by Jayne Rylon
It did seem pretty damn suspicious that he’d disappeared as soon as his daughter had been attacked. Kahori refused to believe that he’d somehow been involved. He would never do anything to put her in jeopardy.
“He was at the island night dinner,” Tosin said to Archer. “Where the hell did he go?”
Miguel answered this time. “I was sitting right next to him arguing for the grow dome when we heard a faint scream. He shouted for Kahori, then took off sprinting toward her house. Most everyone else went in the other direction, heading for either the beach or the jungle. I know I did. So…no one’s quite sure what happened to him after that.”
Kahori didn’t speak. Her vision blurred as flashbacks of the attack took center stage. “Where is he? Where’s the good stuff? That’s what they asked me. He couldn’t mean Pāpā, could he?”
No one had answers for her. Unwilling to badmouth a man they’d never met, they let her make her own decisions on that front.
She looked up at Tosin then. He must have seen her fear in her eyes.
“Trust your gut, Kahori. Just because your mother cut you, that doesn’t mean your dad stabbed you in the back.” He’d nailed it. There was fear for Pāpā’s safety, of course, but also fear of betrayal.
After tonight, she no longer knew what to believe when it came to other people.
Except that she trusted Tosin. She put her hand in his.
When she looked up, she noticed Banks’s pinched expression. Oh shit, there was more?
Tosin gathered Kahori and lifted her gently onto his lap. He made sure he enveloped her in his arms as if they could provide some insulation against the next wave of agony that was about to get unleashed on her.
Eventually she realized that everyone was standing there, sober and quiet. Very unlike their usual chaotic state.
“Oh no. What else?” Kahori clung to Tosin like a black-lipped oyster’s byssus adhered to the reef.
“I don’t know if it was your dad or somebody else, but by the time we got to your house looking for him…” Archer shook his head. “Someone trashed your place. It seemed like they were looking for something. They went through your drawers and cabinets. Trashed your workshop. Your clothes, your bed…”
“We get the point,” Tosin snapped, shooting Archer a shut the fuck up stare when Kahori began to quiver in his grasp.
“None of this makes sense!” She put her face in her hands for a few moments before gathering herself, striving for resilience. That was the only thing that was going to help them get to the bottom of this mess. “There’s nothing of value in my house except my jewelry components—pearls and loose gems. Everyone on the island knows those are in a safe because of my insurance policy. It’s kind of a running joke. I honestly only got the damn thing to protect against fires and floods, not because anyone would steal from me.”
“That’s pretty much what your cousin and uncle are telling everyone, too.” Miguel clenched his fist. “It seems they’re more in favor of believing us outsiders caused tonight’s trouble. Hemi asked the council to kick us off the island. They voted down the grow dome and said they don’t want our money or our problems.”
“Oh no!” Kahori gasped. “That’s ridiculous. Maybe I need to go back and straighten things out.” She attempted to scoot out of bed, lack of clothes be damned.
Tosin refused to let her leave. “No way. Tonight has been fucked up enough as it is. We’re safe on the Divemaster. You need to take it easy at least overnight.”
“He’s right, Kahori.” Waverly jumped in then. “You scared the shit out of me on the flight back here. This mess can wait until tomorrow.”
“In the morning, we’d be happy to take you home,” Archer offered.
Tosin growled a warning.
“I don’t think it’s wise for you to stay there, but we’ll escort you while you look around and see what’s up. Maybe you can spot something we didn’t notice.” Banks suggested a middle ground. “For now, I think you should try to rest. Dr. Kleveno said it will do you a world of good. That’s what your pāpā would want you to do, too.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
Another knock came at the door then followed by Dr. Kleveno asking, “Why does it sound like half the crew is in here?”
Captain Alex rushed to let her in despite the fact that she was probably going to ream them out for keeping Kahori awake. As if she could sleep now without knowing where her father was and what might have happened to him.
“Still doing okay?” Dr. Kleveno asked as she whipped out that insanely bright flashlight again. When she rotated the end of the device to turn it on, the beam flashed across Sabine.
Kahori froze.
“Does that hurt?” Dr. Kleveno frowned. “If you’re that sensitive to the beam from far away, you could have more damage than I suspected.”
“Kahori?” Tosin asked her when she didn’t respond right away.
She couldn’t look away from Sabine. From there she couldn’t be sure of what she’d seen. Maybe she had hit her head too hard. “Hey, can I see your earrings for a second?” She held her hand out to Sabine.
The other woman looked at her like Kahori definitely might have bonked the sense right out of her brain. She glanced at Miguel, who shrugged. Sabine slipped one from her ear, then tipped her head to start on the other.
“You can work later,” Dr. Kleveno scolded Kahori. “I didn’t mean for you to have so many visitors. It’s best if you take it easy. Rest.”
“Please. I need to see them.” She shook her hand, palm up, curling her fingers toward her, completely ignoring the doctor’s advice.
Sabine seemed unsure, but she passed over the earrings.
Immediately Kahori could tell something was off. “What did you do to these?”
“Nothing,” the other woman swore. “I mean, I wore them today. That’s it.”
Kahori pointed to the jump rings that connected the pearls to the setting. “This isn’t my work. These are sloppy. Look how the ends overlap and the circles are kind of squished out of shape. You’re sure you didn’t take them off and reattach them for some reason?”
“Why would she do that?” Banks asked.
“I have no idea.” Kahori stared, looking from person to person, wondering exactly who she could trust. Her own eyes told her something was very wrong. Her new friends acted innocent. But if they hadn’t tampered with her work, who had?
“Light.” She waved for Dr. Kleveno to shine the torch directly on the earrings. Up close.
Kahori squinted at the overwhelming brightness. It was subtle but… “Something’s not right with these. The luster is off.”
Her heart rate tripled. She was an expert, someone who’d grown up around pearls and spent hours each day handling them, studying them, yet she could hardly tell. A common buyer would have no chance at spotting the inconsistencies here.
She pulled her lips back, grimacing at the sting, though it seemed to have lessened already. Kahori rubbed one of the pearls across her front tooth. It was gritty, as it should be. Fakes had a too-smooth surface compared to the natural nacre of a genuine pearl. At least poor fakes. To be sure…
“Sabine, do you have a microscope in your lab onboard?” Kahori wondered.
The other woman nodded.
“Would you mind terribly if I sacrificed one of these? I’ll replace it.” She was already shoving herself toward the edge of the bed. Besides, if what she suspected was true, they weren’t worth anything anyway.
“Do whatever you need,” Sabine said even as Dr. Kleveno and Tosin teamed up to keep Kahori in place.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” he asked her, deep grooves marring his forehead.
“I need to see these under magnification.” Kahori tried to tug free, but budging him was impossible. A rising tide of anxiety clawed up her insides. She tensed all over, causing her head to throb.
“No, what you need is to stay calm and still.” Dr. Kleveno put her foot down. “You’re not
leaving this room.”
“Hey, don’t worry. I’ll prep a slide for you.” Sabine came nearer. She looked at the doctor, then Tosin, and lastly—when neither objected—to Kahori. “My microscope is digital. I’ll email Tosin pictures. Will that work?”
“Yes, thank you.” She relaxed against Tosin, just a little bit.
“Give me five minutes.” Sabine reclaimed her earrings then left with Miguel on her heels.
The air seemed heavy. It made it hard to breathe. Kahori looked at Archer, who met her gaze directly. They had to be thinking the same thing. But it was impossible to tell him she was terrified the engagement ring he’d bought could have been tampered with too with Waverly standing right there.
So instead she plucked Tosin’s hand from where it still cupped her upper arm. She drew it near and turned it over so that she could inspect the pearl clasp. She ran her thumb over the knot in the end of the leather. It wasn’t as crisp as when she’d tied it.
Dread swamped her guts. “Light.”
Dr. Kleveno shone the beam directly on the pearl. Kahori shoved Tosin’s hand away before she could rip the bracelet from him and fling it against the wall. More of the same. What the hell was going on here?
Her panicked gaze flew to Archer.
He lifted his fingers at her in a subtle acknowledgement. “I’ll be right back. Gotta take care of something quick.”
Waverly asked, “Do you want me to come with you?”
He shook his head. “Stay in case they need you.”
Kahori massaged the lump on the side of her head, which felt smaller but had started to ache and pulse as if it were dancing to the beat of the drums from earlier in the evening.
Dr. Kleveno took pill bottles from her purple satchel. Tosin held out a glass of water even as she shook a few capsules into her hand. “You’d better take these. We don’t want to let your discomfort spiral out of control or it will be harder to manage and take longer to recover from.”
Kahori was pretty damn sure her discomfort levels were about to shoot through the roof. Her father was missing. She’d gotten beat up. Her illicit liaison had ended in disaster. And now she suspected that she’d been unintentionally scamming innocent customers by selling them costume jewelry for top dollar.
Out of energy, she didn’t argue, still trying to figure out how this could have happened and if it could be related to rest of the evening’s events.
It had to be.
You can’t fool us with our own tricks, they’d said.
When Tosin’s phone bleeped, she couldn’t seem to draw enough air into her lungs. He held it out to her, open to his email app. There were two messages from Sabine. The subjects were Sabine’s Earrings and Waverly’s Ring.
Oh God.
She selected the first message. It didn’t take more than a glance at the close up to be sure. “They’re junk. Not real.”
“What?” Banks’s eyebrows seemed like they were trying to join the hair on top of his head.
“The pearls in Sabine’s earrings are manufactured. They’re amazingly good fakes, but they’re worthless. I’m so sorry.” She clapped her hand over her mouth, trying not to look at Waverly.
Because if the earrings were phony, so was the clasp on Tosin’s bracelet.
Kahori began to doubt everything she would have sworn to a minute ago.
The ring…
She’d handed it to Archer personally the other day after retrieving it from her safe. It had seemed exactly as she remembered. If it was phony too, she would never know how long she’d been unintentionally swindling her customers. Her business would be ruined along with her reputation.
It took her two tries to click the second email. When the microscope’s enhanced image popped up, she sagged in relief.
The proper crystal structure—consistent yet disturbed periodically by natural imperfections not present in the manufactured version—was evident. It was real. She wasn’t losing her mind.
“That one’s good?” Tosin asked as he peeked over her shoulder.
She nodded. Then frowned. “The stuff from the Rarotonga shop is garbage. I need to talk to Hemi.”
Even as she said it though, the room dimmed. It was too much. The day she’d had, complete with epic highs and lows. Her body couldn’t take anymore. It started to shut down as if she was a nuclear reactor about to overheat.
“In the morning, Kahori.” Tosin glanced at Dr. Kleveno, who nodded. “If you’re up to it then, we’ll take you over to the island to figure out what the hell is going on.”
“Okay.” She wished she could say more. As her medicine kicked in and numbness began to take away both her pain and her alertness, she tried again. “I’m sorry.”
These people—and the rest of her clients, too—had no reason to believe she hadn’t known what was happening beneath her nose. Hell, how hadn’t she figured it out sooner?
There would be plenty of time for self-recrimination later.
With disgust, shame, and shock mixing into a super shot of misery, her mind could no longer function. From far away, she thought she heard Tosin encouraging her to relax by promising her everything would be okay.
She figured that was the only time since they’d met that he’d lied to her.
It seemed that was more than she could say for her own family.
Kahori went under.
Fourteen
Tosin kept his hand low on Kahori’s back, not letting her out of his reach. Both to make sure she was steady on her feet and to remind himself that no one was actively threatening her.
She’d woken up bright and early, eaten a full breakfast, then refused to take any more painkillers, insisting she was sore but fine. He suspected she also intended to keep her mind fog-free so that they had no legitimate reasons to block her from assessing the damage at her house.
Her strategy had worked, though he’d had a hell of a time letting her leave the safety of the Divemaster without having a panic attack. They’d had enough near misses in the past year to put him on high alert. The rest of the crew, too.
So they were making a quick run, unannounced, over to her place. Then they’d have to figure out what came next based on anything they uncovered. The first batch of subjects in Sabine’s trials were set to arrive in a few hours, along with Marta. Waverly would be shuttling them in, so she’d stayed behind also. The security on the ship had been beefed up in anticipation, but Captain Alex and Banks were both opposed to stretching their resources too thin.
Finally Tosin fully understood how hard it had been for Archer and Miguel when their women had been the ones threatened. Both guys shot him sympathetic looks as their tenders docked and they strode as quickly as possible toward Kahori’s house.
“Hanging in there?” he asked her, wincing at their pace.
“Tosin, I promise I’m good.” She flashed him a tight smile that called her a liar. More on the emotional side of things than the physical ones, he’d bet.
He squeezed her hand. “Keep in mind I give awesome piggyback rides, okay?”
“Will do.” She smiled up at him, weak compared to her usually brilliant grin. Even that faded though when they reached her yard. Archer and Captain Alex went inside to scan the place while Banks, Miguel, and Tosin stayed on the porch with her.
“It’s all clear,” Archer announced when he returned. Then he winced. “Kahori, the place is a mess. Are you sure…”
“Yes.” She put her hand on his chest and thanked him before pressing steadily until he backed out of her way.
Tosin loved that she wasn’t a pushover. It would make her submission in bed worth even more to him than it already was.
To her credit, Kahori didn’t flinch. She stepped over her ruined belongings, including the smashed jar and the flowers he’d given her yesterday, which were now dead. Ignoring her personal space, she made a beeline to her workshop and to the cabinet in the far back corner. When she opened the door, revealing her safe, she gasped. The door was covered with massive sc
rapes and dents that had obviously been caused by unsuccessful attempts to break into the locked box. Or a velociraptor.
“I’m guessing it didn’t look like that yesterday?” Banks asked.
She shook her head then spun the dial until she’d entered the combination. Tosin never left her side. He rubbed her back as she yanked on the handle.
Inside, neat trays held pearls in graduated sizes. One rack was loaded up with glimmering jewels and precious metals. As if she didn’t care that her inventory was still intact, she stayed tense. He realized why when she plucked a pearl at random then took it to her workbench and scoured the floor in search of her loupe.
When she had it in hand, she turned on some powerful gooseneck lamps and examined the pearl carefully. “It’s real.”
“Should we pack up the safe contents then?” Archer asked. “The Divemaster has secure facilities onboard for just this sort of thing. We installed them after we discovered a sunken treasure then sort of had part of it stolen temporarily.”
Kahori gawked at him for a moment. Then she shrugged and laughed. “Sure, why not? I didn’t realize you had experience in this sort of thing.”
“Unfortunately,” Miguel grumbled.
She paused then, growing much more serious. “I guess I’m lucky you all happened to come along when you did. I don’t know what I would do right now if it wasn’t for you. Thank you.”
“We’re happy to help.” Tosin leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Now, is there anything else you want to check out or need to pack up? I don’t think it’s smart to hang out here any longer than necessary.”
Kahori swallowed then, glancing around as if there would be a note from her dad telling her he’d gone out on a long fishing voyage or something equally as innocent. No such luck.
Instead, she wandered over to the opposite corner of the room then began to dig beneath a pile of crumpled invoices that had been dumped out of her filing cabinet. Beneath it all, in a tiny woven palm basket, she withdrew a plain brown paper covered package. “I hadn’t finished weighing this one and putting the postage on before Pāpā took the rest of the orders to the post office on One Foot Island for me.”
