Title Lost Beneath the Tide
Author Zara West
Genre Romantic Suspense
Publisher Tidal Waters Press
Book Blurb
Cat Silva loves grilled salmon as much as the next person. But the quirky marine biologist doesn’t like how fish farming pollutes the ocean. So, leaving the big city and her overbearing momma behind, she heads off to Tide Harbor, Nova Scotia, to prove her point.
Water-phobic, single dad, Alex Harris, is in line for the lucrative head manager position at Cowling Fish Farms. Determined to show his boss he can handle the job, Alex sets out to investigate reports of a scuba diver hanging around the fish pens, never expecting to find a pink-haired, irresistible woman.
But when his boss orders him to derail Cat’s investigation and a killer unexpectedly attacks, Alex must choose between financial security or saving the woman he and his daughter have come to love.
Excerpt
Letting out a huff, Alex pulled out his binoculars from his pack and rolled down the window. From here, the five, ninety-foot-diameter circular net pens that held the Cowling salmon fry were only several hundred feet away, as close as one could get without using a boat. Which was fine by him. He hadn’t been in a boat in a long time—being out on the water brought back the day he’d watched his beloved wife sink beneath the sea . . . every single time.
Alex scanned the water around the nearest pen. Nothing.
Then the next. Nothing.
He focused on the third ring.
There. A black object bobbed up and down near it, making occasional splashes.
His boss had been right. Something was out by the pens.
His stomach unclenched slightly. Something alive, thank goodness.
Now, was it a seal or a shark?
He adjusted the binoculars’ focus.
Behind him, the passenger side door squealed open then slammed shut.
He spun around, only to see his daughter dash toward the old wooden pier.
“No! Ellie, come back. The dock’s not safe.” Heart in his throat, Alex jumped from the truck and charged after her. “Ellie, sweetheart, stop.” He grabbed her arm just as she stepped onto the rickety planks of the old dock and pulled her back.
“Let go, Daddy.” She shook off his hand. “I’m just going to get that shell. It can be Dorchester’s water dish.” She pointed to a small clamshell wedged between the planks, just a few feet from the shore.
“You’ve got plenty of shells like that one at home. Now stay right next to me.”
Ellie looked up at him, her hazel eyes so like her dead mother’s. “Can you get it for me?”
He looked at the gleaming white shell and the water slapping against the seaworn concrete piers. A cold shiver ran down his back. It might as well be on the outer islands.
He put the binoculars up to his eyes. “No. It’s just an old shell. I’m here to make sure the salmon are safe.”
She scuffed her sneaker in the gravel. “Stupid fish. All you ever do is worry about the salmon.”
“The salmon pay our bills, Ellie.” He watched the bobbing object disappear under the water. “Might be a big bad seal out there, trying to eat them. We can’t let that happen, can we?”
For a few moments, she stood quietly next to him, then she pulled on his sleeve. “We aren’t going to make it to the ice cream social, are we?”
He shook his head.
Her little mouth puckered. “I never get to have any fun. Aunt Olivia was gonna take Rory, Peter, and Teddy. You should have let me go with them.”
“I’m sorry, Ellie. Tell you what. We can stop at the supermarket and buy popcorn and ice cream and have our own party at home. I’ll read you your favorite book.”
“The one about the mermaid that Mommy bought me?”
Heavens, he hated that book, and the memories it rekindled, but what choice did he have?
Alex nodded. “Whatever book you want.”
“Okay.” She tugged on his sleeve. “Can I look, too?”
How could he refuse after letting her down?
Alex lowered the binoculars and placed the strap around her neck. Then he stood behind her and held the lenses to her eyes as he adjusted the focus. Narrowing his gaze against the glow of the setting sun, he guided her to the spot he’d last seen the object. “There. That black blob. Can you see it?”
She gave a little jump and pointed. “Yeah, there it is. Oh, it’s coming toward us.” She bounced up and down. “Here, Mr. Seal.” She wiggled her fingers. “Here. Don’t eat my daddy’s fishies.”
Alex peered out over his daughter’s head. The seal—or whatever it was—dipped and splashed toward the shore. Now, that was rare. Sea mammals usually moved sleekly through the water.
A bad feeling washed over him.
“Can I use the binoculars for a minute, sweetheart? Not sure that’s a seal.”
Ellie passed them up, and he went back to studying the creature as it neared the far end of the crumbling pier. For a moment, it sank below the surface then popped up again. With a twist, a black-suited scuba diver hitched up onto the dock and sat with his feet hanging over the side.
Silhouetted by the setting sun, the diver removed his facemask, tore off his hood, and shook out his hair. Long, wavy strands of hair glowed pink in the sunset.
Alex focused in. The swimmer was all feminine curves. Not a he. A she.
For a second, he was stunned. Then he gave himself a shake. What was a strange scuba diver doing nosing around the fish pens, especially after that out-of-town student had been found dead out there? It didn’t matter that it was a woman, a gorgeous one, at that.
Whoever the diver was, she’d better have a good explanation, or she would be in deep trouble. Nobody was going to mess with Thomas Cowling’s fish pens and steal his promotion away.
Ellie slipped her fingers into his and tugged.
He glanced down. His daughter’s face was round in wonderment. Her eyes fixed on the diver.
“Look, Daddy. It’s a mermaid. Maybe she’s seen Mommy?”
He gazed again at the woman. She’d removed her oxygen tanks and was now busy checking the gauges. In a minute, she’d turn and see them.
His heart raced. Ellie didn’t need her memories of her mother crushed by some tourist.
Alex scooped up his daughter and hurried back to the truck. He’d talk to Miss Scuba tomorrow, when Ellie wasn’t around.
He took one long look back.
Scuba Diver Lady would be trouble, all right. Trouble he didn’t want to have.
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Author Biography
Award-winning author Zara West loves all things mysterious, adventurous, and heart-stopping as long as they lead to true love. Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Zara West spends winters in New York where the streets hum with life, summers in the Maritimes where the sea meets the shore, and the rest of the year anywhere inspiration for tales of mystery, adventure, and romance is plentiful.
In a life full of misadventures, she has had sunstroke on the top of a Greek mountain, been partially trampled by a herd of four hundred sheep, and while she has never been kidnapped, she has been marooned on an uninhabited island in the middle of the Canadian wilderness for longer than she wants to remember. When not chasing after Greek shepherds or strolling along sand beaches searching for sea glass, Zara tends her organic herb garden, collects hats and cats, and whips up ethnic dishes for friends and family.
A multi-published author who loves mentoring writers, Zara has published the award-winning romantic thriller series The Skin Quartet and the Tide Harbor Suspense series. Zara blogs about romance at Zara West Romance, about writing at Zara West’s Journal and teaches numerous online writing courses.
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