by Angel Payne
When they burst out onto the beach, a thousand feelings blasted at once. She wanted to weep at the sky, having given up on ever seeing its splendor again. But she wobbled, suddenly cold, as the wind slammed her nakedness and bit into her wounds. She also peered around in confusion. Not a single one of Tan’s goons had waited for him. But there was no sign of Tait, Kellan or any police or military support, either.
Only two people stood there: Cameron Stock and the man who’d taken Gunter’s replacement in their scheme. Just as young and well-tailored as Gunter, Shane—who was so trendy, he apparently had no last name—wore his chestnut hair a little longer and his suits a little looser, but shared Gunter’s vigilant gaze and Gatsby-like indifference to everything that didn’t pertain to their plan. In short, he was a perfectly pretty successor to Gunter—and Lani hoped he met the same fate, too. The sharks could always use some extra dinner.
“What the hell are you still doing with her?” Shane barked. “We need to cut liabilities, all of them, right now.”
“He’s right,” Stock added. “The car’s waiting next to the sand around the next bend. My contacts at the base have arranged for a private transport to get us to LA, where I’ve got a thousand corners for us to hide in. Let her go and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Lani prayed Tan would see their logic, despite its roots in five hundred versions of evil, and toss her aside. “I—I won’t say anything,” she croaked. “I—I promise.”
“Oh, there’s nothing for you to say, honey.” Stock’s tone was smooth and snide. “They’d only need you for picking us out in a line-up, which is never going to happen.”
Dread crashed through her as Tan let out a roar and twisted his hold tighter. “No! She has one more purpose to us, and I’m going to take full advantage of it!”
Stock huffed. “What the hell are you—”
“Those two Special Forces wankers are going to pay for what they’ve cost me—in the most devastating manner their poor little hearts can imagine.”
Lani shivered harder. This time, her quivers had nothing to do with the wind and everything to do with raw terror. Tan made sure that point stuck when slamming his pistol to her temple.
No, no, no!
“Wait.” Shane’s voice punched through her mental and physical ice. “Her two ‘soldier’ friends are Spec Ops?” The man stomped over and yanked at Tan. The Korean almost fell backwards, decimating Lani’s own balance. She only stayed upright through the desperate force of tan’s grip, clawing furiously into her flesh. “Tan, you have to ditch this bitch and move on right now,” Shane commanded. “I guarantee there are rifle coordinates being dialed in on your skull as we speak.”
Tan laughed with urbane glee. “Is that so, sweet Shane? My, my; you get a little hot under the collar when talking about those boys in uniform. Did you know one, perhaps? Did you put on your ‘dress blues’ for him? Did he tell you about his ‘secret missions’ and show you his ‘special guns?’”
Lani prayed Shane’s patience had a breaking point and Tan had just breached it. A skirmish between the two men would be perfect in so many ways. If Shane’s allegation was true, Kellan and Tait were here, waiting on the cliffs for their perfect chance to take Tan down for good. The sooner she could get out of their way, the better.
But damn it, Shane had to be as emotionally untouchable as she’d originally assumed.
“Drop her, Tan.” The man’s stance was as rigid as his voice. “You’ve poked worse than a hornet’s nest and you’re not going to win.”
“He’s right,” Stock growled. “If you want a voice of firsthand experience as validation, let me be it. Lor and I were ten minutes out from success on our plan in LA, and those Spec Ops motherfuckers dropped in on us like a machine.”
“Shut up,” Tan snapped. “Just shut the bloody hell up, Cameron!”
Stock shook his head and blew out a hard breath. “I’ll do you one better, you insane asswipe. I’m out of here.”
“He’s right.” Shane rushed up again. “You’re being insane, Tan. You can’t do this. Let Cameron get you off the island and into LA, and we’ll regroup on a new plan. Killing this woman in cold blood isn’t going to help a fucking thing.”
Tan’s grip slipped a little. With a rush of relief, Lani collapsed to her knees, only to be held captive again by the monster’s hand, twisting a fistful of her hair. Tan jerked her head back until her vision was filled with nothing but the stars—and the barrel of his gun between her eyes.
“Poor, stupid Shane,” he muttered. “You’re mistaken. This does help. So many things.”
Lani’s limbs went numb. Her blood ran with ice. But suddenly, strangely, she was warm again. The stars reached down to her, bringing the light and fire of two special stars with them. The first, with his gray gaze and fierce devotion, she slipped into her heart. The second, with his golden eyes and open spirit, she dropped into her soul.
She smiled.
Right before a single shot pierced the night.
She took a breath, bracing for the burst of white light to welcome her through the veils of existence. It didn’t come. Instead, her senses resounded a deep, anguished cry…her own. Only blackness and stillness surrounded her.
But then she noticed the stars again. And the sea. And the trees, flittering softly in the wind. And then the man, Shane, kneeling next to her—only he wasn’t himself. Soft concern lit up his caramel eyes with tiny gold flecks. His mouth lifted at her in a gentle smile.
Even though Ayaan Tan lay flat in the sand next to her, with a bullet hole in his head.
“Oh, my God.” She pushed away from him. “Oh, my God.”
“Ssshhh. Careful.” Shane cupped her shoulders. His hands were shockingly warm. Strong. And caring? He stripped off his suit jacket and folded it around her. “You okay?”
“Y-yeah.” Her breath left her in stunned spurts. “What the hell happ—”
A loud zzzzzzz cut her short. Appearing in the trees just a hundred feet away, riding the Hale Anelas recreational zip line like a pro, was Kellan. The sight of him made her heart surge and her body hum despite all its physical agony. He hit the landing platform and started shimmying down the ladder, preceding Tait by only a fast minute. His sniper Remington rifle was still strapped to his back.
“Shit.” Shane spewed the word as he shot to his feet.
“Wh-what?” Lani questioned. “What’s wrong?”
Kellan arrived, having sprinted across the sand to her. He shucked his gun and hit his knees in the sand, grabbing her with the fervency of a starving man who’d arrived at an oasis. Lani sighed into his mouth as he kissed her with matching hunger, finally letting her go in order to lift his eyes to Shane.
“You should seriously get out of here,” he told the guy.
“Yeah,” Shane said, “Probably.”
“What the hell?” Lani queried. “Why?”
Tait arrived now, also at a top speed run—that he continued into a full body check against Shane. Lani shrieked, confused and stunned, as the two men rolled into the sand. Shane’s kindness, although brief, stirred her enough to try and pull Tait up. Wasn’t happening. Tait was lost to a haze of rage. He pulled back his arm, curled a fist, and drove it into Shane’s face before she could stop him.
“Tait,” she screamed. “Lawa! Enough!”
The man ignored her, preparing to punch Shane again.
“Tait!” Shane yelled. “Listen!”
The air left her lungs. Her jaw dropped. She snapped her gape toward Kellan. “How does he know who Tait is?”
“It was you,” Tait roared, “wasn’t it? In the cave, with Stock and Tan. ‘Handling things’ for them. Working with them!”
Tait went in for two more blows but Shane successfully dodged both. It was clear to Lani now; the guy had a lot of experience fighting Tait, able to interpret and evade each of his moves. That expertise would’ve been gleaned by a friend of Tait’s, not a fashionista criminal boy working for a creep like Cameron Stock
.
What was going on?
Finally, Shane crawled free and popped to his feet. Tait didn’t give up. He snarled and readied to rush Shane again.
“Don’t think it, T.” He issued the words from gritted teeth. “I will drop you. We both know I can.”
“What. The. Hell?” Lani blurted again.
Her words didn’t falter Tait by an inch. With his chest heaving and his eyes blazing, he seethed, “I should just let you do it. Drop me and pummel me, you asshole, because that’ll give me perfect justification for killing you with my bare hands!”
Shane wiped blood off his lip with the back of his hand. “Neither is going to happen.”
“No? And why the fuck not?” Tait’s hands turned into white-capped fists at his sides. “You’re working with Cameron Stock—and with the man who had a gun at the head of the woman I love!” He pushed his head forward, staring hard at Shane. “Does that concept even get to you anymore? Do you remember the hell I went through after Luna, how I despaired of ever feeling anything again, let alone knowing love? Well, God’s brought me another miracle—and tonight, she almost died as I watched. As you watched, goddamnit!”
Lani grabbed the edges of Shane’s coat and pulled them tighter as tears came again. She bowed her head, needing to be alone with this crazy moment. Tait loved her, too. Yet he stood there, trembling from the effort of reining back his murderous rage at Shane.
“I wouldn’t have let that happen,” Shane leveled, “and damn it, you know it.” While Tait flung back only a bitter silence, the man slowly straightened and brushed off his pants. “I have to leave now, Tait. And you’re going to let me.”
Tait chuffed. “Right. You have to leave. Because Cameron fucking Stock is waiting for you, isn’t he?”
Shane clenched his jaw. Sharper lights intensified in his eyes, almost turning them pure gold with his anger. “There’s more at play here than you understand. You’re going to have to trust me.”
The guy didn’t say anything else. Lani gawked again at Kellan as Tait visibly shook, clearly abhorring himself for every step Shane took back up the beach. Tait stayed that way even after the man disappeared around the curve in the shore. Lani stepped toward him but Kellan shook his head a little, indicating Tait had to wage his own battle with this particular demon—who in the end, hadn’t been much of a monster at all. She ran her knuckles down one collar of Shane’s jacket. It smelled a lot like the cave, at least before the universe started to barf inside it, with a faint touch of cedar and citrus.
“Tait?” she finally murmured. “Talk to me…please. What’s going on? Do you know Shane?”
Tait lowered to the sand next to her. His gaze was still fixed at the darkness that had swallowed up Shane. “Yeah,” he stated. “I do know him. But his name’s not Shane. It’s Shay. Shay Bommer. He’s my brother.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I never thought six weeks could feel like six years.”
Though Lani meant every woeful note of it, all she got in the way of sympathy from Franz was a snort and a long eye roll. “Heaven help us,” he muttered, keeping half an eye on the baseball game playing on his new widescreen TV. “Little sister’s gotten herself some regular kissin’ on the kahakai, and now we all have to deal with the moony-faced fallout.”
“Psshh.” Leo flopped onto the couch next to him. “You’ve only been here a few days. Try living with the wahine. And no, the new kitchen remodel isn’t keeping her occupied enough.”
Franzen chuffed. “Better you than me, little broheim.”
“Hey.” She locked hands to her hips and flashed an accusing glare. “Who’s made all the Johnny Franzen favorites for dinner tonight?”
Franz rolled his eyes the other way. “Only because they happen to be Bommer and Rush’s favorites, as well.”
“Bah.” Lani tossed a dish towel at them as she moved through the living room but was unable to prevent a playful smile from breaking through.
“There she goes again,” Leo mumbled.
“Yeah,” Franz concurred. He cocked his head at her. “And it’s always worse when she walks this way.” His eyes widened. “Heeyyy…the three of you didn’t do anything crazy on my couch back in July, did you?”
“Crazy like what?” Leo scowled and took a sip of his soda—before choking on the liquid and leaping to his feet again. “Oh yeezuss, no! I do not need a visual on that shit.”
Lani snapped her fingers. “Language.”
“Seriously? After what you did on this couch?”
She was saved from the downward spiral of the conversation by a crunch of tires in the drive. “They’re here.” She didn’t intend it to sound like a teenybopper squeal, but she wasn’t going to waste time on an apology, either. “They’re here, they’re here, they’re—”
She was cut off first by Tait, who swept her up into his arms and mashed her lips in a tongue-twister of a kiss. Kellan barely gave her a moment to breathe before he swept in, repeating the assault with fierce hunger. She finally pulled back to stare at them both, a little stunned to see them still wearing their BDUs, complete with boots, dog tags, and regulation caps.
“Errr—wow. I didn’t realize your side trip to Honolulu meant you’d be working.”
When they’d last been on Skype together, the guys told her that they’d be returning to the island a few days after Franzen, due to a “necessary stopover” they had to take in the state’s capital. She’d been giddy with the news, thinking they’d gotten word from Kellan’s buddy at the permits office that at last cleared Hale Anelas for B and B status. Her pleas to Franz for information had been met with the man’s smirking silence. He only revealed that the guys had a damn great surprise for her, an offering that went a long way toward earning his approval on their “unique” situation. He’d stopped short of confessing they’d won his complete sanction but Lani deduced that story would be the same if she brought home the Dalai Lama on one arm and the Pope on the other.
By noon today, she’d been very ready for her surprise.
The BDUs were not what she’d expected.
“Sorry about the work threads,” Tait murmured.
“We didn’t want to waste the time on changing them,” Kellan added.
“We had more pressing reasons to get home.”
“Well, one.”
Silver lights of mischief danced in Kell’s eyes. Tait countered that with a mocking scowl, twisting his lips into extremely kissable angles. “And technically, we’re not ‘home.’”
Lani forced herself to ignore his lips in favor of a chastising glare. “That’s because you guys told me to meet you here, remember? And if you tell me it’s because you want to spend the evening watching Johnny’s new widescreen, you can even forget dinner.”
“We don’t give a shit about the TV, starshine.”
Kellan emphasized it by leaning and nuzzling her neck. When he pulled back, they traded a fast version of the broheim-sneaky-spidey look, resulting in their matched set of devious grins. Tait explained, “We asked you to meet us here because we wanted to see your face when you walk back home…with this.”
Lani followed the direction of his nodding head, to the sheet of paper now in Kellan’s grasp. The Hawaii state seal gleamed on top.
Lani gasped then screamed. She brushed back tears, hardly believing the sheet was real. Their grins grew as she took it with both hands, reading every boring word as if they were a magical incantation.
“State of Hawaii…official permit…recognition of historical bed and breakfast…” She hopped up and down then tried to jump them both. Neither man complained, since the awkward lunges gave them chances to “steady” her with their hands all over her anatomy. “Thank you,” she sobbed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She looked up to see her brother strolling out the lanai, pretending to barf all over Franz because of their open affection. “Kaikaina! Look; look! It’s finally happening!”
Her brother kicked up his chin at Tait then Kell. “Congratul
ations, Sergeants,” he drawled. “You’ve turned my sister into a squee’ing ball of joy, and you haven’t even gotten to the good part yet.”
As wonderful as their chests felt under her hands, she pushed off and planted herself between them. “The ‘good part?’” she charged. Sure enough, they answered with indulgent but secretive smirks. “Assuring I can keep my home isn’t the good part?”
Kellan took one of her hands. “What if we could make it our home?”
She gave back a perplexed frown. “It’s already our home, my Sirs. You know that. I’m well aware of the demands that your job carries, and that’s okay. This miracle that the gods have given us…it’s worth it. Whenever you two can make it back here, Hale Anelas will be waiting for you. I’ll be waiting for you.” Tears stung her eyes anew. She didn’t try to hide them. “In the two of you, the gods have given me my Mau Loa…my forever love. My home is yours, my bed is yours, and my heart is yours…always.”
Kellan lifted her hand to his mouth and captured her knuckles beneath his lips. “Thank you, my love.” As he did that, Tait tilted her face up gave her his thanks with a languorous kiss that had her head swirling and her body swaying.
“Bleggghh.” Leo’s exclamation coincided with a low roll of thunder from overhead. “Can we get past the sucking face part please?”
“Hold onto your panties.” Kellan chuckled. “We’re getting there.”
“Right.” Lani bounced on her toes, throwing a curious stare between the two of them. “‘The good part.’ You’re ‘getting there.’ Wherever ‘there’ is.”
Her grin dropped a little when Franzen came out and joined Leo. There was a fresh beer in his hand yet he looked a little sad. Maybe more than a little.
Tait slipped one of his hands into hers now, too. “The reason we’re in work gear is because we were at the base at Pearl Harbor. For…job interviews.”
She squeezed his hand without thinking. Kellan’s, too. No matter how many times she flashed her disbelieving gawk between the two of them, neither cut loose with a single teasing snicker. “What the hell do you mean?”
