If she and the Search and Protect team could pull this off, they’d all be safe. There’d be time to recover from this. Then, maybe, she could address the nagging guilt starting to poke at a part of her mind. No time for it now.
She hurried down the stairs, glancing down the lower hallway at the open doors. None of the other captives had emerged. Another pang of guilt hit her in the gut, harder.
“Straight to the door.” Raul’s voice called to her. “Save the group we’ve got with us now.”
Or fail to save any of them. The possibility hung in the air over Mali’s shoulders. They’d been here too long. The whole thing was already insanely risky. Zu and Todd, her big sister, all of their dogs, were here to help her. Any stupid decisions at this moment could waste all of their efforts, maybe result in irreparable harm to them.
Raul was here with her, and he was right. She headed straight for the door. The research team scuffled behind her, strung out in a bedraggled line of escapees.
As she approached the door, she paused, uncertain. There was no telling what was beyond the door right now, and Raul was bringing up the rear. She hovered in a precious moment of indecision. Then Taz moved ahead of her and stood in the doorway, crouched low to the ground. He sniffed the walkway first and then lifted his nose to the air.
“Bravo Team, this is Charlie. I see Taz.” Arin’s voice came over the comm, a soothing presence. “Courtyard is clear. Safe to proceed.”
“Copy.” Raul answered in Mali’s ear but she didn’t wait for him to tell her what to do next.
She darted out into the courtyard and ran along the wall, toward the garden entrance, trusting her sister to watch over her. As she neared the entryway she paused, and her colleagues piled up behind her, instinctively pressed against the wall. Adrenaline had been pumping through her in repeated rushes throughout this entire experience until Mali’s head buzzed with the hyperawareness.
Arin’s voice, steady and cool, came over the comm again. “Mali, give it a count of three then you can proceed into the garden. Try to get into the cover of the landscaping as quickly as possible.”
“Okay,” Mali whispered. Arin had broken her protocol to talk directly to her, and the difference was huge in Mali’s mind. She could do this.
One one-thousand.
“Bravo Team, this is Alpha. You have hostile headed back from the fields and coming your way.” Zu’s message was delivered in a terse tone.
Two one-thousand.
“Copy,” Raul responded. “We have the package. Proceeding with extraction.”
Three one-thousand.
Raul passed her and opened the entryway, holding the door open and falling into a crouch beside it. He held his firearm close to his body and turned his torso in an arc as he studied the outer area. “Go, Mali.”
She darted forward and headed directly into the large gathering of landscaped trees and bushes, returning to the place where they’d left Terri. Mali stopped short, and her PI let out a curse as he skidded into her. Terri was gone.
The rest of the group joined her and gathered around her, shuffling their weight from one foot to the next, every one of them ready to bolt. It was a good thing, too, as long as they all came with her and Raul and didn’t scatter to just anywhere.
“Bravo Team, this is Alpha, distraction is complete. Returning for retrieval.”
“Alpha, this is Bravo Team. We are one minute from extraction point.” Raul’s response comforted Mali.
He joined her a second later, and she pointed at the ground where Terri had been, unwilling to mention the woman’s name in front of her PI and colleagues. There’d be questions and no way to explain fast enough.
Raul frowned but shook his head. “Probably went to raise some kind of alarm. We’re out of here anyway. Let’s hope we get out before whoever was alerted makes it here. Let’s keep moving.”
They headed out again, back the way they’d come, with Mali and Taz in the lead and Raul guarding their rear. It was different once they left the concealment of the landscaping. Different from the courtyard. They were out in the open, and Mali shrank inside as she pushed herself to continue despite the exposure. Far off to one side, smoke rose up over the fields, evidence of the earlier explosion.
“Bravo Team, this is Charlie. Your path is clea—” Arin’s voice cut off.
“Charlie, say again,” Raul barked into the comm.
Nothing.
The SUV pulled up right next to the hedge, the driver’s-side window rolled down to reveal Zu. Mali dove right through the hedge and yanked the side door open as the back door also opened. The entire group piled in. Raul helped a few of them as they clambered into the vehicle, shoving in limbs and closing the door.
Raul tucked Mali in right behind the driver’s seat. He met her panicked gaze with a serious one of his own. “Charlie, this is Bravo Team. We are with Alpha. Copy.”
Nothing. His mouth pressed into a grim line. He closed the vehicle door firmly, keeping Mali inside the vehicle.
From the driver’s seat, Zu made the call. “Stick to the plan. We go to escape and evade.”
Raul ran around the back of the vehicle and jumped into the front passenger side. “Go.”
* * *
Raul wondered if he should text Brandon Forte over at Hope’s Crossing Kennels for some tips on building relationships with the local hospital personnel. Forte and his people had gotten involved in enough unusual activity to need emergency medical care multiple times in the last year or so.
When Raul arrived at the hospital, every one of his charges—including Mali—had been hustled in through the ER and past the check-in desk. The nurse at check-in was small yet formidable. Both he and Zu had opted to step back and not crowd the woman, instead answering her questions as best they could, remaining calm and helpful as she informed them that the police were on their way.
Pua arrived before the police did, happily. She was in the process of providing pertinent information on all of the research team and connecting the hospital with their university affiliates on the mainland for access to any medical information necessary to treat the team now that they’d been recovered.
The nurse still wouldn’t let him by to check on Mali.
“Family only.” The woman hadn’t quite snapped at him, but he was starting to envision a dragon sitting behind the counter.
He respectfully backed off. It might be for the best, in any case, because he had no word from Arin yet. Mali would ask, and he didn’t have any answers.
Pua approached him and Zu, a pleasant smile plastered on her face but worry in her eyes. “Transferred all the information we had, Boss.”
Zu nodded. “Monitoring the situation back at the plantation?”
“Yup.” She slipped between them so she could show them her tablet. “I put in the call to the police about the explosion in the plantation fields and shots fired. They arrived on the scene about ten minutes after our team left the premises. Video evidence from the cameras shows their men fired shots that ignited the fuel barrels out by the fields.”
Raul grunted. Zu had skills. Not only could the man create a diversion, but he had also manipulated their opponents to trigger it. Arin’s targets had been taken out at a distance, and she’d have been careful not to be caught by surveillance. It was possible she’d been delayed removing any additional evidence linking her to the dead men.
There was nothing captured on video to pin on the Search and Protect team except trespassing on private property. But since they were ostensibly following search and rescue dogs on the trail of missing persons, well, that might not stick either.
“Has Charlie checked in yet?” Zu asked the question Raul had been thinking about constantly.
Pua shook her head. “Not y—”
“Here.” Arin strode into the emergency room, covered in dust. “I caught a ride with one of the local police teams headed here.”
She jerked her chin back at two uniforms entering behind her. One of them made ey
e contact and nodded. “Zu.”
“Officer Kokua.”
Raul recognized the man as one of the local police officers Todd Miller had initially introduced to Mali the other night. The other man apparently recognized Raul, too. “Good to see you again in one piece, young man. We should have a talk about you immobilizing a suspect, dropping my name, and leaving the scene before officers arrive.”
Raul kept his peace and just nodded. There’d be a mess to untangle from that incident, for sure. It’d be best if they all just got along.
“I’d like to take you and your team aside for statements to add to our investigation,” Kokua addressed Zu, his tone courteous. “We can do it here in the waiting room while your team member checks on her little sister.”
Zu nodded. “Appreciated.”
Arin spoke up. “I gave most of my statement in the car on the way here. TLDR version: my comm broke when I had to engage in a direct confrontation with one of the hired private resources. He encountered me while I was checking out an elevated area as my canine partner remained on the ground. We exchanged…introductions… and it came to his attention that the property he was providing security for was being used for human trafficking. He claimed he was unaware and immediately withdrew both himself and his team.”
Raul raised his eyebrows, and even Zu cleared his throat in surprise. That was definitely the redacted version, and they probably both wanted to hear the detailed version. Still, if she’d been on a roof or up at a high vantage point with King down on the ground level, it explained why someone had gotten close enough to take out her comm.
If there had been another private contract group on site, he and Mali had been lucky not to encounter them. Things would’ve gone much harder. Fortunately, the men they’d encountered guarding the human…stock…hadn’t been much more than thugs on the payroll. Those must’ve been working directly for the main man. The professional private security must’ve been responsible only for securing the perimeter of the property. The less the hired help knew, the better.
Kokua cleared his throat. “I have a much more detailed report from the ride here. I’d like to get your reports as well.”
Raul’s eyebrows might take up permanent residence around his hairline for the rest of the day. The professional courtesy Kokua was offering was incredible. Some of it might have to do with his longstanding friendship with Miller. The rest, who knew? But Zu seemed all for cooperating so Raul followed his lead.
Arin didn’t wait for anything more. She strode right past the dragon nurse and headed back into the ER in search of Mali.
As they settled into seats at the far end of the waiting room, Raul stared at the doors leading into the rest of the Emergency Room. Family was here. Mali and her team were safe. The mission was complete.
“After we’re done here, I’ll head back to HQ with Pua.” Raul looked at Zu. “They don’t need all of us taking up space in the waiting room.”
Zu regarded him with a neutral gaze and then nodded. “Might be for the best.”
It was the right thing to do. So why did he hate the idea the minute he’d committed to it?
Chapter Twenty-Four
What comes next?” Mali sighed.
Across the living room, King lifted his head from his paws to look at her.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
King studied her with some sort of inscrutable canine stare for a long minute and then wagged his tail in a single swish across the floor. He turned his attention to the front door, let out a long whoosh of air, and lowered his head to his paws again.
He was a good dog. All of the Search and Protect dogs were. But King was her sister’s dog. He had eyes only for Arin, and sometimes she was the only person he obeyed. Most specifically in this moment, King wasn’t Taz.
Mali missed Taz. She missed talking out loud to him because he really listened to her. There was something incredibly helpful in the way she could sift through her thoughts with a doggie sounding board. There were about a million thoughts running through her head in what seemed like a mental infinity loop. She could benefit from a long talk with Taz right about now.
Petting him was soothing, too. She’d never had a pet, not really. She hadn’t had the budget or the time to have one as she’d focused on her academic studies, and growing up, the family pets had really been taken care of by her older sister. It only made sense that the pets had always seemed closer to Arin.
But when she’d met Taz, he hadn’t been attached to her older sister, hadn’t preferred her. He’d been attentive and friendly. Okay, she should admit she was transferring some of her feelings. She also missed Taz’s owner.
Raul hadn’t returned to the house with her, Arin, Todd, and their dogs. Instead, Raul had hung back to go to the team headquarters in town with Zu.
The thing that’d been burning between them was left suspended. For once, she was too tired to differentiate between her intellectual thought process and her emotional reactions.
Her heart ached.
Through this whirlwind of activity over the last couple of days, she and Raul had reacted naturally to the chemistry between them. With the stress and adrenaline, the rational part of her brain figured it was perfectly understandable. Logically, once there was enough time to slow down the pace, the intensity of her feelings would ease back to something manageable, too.
But she didn’t want it to.
She didn’t know exactly what she was feeling, and there was no road map ahead of her to tell her where this was leading, but she wanted to explore this more than any line of research she’d ever encountered in her life. A few days ago, she’d have considered the idea of a whirlwind romance improbable or crazy. Now?
Nothing made sense, and that was incredibly enticing.
Every minute, every hour she’d spent with Raul had been like discovering herself for the first time. Her responses to him, her thought process—everything had been a new perspective. It’d given life a vibrancy she’d never known, but now, in the lull after the insanity, she missed it. Even after he’d told her about the horrible things he’d done in the past, she’d been drawn to him. She’d been shocked, frightened by what he’d said, and later at the plantation, by what he’d done. But she’d also seen the way he’d done those things out of necessity, for the mission, for her.
She missed him. His voice, his face, definitely the smoldering intensity of his gaze, his touch, his mouth…
She shook her head. If she went on, she was going to come up against an inventory of every body part, and there was a particular part of him she was missing in some very graphic ways.
Her desire to see him again clashed with the hard fact that she’d be leaving soon, and she was right back to her original thought process. Whatever they’d shared had been transient, impulsive, and not sustainable considering their very different career paths. Maybe this was better, being apart now that the situation was resolved and her colleagues were safe. Up until now, their tryst had been balanced on a fine line of enjoying each other without making the mistake of any false commitments. They could go their own separate ways thinking well of each other, no harm done.
Maybe. Her chest tightened and ached. The idea of never seeing him again hurt more than she had anticipated.
Finding a reason to see him again didn’t make sense. To her sister’s point, it also wouldn’t be fair. It was crazy to think they could find a way to make a relationship happen, long distance, with ocean and the majority of a continent between them.
King rose to his feet, startling her. The big dog was staring at the front door, ears forward, but he didn’t make the eager whine he usually did when Arin came back to the room. Nails click-clacked on the floors in the hallway as Ann and Dan joined King.
The three dogs positioned themselves in the foyer area, a few feet from the front door, between the door and Mali. Now that was a little unsettling.
Mali shrank back into the couch. A few days ago, she wouldn’t h
ave paid any attention to what the dogs were doing. But she’d seen how much they could sense and anticipate. No doubt, they were ready to protect her from something. There was a relief in that. But a tiny part of her brain shouted for Taz and Raul.
The knock at the front door made Mali jump out of her skin.
“Coming.” Todd came down the hallway. He gave her his version of a reassuring smile and waved for her to stay where she was. “Catching up to the welcoming committee. You should be fine where you are.”
Still, he angled his body to block her line of sight as he opened the door.
Cautious. They all lived their lives with such hyperawareness of what could happen.
A female voice carried from the doorway. “I’m Makani Hills, working for the Hawaiian state department. I’d like to speak with Mali Siri, please.”
“Todd Miller, Search and Protect Corporation.” Todd’s tone was gravelly and grouchy. “We’ve had an exciting couple of days, so you’ll understand that I have to ask for your credentials, please.”
“Of course.”
There was a pause.
Todd grunted. “Wait a minute.”
He closed the door in the woman’s face. Mali sat forward. He couldn’t, could he?
Todd turned to her. “Credentials look legitimate. Do you want to meet with this woman?”
Mali realized her mouth was open. She snapped it shut, took a deep breath, and then blurted out, “What will you do if I don’t?”
Todd shrugged. “You go into your sister’s room, and I tell her to leave. Then me and the dogs will make sure she really does.”
Easy as that.
In Mali’s world of academia, no one would’ve risked insulting anyone else that way. It simply wasn’t done. And all of the circling around each other with all the words and considerations and circumspection was exhausting. Here, it was as direct as whatever decision each of them made. So how should she react?
“I’d like to know what this woman wants.” Mali said the words before she had the thought clearly formed in her head. But hey, nothing about her thought process was normal recently.
Total Bravery (True Heroes Book 4) Page 21
