She opened the correct door and held it open for her helpful local, and in he walked, smiling at her one last time before making his way to the beer cooler. Kalani walked to the front of the store to the newspaper stand, remembering exactly where she was, and exactly what she was looking for. That part was a well-worn plan.
Kalani could almost find it without looking, without reading through the publication titles. The West Virginian Post stood out with its extra-sized paper and cheap print quality. She reached behind the stack to grab a fresh copy and then moved back to the beer section where the T-shirt guy was still weighing his options. She moved to the cooler next to him and opened its door for a soda before making her way back to the front to casually check out her items.
That was all she’d needed. Her paper and her cold drink. She was interested in local news, just like your average West Virginian. She might not have the drinking habit of a local, but a Coke with its sugar and caffeine rush and a paper with its latest release of news would be more than drug enough for her. She couldn’t wait to be alone with it, to discover what secret the latest edition held for her.
The young girl at the cash register hardly looked at Kalani, hardly looking at anything but her phone as she scanned the items through and worked the keypad of the register.
No one would suspect a thing.
Outside, Kalani held the paper, wondering if she would check it right away.
No.
She would wait.
Good things are worth waiting for.
She couldn’t wait.
She especially couldn’t wait in the car shop waiting room, where she could either stare at the work being done to her Honda, or open the pages of her paper and discover what she’d been waiting for.
Her fingers felt foreign and slow, having trouble flipping through the thin sheets of newspaper. It was funny how the excitement had gotten to her, the jitters coming on more strongly in that waiting room than they had all day the previous day at the training ground. Her hands and her consciousness were steady and strong around firearms and explosives. But as she sat there, checking back to the classifieds section of the paper, she felt limp and slightly melty. She felt like a little girl, which was odd for bold and brave Kalani. Physically, with her diminutive frame, she was indeed a little girl. But her mind resembled the bristled landscape of one of DARC’s hired mercenaries. What she didn’t have in muscle she made up for in stealth and courage. What she didn’t have in stealth and courage she made up for with a dogged determination to win. Or at least not fail. Perhaps that was the whole reason for going along with the training. Her competitive nature showing its ugly head.
Her immaturity, too, perhaps. As was her immature reaction to the paper, still flipping and finally scanning across the tiny boxes of text that made up classified section. A place for West Virginians to advertise any manner of goods and services—or simple messages.
She knew it was a dangerous game, to keep it up. She knew it was endangering the mission, and endangering her and Lea. Yes, immature and selfish, Kalani bowing to her increasing need for more of Ethan—in any form he could give. For the time being, she’d settled for semi-cryptic messages imbedded in text. In one of the boxes of the classifieds. In an ad titled Waterfalls, Kalani read: Looking forward to seeing the heavens out west one day again.
7
Kalani
The car made it home without the transmission falling apart. She had no doubts that it would. Her concern was that it might blow up, or involuntarily veer into incoming traffic. Or get followed by another mysterious vehicle. That foreboding black car that had been haunting her dreams and rearview mirrors for the last several weeks. That car . . . and that foreboding shape inside it.
As she pulled up her driveway, Kalani hoped that she wouldn’t see the figure of the man or the color of his car. What she really wanted to see, aside from Ethan—which she knew better than to expect—was at least Tucker, her DARC Ops guard who was still missing. It had been a full day, and it had officially become an issue with her and Lea and the rest of the DARC chain of command. A day without any response to calls or texts was a big deal to these guys, and a big deal especially for the timing of the Blackwoods case. The most sensitive time, right before two cooperating witnesses were about to be brought into a court under subpoena. Kalani and Lea were under protection, or so they claimed. But lately, especially with Tucker gone, Kalani didn’t feel very protected.
Lea couldn’t handle a gun if her life depended on it, and now it just might. She could barely handle a hose nozzle, watering their plants without shooting high-pressure holes into the dirt.
It was all up to Kalani, again. Of course. She didn’t mind the work, and she was good at it. But it was a little nicer having someone else around—even if that someone wasn’t Ethan.
Kalani rounded the last bend in the densely forested drive up to the house, and felt her heart skip a few beats when she saw a strange car parked in Tucker’s old spot. Perhaps Tucker’s new car. Perhaps the reason for his departure, leaving, for some reason, without informing anyone of his whereabouts.
She was armed, obviously. Kalani wouldn’t even go out to Claxtonburg without packing something special. She had something special that day for whoever might be inside the house—even if it was Ethan. She was packing something very special for him after that last classifieds message. Her name meant the heavens. What the hell had he meant? She was ready to dole out whatever was necessary for whatever situation had arisen while she was out.
She killed the engine and got out, trudging over the stones around her car to the parked SUV, getting a good look at it. The plate was West Virginia. Odd. Despite being in West Virginia, odd. She didn’t know any of the locals. And she suspected that she didn’t want to get to know any, either. Keeping a low profile was the most important part of their stay there.
She walked around to the front of the car, peering into the windows, turning her head to the house when she thought she heard the door open. Nothing. She was certain about hearing her own beating heart. She checked back to the car, scanning the otherwise immaculately clean interior. No clues to go on as to who the owner was or what business he had for being there. Or if it had even been a he at all.
As she climbed the porch steps, she ran over the possibilities in her mind. How many of the DARC guys knew where they lived and could possibly visit from the training camp just a few miles away? The good guys. Surely the bad guys wouldn’t be so obvious and park right out in front of the house. Inside the house, right away, was the fresh scent of coffee. A good sign. And another good sign: the calm voice of her sister, and another calm voice. A man’s voice. It greeted her with a familiar “hello,” from a familiar smiling mouth. And although it wasn’t the mouth she wanted, Kalani was nevertheless glad for the surprise visit. She smiled back at her SWAT camp evaluator. “Hi, Matthias.”
He nodded to her from his seat on the sofa. Lea was standing, fishing for something in her pocket and pulling it out. A lighter. “I was just going out for a smoke.”
“Hold on,” Kalani said.
Matthias stood up and Kalani wanted to tell him to sit and for everyone to just stop and explain what was going on. The pace of developments was on the upswing.
“Come join us,” Lea said to her sister.
Kalani said, “The bugs . . .”
“It’s windy.”
She hadn’t noticed. Her mind had been so busy that morning that the wind or how it would abate the bugs was the least of her concern. But outside, Kalani felt the wind kicking up in her hair. It was nice and cool along her neck. It was so refreshing, she didn’t even mind the cigarette smoke.
“This keeps the bugs away, too,” Lea said with a guilty smile. She was standing there like a high-schooler, trying to escape school for a smoke. She almost looked young enough, despite being the older sister. The bad sister.
Matthias waved something away from his face. “Are you talking about mosquitoes?”
“It’s
not just mosquitoes,” Kalani said.
“What is it?”
“They’re worse,” she said. “They’re smaller. I don’t know what you call them.”
Matthias said, “No-see-ums?”
“No what?”
“No-see-ums,” he said. “Like, you can’t see them.”
“All I see is the bites, really.”
“They’re also called sand flies, or biting midges.”
Lea was tracking something in the air with her eyes. She blew a stream of smoke at it. “We had sand flies back in Hawaii, near the beaches. But as you can see, we’re pretty far away from any beaches here.”
“No-see-ums,” Matthias said. “Trust me. And they’re small enough to get through window screens, so you probably wake up with a lot of new bites every morning.”
“I do!” Lea cried. “They come through the screens?!” Panic marred her face as she took another shaky drag from her cigarette.
“You’ll have to buy tighter screens,” Matthias said. “Or buy some fans and shut the windows.”
“We have those,” Lea said in a huff of smoke.
Kalani said, “Matthias?”
His head turned a little too slowly and deliberately to her. “Yes?” he finally said.
“Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“Sure,” Matthias said, plain-faced, like he’d just been asked something as innocuous as bugs.
Kalani began with a smile: “I mean, we appreciate the info about the . . . the . . .”
“No-see-ums,” Lea said.
“Right,” Kalani said, “But how about our no-see-um?”
Matthias said, “Huh?”
“Tucker. I no see him anywhere.”
His expression changed immediately, from light and airy as the cigarette smoke to dark and brooding like a swarm of biting insects. And then a look of pain, as if he’d just been attacked and bitten.
“That’s why you’re here. Right?” Kalani said.
“That’s right, to start to figure out why he’s not here.”
Kalani asked her sister, “You haven’t heard from him or anything? No calls?”
Lea shook her head.
“We haven’t heard anything, either,” Matthias said. “But we don’t want to jump to any conclusions. We don’t even want to jump to theories.”
“I just hope he’s alright,” Lea said, looking down at her feet. It was odd how she kept looking down and away whenever talking about Tucker. No doubt Matthias’ careful eye picked up on it, too.
Kalani watched him observe her sister, wondering if he felt any doubts about her. Lea didn’t exactly have a sterling reputation. No one suspected her of anything concrete, but they most likely didn’t trust her, either. But how could she be involved in Tucker’s disappearance?
Finally, Matthias spoke. “I’m also just here to keep a watch on things.”
“I appreciate that,” Kalani said. “And not to sound rude or ungrateful, but, you know I can handle things, too. Right?”
“I know that very well, yes. But keeping you two safe is everything. Not just because we want you safe, of course. But because the whole investigation hinges on that. Your testimony against the Blackwoods security. The Khan smuggling ring.”
Lea was still looking down.
“So, the more the merrier,” Matthias said. “That’s the DARC Ops philosophy on it. It won’t be me for long, though. I think we’re sending someone else.”
“Who?” Kalani said, not doing anything to hide her sudden enthusiasm with the idea of another DARC man coming around. With the idea that it just may be . . . could be . . . please be Ethan . . .
Matthias smiled. “We don’t know yet.”
In her mind, Kalani was pleading to the gods that Ethan would finally show up. But a sudden intensifying of Matthias’ eyes silenced that little voice inside her. She was wishing so hard, she was sure he could hear it.
“When was the last time you heard from him?” Matthias asked her.
“Huh?” she mumbled, her mind searching back to her last conversation with Ethan. A quiet home in the D.C. suburbs, when there was a moment of calm. Just a small, quiet moment before things got crazy again. It was Jackson’s house, and she felt safe and protected and so wonderfully hidden away. She remembered Ethan’s boyish smile and the way he reached for her hand when they were alone in the backyard, behind the garage, their bodies touching and holding there firmly as they squeezed together for a kiss—their first since Hawaii.
Their last.
They’d said goodbye that afternoon. Goodbye to any touch. Goodbye, definitely, to another kiss. It was another few months after that until their first “contact”—which was hardly contact at all. Their cryptic messages shared through the West Virginian Post. It wasn’t much, but it was something. But now she was hoping for a lot more.
“Kalani?” Matthias said, his eyebrow raised.
Her face warmed. “What?” she said.
“I’m talking about Tucker. When was the last time you talked with Tucker?”
“Oh, yeah,” she giggled, and then quickly stopped herself. She was looking down at her feet like Lea. “No, I haven’t talked to him in a while. It’s been two days.” She looked at Lea. “What about you?”
“He left while you were at the camp,” Lea said.
Matthias said, “How did he leave?”
“What do you mean?” she said. “In his car.”
“What did he say?”
“That he’d be back.”
“From where?”
“He didn’t say where.”
Kalani watched her DARC SWAT leader take a deep breath. She knew enough about his reaction to know that Lea’s aloofness was displeasing him. It was a serious matter, the possibility of Tucker missing and perhaps in some significant trouble. Even Kalani thought Lea was taking it a little too lightly. Yes, she herself had just been daydreaming about Ethan, but now that they were on the topic . . .
She took her own deep breath, trying to wipe away both frustrations. It wasn’t good to be thinking of her sister like that. Without anything to go on, all it would give her would be a headache. She looked at Lea. “So he just got in the car and left and that was it, right?”
“That was it.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Matthias said.
“I know,” Lea added. She pulled another cigarette from her pack.
“And there were no phone calls or anything?”
“No,” Lea said, frowning.
“And no other visitors?”
Lea held the cigarette inches away from her mouth, thinking for a moment. “No,” She stuck it in her mouth and lit it. “No other visitors,” she said in a puff of smoke. “It’s been quiet. Until you.”
“Well, I’ll have to make a lot of noise,” Matthias said. “If that’s okay with you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Like I said, we’re taking this extremely seriously. We’ll have to check everything, uncover every rock, looking behind every door, figuratively of course. But it’s serious. Jackson’s pretty worried.”
Lea said, “No, I mean, you said it as if I’d have a problem with that.”
“Do you?” he asked her.
“No. No, of course not.” Lea suddenly flicked her wrist as a piece of ash fell off it. She was usually so careful about the ash. “Why would you think I had a problem with that? Tucker was here to help us, and now he’s gone. And it’s weird.”
“You’re right,” Matthias said, running his finger over his upper lip. “It’s weird.”
Lea shrugged, put her cigarette out in a small pail, and then walked back into the house without a word. Kalani gave Matthias a look, nodding toward the door. He shook his head.
“What?” she said.
“Stay out here.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to talk with you,” he said. “Just you.”
Kalani looked through the screen door. A flash of her sister’s shape moved by
an interior doorway. She could hear little footsteps across the old linoleum of the kitchen.
“Can we go somewhere else?” she quietly asked Matthias.
He paused for a moment, cocked his head and then said, “How about the cellar?”
“The cellar?”
There were two doors set in the ground near the back of the house, and a steep stairway that pitched into the darkness. Kalani had opened a door out of curiosity on her first day, but just that entrance looked so dark and creepy that her curiosity never returned.
Her new curiosity was why the hell did Matthias want to see the cellar? Even worse, what did he want to do to her there?
He had been so trustworthy and proper . . .
“Why the cellar?” she asked.
“I know it’s morbid, but I have to check.”
“Check what?”
“Just to rule it out,” he said with a sigh.
Kalani thought for a moment about where she would hide a body in a hurry if she’d had to. “Tucker?”
He nodded. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want. Did you already look there?”
She huffed out a breath. “I’ll go with you.”
They walked around the house in silence. At the cellar doors, they stopped and Matthias sighed again. He seemed almost forlorn, like he’d known all along where he’d eventually find Tucker. He just stood there, staring at the doors, chewing the inside of his cheek.
“You don’t really think he’s down here, do you?”
“No, no. Just need to scratch it off the list.” He was still staring down. “I’ve checked everywhere else.”
She opened one of the doors, and Matthias made a point to mention his security concern. It wasn’t locked. Why wasn’t it locked? Were they ever planning on securing it? Did they need him to get a proper lock for them?
“I’ll take care of it,” Kalani said, thinking of another reason to go into town. Another reason to pick up her latest message. When Matthias advised her to do it soon, she could only chuckle in response. Of course it would be soon. But her chuckling ended as soon as Matthias took that first step down below. He was halfway down when he turned around to her. “You really don’t have to come down,” he said.
Dark Discovery (DARC Ops Book 8) Page 5
