Page 32 of Until Hanna

walker

Istep onto the deck after being inside the decompression chamber which is used to remove the nitrogen and other gases I absorbed while diving and drag in a breath of fresh air.

“You good?” Ham asks and Otto glances over at me from where he’s helping the rest of the crew begin the process of pulling up the equipment from the sea floor.

“All good.” I walk to where my clothes are and watch Toni come down from the upper deck as I take a seat with my wetsuit around my waist. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear the guy grew up just opposite the gate of Buckingham Palace. He’d fit in there, with his slacks and pressed polo shirt. Then again, he might hang with royalty with the amount of money he has access to, and his history. His parents are both descendants of old oil money, and they met at a country club in Texas, where they later got married.

When Toni was old enough, they sent him off to school in London, the same all boys school William went to, and that’s where he fell in love with the idea of searching for lost treasure. And since his family had money just laying around, he decided to use it for his hobby that he swears is a job, and had a couple of friends who are just as wealthy join him on his mission.

“I’ve talked to Spencer and Andrew.” He says coming over to join me, tucking his hands in the pockets of his slacks. “We all agreed we need to switch locations,” he says quietly, and I focus on him while I pull up my jeans.

“That would be smart.” I avoid the urge to point out that Otto, Ham and I told him and his team that going over the same location we already cleared would be a waste of time and resources numerous times.

“I’m going to talk to Frances. I’d like to head back to shore for a week and have a company come out with radar to map out the sea floor and narrow down where we should restart.”

“Didn’t you already do that?” Ham asks, walking over to join us while adjusting the baseball cap he’s wearing, with Otto at his side.

“We did, but I was approached by a company who claims to have equipment that can detectwhichmetals are under the soot and sand.”

“They can do that?” Otto asks.

“That’s what they say, so we’ll see if there’s any truth to it.”

“Cool.” Otto plops down next to me.

“Well, if you’re okay with it, I’d like to head home to the States while we’re not working, to check on my mom and brother,” Ham says.

“Sure.” Toni nods, handing me my hoodie. “You guys can all take some time off. They said it would take a couple of days to scan, and another few for all the data to be analyzed. Just plan on being back here in a week, and we’ll hopefully start the search with a fresh prospective.”

“Sounds good.” I put on my sweatshirt as he walks away.

“If you’re going to see your ma, maybe I should go visit my parents,” Otto says, looking from Ham to me. “Do you want to go?”

“I’m gonna head to London for a few days.”

“I figured as much.” He pushes up to stand, saying over his shoulder, “I’m going to start putting stuff away.”

“Everything okay back home?” I ask Ham when Otto is out of earshot.

“Winslow’s nurse sent me an email. Mom’s MS has been acting up, so I want to go check on her myself and see how she’s doing. I’m just going to fly in and stay a couple of days, check on her and Winslow, and fly back.”

“All right, hopefully everything is okay.”

“I hope so.” He glances over at where Otto is laying out all our hoses and cords. “You think he’ll be okay on his own without either of us in Germany?”

“I think he’s a grown man.” I lock my gaze with his. “You know I love him like the little brother I never had, and like you, I never had an issue looking out for him, because I remember what it was like when I got my first taste of freedom. But at some point, you gotta grow up.”

“He told me that he fucked up,” he says quietly, and my entire body goes on alert, wondering what that means.

“How?”

“I guess one of the times he was with Gigi, he was wasted and fucked her without a condom.”

“Jesus, does he know if she was on birth control?”

“She said she wasn’t and that she would let him know what the outcome was in a few weeks, if she got her period or not.”

“Christ, he never mentioned that to me.”

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