Or a random crime.
Or nothing.
Or a sign of what was to come for Ethan, if he kept nosing around in the West Virginia woods.
“It’s right here,” Kalani said. “Stop.”
They turned to look at each other, Ethan trying to follow where her glance slipped off to. Where in the darkened woods she’d been looking. Where she found her landmark. The vegetation there, at least on the ground, was low. Open dirt, mostly, dotted with tall, slender trees. She made her way over to an outcropping of rocks. They gleamed soft white. Her shape moved across them. He heard her hands on the rock.
“Do you remember the rocks?” she asked him.
“No. What’s with the rocks?”
She moved off them.
“So why do you think they were standing here?”
“Should we use your flashlight?” she said. “I want to look around the ground here.”
Ethan turned it on its lowest setting. A soft red glow. He held it close to the ground so as to not attract too much attention. Combing the ground just a few feet off the dirt, moving in a slow circle around where Kalani had pointed. Where she thought the infamous couple had been standing. He chuckled a bit, and when Kalani asked him about it, he said, “Maybe we should get some Luminol.”
“What? Why?”
“You know, what they use in crime scenes. Check for bodily fluids.”
“You think this was a crime scene?” she said.
“Never mind.” He kept gliding his light over the dirt. Nothing out of the ordinary showed up. No bullet casings. No condom wrappers.
“Bodily fluids?” Kalani said again.
“You know what I mean,” Ethan said, laughing.
“I wish I didn’t . . . No, keep looking.”
Ethan had clicked off the light.
“Keep looking,” she said. “I know for sure they were right here.”
“How do you know that?”
“A hunch,” she said. “A sisterly hunch.”
He clicked the light back on, and was mildly excited for a half second when he came across a tree root, then a leaf. But he wasn’t expecting much. “So what else is around here? Where else does the path go?”
“There’s a swimming hole, and . . . I don’t know where the other fork goes. I’ve never gone that way. It goes through the woods.”
In the back of his mind, Ethan heard a little voice say, “Absolutely not, will you go down that path tonight alone with Kalani.”
“Ethan?” she said, her voice almost wavering.
“Yes?”
“Will you tell her? Lea? That you saw her picture?”
He thought for a minute, mainly about how he hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Maybe. It depends what we find out here,” he said. “Or don’t find.”
So far it had been a big fat nothing. And he was a little glad of that. Sure, he wasn’t expecting a folded-up scrap of paper with the enemy’s handwritten plans, but even just the presence of some inconspicuous piece of trash could set off any number of crazy conspiracy theories. The house was awash with enough of them as it was, especially since the discovery of the equipment. Recording equipment sending audio to an unknown source. The guys back at the house exported that work, passing it on to Tansy and company back at the headquarters. But no one knew about the latest work going on the darkened woods. They would have to know. And soon.
“There’s nothing here,” Ethan said, turning off the light and holding it down by his side. Kalani didn’t say anything in response, especially after he walked away to search the surrounding area. He was looking for any hints of a path, any places where the traffic had filtered to. Lea and the man must have had a reason to be out there, aside from being alone. They could have been alone about ten minutes back on the path. But there was something at that spot worth traveling to.
What else was worth traveling to tonight?
Again, the conflicts began to arise, the urge in him to want to take on a new mission with Kalani. A not-so-helpful mission perhaps, but something he could at least try to blend into the overall theme. That was, he could admit, partly what he was doing there that night.
“Should we move on?” he said.
She walked back over to him, her arms swinging at her sides as she walked. A youthful playfulness about her. Surprising given the circumstances . . . What was the little pixie thinking about? What activity?
Get going, he thought. But not down that forest path.
So, where else?
Finally, she said, “Maybe just a little bit? You might as well get a little tour out of this.”
His mind was on more serious matters than tours and not-so-random playfulness. But as they walked together down the path, she rested her head against the side of his shoulder. Her hand reached around to pull his side. A tour. He thought the concept over in his mind.
“You know?” she said. “Maybe we’ll find some other clues.”
Ethan appreciated the gesture, an attempt to add just a little bit of legitimacy to their latest activity. But maybe she had the right idea. All through his life, when he really needed to find something, it always seemed to come after he’d given up looking. There was some advantage with easing up on the pressure and allowing a whimsical stroke of pure luck to come gleaming through the dark.
“So,” she said, “when was the last time you went for a moonlit swim in an abandoned quarry?”
A whimsical stroke of luck, indeed. Tonight that may come in the form of a cool-down, he thought, imagining himself and Kalani slipping into the cold waters of a swimming hole. It was a hot night, and his head was stuffed and drunk-feeling with all the twists and turns and pressures of the latest case. Perhaps a little sensory stimulation, a little relief, would be good for both of them.
But there was a certain pull in his mind, his imagination sinking below the surface and conjuring up an image of a submerged body. Someone lodged underneath a boulder, dead and bloated. Tucker.
What else could be down there?
Ethan shuddered, hoping that Kalani didn’t feel it through their embracing walk. He took a breath, as if ready for the plunge into the unknown, and said, “I’ve actually never swum in a swimming hole before. I mean, in an abandoned quarry type swimming hole.”
“Me neither, before this one. But it’s great. It’s really cold because of how deep it is. And, well, it’s beautiful. The high rock walls and everything. You’ll like it, especially on a hot night like this.”
“You’re sure it’s safe and everything?”
“Safe? What do you mean?” She laughed. “Yeah, it’s safe. I survived, didn’t I?”
“There’s no, um, buried mine equipment or anything?”
No dead bodies.
“Well, I don’t know,” she said, pulling off him and away. “I don’t know what’s at the bottom. I haven’t had the chance to swim down there.”
“Would you?”
“Huh? Would I what?”
“Swim down there, if you had the chance. I mean, if you could.”
Kalani paused for a moment, then said, “I feel like you’re trying to allude to something . . .”
“Oh?”
“Something creepy,” she said.
“No, of course not. Nothing creepy.”
“You sure? You’re not trying to scare us away from swimming?”
Was that what he was doing? Ethan decided to remain quiet about his fears. No, not fears, concerns.
“I know it’s not as glamorous as the waterfall,” she said.
He needed no further elaboration to know what waterfall she was thinking of. They swam under several during their brief stay in Hawaii, their little mini vacation before things got out of hand once again. But there had been one swim in particular that had stayed in his mind. Rather, burned an image of itself into his mind. And he was so happy it did. That image, that day . . . that fantasy, had played out in his mind often during the last several months of no contact.
Other things had been wo
rn out, too, during their long and torturous time apart. An ordeal that he’d struggled with alone, and struggled with sometimes rather enjoyably. But nevertheless, struggled.
Ethan reached for Kalani’s hand. It felt warm from the walk, a little humid from the air, and searing from Ethan’s thoughts about what she’d had to go through just to make it out of the previous few months with some sanity left. He almost wanted to ask her about it. But, instead, he just gave her a little squeeze. Somehow, the way he’d touched her hand, he assumed she’d known exactly what was on his mind.
He knew what was on hers. The idea of going swimming, alone in the dark . . .
“You don’t have to do it if you’re scared,” Kalani said.
Ethan laughed. “Who said that?”
“You’re sort of saying it.”
“Well, maybe that’s a good idea,” Ethan said. “I can sit back on one of the rocks there and watch.”
“In the dark?”
“This flashlight’s pretty strong.”
“Under water?”
“Hmmm . . . For how long? Will you try breaking some records so I get worried enough to jump in there and find you?”
“That’s the idea,” she said. “Lure you in.”
Ethan slowed his walk so that his arm stretched out to hold hers as she pulled ahead. He pulled her backward into him, laughing. She gently thrust an elbow back into his abs as he pulled harder, directing her back into his body as he swung her around, backing her up against the tree. A lure. It was the lure idea that did it, set him off like that. A mental lure before the actual one, the sexy, shiny little thing dangling in the cool water. His arms were the lures for her, pulling her close. Her face close enough that he could see for once, almost clearly, her petite, pretty features. Something about dark-skinned women had always turned him wild. Dark skin in the darkness of the night was even better.
He tasted her lips that way, in the dark. In the warm closeness. He sucked her gently and almost had to make a conscious effort not to make some moaning sound. But instead, listen to hers. He wanted to take it all in, the tiniest detail of the new stimulation: a most heated and desperate touch, the way her breath hitched when their mouths parted for that brief second for a taste of her chin, her neck. A quiet in the forest filled with the sounds of ruffled clothing and racing heartbeats.
A small segment of his thoughts lingered on the sad truth that he’d so easily let his guard down. Not to Kalani, for whom his guard had perhaps always been down. But for whatever potential enemy they’d been trying to sniff out on the forest patrol. Still, there was some reassurance left. If there had been someone watching—while the two of them turned inward to the exclusion of the rest of the physical world—Ethan was sure he would’ve known by now. A cracked stick under someone’s boot. The flick of a lighter to light a cigarette in a smiling mouth, someone standing nearby with a gun pointed in their direction. Or a hand that wasn’t Kalani’s. Something larger and firmer on his shoulder, instead of her gentle fingers weaving their way through his clothes. He liked her hands, small, lithe but strong. The fingers of a violinist playing along his wrist long after she’d broken her kiss away from his warm, flushed face.
“Good thing you stopped that,” Ethan said.
“I know you don’t have much willpower,” she said, grinning. “So I’ve got to work mine for the two of us.”
“It’s okay, I’ve got other strengths,” Ethan said. “Something else I can work for the two of us.”
“I bet you do.”
“Is it willpower that makes you feel confident about the swim hole? That we’ll just continue our effective and safe investigations? That we’ll stay on track?”
“I don’t know what it is,” she said.
“I think I do.”
She rolled her eyes, and then waited a minute in silence. Then she smiled and said, “Well?”
“What do you have on to wear?” Ethan said quietly. “For swimming . . .”
“Not much,” she said in a quiet laugh. “You?”
He shrugged.
“Is this what it depends on? How much I’ll wear in the water?”
“You should probably take it easy on me.”
“I probably shouldn’t,” Kalani said. “I probably couldn’t.”
Ethan watched her pull away from him, his hand taken up in hers, his arm pulled in her direction. In their direction, down the fork in the trail that would take them swimming.
Swimming? Was that really what they were about to do? Ethan could think of hundreds of other activities—some of them useful to their current predicament in West Virginia. He thought about some of those activities as he walked behind Kalani, in the trail of perfumed scent from her hair. He could have followed her blind. He’d been her bloodhound, nosing all the way in from Washington D.C., following her trail. Her memory. There, in the woods, he’d come to the distinct and sobering realization that he was also tracking someone else, bloodhound to blood.
16
Kalani
After a few minutes of surveillance from the big, smooth boulders of the swimming hole, it was decided. First by Kalani, the signal of a convinced mind made as clear as the sound of the zipper on her shorts through the dark. She’d popped the button and unzipped loudly and suggestively for Ethan. What was the harm? They were alone. And even if they weren’t, the sounds they were about to make in the water would be hard to mask. She kicked off her jean shorts, wondering about those sounds. Wondering about the volume and variety she’d produce. Despite everything—how blatant they’d made their intentions through messages, through their midnight stroll—the sounds would begin innocently: the gentle splashing of the cold water around her ankles as Kalani waded in off the rock ledge.
She stopped halfway and the silence returned. She turned around and saw the shape of Ethan. His shape, sitting, watching. He’d been silent since they’d arrived at the quarry. She’d felt his excitement. But now he was silent. Maybe spooked. No one knew what lay at the bottom, and perhaps no one would know—despite Ethan mentioning the possibility of Jackson bringing in a sonar team if things got bad enough.
Jackson and his unlimited resources. Jackson, when things got “bad enough,” was an important friend to have. Kalani still couldn’t consider him that way, with there maybe being too much respect between them. He’d done so much for her and Lea. But Ethan, on the other hand . . . It was respect, sure. But not the same kind. Not by a long shot. And it was an affinity, but not just the friendly kind.
It was exciting just having him watch her, stripping to her underwear on the rocks, then wading out alone, cooling off but still feeling that familiar burning throb inside her.
“So what will it take?” she said, moving backward, slowly, wading deeper till the cold climbed up to her knees. “How can I get you in here?”
“I’m the lifeguard.”
“I know,” she said, still backing away, deeper.
“So you’d have to drown.”
“But that gets boring, doesn’t it? Being the lifeguard all the time? Doesn’t it get boring?”
“Trust me, it’s not boring in the least. I find my current subject immensely intriguing.”
“I’m your subject?”
“My protection subject. My writing subject.”
“What else?”
He might have said something in reply, but the sharp cold of water took it away. The stab of it rising up past her waist, her lungs suddenly convulsing quick little breaths. She’d slipped in deeper than she’d expected.
After a moment, Ethan said, “I like that.”
“Huh?” Kalani was still trying to get used to the water. She stopped right at the foot of what felt like an underwater cliff. The sheer edge of it fell away down the drop of the quarry, disappearing into blackness. Disappearing, perhaps, forever. The water was even colder near the ledge, and for the first time, she felt a little unsteady. And not just from the shock of temperature.
“I like how that sounds,” Ethan sai
d.
“What? The water?” The babbling sound of water moving around her body echoed off the rock walls as she moved through.
“No, the breathing,” he said. “Your rapid breathing like that. It reminds me of something.”
She’d almost forgotten.
Kalani giggled quietly. “Oh.” The water was starting to feel a little better. The change not so drastic. Her breathing not so frantic. Soon, it might even feel good.
“Why did you stop?” Ethan said.
“I don’t know. I think I’m at the edge.”
“Feels like you’ve been there for months, huh?”
Again, she’d forgotten. The black water had a way of covering everything up. Of refreshing in some profound way. It was another relief, aside from the obvious, from the heat of the day. But like remembering she was more than just a soldier, a witness. She was human, with very human desires for Ethan. That had been half—or more—of her reason for going out there to the swimming hole. But she also, very slowly, began to remember the reason for all of it. The real reason, the fear of life, rather than impulse toward it with Ethan. Competing desires, but desires nonetheless.
“I feel so . . .” She trailed off.
“What did you say?” he said a little more audibly across the water.
I feel so alive. She thought these words. But only thought them. She didn’t want to say it like that, so far away from him. She didn’t want to waste the feeling.
Kalani turned away from the ledge. “I said get your ass in here.” She didn’t mean it to say it so loudly, for it to echo the way it did. But it came out like how she’d felt it and meant it. She wanted him in there with her. Right next to her, so they could take the plunge together. Dive into the dark and forget about things. Dive into the dark and maybe discover something good.
The sound of clothing moving over skin echoed across the lake, and then the sound of his big feet slapping rock as he crossed over the dry ledge at the lip of the water. “There you go,” she said. “It’s not so bad in here.”
Dark Discovery (DARC Ops Book 8) Page 13
