Page 34 of Knot a Thief

She gives me the thumbs up, letting me know the earpiece is working.

“Okay, only fifteen minutes. The scuba jet has half an hour of battery, but we can’t risk it.”

She gives me an okay sign and then one finger, four fingers and then three.

“I love you, too.”

She turns on the scuba jet before she maneuvers the machine to swim underwater and before I know it, she’s disappeared.

The sun glints off the water, making it impossible to track her movements. I grip the railing, willing myself to stay calm. But I can’t help that my heart is in my throat as she stays beneath the waves.

And when my laptop dings, I know she is fine.

Ava is checking out the island with a camera attached to the top of her air pipe. That information is recorded straight on my laptop.

After a moment of searching, I finally relax when I see the top of the tube and watch her from the deck.

She’s practiced this before. She knows what she’s doing.

Still, every minute she’s gone feels like an hour. I watch the monitors, but mainly I scan the shoreline, looking for any sign of security patrols or surveillance equipment.

The island seems quiet, almost too quiet for a billionaire’s private retreat.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, I spot a disturbance in the water. Ava surfaces near the island, graceful as always as she slows her movements as she checks out the rocky beach.

While she is doing that, I check her vital statistics, because we can never forget that Ava thinks she’s invincible, but the omega inside her is still vulnerable and could rouse at any moment.

But as usual, everything is fine.

I finally relax when she makes her way back to the boat, extending out a hand to help her aboard as relief floods through me as her fingers clasp mine.

“How’d it go?” I ask, trying to keep my voice casual as she removes her gear.

Ava grins, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Better than expected. The security’s tight, but there are a few blind spots we can exploit. I found an excellent place to hide the scuba jet, but we should leave some snorkel gear around the island in various places, just in case I can’t get off the island the same way I get on.”

“Let’s take a look,” I say, kissing her forehead. “And well done. Your vitals were perfect.”

We head to the cabin to review the footage.

While I recorded everything from the camera attached to the snorkel, she also had a small camera attached to her mask, so we could see how things looked underneath the water.

Ava connects that camera to our laptop, and I can’t help but marvel at her focus and determination. I love these qualities in her, even if it sometimes scares me.

The footage flickers to life on the screen, revealing underwater rock formations and the island’s foundations. Ava points out potential entry points, her finger tracing paths along the cliff side.

“There,” she says, pausing the video. “That crevice could lead to an underground entrance. It’s not on any of the blueprints we’ve seen.”

I nod, studying the image. It’s a risky move, but then again, this entire job is a risk. “What about security patrols?” I ask.

Ava fast-forwards through the footage, showing a pattern in the guard rotations. “This happened over by the beach.”

She points to the left of the boat and I squint to see the beach she is talking about.

“One guard left the beach and it was a few minutes before I saw another walking down the pathway, so I suspect they passed somewhere on the cliff top.” She shrugs her shoulders. “We can’t assume anything more than a four-minute window.”

“It seems too easy,” I muse as we continue to analyze the footage. I can’t shake a nagging feeling of unease. This job feels different. Like there’s a sting in the tail to come

But looking at Ava, seeing the iron will in her eyes, I know there’s no talking her out of it. All I can do is make sure we’re as prepared as possible.

---