by Toby Neal
Ginger nudged Sophie’s dangling hand with her head. Tank, on the other side of her, jostled forward into the apartment. Sophie let go of the dogs’ leashes, and they bounded inside to re-explore this familiar den.
Sophie had arrived on the Big Island only an hour before. She’d said goodbye to Connor at the airport; he’d been continuing on to Oahu to meet with Bix on Security Solutions business.
Sophie was more than ready to resume her life, even filled with all the nerve-wracking changes on the horizon, beginning with reuniting with Jake. She had gone straight to Jake’s apartment, only to find it empty.
She’d texted him: “I’m at your place. Hamilton finally gave the OK on returning. Looking forward to seeing you! Where are you?”
“The office. Up to my eyebrows with a new client. The dogs would welcome an outing.”
Nothing about seeing her. Nothing personal…
Sophie’s belly hollowed with distress—or possible morning sickness, which was still hitting her at random times throughout the day. She took out a strong ginger candy that Connor had bought her for nausea, and sucked on it.
She didn’t have time to mope over Jake and his lack of enthusiasm about getting together. She had to drop her things, take the dogs out, and head to the Big Island Birth Clinic.
Chapter Thirty
Jake cursed as he set his phone face down on the desk. He just wasn’t ready to deal with his relationship with Sophie without knowing the baby’s paternity.
“What? Going potty mouth on me, old man?” Felicia called from the reception desk in the other room. Jake kept his office door open, and they yelled back and forth frequently.
Felicia had been a rock for Jake during the time Sophie had been gone. She’d driven him to his doctor’s appointments, kept him fed, exercised the dogs, managed his security guys and all they needed, and joined him in the evenings for pizza, beer, and hilarious old movies like Monty Python’s Life of Brian and The Pink Panther series.
Felicia had made the time he was healing and hiding from Akane Chang tolerable. He was going to miss their camaraderie. “Sophie’s back. She has a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, but she’ll be in tomorrow.”
“Terrific. I’ll put that in the scheduler.” Felicia was all business.
Jake refocused on the report in front of him with an effort. He was finishing up a bid to install a new AI security system out at that dot-commer’s house in Hamakua. He’d had to oversee others doing all the prep due to his leg, but at least his injury had allowed him to drive out to the estate yesterday and check all the specs in person.
Jake heard the buzzer sound as the office door opened. They didn’t get many drop-ins, but it wasn’t unheard of, and the security guy at the door would have screened the visitor. Felicia’s perky greeting came next: “Welcome to Security Solutions. How can we help you today?”
“I need to speak with Sophie Ang or Jake Dunn, please.” A man’s voice. Jake knew that voice.
“Do you have an appointment?” Felicia asked.
Jake stood up, grabbed his crutch, and hopped to the door of his office. “Terence Chang. This is a surprise.”
The young local man looked haggard. Dark circles hung like hammocks beneath intelligent brown eyes. His hair was mussed, and rusty streaks marked his clothing. “I need help on an urgent matter.”
Jake swung his door wide and gestured toward the chair in front of his desk. “Please, have a seat.” Jake turned back to Felicia. “We’re not to be disturbed. No calls, no interruptions.”
He shut the door firmly on her open-mouthed expression.
Jake returned to sit behind his desk, leaning his crutch against the wall. “You’re the last person I’d have expected as a client, Chang.”
“I’m not a client yet. I’m not telling you anything about what’s going on until you sign a nondisclosure agreement.” Terence’s hands were trembling. He kept his gaze on the floor between his feet. Chang was clearly in shock from a serious trauma.
“Got one right here. Our standard contract.” Jake took a blank form out of his desk and slid it across to Terence, along with a pen. “But you should know that I don’t have legal confidentiality protections like a lawyer, priest, or a psychologist does. I can be compelled to testify in court, so think hard about what you’re going to tell me about those bloodstains on your clothing.”
Terence looked down at himself, an expression of surprise lifting his brows. “Oh that. It’s not mine.”
“I didn’t expect that it was.” Jake stared at the other man levelly.
Terence signed the contract and pushed it back across the desk to Jake. “I didn’t do it.” He dropped his face into his hands. “I’ve done things—but not this thing.”
Jake sat back, laced his fingers over his flat belly, and waited for the man to speak.
Terence leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and pushed his hands through his normally immaculately barbered hair, disturbing it even further. “Akane’s started killing everyone I love or care about, just like he said he would. I just came from my uncle Henry’s place. There were pieces of him all over the house. This is his blood.”
“Did you call the police?” Jake rapped out.
“Anonymously. From a pay phone. I know how the cops work. They’ve been gunning for me for a while now. I didn’t touch anything but…I must have. I don’t know how this blood got on me.” Terence looked up at Jake with red-rimmed eyes. “Akane called me and left a message to go check on Uncle; I feared the worst, but it was worse than I’d even imagined. He’s checking off his list, and my uncle was the closest thing I had to a father. My own dad was killed when I was a baby.”
“He already tried to get me, as I’m sure you’re aware.” Jake extended his bandaged leg, still clad in the support boot. “Tell me something I don’t know, like where that psycho can be found. Our whole firm has been searching for him. The FBI is looking for him, and the Big Island cops are looking for him. And still no one knows where he is.”
“Well, if I knew where he was, I wouldn’t be here.” Terence dropped his face into his hands. “You’ve got to help me find him, before he gets Julie.”
“Julie Weathersby?” Jake’s voice sharpened.
“Julie Weathersby, yes.” Terence looked down at his hands. “She is…special to me. I warned her parents to take her out of the country, and they have. I don’t know where, and I don’t want to know. In case Akane tries to torture her location out of me.”
Julie had been the object of a missing persons case that Jake and Sophie had wrapped up recently. Terence had rescued the girl from Akane Chang. Her story that she had been rescued by Terence and that they’d fallen in love had sounded like a fairy tale cooked up by a girl with Stockholm Syndrome, but looking at Terence’s tormented expression, Jake reconsidered.
“Geez, Terence, dramatic much?” Jake forced a laugh. “We’ll get this guy. We have ways the cops don’t. What I need from you is a complete family tree of the Changs, with names, addresses, and locations—and a list of all of the allies that you can think of, and any info regarding landholdings, businesses, et cetera, that could help our agency find him.”
“I figured you’d need that. My cousin is on her way.”
Jake’s office door opened. “Terence. Mr. Dunn.” A young woman with a regal bearing stood in the doorway.
“I told this woman she couldn’t just barge in,” Felicia hollered from the reception area. “But she did anyway!”
“This is my cousin Emma,” Terence said. “Em, thanks for coming and bringing what I asked you to.”
Jake could see a resemblance to Terence in the woman’s tilted brown eyes and full, determined mouth. Emma wore jeans and a bright purple shirt emblazoned with Badass Bitch in glittery writing. Her arms jangled with gold bracelets, and she wore a pistol strapped to her hip.
“Don’t know why we need these stupid haole rent-a-cops,” Emma growled in Terence’s direction. “We can handle this.”
; “You didn’t see what he did to my uncle,” Terence said.
“Even so. But it’s your dime, cuz.” Emma stomped across the room and slapped down a small external storage device in front of Jake. “Terence, he da boss. He say come, bring you this, I bring you this.”
“What is it?” Jake held up the drive.
“A complete list of all of the Chang family and their closest associates. Those who might be aligned with Akane are marked with an asterisk.” Emma put her hands on her rounded hips. Her dark eyes flicked over Jake contemptuously. “This better not get out of your hands, or I know where to find you.”
“It won’t. We’ll give you and your cousin the same top-quality service we give all of our clients,” Jake said. “Why don’t you have a seat?”
“No. I have a memorial service to plan for Terence’s uncle.” Emma sailed back out of the office and slammed the door.
“She’s a bit of a hothead, my cuz,” Terence said. “But she kicks ass.”
“I have no doubt.” Jake waggled the drive in Terence’s direction. “Lucky for you, Sophie, who’s our computer expert, just got back on island. She’ll be able to hunt for more detail online with this info. It might give us an idea of who’s hiding him, where, because he must have help.”
“No doubt.” To judge by his scowl, Terence seemed to be waging an internal debate. Finally, he said, “What do you think about using Sophie for bait? To lure Akane out into the open?”
“Screw that. Let’s use you as bait, Terence,” Jake flared. “You’re the one he really wants.”
Terence’s eyes widened. “How did you know?” he whispered.
Chapter Thirty-One
How had this musclehead, Jake Dunn, guessed that Akane wanted Terence most of all? As far as Terence had been able to discern, no one was talking about the massacre of Akane’s family.
Terence looked down at his hands, turning them over. He must have touched some part of Uncle’s body, because dried blood made dark lines in the folds of his fingers.
And it was on his clothes. He’d wiped his hands on his shirt at some point.
He had no memory of any of that.
What Akane had done to Uncle had been too terrible even to process, but bits of memory blasted his brain randomly with images he could never unsee: Uncle’s chopped off, curled-up hands, one on either side of a plate set on the dining room table. His torso, spilling entrails on the kitchen floor. His legs, propped as if sitting, on a chair.
Akane’s version of humor.
The next stop for Terence, after this, was his lawyer’s office.
Terence looked up at the Security Solutions agent at last.
Jake Dunn was staring back at him from smoke-colored eyes, his chair tilted back, his fingers laced over his belly. He looked hard, dangerous, like a damn good poker player.
Maybe the guy wasn’t as dumb as he’d assumed.
“You can tell me the real reason you’re here any time now,” Dunn said. “Or not. Makes no never mind to me. You signed a contract, and we’re on the clock. It’s running on your dime now, as your cousin said.”
“All right. I’ll tell you what I can. I’m in the middle of a war with Akane for control of Chang Enterprises.” Terence sat back and imitated Dunn’s pose. “It’s important that I win. For everyone’s good.”
“Ah. You’re taking over the family for the good of all.” Dunn’s tone dripped sarcasm. “I’m looking at the next Big Island mafia boss right now. Don’t know what you need Security Solutions for.”
“It’s a civil war, and I need manpower.” Terence kept his temper in check with difficulty. “I was groomed to take my grandmother Healani Chang’s place as head of the family when she passed. But I didn’t want it. I wanted to go legit, so I built my own business online. My cousin Byron stepped up, and while he lacked vision, he was a solid leader. Things were stable. Then the situation with Akane exploded. You and Ang were at the heart of that.” Terence needed to move. He stood up and paced. “Akane has supporters in the family, people who mistake his brutality for strength. And he was building alliances behind Byron’s back. Then Byron was murdered. I wouldn’t be surprised if Akane was behind it.” Terence turned to meet Dunn’s gaze. “I realized I was the only one smart enough, strong enough, with enough resources, to keep Akane from taking over. So, I made my move.” He pushed a hand through his rumpled hair. “Now he’s back, and it’s a hostile situation. It will either be him or me running the family business, and trust me—it should not be him.”
“I agree with you there. And thanks for being straight up. What do you need from us? Manpower we’ve got. Investigative strength we’ve got. Even great home security systems, we’ve got.”
“I know all about your AI nanny cam security system. That might be nice later. Right now, I need your best-trained security operatives. I hired some mercs from the Mainland who are keeping my house and Emma safe, but I need more. We might also need to go on the offensive with some of my relatives after Akane is caught. But catching Akane is my number one priority. I don’t want one more person I care about to be hurt.”
“Like Julie Weathersby?” Dunn tilted his head. “I thought she was just a Stockholm nutcase when she was going on and on about you, and how you two fell in love.”
Heat flushed Terence’s face. “She…talked about me to you?” He hadn’t seen Julie since the day she left to return to her parents, and he’d missed her every moment since.
“Oh yeah. When Sophie and I interviewed her about what happened with Akane, she couldn’t say enough about how great you were. We thought she was a little loco, just hero worshipping her rescuer.” Dunn shrugged. “But now I’m guessing it was mutual.”
“Doesn’t matter. That chapter’s over, but I must do all I can to protect her. I’d appreciate anything you can put together.” Terence clenched his fists. “I need help to win this war.”
“Well, I for one like the idea of using you as bait,” Dunn said. “I think we could build a solid plan around that. Not even joking. Sophie texted me that she’ll be in the office tomorrow. We’ll work something up. In the meantime, I’ll contact our corporate head on Oahu, and see how many security personnel they can send over. I didn’t see you come in with anyone—got a security detail on you?”
“No. I don’t want to seem weak to my relatives. The men I hired are keeping an eye on my house and business.”
“At this point, you’re going to seem dead if you don’t have a bodyguard at all times,” Dunn said briskly. He tapped his computer screen and spoke into a voice intercom there. “Felicia, how many security specialists do we have on tap, here on the Big Island?”
“That would be none, Jake. You and Sophie are the personnel here,” the girl said, her voice piped through the computer speakers. “Not including your own two security staff.”
Dunn grimaced at Terence. “You’re not the only startup around here, Chang. But we will get you covered. Why don’t we meet tomorrow morning and hash out the details? We can come out to your place if you prefer.”
“No, here is fine.” Terence extended a hand. “Thanks for the help.”
“We want your psycho cousin as much as you do.” Dunn’s eyes were the color of a steel blade.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Sophie had meant to stay up and awake to talk to Jake when he got home from work. She’d decided to nap just a little, but the next time she woke, it was to the cool sensation of a night breeze passing over her body, and Tank’s deep growl.
Sophie sat up on the futon bed, blinking in alarm. Connor had said he was sending over more security personnel from Oahu, but they hadn’t arrived yet—or had they?
Moonlight backlit the shape of a woman standing just outside the screen door on her deck. Was it Pim Wat? Possibly, but Sophie didn’t recognize her mother’s outline.
She couldn’t see a weapon in the woman’s open hands, loose at her sides. There was nothing overtly threatening in her stance, but Tank’s growl increased in volume, and G
inger, curled up against Sophie’s back on the bed, raised her head, her chest rumbling with her own growl. The two were about to break into full-blown barking. Sophie put a hand on each dog’s ruff and quieted them.
“You’d better tell me who you are and what you are doing here.” Sophie turned on the floor lamp beside her bed as the woman stepped forward.
Light fell on a golden-skinned, triangular face with close-set dark eyes and a mouth that had never seen orthodontia. Dark hair was pulled back in a braid that brushed the tops of her hips. The woman wore a long-sleeved tee, yoga pants, and felt-bottomed slip-on shoes, all in black.
An instant feeling of recognition resonated in Sophie.
“Sophie Malee. It is I, Armita.” The woman spoke in Thai. “Your nanny from long ago.”
Armita was tiny, even shorter than Pim Wat, and so slender she seemed almost cartoonlike, a stick drawing of a woman, her head larger than her body.
Sophie tossed her blanket aside and sat up. She was still fully dressed, never having planned to pass out for the night like she had. Her abrupt movement made the dogs lunge to their feet and give in to the barking she’d barely restrained.
Sophie shooed them back, shushing them, and slid the screen door open. “I remember you, Armita. Please come in.” A maelstrom of emotions roiled in her chest; the last time she had seen Armita, the woman had been bleeding and unconscious on the floor of Sophie’s bedroom when Sophie was kidnapped at the age of seven.
Armita slipped past Sophie and extended her hands to the dogs to sniff. Both whimpered and whuffed with excitement at having a visitor, their tails wagging as they crowded against her.
There was nowhere to sit in the bare apartment, so Sophie perched on the bed’s edge, observing Armita as the Thai woman caressed the dogs while she looked around the space, and then sat beside Sophie. The dogs calmed, but cuddled close, leaning against her legs. Their instant bond with her former nanny relaxed Sophie further.