Risky Business by Nora Roberts

the air. “I like tall men.”
    â€œDo you know his name?”
    â€œNo. But he dressed very nicely. Nice suits, good shoes. And he wore a silver band on his wrist, a thin one that crossed at the ends. It was very pretty. Do you think he knows about the money? Jerry said it was lots of money.”
    Jonas merely reached for his wallet. “I’d like to find out his name,” he told her and set a fifty on the table. His hand closed over hers as she reached for it. “His name, and the name of the American. Don’t hold out on me, Erika.”
    With a toss of her head, she palmed the fifty. “I’ll find out the names. When I tell you, it’s another fifty.”
    â€œWhen you tell me.” He scrawled Liz’s number on the back of a business card. “Call this number when you have something.”
    â€œOkay.” She slipped the fifty into her purse as she stood up. “You know, you don’t look as much like Jerry as I thought.” With the click of high heels, she crossed the pavement and went back into the club.
    â€œIt’s a beginning,” Jonas murmured as he pushed his coffee aside. When he looked over, he saw Liz studying him. “Problem?”
    â€œI don’t like the way you work.”
    He dropped another bill on the table before he rose. “I don’t have time to waste on amenities.”
    â€œWhat would you have done if I hadn’t calmed her down? Dragged her off to the nearest alley and beaten it out of her?”
    He drew out a cigarette, struggling with temper. “Let’s go home, Liz.”
    â€œI wonder if you’re any different from the men you’re looking for.” She pushed back from the table. “Just as a matter of interest, the man who broke into my house and attacked me wore a thin band at his wrist. I felt it when he held the knife to my throat.”
    She watched as his gaze lifted from the flame at the end of the cigarette and came to hers. “I think you two might recognize each other when the time comes.”

5
    â€œA lways check your gauges,” Liz instructed, carefully indicating each one on her own equipment as she spoke. “Each one of these gauges is vital to your safety when you dive. That’s true if it’s your first dive or your fiftieth. It’s very easy to become so fascinated not only by the fish and coral, but the sensation of diving itself, that you can forget you’re dependent on your air tank. Always be certain you start your ascent while you have five or ten minutes of air left.”
    She’d covered everything, she decided, in the hour lesson. If she lectured any more, her students would be too impatient to listen. It was time to give them a taste of what they were paying for.
    â€œWe’ll dive as a group. Some of you may want to explore on your own, but remember, always swim in pairs. As a final precaution, check the gear of the diver next to you.”
    Liz strapped on her own weight belt as her group of novices followed instructions. So many of them, she knew, looked on scuba diving as an adventure. That was fine, as long as they remembered safety. Whenever she instructed, she stressed the what ifs just as thoroughly as the how tos. Anyone who wentdown under her supervision would know what steps to take under any circumstances. Diving accidents were most often the result of carelessness. Liz was never careless with herself or with her students. Most of them were talking excitedly as they strapped on tanks.
    â€œThis group.” Luis hefted his tank. “Very green.”
    â€œYeah.” Liz helped him with the straps. As she did with all her employees, Liz supplied Luis’s gear. It was checked just as thoroughly as any paying customer’s. “Keep an eye on the honeymoon couple, Luis. They’re more interested in each other than their regulators.”
    â€œNo problem.” He assisted Liz with her tank, then stepped back