The Contestant. Stephanie Doyle
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there was enough interest in the deeper water to keep the big fish occupied.
Taking another dip, Talia studied the sea in front of her but saw nothing. When she popped her head up, she could see that Reuben hadn’t made it to the island yet, which was strange given his previous pace. He should have overtaken at least Gus and certainly Sam. Then she saw where his gaze was pinned. He started shouting for the boat, but it didn’t seem as if the crewman could hear what he was saying.
“Oh! Oh, my goodness!”
Instantly, Talia turned around only to see Nancy freeze with sudden horror as a straight dorsal fin rose out of the water and swam directly in front of her, cutting between them.
“Don’t move,” Talia shouted. Judging by the shape and color of the fin, it was a gray reef shark, and not too big considering how long they could get. Maybe four feet. Maybe five. Its movements were still easy and unthreatening. At this point, he looked as though he was simply checking out the new breed of fish in town. If Talia remembered correctly from her mother, the gray reef would hunch its back before it attacked. As long as they avoided any unnecessary splashing or signs of distress that might incite the animal to think they were prey, it should just leave them alone.
“Shhh…shhhhaaar…”
“Keep it together. And no splashing.”
Coming up along Nancy’s right side, Talia wrapped an arm around the other woman’s waist and tried to propel her forward, but when she tugged, she felt resistance. Immediately, Talia sank and discovered that Nancy had gotten her shorts caught on a piece of the reef that projected from the ocean floor.
Popping up for a quick breath, she couldn’t miss Nancy’s frightened gaze. The woman was on the verge of wigging out and once that happened there would be no reasoning with her.
“Nancy, I need you to listen to me. I need you to stay calm. No splashing. Just relax.”
“But…I can’t…it’s— Did you see it?”
“It’s just a fish, and you’re bigger. Trust me when I tell you it doesn’t want anything to do with you. But you’re caught on part of the reef and if you move and get cut you’re going to bleed.”
Bleed had been the wrong word to use. If it was possible, Nancy’s eyes grew rounder. But at least now she was so frightened that she wasn’t capable of movement. Diving again, Talia went to work on the cotton material. It had been hooked over a piece of shell formation, much like a fish caught on a line. She hated to do it, but the easiest way out was simply to break off the coral. Considering it was a crime to tamper with the reef in Australia, she really hoped the camera didn’t catch this on tape.
And that’s when she felt him. Barely a brush of something large against her leg. Sleek, scaly and smooth. She stilled and slowly turned her head back and saw the pug face of the gray coming directly at her. But its jaw was shut and its position in the water was still unthreatening. It slid past her head, but she watched it as it turned around, coming back for another pass.
Like any skilled predator, it seemed to be waiting for her to make the wrong move before it pounced. She was doing everything she could to remain still, but her heart was pumping with adrenaline and the need for oxygen was becoming urgent.
Come on, you bastard. There has to be something tastier in the water than me. How about a turtle?
Suddenly, she saw a disturbance in the water to the far right. The motion caught the shark’s attention and it went to investigate. Moving quickly, Talia snapped off the coral, then kicked hard to the surface.
Nancy, clearly having felt her release, was swimming with a purpose now, and Talia was right behind her. They were only a few yards away from the point where the water would be shallow enough for them to stand. With her fastest stroke, the freestyle, Talia gave it everything she had.
Finally, her hand touched the sand on the down-stroke and she pulled herself to her feet and onto the shore, the backpacks dropping from her shoulders to the sand. Just to her left, the group was pulling Nancy out of the water. Not surprisingly, she had broken into tears as soon as she realized she was safe. Both boats pulled up to the beach to make sure everyone was okay. Or to watch a hysterical Nancy do a bad interpretation from a Jaws movie. It was hard to tell.
Talia had other concerns. She scanned the water looking for Reuben and saw him a few yards down the beach crawling on hands and knees, his chest visibly heaving with effort as he sucked in lungfuls of air. She ran to him.
“You okay?” she asked as soon as she reached him.
“I was moving fast,” he puffed, but after a few breaths he seemed to recover.
“You splashed deliberately? With a shark in the water? Not the brightest idea.” Even though it had given her the time she needed to get Nancy loose and moving, it had still been a crazy move.
He smirked. “Yeah, well, I’m a city boy and it was the best I could come up with. So much for our protection.” He pointed down the beach where Joe and Dino were both hovering while Evan knelt beside Nancy, patting her hand. Either the host was really rattled by what could have happened or he was a pretty good actor because he seemed truly shaken.
As well he should be, Talia thought. “These waters are dangerous. These people think it’s a game, but—”
“But there be sharks in the water,” he quoted in a bad imitation of a pirate. “Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if the damn thing was some toothless trained animal sent to drum up a reaction.”
She gave him a doubtful look, but she could tell by his expression that even he didn’t buy it.
“Guess it turns out you’re a hero, after all.”
“Don’t get any ideas,” he warned her. “I just figured if something was going to take a bite out of your ass it was going to be me.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and she was forced to smile at his outrageousness.
Just like a predator. “There are tastier fish in the sea,” she murmured, echoing her earlier thoughts.
“Somehow, I doubt that.”
Talia ignored that and the fact that, for the first time, he was making his intentions known. Instead she concentrated on the personality revelation.
“You’re not fooling me. I don’t know why, given your surly attitude, but I had a hunch you weren’t one of the bad guys.”
A weak hunch, but a hunch nonetheless. And in a weird way, the role fit him better. He was still a hard-ass, but now she knew he was something else, too.
“Don’t give me that much credit,” he growled even as he got to his feet. “Once I saw Tommy and Marlie finish first I figured I would wait it out and take my chances with team two, even if it meant tangling with a big fish. Those two talk too damn much.”
Chapter 2
“You okay?”
Reuben asked the question of Nancy as he and Talia approached the group. Almost in unison the rest of the pack turned their heads as if just realizing that there had been other people in the water with the shark. There were looks of guilt from some, but not from all.
Nancy bobbed her head in answer to his question and Talia crouched down so she could check the pupils of her eyes. A blanket from one of the boats had been wrapped around her in an attempt to prevent shock. Given that her eyes weren’t dilated and she was no longer shaking, Talia reasoned that the woman was in pretty good condition, all things considered.
“It was really a shark, wasn’t it?”
This time it was Talia’s turn to nod her head in reply. There was no point hiding the truth from her now that it was over.
“I was in the water with it. I was swimming with…wow,” Nancy sighed. Then something akin to excitement lit her eyes. “Well, that was certainly dangerous and adventurous, wasn’t