So much for the idea of brotherly protection.
Ed fell back into his big chair and looped his arms behind his neck. “So, what brings you two out here?”
“I just found out about the accident,” Cal explained.
Cassie started shaking her head before he even finished his thought. “It wasn’t an accident.”
Saying Dan was dead over and over was not an option Cal wanted to consider. “It’s just a word, Cassie.”
“The wrong one.”
His headache was not getting better. The loud thumping drowned out most other sounds around him. “Can I just answer the man’s question?”
Cassie glanced at Ed. “He broke into Dan’s house.”
Ed raised an eyebrow. “Interesting.”
Cal exhaled, letting his exasperation show. “For the last time, I did not break in.”
“Because I stopped you.”
This small woman could not actually believe she had the physical strength to best him. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you.”
Ed lowered his arms an inch at a time. “What are you doing with a gun?”
Cal pointed to the older man. “He asks a good question.”
“He wasn’t there. He didn’t see you come through that window. I should have hit you over the head with a chair right then.” Her foot bounced around even faster.
“Give me a break,” Cal said.
“I seem to remember you hitting the floor when the bullets started flying.” Cassie smiled in smug satisfaction at the reminder.
“I was trying to keep you from getting shot. Some women would call that chivalrous.” His shouting was less so, but Cal thought he needed to make the point.
“Whoa.” Ed held up his hands again. “You shot at him?”
Cassie’s face fell. “Of course not.”
“Then what bullets?” Ed practically yelled his question. The grandfatherly bear was gone. In its place was a ticked-off man who wasn’t getting his questions answered.
Cal sympathized.
Cassie had a more basic reaction. Her cheeks flushed as if she had just been scolded. “Someone shot at us.”
“Again?” Ed’s voice shot up an octave.
The woman was making him crazy. Cal started to wonder if he would survive this little island vacation. “You really need to explain why people keep shooting at you.”
“If I knew that…” Her voice faded away.
Ed’s scowl hit with the force of a hammer. “Last time she was outside Dan’s house right after the funeral. A shot whizzed by her head. She heard the crack and fell to the ground.”
Cassie touched her hand against Ed’s arm. “Don’t—”
“Cassie, the man is with you now.” Ed pounded his finger against the desk while he made his point. “He has a right to know.”
Cal wasn’t sure he liked the way that sounded, but he let it go. He needed to hear what the man had to say. God knew Cassie didn’t plan on sharing the bad parts about the story.
“The police never found the bullet, so they didn’t believe her. Thought she was too busy crying over Dan to think straight.”
“Ed, stop.”
“Let the man talk.” Cal realized he finally found a person who could tell him something worth knowing.
Ed’s eyebrow crept up a notch. “Nothing more to tell. Not from me anyway. I do find this interesting, though.”
Cassie’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
“You.” Ed cleared his throat. “With him.”
Oh, no. Time to stop that line of thinking. “Wait a second.”
Ed’s attention stayed on Cassie. “I’ve only seen two things get you this riled up—the investigation and…”
Cal noticed everyone started looking at him. “What?”
Ed smiled. “You.”
Cal had no idea what to say to that. He didn’t get a chance to come up with a zinging response because Cassie jumped in.
“Spend a few minutes with Cal and you’ll be screaming, too,” she muttered.
Cal ignored the slight. “You’re trying to tell me she’s not usually like this?”
Ed patted the corner of the desk near Cassie. “She’s quite calm and lovely.”
“Really?”
“You’re no prize, either,” she said.
Cal’s headache kicked up to Big Band levels. It didn’t help that the older man’s face broke into a wide grin. Cal swore he heard Ed whistle a strange melody.
Cassie tapped her fingers against the desk. “We’re getting off track here.”
“I’d say,” Cal mumbled in agreement.
“We’ll deal with all that later.” Ed leveled a knowing look in Cal’s direction.
For the first time since he was thirteen, Cal thought about running for cover. “I don’t think so.”
“What are you talking about?” Cassie asked.
“Never you mind, Cassie darling. Cal, here, has some questions about Dan’s work. Let’s get them answered.”
“I need to see Dan’s flight logs and take a look at his books. It would be helpful if you had a map around that sets out the crash area.”
Ed nodded. “Have plenty of maps, and you’re welcome to whatever the police left behind.”
“Can you tell me anything about Deputy Chief Greene and that DEA agent he’s hanging out with?”
Ed’s mouth screwed up in a frown as he thought about the question. “Ted? He’s solid. From Kauai. Straightforward.”
The assessment mirrored Cal’s impression as well. “And Windsor?”
“Well, now, he’s a different story. He’s been in the papers a lot lately. Usually does joint drug cases with Travers. Seems inoffensive enough but his discipline is a question.”
“The timing is interesting,” Cassie pointed out.
“Meaning?” Cal asked.
“The chief goes away, Dan dies, and the police part of the investigation is rushed through before the chief can get back and look into anything.”
Finding the truth would take forever if Cassie kept finding conspiracies in every corner. “Could be a coincidence.”
“You know what?” She tapped that foot again. “I’m sick of everyone using chance as an excuse for everything.”
“Are you pouting?” The opportunity to provoke her was too appealing for Cal to pass up.
A rosy hue burned in her cheeks almost immediately. “When I find that gun, you’re a dead man.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Cal turned the conversation back to Ed. “Anyone around here know about Dan’s business?”
“Normally I’d say no but there’s been some talk about a silent partner and some business dealings other than flying.”
Cassie jumped off the desk and glared at the older man in a way that would make most men hide. “You never told me that.”
“Because I can’t imagine Dan getting hooked up with that character.”
“Who?” Cal asked.
Ed hesitated as if wondering how much to tell. “Man named Bobby Polk. The kind of guy who has his fingers in everything, pretending he’s the boss when he’s really the problem.”
“Dan didn’t need a partner,” Cassie insisted.
Cal admired Cassie’s defense of Dan, but from the way Ed’s eyes narrowed Cal guessed the older man believed the rumors. Cal had his own concerns. He knew the real reason Dan left the Air Force. Nothing voluntary about that choice.
Cassie didn’t know, and Cal didn’t want to be the one to disillusion her. He also didn’t want her to know the part he played in Dan’s removal from the service.
Ed slipped his hand into Cassie’s. “All I know is that Polk started showing up around the office and dragging his pretty young girlfriend with him. Louisa something.”
“How young?” Cal tried to assimilate the information.
“Early twenties, maybe. Polk’s more than twice her age and not in her league, if you know what I mean.”
Cal did.<
br />
“Anyway,” Ed continued, “Dan was pretty secretive about the deal. I figured he was transporting something for Polk.”
“Something illegal?” Cal asked since someone had to.
Cassie’s eyes grew wide. “That makes sense. If Dan knew someone was using his business to carry out illegal operations, he would do something about it. That might be the motive for killing him.”
Cal put the brakes on that line of thinking before Cassie tried to make a citizen’s arrest. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Why not?” she asked.
Cal ignored the question and went back to Ed’s story. “Is this Polk character still around?”
“He does business here on Kauai. No idea what kind. That’s one of the mysteries surrounding the guy. There’s a storefront but not much activity there.”
Cassie nibbled on her bottom lip. “You don’t believe Dan was—”
Ed tightened his hand around Cassie’s. “It’s all rumors, Cassie darling. Don’t concern yourself.”
Cal filed the information away for later. “I want to take a look at the crash site and maybe scout out a few other areas.”
Ed’s solid form seemed to shrink. He shot a sheepish glance in Cassie’s direction. “Maybe you and I could go down into the canyon.”
Cal appreciated Ed’s protective streak. “Sounds good.”
But Cassie was having none of it. She stepped between the men, making them focus on her. “I’m going.”
The older man’s dark eyes grew soft. “This isn’t necessary.”
Cal decided that coddling her was the exact wrong approach. It made her weepy. He needed her strong. “You still think you’re so tough?”
She turned on him in an instant. Just as he wanted her to do.
“I’m the one who’s been down there.”
Ed frowned. “You hiked eight miles through rough terrain to the site by yourself?”
Cal wondered if he would survive this brotherly protectiveness thing. “You weigh almost nothing and walk around like you’re invincible.”
She stepped right up until she stood less than a foot away from him. “I can take you any day, flyboy.”
“That sounds like a challenge.”
Her chin lifted a notch. “I guess it is.”
He flicked a finger under that pretty round chin. “You’re on.”
Chapter Ten
Cassie counted to ten in an attempt to simultaneously stop her body from shaking and fight off a wave of nausea. Didn’t work. She was going to be sick right there all over the shiny control panel of Ed’s borrowed helicopter.
Ed was going to kill her when she messed up his aircraft, but her stomach wouldn’t obey her command to settle down. This was her worst nightmare, strapped helpless and terrified to a tiny seat in a flying death trap no larger than a can of tuna.
Getting in this thing was hard enough. Her newfound fear of planes battled with her distaste for being left behind. Cal handled the whole scene by pretending it was no big deal. He got into the helicopter without a fuss. She didn’t have a choice but to follow or a minute to worry. She just hopped on the airsickness generator and off they went.
Which would have been fine, sort of sweet even, if Cal weren’t sitting there with that stupid grin enjoying every minute of her discomfort.
Bastard.
“How ya doing?” Cal shouted into the small microphone attached to his headset.
Even with him being loud, hearing him over the roaring noise of the aircraft fighting against the wind proved tough. And the wild sway of the ground beneath her and the deafening thrum of the blades prevented her from doing what she wanted to do—reach out and slap his smug face. She was too busy digging her nails into the faux leather armrests and trying to remember the prayers she had learned as a kid in catechism class.
“Soak your head,” she mumbled back.
“What?”
“I said ‘fabulous.’ This is fabulous.” She screamed to be heard.
When he turned a wicked grin in her direction, her stomach flipped, but this time not from airsickness. No, it was something very different. Something that started with a shot of warmth spiraling up her spine and ended with her skin prickling with extreme heat.
Something absolutely inappropriate.
Cassie had grown up with a man obsessed with flying and the military. She knew from experience the control it took to fly through a hail of fire. Knew the type of man who jumped out of a plane to rescue others. Saw the toll all of that pressure took on her brother’s emotions.
Then in a complete act of masochism, she had dated one of the breed. Han Rodman. Yeah, she still had the scars inside and out from that nine-month nightmare. She had no plans to travel down that road either permanently or for a night or two.
Which brought her mind right back to the flyboy beside her. Mothers warned their baby girls about men like Cal Wilson. She planned to proceed with caution.
“Where are we going?” she asked in an attempt to drag her attention away from the barfing, the noise, and the man.
“Ed gave me the coordinates.”
Cal was definitely a man of few words, and most of the ones he managed to spit out annoyed her. She decided to focus on the only benefit of the ride—the view.
When she found the strength to lift her head through the waves of nausea, she gazed out across the blue horizon. Fluffy white clouds whipped across the sky, moved by the strong winds racing up the canyon. Below her, a deep grove cut through the island. Where the rest of Kauai was lush with garden tropics, this area resembled the American Southwest with its brown landscape and scattering of trees, many bent back and down from the force of the wind whipping through the cavern.
“We’ll set down on the ledge over there.” Cal pointed to a large outcropping of rocks and a small flat surface the size of a postage stamp.
“I think that’s called a cliff.”
He smiled. “Not quite.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure I’m right about this. You’re supposed to admire the landscape from afar, maybe slide down it hooked to a safety harness, but not try to land a two-ton aircraft on it.”
“Don’t be nervous.”
Maybe the man was deaf. She decided to talk even louder. Maybe a little slower. “There’s a difference between being nervous and being completely crazy.”
“There’s a landing spot there.” He pointed toward nothing. “Trust me.”
Yeah, ten minutes after never. She clenched the armrests with all her might. “I thought I was in charge.”
“You want to fly?”
Heaving up yesterday’s lunch was more likely. “Being superpilot is a job I’m happy to leave to you. Thanks.”
“We’re close to the crash site.”
She concentrated on the thump of the helicopter blades as she pressed her forehead against the side window. The move knocked her headset back a bit, but she could see just fine. How was she supposed to distinguish one brown rock from another? How was he?
“Nothing looks familiar.” She whispered the thought but he heard her over the noise bouncing around the inside of the small cockpit.
“It will when we’re down there.”
At least one of them had a positive feeling about this. The only thing she was sure of at the moment dealt with never getting in anything with wings or a propeller ever again.
His forearm muscles flexed. “We’ll set down and then hike the rest of the way.”
She was dressed for grocery shopping, not mountain climbing.
He was dressed for prison.
With her head still balanced against the window, she pivoted to stare at him. “You do know Waimea Canyon is considered the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, right?”
“So said Mark Twain.”
Just what she needed, a well-educated flyboy who could spout historic quotations. “At least he was smart enough not to try to land a helicopter on the side of a rock face.”
“Only because he didn’t have
a pilot’s license.”
She decided to try one more time to talk some sense into Cal before he managed to get them both killed. “This is not a leisurely hike through the countryside or on the streets of Miami.”
“Panama City.”
“Whatever. The point is neither one of us has the proper clothing or equipment. I don’t even have a bottle of water. This is serious, Cal, we could get hurt.”
Without moving his hands, he nodded over his shoulder. “We have supplies.”
Cassie spied the green backpack sitting behind his seat. Where the hell had that come from? “Any chance you have a pair of hiking boots in there? My slip-on sneakers are not the best for this terrain.”
“We’ll be fine. Watch and learn.”
Before she could scream or grab the controls, Cal rolled the helicopter to the left and circled around a tourist lookout high on top of the canyon. Her stomach lining crept up her throat when the aircraft started to dive. She braced one hand against the seat and the other against the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows next to her.
“There’s no need to hold on like that,” he said.
She thought about using his head to steady herself. “From now on, we’re going to discuss your plans and agree on them before we start.”
If they lived.
And if the past ten minutes were any indication, that was a big question.
“It’s as easy as riding a bike.”
“I assume you’ve flown a lot of helicopters in your time. That this was all part of the Wing thing you were in.”
His attention stayed focused on whatever was happening outside the front window as his hands tightened on the controls. “The Sixteenth Special Operations Wing.”
As if she cared. “Yeah, that.”
“Could we talk about this later?”
That would be wise since she needed him to concentrate, but she also needed to know how much she should panic. “Cal, you have flown a helicopter before, right?”
“Of course.” He glanced out the window to his side, then out the front. Everywhere but at her. “Just never in a situation like this.”
“How about in any situation that was close to this?” She squealed the question.
It’s Hotter in Hawaii Page 6