Depths of Salvation (Love on the Edge) (5 page)

My heart sank, the realization that I fought an entirely unfair fight hit me dead center in the chest. I didn’t have money. I had nothing to offer this island other than facts about how many integral island lives were sustained with help from my ship’s ecosystem alone.

“It is hard to deny him when such prosperity could be gleaned from the project’s success,”
Henrick said. “And I’m sure there are many other locations that could use your expertise.”

My stomach dropped, feeling as if an anchor had been thrown just as I’d taken a ship to top speed. The image of the
Falconer
splintered and scattered across the ocean floor, all the life that once thrived there nothing but a decayed mess, made bile rise up my throat.

“You hired me to do this job, Henrick. When other preservationists wouldn’t touch it because of the dangers around and within its location. And now you want to tell me to find another site?”

Henrick sighed. “Sadie, you have to understand that I had no idea when we hired you that the pipeline would be an issue.”

“It shouldn’t be,” I said, furious. “Slade could go around. He’d agreed. Now the numbers have come in and he gets to decide what my site is worth? He doesn’t have even a tiny grasp of understanding how important it is.”

“I don’t see a way around this,” Henrick said, leaning back in his chair.

“She has time.” Connell spoke up from my left, and I cut my eyes to him.

“Pardon?” Henrick asked.

Connell glanced at Ryan. “How long before pipes reach her site?”

Ryan shrugged, looking to me. “Coordinates?” he asked as he pulled out his phone.

I quickly rattled off the coordinates I knew by heart, and he entered them into his phone. Hope pulsed in the center of my chest, and I continued to gaze openly at Connell in an attempt to figure out why he would help me. After a few moments of calculations, Ryan looked up. “Two months, give or take a week. And assuming we have no setbacks in the schedule.”

Connell nodded. “She has time,” he repeated, the strength behind his words suggested people didn’t challenge him often. “To either prove the value or not. She doesn’t have to leave immediately.”

Henrick’s
lips pursed before he smiled at me. “See? This is good, Sadie. You have a whole two months to bring something more tangible to the table. If I have something worthy, I can easily deny Mr. Slade’s requests without offending all the generosity he’s shown our island.”

I kept my growing hope in check. “And who will deem what is worthy and what isn’t? Because if it were up to me, I’ve already given you fifty
worthy
reasons to preserve this site since my team started work there.” The benefits from the strain of purple algae should’ve been enough. The domino effect of food sources should’ve been enough. What did they want from it? Gold?

Henrick’s eyes trailed to Connell, and he nodded. “Mr. Murphey is more than capable of such distinction, aren’t you?”

Connell shifted in his seat but gave one single nod.

Whoa. Just how well of a history
did
his family have with preservation to get that kind of pull?

Well, that was a story I wanted to hear. I tilted my head but could tell by the hard look in his eyes now wasn’t the time to get inquisitive. Not that it would ever be the time, as I didn’t know him. But damn, now I really wanted to.

Henrick stood up, and I took that as our cue to leave.

“Thank you,” I said and shook his offered hand. “I’ll have something for you soon.”

He chuckled. “Of that, I have no doubt. Always a pleasure, Sadie.” He motioned us out of the room, and I kept walking until we’d made it out of the building and back into the breathable fresh air.

Connell moved past me, heading in the direction of the docks. The urge to stop him was so powerful, I reached out and clutched his hard, muscled arm before I knew what I was doing. His eyes trailed from my fingers to my face.

I quickly let him go. “I just wanted to say thank you.”

“For what?”

“Buying me time.”

“It’s nothing,” he said.

“Not to me. Henrick was ready to send me packing before you pointed out the timetable.” I glanced over my shoulder before returning my focus to him. “My favorite dive is just down that way. Can I buy you a drink?” The man deserved more than a drink for the move he’d pulled in there.

He gazed in the direction I just had. The hesitance was apparent, and enough to make me flush. I hadn’t asked him on a date; I just wanted to thank him. I shook my head quickly. “Forget it. You can just stop by the site tomorrow. I usually dive after sunrise.” I turned around, totally prepared to order a triple shot of rum once I reached the bar.

“Hold up,” Connell called from behind me.

I stopped but didn’t turn around. Once he reached my side, I dared to look up at him. What was it about him? He was sexy, intimidating, and intriguing as hell, and I didn’t have a clue why he had me fumbling all over the place. And I didn’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. All I knew was that for the first time in years, I had butterflies fluttering in my stomach. They might be scared to death of his silent, piercing stare, but they were there.

And now that he’d been given the deciding factor over whether my site would be demolished or salvaged, getting him on my side would be the smartest move I could make as a preservationist. Now, how to get the tall, dark, bad boy to like me would be the real challenge.

I grabbed a table on the wooden patio that connected the bar to the white sand beach boarding it. Crashes from the waves of the crystal blue ocean accompanied the sounds of the place’s chatter, and the familiarity of it soothed my tensed muscles.

Today had been a hell of a day. I woke up doing the thing I loved most—diving and exploring the site of my dreams—and it ended with me defending its importance to people who wanted to destroy it. I couldn’t see their side of thinking, and they couldn’t see mine. We had to meet in the middle somewhere. And Henrick had—for reasons still not crystal clear to me—given Connell the power to kill or keep my site at the end of all this, so that made him my number one priority right now.

He sat across from me while Ryan and Nemo beelined for the bar inside the small shack of a building, no patience to wait for the waitress. The smell of freshly cooked fish filled the salty air, and my stomach grumbled. I ordered seared conch over greens and a trio of fish tacos for Nemo. Connell tripled Nemo’s order for himself and Ryan. As the pretty waitress quickly hurried off to take care of her other tables, as she was the only one who worked here and was currently slammed, I surveyed Connell across the table.

The soft breeze blew his hair back from his face, but the man barely moved. He was controlled, calm, and silent. There was something there, though, behind his hazel eyes, that appeared deeper than the ocean I loved.

Maybe I was delusional due to his generosity in Henrick’s office.

“Here you go, boss.” Nemo set down a large glass of my favorite cocktail—orange juice and rum—and took the open seat to my right. He held a longneck in his hand and sipped it while his eyes darted between Connell and my silent exchange.

“You keep this kid around to buy you drinks and drive you places?” Connell broke the silence, motioning his head to Nemo.

Nemo opened his mouth, no doubt to defend his position on my team, but was cut off before he started by Ryan, who handed a frosty mug of beer to Connell.

I arched an eyebrow. “Is that what he’s for?” I asked.

Connell smirked and took a quick gulp of his drink.

“Nemo is an integral part of my team,” I finally said after taking a swig of my cocktail. The rum was sweet and paired with the acidity from the orange juice, exactly what I needed right now. The pleasant burn that slipped down my core opened up my lungs, and I took a full deep breath. “He’s a fantastic diver, and I’ve never met anyone as skilled in maps and navigation as him.”

The boy beamed from my words, his chest puffing out slightly as he nodded at Connell.

“I’m a control operator,” Ryan set his mug down. “I make sure Connell and the other welders have the correct gas and amps. I’m a decent diver, but nothing compared to this man.” He motioned toward Connell and shook his head. “I’ve never seen anyone keep pace with him.”

Connell shrugged.

I leaned my elbows on the table. “Interesting. Maybe you’ll be able to keep up with me, then,” I said, a smirk on my lips.

The rum was working, and it was wonderful. Worry evaporated and soon I was just enjoying challenging a fellow diver.

Connell snorted, nearly spitting his drink over the table. “That’s adorable.”

“You’ve never seen me in the water.”

“Same.” He leaned closer, his arms on the table, the brightly colored tattoos even more beautiful up close.

Ryan cleared his throat. “Hey, kid, you any good at darts?” He clapped Nemo on the back.

“No. I’m not much of a player,” Nemo said.

“I’ll teach you.” Ryan practically tugged the boy out of his seat and dragged him inside the shack.

“Why’d Henrick give you the reins on this conflict?” I asked, unable to keep my curiosity at bay.
Damn rum
. I took another good, long drink. “Is it because of your family?”

Connell shrugged. He liked to do that; I was learning.

“Or your experience? Because you work with Slade?”

“All of the above?” He made the answer sound like a question.

The non-answer made me wonder what exactly he kept to himself, but the longer I stared into his eyes—which he never took off mine—I realized there was a whole slew of things hidden deep within him. Something about his hard exterior, when looked past, I could see . . . pain?

“Where are you from?” I asked, wanting to get him talking. The urge was incredibly strong, like if I could open a conversation, I would unlock the mystery surrounding him and learn the way to getting him on my side when push came to shove over the survival of my site.

“Small-town nowhere Oklahoma.”

“Really?”

“Surprised?” he asked, taking another drink.

“Yes. You look like you were born in the water. I assumed at least somewhere near a coast.”

“We had lakes.”

I chuckled but wasn’t one hundred percent sure he was trying to be funny so I locked it up.

“Why’d you leave?”

“Weld school.”

“Do you go back often?”

“No.”

“Who in your family is in preservation?”

Connell shifted in his seat, his eyes sharpening on me. “This ain’t a job interview, darlin’, and it damn sure isn’t a date, so you can stop with the third degree. The only thing you need to know about me is that I’m the best at what I do.”

His sharp tone didn’t match the playfulness in his eyes, but it was still enough to swirl a mixture of anger and fear inside my stomach. I sucked in a reassuring breath and tapped the side of my drink, the glass tinkling underneath my fingers. “This,
sweetheart
, is drinks. And you’re kidding yourself if you think I’m letting you anywhere near my site without getting to know you.”

He sat back in his chair, his massive legs stretched out so far underneath the table one of them brushed my bare leg. Warm chills raced over my skin, and I adjusted to break contact.

“Your loss if you don’t let me check it out,” he said. “I can’t vote to preserve it if I don’t know what it’s worth.”

I cleared my throat and fastened an apologetic look on my face. “You’re right. I apologize. I’m a little protective over her.” Damn. He had me jumping hoops to stay in line with his moods.

“Her?”

“The
Falconer
. . . my site. She’s the biggest one I’ve worked on so far, and hands down has the most to offer. There are so many possibilities in that ecosystem.”

He raised his eyebrows at me, and I took that as a cue to go on.

“Medicinal for one. I think a rare plant growing in one of its chambers could have similar properties as the purple algae that grows around it. Only this type of seagrass has thousands more microscopic pods, which could mean more antioxidants and disease-fighting properties.”

“Lots of
coulds
in that statement.”

My shoulders dropped. “I know. I’m working on proving it.”

“I get the feeling you won’t stop until you do.”

I smiled. “You’d be right.”

He pressed his lips together, his eyes trailing me up and down. “I usually am.”

My heart beat a little harder under his gaze. He hadn’t said it in a cocky tone, just a statement of fact, and I believed him. He seemed like the kind of man who rarely spoke, but when he did, he was sure he was on the right side of the conversation.

“What’s your story, Connell?” I asked, finishing the last of my drink and wondering how in the hell this man, out of all the men I’d met on this island, was triggering my poorly treated sexual drive.

He picked up his mug, holding it before his lips, and shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

The severity in his tone dumped a cold bucket of ice water over my flushed skin. Something was dark inside him, something with roots that held on so hard it pinched him when he tried to smile.

“Maybe I do.” As the words left my mouth, I realized I
did
. Somehow, in the few short hours I’d known him, I wanted to figure him out. Could be the instant attraction I couldn’t ignore, but I assumed it was more due to his standing up for my site with no reason to. For helping me, a total stranger, when he could’ve kept his mouth shut about the window of time I still had to prove my site’s worth. Hell, Slade probably would have given him a bonus if he’d just let Henrick believe there was no other option than to appease Slade and grant him leave to blow up the
Falconer.