A Little Harmless Ride

by Melissa Schroeder

  Sean’s face turned darker. It was a far cry from the man who had tried to charm her the first time she met him. He paced away, stopping at a window.

  “I came out to him.”

  There was a beat of silence. “You’re gay?” she asked.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the Eli, then settled his gaze on her again.

  “No, I have a feeling he would have accepted that more—which is funny and sad at the same time. I admitted to be being a bisexual. Sam didn’t like that. Didn’t like it one bit. Wanted me to take it back and, being the stupid twenty-year-old that I was, I refused. So, he kicked me to the curb.”

  “What made you do that?” Crysta asked. “I’m not judging, but you know exactly how much hate is in that man.”

  He shook his head. “Wasn’t exactly my choice. Sam Jr found out and told his father.”

  “Really?” Eli asked.

  “You don’t think that little shit hates me?”

  Of course he did. Everyone knew it. They were just a few months apart in age, but Sam and Sean had never been friends. In fact, it was pretty evident they rarely talked to each other.

  “So, he finds out, tells his father and gets you kicked out,” Eli said.

  He nodded and turned around to look out the window again. “Sam Kaheaku only allows you one mistake. That’s how he put it. A mistake. Of course, I found out soon enough he had already tapped into the inheritance that I was supposed to get when I turned twenty-one, so I enlisted.”

  “Wait. You wired five thousand dollars to Sam. Why would you do that?” Dillon asked.

  Sean turned around to face them. “What the hell are you talking about, Dillon?”

  “You had a meeting with him. Sent him money,” Eli said.

  “I traced it and it wasn’t hard to find,” Dillon said.

  Sean sighed and turned to pour himself a glass of something. He downed it in one swig.

  “I’m trying to get my mother’s ashes. That bastard spent her money and refuses to give me her ashes. Junior boy is supposed to help me.”

  “You paid him five thousand dollars?” Eli asked.

  Sean said nothing. Instead he poured another glass of liquor.

  “It is the only piece of his mother he has left,” Crysta said quietly.

  Sean looked at her, then to Eli. “Yes. He sold everything. He destroyed everything. There isn’t a picture left of my mother anywhere.”

  Sean looked at Crysta, who blinked back tears.

  “And so you paid him money for the ashes,” she said. She understood.

  He nodded. “They sit on the mantle in that fucking house and I want them. I should have taken them when I left, but he probably would have had me arrested. If there is anything else, St. John, you can just call next time. And, don’t show up on my property unannounced again.”

  Crysta wanted to say something, but she didn’t know what. How did you tell a man you were sorry his stepfather was an ass? And the words wouldn’t mean that much to him, she was sure of that.

  They walked out to the car, all of them in deep thought. They were already driving down the street before she responded.

  “That’s so sad. He’s so sad,” she said.

  Eli shrugged. “I don’t think he seems that sad.”

  “But he has the same problem as a switch. Not excepted by some people,” Dillon said.

  “Do you have a problem with it?” Crysta asked, irritated that the man was actually judging Sean for being who he was. Intolerance was something she couldn’t stand.

  He shared a smile with Eli, then looked at Crysta. “No. My business partner is bi and is in a committed relationship with a man and my sister. So I think I’m cool with it.”

  “Oh, okay. Well, it’s stupid. I mean, why would you pick your own idiot son over someone like Sean?”

  “You don’t know how dangerous he is,” Eli said.

  “But I am pretty sure this is all going to check out,” Dillon said. “Which means we’re back to square one.”

  “Dammit,” Eli said as he came to a stop at the light. “What about Sam?”

  “He’s too old,” Crysta said.

  Eli made a face. “The other one is too stupid. He’d never pull this off and the people he hangs around with are as stupid as he is. And lazy.”

  “Could it be someone from your past, Eli?” Dillon asked.

  “I told you before that wouldn’t fly.”

  “You worked Special Forces, so I would think that you might have a few enemies.”

  “I operated under a different name then. You know that. I told you there was one person who knew and she died in prison.”

  And she had been the woman who had marred his back with scars. So, she had not only sold him out, but she had gained his trust enough to know his real name. If she wasn’t already dead, Crysta would like to shoot the woman.

  “I’ll double check for you,” Dillon said. “And both of you need to consider this might have to do with Joe.”

  “Joe? That makes no sense. Wouldn’t they have come after him when he was alive?” Crysta asked. “And why would they come after us?”

  “If they knew who he was. If not, they might have found him with the announcement of his death. They could see you as a way to get back at Joe.”

  “And this is grasping at straws,” Eli said, the frustration was easy to hear in his voice.

  “Well, sometimes all you have is straws. I thought there might be something with Sean.”

  “Okay. So, you’re right. We don’t have crap,” Eli said.

  “And the longer we don’t know, the more dangerous it could get,” Dillon said as he pulled out on the highway to the ranch.

  Crysta hoped he was wrong because she didn’t want to think about things getting any worse.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  After Dillon left, they went to the hospital. Eli wanted to see how Jerry was faring and he knew Crysta wanted to see him too. As they walked side by side down the hall, he realized how much he needed her there. She was steady. Rock solid. She’d been shot at the day before and handled him when he had been ready to kill Kaheaku. Not once had she lost her composure.

  And she had told him she loved him.

  He had known he was falling for her for weeks now, but he didn’t know how he felt about it. The fact that she had told him she loved him made him feel a bit better, but not much. Still, he didn’t want to give her up. Having her there steadied him in a way he hadn’t expected.

  “Here we are,” she said. When they stepped in, there was laughter in the room. Danny was sitting next to the bed talking to Jerry.

  “You weren’t here all night, were you?” Crysta asked.

  He shook his head. “Kono came by to relieve me a couple hours after you two left.”

  “How are you feeling, Jerry?” she asked as she leaned down to kiss Jerry’s weathered cheek. When she pulled back, Eli could swear that Jerry was blushing.

  “Doing fine, thanks to you.” He looked at Eli. “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have taken her out so far.”

  “Do you have any idea who it was?” Eli asked.

  “I told Mitch that I had no idea. He was a ways away, so there is a good chance the man was a sharp shooter.”

  Exactly what Eli thought. “I told Danny here not to let anyone near you.”

  “I can handle Mitch,” Jerry said. “I’m not too old to answer a few questions from the law. It’s not it was the first time.

  Eli smiled. He sounded more like the old Jerry, not the hurt one who had been lying in the bed when he walked in.

  He wanted to stay, but with Jerry there, he needed to check on things at the ranch. He also needed to talk to Mitch. “I’ve got stuff I have to do back at the ranch, so I guess we should get going.”

  “Why don’t I stay?” Crysta said.

  “I can take her back, boss,” Danny said.

  She was safe there, probably safer than at the house if he needed to go out to work. He nodded and gave her a
kiss on the cheek. “Behave.”

  She snorted. “As if I ever misbehave.”

  “Don’t give the nurses any grief,” he ordered Jerry.

  He left then, knowing he didn’t want to go, but understanding theirs was still a working ranch. He knew that there was too much to worry about, piled on top of the shooting and mutilations.

  It took him a good thirty minutes before he got home. He stopped by the house to change, but knew there was something wrong the moment he stepped over the threshold. Nothing in particular. The security had been active from the gate to the house, so he knew that someone hadn’t breached the house. Still, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and something cold brushed against them. He searched the first floor, but there was nothing.

  When he turned the corner to go back into the kitchen, he felt the sharp prick of a needle, then felt his world tilt from side to side. He blinked trying to focus. All of the sudden he seemed to lose control of his legs. They turned to rubber beneath him.

  He stumbled to the counter and grabbed a piece of paper; he tried to write something down on it. He wasn’t sure he accomplished that, but he still tried. His vision was so blurry he didn’t even know what it said. Then, he was falling…his world dissolving around him.

  * * * *

  When she walked into the house, it was silent. It sent a chill dancing down her spine. Eli might be out, but there was something off, something weird.

  “I thought the boss was going to be here,” Danny said.

  “He was.”

  She walked through the foyer to the hallway. She looked down one hallway and the next. Nothing. Crysta knew there was something really wrong, though.

  “Boss,” Danny called out. No answer. “I’ll go check upstairs.”

  She nodded and set her purse on the newel post and walked into the kitchen. Again, everything was in its place, but she knew there was something odd about the way it looked. That is when she saw a piece of paper on the floor. The writing was barely legible, but she could make out a few of the words.

  Stay away.

  It was Eli. Something had happened and he was warning her. Fear clutched at her heart as she tried to think of what to do. Dillon was on Oahu and while he could help, he wouldn’t be here in time. Whoever had Eli wouldn’t wait that long if they wanted him dead. He could already be dead.

  “No,” she whispered.

  “Crysta, did you find him?” Danny asked. She looked at him and noticed that he was worried too.

  “I only found this.”

  “A warning. For the boss?”

  She shook her head. “That’s his writing, although it’s kind of messy.”

  Which was one thing she didn’t want to think about. Because if she did, there was a good chance she could come up with all kinds of reasons his writing was a mess. None of them were good.

  “Can we call Conner Dillon?” Danny asked.

  “No. I mean, we can, but he headed back to Oahu. He has a jet, but…it will take awhile to get here, yes? What…forty-five minutes?”

  Danny nodded. “We have to call the police.”

  “Yes, you do that,” she said as she went for her purse. She dug through it until she found the business card she had gotten a few weeks earlier. There was only one person she knew she could trust.

  She set the card on the counter and grabbed her cell phone. He picked it up on the first ring. She didn’t let him talk.

  “Sean, this is Crysta. I need you at the ranch.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Eli woke to water being splashed in his face. He blinked trying to see what was around him, but it was dark. He was sitting on something and his head was pounding. He tried to move his arms but found them tied behind his back.

  “Elias,” a woman said, almost as if she were calling a lover. It sent ice racing through his blood.

  “Rose.” Bile rose up in his throat. The woman who had betrayed him all those years ago; the one that he never thought to see again because she was dead. There was a click and then light flooded the space. He blinked against it and then he saw her.

  She looked no different than before. Oh, a little older, but not much. And she had the same sadistic smile on her face. Her eyes though…there was something off about them. She had been mental before, but now, craziness darkened her golden eyes.

  “It’s been so long, Elias.”

  Again, she sounded as if talking to an old love. Like this was a fucking date and not an abduction.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked biting back the nausea.

  “I’m sorry you don’t feel well,” she said. “Sam here used too much of the sedative.”

  She frowned off to the right of Eli and he glanced over. A sharp pain exploded in his head.

  “And you hit your head. I’m sorry,” she said. “I told you to be careful with him.”

  “Oh well. I think St John will survive. At least for a little while,” the younger Kaheaku said.

  “Such a shame that little slut you’re living with wasn’t around,”

  He studied at Rose and flexed his hands. She’d had Sam Jr bind them behind his back. He had no idea where the hell they were, but he knew they were still on the island. From the slant of the sun, it had been less than two hours.

  “So, you’re back. What for, Rose?”

  She leaned closer her dark hair falling over her shoulder. At one time, it had been sexy. Now, though, having her this close to him, it took everything in him not to spit in her face.

  “We have a little business to finish, you and I.”

  He sighed. “That was ten fucking years ago.”

  She stepped closer and he could almost feel anticipation filling her every move. It was ten years. Ten years she had to plan this.

  “How long are we going to fuck with this? Let’s kill the fuck so I can take over the ranch.”

  Something changed in her expression. Annoyance? No…disgust. She had admired Eli. Admired, and she had broken him. If she was disgusted with a person, Eli really didn’t want to know what she would do to him.”

  “Settle down, Sam. All in due time. I’ve been waiting a long time for this. Of course, the worst part of it is I can’t keep him alive. I really wanted to kill your new little plaything in front of you. That would give me such pleasure.”

  The sick excitement in her voice had the bile rising in his throat again.

  “Why do we even have to mess with the bitch? Without St. John around, it doesn’t matter if she’s dead or alive.”

  Eli opened his mouth to tell Sam that killing him didn’t help him get the ranch. But Rose smacked him across the face. Normally it wouldn’t have hurt, but in his current condition, he saw stars.

  He shook his head and another explosion of pain hit him. He scowled at Rose who gave him a warning look. So the woman knew that Sam couldn’t get the land, but didn’t want the jackass to know.

  “It does matter, darling, because I deem it so,” she said moving toward Sam. The way she walked toward the younger man told Eli all he needed to know. She had once again used sex to get her way. “Plus, if you want your money, they you will do as I say.”

  “No. I’ve had enough of that. I want some say in this. Kill the bastard and give me my money. You said you would kill him and pay me and then I could get the ranch back.”

  “Back?” Eli asked, wondering if he had heard correctly. “It wasn’t your fucking ranch to begin with.”

  “It was Kaheaku land.”

  “Jesus, what the bloody hell is wrong with your lot? I think Joe was the only sane one out of all of you. It was never your land. Joe bought it, with his money.”

  “I have more right to it than you do,” he bellowed. He marched closer but was stopped in his tracks by a bullet. The sound vibrated off the walls of the building. It hit Sam in the middle of his chest, blood spreading over his white shirt.

  * * * *

  By the time Sean arrived, Crysta’s nerves were frayed to the extreme. She had watched
every second tick on the clock and kept checking the security monitors.

  “How long has he been gone and why aren’t you trusting your regular men?”

  “I don’t know who to trust. Danny, I can trust, but that’s it.”

  Sean glanced at the younger man, who was still frowning at Sean.

  “And I said I could handle it,” Danny said.

  “I know you did, but we need someone who isn’t afraid to get a little dirty and I need someone here to greet Mitch.”

  The house phone rang. She recognized the number right away.

  “Dillon.”

  “Hey, Crysta, is Eli around,”

  “No. I can’t find him. I left you a message.”

  There was a beat of silence.

  “We have a problem.”

  “I know that. I said I can’t find him. He was supposed to be here.” She sounded hysterical and she didn’t care. Whoever had him could be hurting him. Or worse, he could be dying.

  Dillon sighed. “No. The woman, the person he said would want him dead.”

  “Yeah, he said she was dead.”

  “She’s not. She’s alive and has been on the island for a while. She was spotted by someone a while ago.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Before he could answer, Sean tore the phone from her hands.

  “Dillon, this is Kaheaku. Tell me what’s going on.”

  She watched as his expression hardened.

  “If Sam Jr is involved, he took Eli somewhere on their land. I think I know where. There are a few little buildings left over from when his grandfather ran the place. They’ll be out there. Can you track my cell? Do it, that way you will know where I am.”

  He hung up the phone. “I’m going to go out and look at some of those old buildings.”

  She started after him, and he shook his head. “You stay here.”

  “I think not.” There was no way she was going to stay behind.