in search of something for his job as a scientist, or for the sheer love of caving? If so, he hadn’t mentioned either reason in his journal. He hadn’t written in the journal religiously, and most of his notes were vague ramblings regarding people he met or a day on his job as an archaeologist. But most of the writing were old, except for a few notes about this cave. Nothing that held her attention or stood out. That’s why Cobie hadn’t paid much attention to the fact that pages had been torn from his journal after the mention of the cave.

Maybe Adam was right to think that her father’s disappearance had something to do with the man who had tried to kill her. The big question was what did this cave have to do with any of it? How long would it take them to map a caving system like this, which could have innumerable passages, loops, crawlways and rooms?