by Toby Neal
Such a long moment went by that Dr. Wilson prompted, “And what is that, Sophie?”
Sophie reached out and picked up the fidget toy and spun it. “I’m surprised by how easy it was for me to intimidate Chang into telling me the locations of the bodies he’d disposed of, and how very tempted I was to kill him and dump his body. I’m changing, Dr. Wilson, and I don’t know who I am becoming.”
“Even though hurting another human being is getting easier for you, it’s understandable with the violence you have suffered and the exposure to vigilantism that you are dealing with. In spite of those powerful drives, I am encouraged that you’re continuing to grapple with these moral and ethical issues. Sometimes justice isn’t simple, not just an eye for an eye. If that were the case, then yes, Akane Chang would have deserved to be dead ten times over. But if leaving Chang alive leads to the downfall of a crime organization that has its tentacles all through the state of Hawaii, then perhaps justice is exactly what you were meting out in handing Chang over to the authorities. They might cut a deal with him, and he might never be punished to the extent we would wish. And still, that might be a greater justice.”
Sophie smiled. “I see why Lei always said you were the best therapist. You aren’t afraid to be with me as I look my own evil in the eye.”
“We are all shades of gray,” Dr. Wilson said. “And that’s why justice is never simple and seldom easy.”
Sophie felt the weight of Dr. Wilson’s contemplation, and finally the psychologist spoke. “Well, can you come see me again tomorrow? Our business is not yet finished. I would like to see you resume the trip you came to the Big Island for, hiking and exploring this beautiful place—and coming to talk to me about what you discover, both on the inside, and on the outside.”
Sophie nodded. “That feels right to me, too. Thank you. I will decide that much, today.”
Chapter Fifty-Six
Jake set his duffel on the sidewalk of Hilo’s airport and tugged on Tank’s leash. The big pit bull came reluctantly out of the back seat of Sophie’s rental car, where he had been ensconced with Ginger. Jake adjusted the plastic cone around his neck keeping the dog from licking the stitched-up wound site left over from the bullet he’d taken. “Come on, boy. We are going home to Oahu. You’re going to like my apartment. It’s small, but we have a tiny backyard where you can take dumps and bark at birds all day long.” After all they’d been through, Jake found talking to Tank totally natural.
Sophie, behind the wheel, raised a hand. “Goodbye, Jake.”
Jake’s chest felt tight, his throat constricted. It had been almost a week since the events of the Chang kidnapping. He and Sophie had taken time off from Security Solutions to hike Mauna Loa, explore the trails of Volcanoes Park, and even take a tour boat at the crack of dawn to watch the lava dripping into the sea at Kalapana, a mesmerizing sight that Jake would never forget. They’d argued and laughed and enjoyed amazing experiences unique to the Big Island. The friendship side of their relationship was stronger than ever.
But in all that time, Sophie had respected his “terms.” She had not given in to his masculine wiles, both subtle and not-so-subtle. He felt her ambivalence as deeply as ever. Leaving her felt awful, a heavy sensation in his body like he was coming down with the flu.
His sister Patty’s voice sounded in his mind. “Don’t be needy, Jake. Get a life and live it so well she wants to join you in it.”
He knew Patty was right, but he was leaving Sophie vulnerable to unknown enemies and the attentions of men with helicopters and satellites. He needed to try, one more time, to let her know how he felt. “Can I get a hug?”
“Of course. I love your hugs.” Sophie smiled that closed-mouth, guarded curve of her lips that always left Jake wishing he could surprise an actual laugh out of her. If only she would let go more . . . but he knew there were things going on she couldn’t or wouldn’t tell him, things that hurt her and activated darkness in and around her. It pained him that she shut him out from those things. Did she think he couldn’t handle her problems?
Sophie got out of the car and came around the hood, opening her arms to him.
Jake crushed her close in the longest hug, burying his face in her neck, relishing the sensation of her strong, springy form in his arms. His feelings seemed to vibrate inside of him, humming along the lines of his body, and he could tell she felt them as she squeezed him back. “I had so much fun with you, Jake. Thank you. For everything.”
His smile felt painful as he set her away with an effort, clasping her hands. “Be safe, okay? Call me anytime.”
“I’m going to be a lot more than just safe. I’m going to be finding out more about who I am as I work with Dr. Wilson. I’m sorry that there are secrets and time apart. But I want you to know I care for you a great deal, Jake, and I trust you. And I don’t trust many.” Sophie’s golden-brown eyes were intent on his.
“It’s a start.” Jake touched her nose, trying for lightness. “I can work with that. Until I see you again, I won’t be lonely.”
Sophie raised her brows in question.
Jake indicated Tank, sitting on the sidewalk, panting and looking a little ridiculous in his plastic collar. “I have a new roommate. We’re going to be spending a lot of bro time. But if you ever need anything, I’ll be waiting.”
“I hope you won’t be waiting long. I’ll be in touch as soon as I know what I’m doing next.”
Then Sophie stepped forward and pulled him down for a kiss that he would spend his nights remembering.
Turn the page to keep reading book seven of the Paradise Crime Thrillers, Wired Secret!
Wired Secret
Paradise Crime Thrillers Book 7
“A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.”
~Gloria Stuart
Chapter One
Sometimes justice wasn't fair.
Security specialist Sophie Ang stared with dislike at the twitchy blonde woman on the bed in the jail's infirmary. Holly Rayme’s gaunt face was blotchy with the green and yellow of fading bruising.
“I am in hell.” Rayme picked at a scab on the back of her hand as she addressed Sophie, Detective Kamani Freitan, and Hazel Matsue, a U.S. Marshal brought in to interview her for inclusion in the national Witness Protection Program. “You have to get me out of here.”
“Things could actually be a lot worse.” Freitan said. The tall, voluptuous mixed Hawaiian woman exuded volatility. Ancient Hawaiian chieftesses had accompanied their men into battle, and in another age, Freitan would have been perfectly in character carrying a club ringed with sharks’ teeth instead of the police issue Glock she currently wore. “You've been hiding out in a soft bed in the infirmary. Got your own TV, even.”
“I had to go through detox this week in this supposed comfy bed with my own TV. You think that wasn't hell?”
“You drug, you lose. And it would have been a lot worse out in gen pop. You’ve had protection outside your door 24/7. But if that protection is going to continue, we need to know we have your full cooperation.”
Rayme’s watery blue eyes blinked. “You don’t give a shit about me. I get that, loud and clear.”
“You made your living robbing and extorting people. And now you’re going to get out of jail,” Freitan said. “I don’t have to like that. Or you.”
“We know you've been through a hard time, Holly.” Sophie stepped forward to try to defuse the tension as Matsue looked on, arms folded. “But you had medical support, and you’re through the worst of detox. You’re fortunate. Ms. Matsue here is willing to take you into protective custody, provide you with a new identity, and relocate you until you can testify.”
“Yes. I'm here to interview you, do your intake, and explain the program.” Matsue was a slender woman with a triangular face. Though she wore black pants, a white shirt and a shiny gold Marshal’s badge, Matsue had an innate style that set her apart, conveyed by deep red lipstick and an angular, asymmetrical bobbed haircut. She would have looked complet
ely at home in Paris or Madrid rather than in the dingy jail infirmary with its bloom of ceiling mold and lingering smell of Lysol. “Do you understand why you've been referred to the Witness Protection Program, Ms. Rayme? And that you must comply with our procedures and directives? The U.S. Marshals Service has a one hundred percent success rate in protecting its clients if they follow WITSEC directions and protocols.”
“All this ‘special treatment’ is because I’ll be testifying against the Changs and helping you bring down a crime family. But I don't see that I have much choice,” Rayme grumbled. “I know I’m lucky to be alive. My boyfriend Jimmy isn’t.”
Jim Webb and Holly Rayme had been involved in an investigation Sophie had just completed that had resulted in the apprehension of the Chang family’s sadistic enforcer, Akane Chang. Holly’s boyfriend had not survived an assassination attempt in the general population of the jail once the couple’s importance as witnesses became evident, and Holly had barely survived her own attack.
“Can I turn this prisoner over to your custody?” Freitan asked Matsue. “I’ve got work to do.”
“I have some paperwork for Ms. Rayme to fill out and forms for you to sign.” Matsue handed paperwork on a clipboard to Rayme. “Once it’s done, we can process her out of here.” Matsue turned to address Sophie. “You’ve been a part of this team since I got here, but I’m unclear on your role, Ms. Ang.”
“I work for a private firm, Security Solutions.” Sophie’s ongoing attachment to the case had been a new development. She and her partner Jake Dunn had wrapped up their contract to find a missing girl, and she’d tried to resume the vacation and hiking trip for which she’d come to the Big Island. Only days later, she’d been contacted by her employer to assist in security and support for Holly Rayme. “The families of Akane Chang’s victims contracted with Security Solutions to pay for my services to support regular law enforcement.”
“The U.S. Marshals Service does not work with private entities,” Matsue said frostily.
“You want to work with this chick,” Freitan said. “She’s former FBI and a computer wizardess. Can’t hurt to have her in your back pocket.”
“And she’s a badass bitch with a mean left hook,” Rayme volunteered. “I happen to know. She and her partner were the ones to find out our part in the hustle we did with Akane Chang. And the only reason I’m saying anything nice is because her partner adopted our dog, and she can help keep me alive.”
Endorsement by these two unlikely allies almost made Sophie smile. “I am on retainer, and available to help and support you,” she told Matsue. “If you choose not to work with me, I will help from the sidelines. We should at least talk so I can explain how my skill set might be of use to you.” Sophie held Matsue’s skeptical gaze.
“Well, if that’s all, I’ve got perps to bust and the day’s a-wasting,” Freitan said. “See you ladies at the trial.” She turned and headed for the door.
As Freitan’s hand touched the knob, an alarm ululated outside. The dome light out in the hallway began spinning, throwing red beams across Freitan. The muffled crack of a gunshot sounded out in the hall.
“Shit!” Freitan drew her weapon and flattened herself against the doorjamb, reaching over to turn the heavy silver bolt that locked the door. “We need to stay in here and guard the prisoner.”
“Lower the blind over the window, Detective!” Matsue barked. “Ms. Rayme, get down off the bed and behind some cover!”
Sophie, as a civilian, had surrendered her Glock upon entering the jail. She felt its loss keenly as she helped Rayme, groaning and exclaiming, down off the bed. “I’ve had experience with an attack in a room like this. This equipment makes good cover,” Sophie told Rayme as she maneuvered the heavy metal hospital bed sideways into a horizontal position facing the window. “Stay back here with me. We’ll be fine.”
Freitan pulled the plastic retractable blind down over the bulletproof observation window as Matsue joined her. “Let’s each cover a point of entry.”
The two law enforcement agents bracketed the covered window and locked door, weapons drawn. Freitan barked into her radio, asking for information, but no one replied.
Steps thundered outside in the hallway. More shots rang out. Yelling added to the cacophony of the electronic alarm. Sophie fumbled her phone out of her pocket. She had upgraded recently to a satellite phone, but when she thumbed it on, No Service showed in the window. “Foul stench of a week-old corpse.”
“What’s that you’re saying?” Rayme whispered. Her teeth were chattering and her eyes were wide in her bruised face. “I’m scared too.”
“I curse in Thai sometimes, my native tongue,” Sophie said. She held up her phone. “Either of you getting a signal over there?”
“Nope,” Freitan said. “But reception’s never good in this building.”
“I can usually get a few bars. This is weird,” Matsue said. “I’m guessing someone’s got a jammer.”
Sophie’s heart rate was up, but she wasn’t unduly alarmed. Three highly trained professionals, two of them armed, were barricaded in with Holly Rayme, and this disturbance was likely not even related to their prisoner. She smiled at Rayme. “Try to stay calm. We’ve got you covered.”
More gunshots and deafening footsteps in the hallway were not reassuring. Neither was the shout, “Rayme’s in the infirmary somewhere. Just start trying doors!”
The knob rattled. The door shook under pounding with some metal object. The impacts sent medical supplies piled on the shelves crashing to the floor.
Rayme let out a squeal of fear after one particularly loud smash, moving to clutch Sophie. Sophie wrapped her arms around the trembling woman. She covered Rayme’s mouth with a hand. “Don’t let them hear you,” she whispered in Rayme’s ear.
A flash of memory burst across Sophie’s brain.
Sophie was the one being held in someone’s arms. A hand covered her mouth. A desperate voice whispered, “Don’t let them hear you.” Suppressed memory came flooding back. Sophie’s arms tightened around Rayme.
The woman holding Sophie had been her beloved nanny, Armita.
Armita had fought like a tigress when kidnappers broke into seven-year-old Sophie’s room, screaming and beating at the men with a broom. Sophie’s last sight of Armita had been of her nanny, head bleeding, sprawled on the ground unconscious as masked men in black carried Sophie away.
She had never seen Armita again.
After the ransom was paid and Sophie was returned, her mother told her that Armita had quit because she didn’t want to work at a home where she’d be in danger. Armita had been hurt because of Sophie; and she’d left because of Sophie.
Self-blame had been a heart-splinter of Sophie’s ever since. As Sophie held Holly Rayme’s trembling, sweating body in her arms, she let that splinter go. Not my fault. I was just a child.
Another missing piece from her past to ask her mysterious mother, Pim Wat, about…
The heavy crash of something metal hitting the covered viewing window made Sophie hunch instinctively over Rayme, protecting the woman with her body, as intruders bashed at the safety glass, bowing it in and shattering it.
Sophie peeked over their crude barrier. Two lean, dark men in prison orange filled the window’s opening, shoving aside the dangling blind with their hands, pushing the sheet of glass, held together by wire, out of the way.
And then, Freitan and Matsue were up and firing. Sophie and Rayme curled close, covering their ears as they hid behind the bed.
The burning, tangy scent of weapons discharge.
Ears ringing, assaulted by gunfire in a small, enclosed space.
Curses and screams.
A long moment passed as silence fell, broken by Rayme’s sobbing.
Sophie lifted her head to peer out from cover. Matsue and Freitan stood in identical shooting stances, aiming their weapons at the empty, crude opening in the window.
More running, yelling, and gunfire out in the hall, this time passin
g by. No further incursions.
“Suspects are down.” Freitan clicked the deadbolt open. “I’m going to see what’s happening.” She was out the door before Matsue could object.
The Marshal turned wide, tilted brown eyes upon Sophie. “You two okay?”
“Yes.” Sophie tried her phone again. “The jammer is off. I’ve got a signal.”
She dialed 911 and was told that backup was on its way and the riot was almost under control.
Rayme wriggled out of Sophie’s arms and adjusted her gaping hospital gown. “Thanks. Almost seemed like you cared for a moment there.”
“I always do the right thing no matter how I feel about someone personally,” Sophie said. Rayme winced, then crawled back up onto the bed and pulled the sheet up over her head.
Matsue came to stand over Sophie. “If what you just said is true, then we will get along and work together just fine.” She turned to Holly Rayme, still hidden under the sheet. “Your application to WITSEC is hereby approved.”
Chapter Two
Alika Wolcott had arrived in Hilo yesterday, flying into the airport on his Bell Jet Ranger. On island for business, he was shopping for exotic hardwoods to put some finishing touches on his new, eco-friendly Kaua`i development.
He had been trying Sophie’s phone for the last hour. She’d texted him a new number the previous week, saying only that the other phone had been broken. But as usual, he suspected there was more to it than that.