LITMIR.BIZ

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her upon your wretched little boat.”

      “I’ll talk to David,” he said.

      “You really will. And…and if he’s hesitant, if there’s any chance, will you let me try to persuade him, as well?” she asked.

      He forced an even smile. No, just say no!

       He asked himself if he would be so torn, so tempted, if the person asking him wasn’t this young woman, not just beautiful, but…strong. So confident in her ability that she would swear she could make his work the best ever.

       Ability.

       The way she looked.

       The sound of her voice.

       The mystery involved. Yes, he knew the damned legend. And hell yes, he was curious.

      “Look,” he began.

      But she wasn’t looking at him. She was looking at the door. She let out a little cry of surprise and gladness.

      Sean swung around. His sister had just come in the door.

      He looked at Vanessa Loren.

      Ah, hell.

      Hell.

      The young woman knew Katie. He should have figured.

      He stared back at her, irritated, and suddenly certain that it was all over.

      “You know my sister,” he said.

      She glanced at him while rising. “Yes, I know Katie. I’ve been on a few dive boats with her, and of course, I bring friends in here for Katie-okie when I’m down.…”

      She started to head out to see Katie. He set his fingers around her wrist, drawing her back.

      She didn’t jerk away, but then his hold was pretty firm. Those huge, cornflower-blue eyes of hers lit on him.

      He smiled coldly. “You know my uncle, too, don’t you? And my uncle knew just who you were and what you wanted.”

      “I’ve met Jamie before, yes,” she admitted. “Katie can explain it all to David, if you don’t want to, but I know that she’ll convince him that I’m right. I came to you first, because Katie told me that David had said all the major decisions were going to be yours, so if you just agree—”

      He stood, releasing her wrist.

      “I don’t like being played,” he said flatly. “Good day, Miss Loren.”

      She didn’t call after him.

      Bartholomew did.

      “Sean! Oh, come on, Sean. I can help you with this, I was around when it all happened,” the dapper buccaneer cried to him. “Sean, oh, do come on! If I were flesh and blood, I’d be on this like a mosquito at a topless bar! Sean!”

      Sean passed Katie near the doorway. “Hey, sis,” he said, kissed her cheek, and kept on going.

      They’d all just survived near death. They had dealt with total insanity.

      He would have to be insane himself to get into something like this again.

      “Mr. O’Hara!”

      She had followed him out. The lithe and dignified Miss Loren had come rushing out, and now she stood on the sidewalk, staring after him.

      Despite himself, he paused.

      She walked to him, her chin high. “I never meant to play anyone,” she said. “I’m just desperate for help. You don’t understand,” she said.

      “I think I do,” he told her.

      “No, no, you don’t. I have reason to believe that someone must find out what happened, not just for those who were killed, but…”

      “But what?”

      “Other things have happened. Bad things. Not involved with filming, but with other boaters who disappeared near Haunt Island.”

      “The sea can be huge and merciless, Miss Loren. And sadly, throughout history, many a boat and ship have disappeared without a trace.”

      “There’s more to it. I know there’s more to it, and I’m afraid.”

      “Afraid of what?”

      “I’m afraid that if the truth isn’t discovered, more people will die. That there will be blood and death…a massacre again, and maybe this time, here, in Key West.”

      Chapter Two

      Vanessa walked back into O’Hara’s, trying to feel as if she hadn’t just been crushed in a major defeat.

      Katie was sitting at the bar, talking to her uncle. She watched Vanessa as she came up and took the stool next to her. Vanessa had known Katie forever, or so it seemed. They’d met when Katie’s school had brought a group of Key West students up to dive the springs and Vanessa’s school had been hosting the week of camp. She wasn’t sure if she’d liked her at first, being ten and wary of kids who came from cool places like Key West. But she’d been paired with Katie, who had an exceptional voice, for the talent show, and Vanessa had been her harmony and backup act, and they’d won the grand prize—two new regulators for their scuba equipment. That had begun the friendship. Of course, they’d been kids living almost four hundred miles away from one another even if it was the same state, but they’d kept up as much as possible, visiting one another at their respective colleges and meeting whenever they could.

      By the time they had been able to get together in Key West, or anywhere in the Keys, Sean had been gone most of the time, so it really wasn’t that strange that she’d never had a chance to meet him before.

      It seemed odd that the O’Haras could so clearly resemble one another and yet look so different. When she’d asked Jamie O’Hara what Sean looked like, he told her that Katie was Sean in a dress. That wasn’t true at all. Sean was very tall, three or four inches over six feet, with a linebacker’s shoulders. Katie was slim and willowy. While Katie had auburn hair, Sean’s was lighter, though with the same streaks of red. Katie’s eyes were a hazel green while Sean’s were more of a golden color. He had almost classic features, just like Katie, but he looked like a man who had braved the wind many a time, and his jaw leaned toward the square side.

      Maybe that had just been because he’d been talking to her—and she sensed that she’d irritated him.

      “Maybe I should have mentioned first that I knew you both,” Vanessa said dryly to Katie.

      Katie smiled and swirled a stirrer in her coffee cup. “Ha-ha. Perhaps he’s feeling as if we’re ganging up on him! Oh, well, Sean is just being—Sean. He’ll get over it. Really, I think the lure of the mystery will get to him, once he thinks it all out. I think.” She looked at Vanessa with concern. “But…are you sure you should be doing this? Maybe you should just leave it all alone.”

      “You know I can’t do that—you know you couldn’t do that! Hey, I’ve talked to people around here. You plunged headfirst into finding out what had happened in David’s past, a pretty dangerous occupation, so I heard,” Vanessa said.

      “Yes, but I didn’t realize at the beginning that there were going to be more bodies,” Katie murmured. “And David was determined.”

      “All right, then, let me put it this way—could you just forget about it? Katie, I saw that poor girl the night she disappeared—and wound up dead. She was terrified. There was something on that beach. Other people go over there still, despite what happened.”

      Katie frowned. “But nothing has happened since, right?”

      “Not on Haunt Island,” Vanessa said.

      “What happened otherwise?” Katie asked.

      “In two years’

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