Maui Magic

by Terry Ambrose

  “Kenji, get over here. Take care of these two. I’ll clear the place myself.”

  The men changed places, and Alvarez began his own search for Benni. How could she have disappeared so quickly?

  “You comin’ wid me.” A vice clamped around my arm and shoved me to the left. “You too, haole girl.”

  “We’re both armed,” Alvarez barked. He strode over to Penny and pushed her in my direction. “If you want to live a minute longer, stop stalling and move. Now.”

  Penny hobbled across the room until we stood together. She lurched sideways, bumped into me, and we both nearly went down. “I’ve got a bad knee,” she whimpered.

  “Ain’t my problem, haole girl. Wrists.” Kenji grabbed my arms and slipped a thin strip of plastic around them. He cinched the zip tie down.

  “What—jeez, man, that hurts.”

  “Sorry, brah.” He snickered as he pulled the tie a notch tighter. “Bettah now?”

  I winced and ground my teeth. “Much.”

  Alvarez returned and clamped his fingers on Penny’s chin. “Where’s the microchip?”

  I took the mistake in stride, but Penny’s eyes flicked sideways to the table. We now knew Poussin had told him what to look for. What would he do when he found out it wasn’t here?

  Alvarez nodded and grabbed the trophy. “Tie her up, too.”

  “Please, I don’t want trouble,” Penny said.

  “Gimme your hands, sistah.” Kenji snorted, apparently unmoved by her plea.

  She reached up, and he seized her wrists, locking them together with another zip tie. She glared at Alvarez. “Mandy’s uncle won’t let you get away with this.”

  “He’s not going to be a problem anymore.” He sneered at her as he snugged down the tie.

  Penny yelped, then gaped at Alvarez. “You’re going to…”

  “Shut up. You brought this on yourself,” he snapped. “Get them out into the car, I’ll be there after I find the other one.”

  “She’s on her way to the tikis,” I growled as Kenji forced me toward the door.

  Alvarez thrust his face close to mine. He pointed his flashlight at the ceiling. We faced off in the reflected glow.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  I could have kicked myself. Why hadn’t I said home or police or anything else? My gaze flicked left at Kenji’s face. Could I make it look like I was cooperating while I led them to the trap? “I hate you,” I spat back at Alvarez. “The Pony Club.”

  He nodded, a thin smile on his face. “Get him out of here. For your sake, you better hope I don’t find her.”

  Got it. Lying was punishable by pain. I had no idea where Benni had hidden, but prayed she wouldn’t be found as Kenji pushed us out the front door. It was as though the world had gone dark. Blackness cloaked the complex. Here and there, candles flickered behind drapes or blinds, but those interruptions were few. The trades gusted through the palms overhead, their ferocity a frightening contrast against the dead silence hanging in the air. The quiet was so… surreal.

  “You shut down the whole complex?” I groaned.

  “No noise.” Kenji shoved us forward, then followed us to the stairs. Shined his light down. As we descended, I looked into the distance. There were no lights across the street either. “How big is the outage?” I asked.

  “Big.” Kenji chuckled, then snorted. “Frank know how to get results. Shut up and keep movin’, brah.”

  His flashlight bobbed just ahead of us on the winding path until we reached the parking lot. The same limousine I’d ridden in earlier awaited. Not again. Behind us, running footsteps. I twisted around to see who was coming and nearly fell into the birds of paradise. My heart soared. It was Alvarez. And, he was alone. In his hand, he held the trophy. He shoved it in Penny’s face and hissed, “This is empty. Where is it?”

  “I…I don’t know.” She sunk to her knees. “Please, let me go.”

  “Who has the microchip?” Alvarez demanded.

  “Benni.” Penny began to sob and again begged for mercy.

  Alvarez pointed his gun at the trunk. “Put her in there.”

  “No! Please, I’m claustrophobic. It’s not a chip, it’s a flash drive.”

  Kenji stopped, but Alvarez just smiled and raised his chin to indicate the driver should proceed. He opened the lid, lifted the girl as though she weighed nothing, and dropped her inside. Her screams faded as the lid slammed shut. Just seeing the black cavern she’d been tossed into sent my fears spiraling in a thousand directions. I must have had the same petrified look on my face this morning.

  “That ought to soften her up. Lucky for you the place was empty. Get in the back.”

  I took the same seat I’d had on my previous trip, knowing all too well how this ended.

  When Alvarez took the seat next to mine, Kenji got behind the wheel. He glanced into the rearview mirror and waited.

  “Pony Club, Kenji.”

  The car slid smoothly out of the parking spot, then through the lot. Pros. We were dealing with men who didn’t care about anyone and weren’t worried about the cops. They probably had paid off someone at Maui PD. How high up? And how in the world could I turn this around? Benni might be my only hope.

  We drove three blocks before we passed into a neighborhood where they had power. Alvarez, who had been silent, looked straight at me. Though there was only minimal light inside the cabin, his eyes were a pair of frightening dark orbs boring into mine. “Now, you’re going to tell me what going to the tikis means.”

  I couldn’t give in too soon. He had to believe I’d broken. “And if I refuse?”

  He pressed the gun into the seat back. “Then I start putting bullets into your friend in the trunk.”

  50

  The inside of the limo stunk of sweat and fear. Maybe it was Alvarez. Or his driver. More likely, it was my own terror. Not only did my life depend on what I said next, so did Penny’s. And, what about Benni? I could only hope she’d gotten away.

  I swallowed hard. My neck itched with rivulets of sweat. They trickled down my skin, soaked the material of my T-shirt, and reminded me of my previous encounter with Alvarez. In a way, the memory helped. I survived the last time. I would again. To do it, I needed to be at my best. Fingering the damp cotton, I counted to three, then dove in. “I told you. They’re at the Pony Club.”

  Alvarez sneered at me. “I don’t believe you.”

  “No! Really. They’re on the walls. You always sat right under one of them. It’s the lights. She’s there with Chance.”

  “You’re lying. That’s the Ashbrook girl.”

  My breath caught. He knew Lexie’s last name, too? No one was safe from this guy. I waited, unsure of what to say or do next. “How’d you…get their names?”

  Alvarez smirked, but gave no answer.

  This man had taken away nearly every bit of my former self and turned me into a puppet. I had but one shred of my past left, my ability to lie with the best of them. “Benni made it out the window when you guys broke in. The backup plan was for her to meet Chance at the Pony Club, then they’d all go to the police together.”

  Alvarez pulled the weapon away from the seat back. Leaned in close enough for me to smell the stale coffee on his breath. “You already know what I’ll do to you if you’re lying.” He let the threat hang in the air.

  “Believe me, I won’t underestimate you again. Penny said she buried her tracks, but you found them anyway.”

  “There’s always a trail,” Alvarez muttered as he turned sideways and gazed out the window.

  I waited, counting my heartbeats. Each one of which might be my last.

  When I’d counted five beats, he faced me, and looked into my eyes as he spoke. “You should know that.”

  For a moment, I saw a flicker of respect…or was it sadness? A bookie would tell me my inst
incts sucked—that the odds favored Alvarez and he regretted not burying me on that unused cane road.

  “Before you kill me, would you tell me one thing. Are your operations sanctioned by Robson Poussin or not?”

  His head snapped in my direction, and I wondered which part of the question caught him off guard. Was he surprised we discovered his boss’s name? Or that he might be operating independently? Alvarez pulled a couple of zip ties from a plastic bag he’d left lying on the seat. He fingered them. Smiled. “You mean, is my boss heading into your little trap? Yeah, he’ll be there. He was so broken up over the death of his darling niece that he was ready to turn on me. But, I convinced him she’d become too big of a liability. You’ve disrupted the balance of power, Mr. McKenna. Now I have to clean up the mess you made.” The tone of his voice left no doubt as to what he meant by cleaning up.

  “Your boss, too? Is he part of your cleanup?”

  “You’re too nosy for your own good.” He leaned forward and spoke to Kenji. “When we get there, keep the car running. Don’t let this one make a sound. If he so much as squeaks, break his neck. I’ll bring the others out.”

  Streetlights glowed overhead. Commercial signs spilled their illumination toward the sky. Traffic on the streets was light, and my spirits soared when a cop pulled up beside us. The momentary euphoria dissipated when he drove away and never even looked sideways at us. How foolish could I be? With the tinted windows, how would he…could he…see someone in this car needed help?

  I counted streetlights to clear my head. There had to be a way out of this mess, but what was it? The screams and pounding from the trunk settled down. Either Penny had used up the last her energy—or she’d lost the will to survive.

  We turned right onto Main St. The Pony Club lay ahead on our left, and I still had no plan. The driver put on his turn signal and made a lazy approach into the lot. Our headlights hopscotched across the front entrance, then cut a wide arc through the parking lot. Sunlight was unkind to the building’s aging paint, but the harsh street and commercial lighting were even more cruel, casting the eyesore into the role of a boil on a struggling neighborhood’s skin.

  There were only two other cars in the lot. One, I’d never seen before. Nondescript, but bright and shiny. Maybe a rental. Would Poussin drive something so plain? The other vehicle was the Escalade, which dwarfed the compact automobile and drew my attention. Too late, I tried to look away.

  “Good,” Alvarez said.

  I turned and stared at him. He’d done what I would have. Watched me, not the vehicles.

  “They’re here.”

  Once again, he’d bested me by using my own reactions as a weapon. Penny’s muffled cries intensified when we stopped. She pounded furiously against the trunk lid and the back of the seat, but the sounds were nothing more than background noise.

  Alvarez opened the door and stepped out. He kept his gun trained on me. “Keep it running, Kenji.”

  The soft thud of door locks sent a shiver through me. It was like listening to someone pound a nail into a coffin with a single blow—while you were trapped inside. The sounds from the trunk again subsided. Poor Penny had probably given up. I wouldn’t. Not again.

  There was no bouncer at the entrance tonight. Nobody to even suspect there might be something wrong. Seconds after Alvarez disappeared through the door, three of the dancers emerged from the side of the building. They were laughing and talking loudly. Had they been drinking? I stared at them. Two were familiar. One was Aimee, our waitress from the last trip. The other one I also recognized. It was Lexie—but she was nothing like the sweet, innocent girl I knew. This young woman—with her take-me-now stilettos and skimpy outfit was super hot. I swallowed hard as I watched the sway of her hips. Ho-ley Mo-ley, she could pass for a high-priced call girl any day—or night.

  The three girls sauntered toward us. They paid little attention to the car. To the casual observer, they looked like friends going on a break together. The driver eyed them. Could I use his inattention to my advantage, and do it without endangering Lexie? My concern mounted as the trio approached.

  Aimee and the girl I didn’t recognize came to the driver’s window. They knocked on the glass. Waited. When there was no response, they knocked again. Kenji lowered the window.

  “Beat it, sistah. No money here.”

  “We just want to party, baby.”

  “I don’t got no time fo’ no party.”

  Aimee reached in and brushed the driver’s ear. “Come on, baby. We got a new girl wants some experience.”

  The dancer I didn’t recognize leaned into the window. “Come on, baby. Two on one in a limo?”

  My eyes almost popped out of my head as Lexie swayed up to Aimee, slipped an arm around her bare waist, and kissed the nape of her neck.

  “Make it three,” Lexie said. She cupped Aimee’s chin with her hand and kissed her full on the mouth.

  Aimee tightened her grip on the driver’s shirt and moaned. The third girl bent forward and reached for Kenji’s ear. “Come on, baby, we’re just gettin’ warmed up.”

  All three jumped back as the door burst open, and Kenji charged out of the car. He took a menacing step toward them. Aimee fanned herself with her hand. She threw her arms around Kenji’s neck, but he shoved her away as though she weighed nothing.

  He glared at them. “I told you get outta here, sistah! All of you.”

  I inched forward between the front seats. If I could get to the driver’s door, I could lock him out. Halfway there, Kenji let out a fierce howl. He fell backwards into the car. And landed next to me.

  51

  I barely recognized Kenji’s screams as human. His howls filled the space like those of a wounded animal in a cave.

  “McKenna!” Lexie screamed, “Get back. Now.”

  I looked up, saw the can in her hand, and instinctively shimmied out of my tight spot and into the rear seat. When the spray hit its mark, Kenji howled again, but the noise soon subsided into a low, painful wail.

  With Kenji incapacitated, it was time for action. I reached forward and wrapped my fingers around the gun stuffed in his waistband.

  Tightened my hold.

  Pulled.

  A hand, Kenji’s, clamped on mine. Crushing pressure.

  I winced and tried to pull the gun toward me. It wouldn’t budge. We were locked in a stalemate. He couldn’t move. Neither could I. Kenji shifted his weight, but he was too big. The steering wheel kept him locked in place. If he freed himself, I was dead.

  I wrenched on the weapon with my entire body weight. An explosion rocked the cabin. The gun recoiled. Kenji screamed like a dying animal, then bolted out of the car and fell to the pavement. The air filled with acrid smoke. Foam dust floated everywhere and my lungs revolted at the foul smell. I coughed violently and spit out the dust.

  Kenji writhed on the pavement. “Aiiii!”

  The seat cushion had a hole the size of Omaha in the middle. “Did I just…”

  “Hurry, McKenna!” Lexie gestured frantically for me to get out.

  “What did you do to him?” I wiped more dust from my lips.

  “What did I do to him?” She laughed. “All I did was shoot him with pepper spray.” She held up the can I’d seen moments before. “But you, you shot him in the…”

  “Don’t say it,” I blurted. “Let’s just leave it there.”

  “I was going to say butt. Come on, let’s get you out of that zip tie.” She rotated my hands slightly, slipped her fingernail into the slot of the tie, and pulled.

  Like magic, I was free. “Holy crap.”

  Lexie chuckled as she tossed the strip of plastic away. “The things you learn on the Internet.”

  “Let’s see how our injured moose out there likes being on the receiving end of these things.” I dove into the back seat and snatched Alvarez’s bag of zip ties.

&n
bsp; When I got out, Aimee and the other girl had Kenji pinned to the ground. Aimee had her knee on Kenji’s neck, and it looked like she could crush his windpipe with the slightest pressure.

  I pointed at Aimee. “You trust her, Lexie?”

  “I do. She didn’t have a lot of choice before. That’s why she lied to me and Chance. She’s on our side.”

  “I decided if I gave you the number for Mandy’s friend, you’d figure out what happened sooner or later. It was a risk, but it was one I had to take. Let me crush his windpipe, please. I so want to hurt this guy.”

  Kenji’s eyes were a pair of red saucers, and he whimpered while tears spilled down the side of his face. The other girl straddled his chest. She probably thought she was helping, but Kenji could have knocked her off with one swipe of his bear paw if Aimee let up for even a second.

  I knelt next to them. “We might still need him. Let’s tie him up.”

  Kenji flinched as though he might resist, but Aimee brought him under control with a small movement of her knee. Lexie and the second dancer helped me lash Kenji’s wrists together. With his hands secured, we lashed his ankles. His wound wasn’t bleeding nearly as much as I’d feared. On the other hand, he wouldn’t be sitting comfortably for a long time.

  “I have an idea,” Aimee said. She returned to the limo and began rummaging around. A few seconds later, a latch clicked, and the trunk rose slowly. Penny’s hands appeared first, then her head. Lexie helped her stumble out and removed her zip tie. Penny stood to one side glaring at Kenji.

  Tears rolled down the driver’s cheeks and he squeezed his eyes shut tight. “I can’t see nothing.”

  “Bummer,” I said. “One, two, three.”

  It took all of us, but we hoisted him up amid a stream of snarled obscenities and threats. His left leg buckled as we shoved him toward the trunk. He nearly fell, but between three of us, we maneuvered him to the rear of the car. We lined him up. Glanced at each other and nodded. “On one,” I said.