It’s Hotter in Hawaii

by HelenKay Dimon

  “Why don’t you like him?”

  Because she kept talking about him. “He’s a liar.”

  “Shading the truth is part of his job, I guess.”

  Great, now she was making excuses for Josh. Cal reached the end of his patience. He could either yell at her or let it drop. Neither option appealed to him.

  He paced instead. Long legs took him across the tiny room in three short strides. He needed a bigger room if he were going to rid his body of the nervous energy thrumming through him.

  As if she were completely oblivious to his discomfort, Cassie kept defending Josh. “If he is on some kind of job, he probably can’t talk about it or give us any clues.”

  She was one step away from having the guy sainted.

  Cal prayed for a short case of deafness, the type that would selectively block out all discussion of Josh. Then he realized what she was doing. Nervous chatter. But understanding her actions and accepting them were two different things.

  Unconstrained jealousy raced through Cal. He hated the sensation. Since it wasn’t going away, he decided to feed it. But he could not stand listening to her drone on about Josh for one more minute. “Cassie.”

  “What?” He had her attention now. The same kind of attention passersby gave to a car accident.

  “Stop talking about him.”

  She blinked several times. “Who?”

  “Who have you been talking about for two hours? Josh.”

  “What’s with the exaggeration?”

  “I may kill him before the day is over, so don’t get attached.”

  “Talking about anyone I know?” Ted stuck his head in the room.

  Cassie smiled a greeting filled with genuine warmth. “Not you.”

  “Me then?” Josh stepped out from behind Ted’s expansive shoulders and into the open doorway. He sauntered into the room and stood over Cassie’s shoulder.

  Cal was in hell. What was the world coming to if a man couldn’t find peace in a hospital? All he wanted was to scoop Cassie off the hospital bed and carry her back to their hotel room and hold her until the unbearable pain left her face. The need to be alone with her pushed at him, wiping out all reason.

  “You can take your agent-ass right back out of here.” Cal knew Josh wouldn’t listen, but it was worth a try.

  Alarm registered on Cassie’s face. “Cal, what are you doing? They can stay.”

  “I never said Ted had to leave,” Cal pointed out.

  Ted smothered a laugh with a fake cough, but his eyes were warm with amusement. Then his glance bounced off Ed’s still form and sobered. “Is he doing any better?”

  “Damn,” Josh’s shocked whisper said it all. “He looks worse than I expected.”

  The need to fight rumbled up inside Cal. “Really, what do guys who get their heads bashed in usually look like?”

  “This is a hospital,” Cassie said as if she were delivering some surprise announcement.

  “Uh-huh. So?”

  “Behave.” Her voice sounded a bit more stern that time.

  Josh took out Ed’s chart and started reading. “Listen to your woman.”

  Cassie jumped in before Cal could comment. “I’m my own woman, thank you.”

  Cal knew she’d say something like that. Maybe if he let Josh talk for a few minutes, he could piss Cassie off. In the meantime…“This is as good a place as any for explanations. You got anything to say, Josh?”

  “Yeah, you’re jeopardizing my investigation. Back off or I’ll back you off.” Josh dropped the chart back on the metal bar. The clanking got everyone’s attention.

  Ted lifted both hands and stepped in between the men. “Let’s put the turf war aside for a second. You can beat the hell out of him later.”

  “Good.” Josh nodded in obvious satisfaction.

  “He was talking to me,” Cal said.

  “Take it however you want.” Ted nodded. “Josh, tell them.”

  Josh’s smile faltered. “You know I can’t.”

  Anger snuffed out the tenuous hold Cal had on his patience. He reached around his back in the general direction of his weapon. “Let me shoot him.”

  “There are rules. While I suck at following them, there are some in place for your protection,” Josh said.

  Ted didn’t buy it. “If Washington had any idea how you operated, you’d be assigned to the kitchen clean-up crew.”

  Cassie cleared her throat. “This isn’t the place for this conversation.”

  Last thing Cal needed was for her to rush in and save Josh’s ass. “Ted’s doing fine.”

  Her sad eyes took on a new fire. “You, not so much.”

  Ted sighed, his exasperation obvious. “Josh, start talking before I reconsider Cal’s request and give him a weapon.”

  Josh let fly an impressive string of profanity. Cal felt a reluctant tug of admiration for this inventiveness.

  “Damn it, Ted. If this backfires it’s on your head.”

  “Agreed.”

  Josh turned back to Cal with his easygoing charm gone. “Your instincts are right.”

  “Flattery won’t help.” Cassie snorted. “Trust me.”

  “What you saw in the warehouse was stolen merchandise. Someone is running a fairly lucrative burglary ring where the homes of wealthy families are looted. Expensive items are taken and resold. The place is under surveillance. We have the whole move-out on tape.”

  Cal felt some sense of relief that they were talking about missing property and not something more serious. “This is all about stealing.”

  “Not quite.” Ted glared.

  Josh hesitated as if debating how much to tell. “And drugs. Some of the merchandise is used to transport drugs. Meth, to be exact. The adults transport the goods. A ring of kids then sells and supplies the ice.”

  Cassie let out a sound akin to a groan but more disgusted. “That’s awful.”

  “Take a bunch of bored kids and an open supply of drugs and you get a disaster,” Josh said.

  Ted nodded in agreement. “It’s a significant problem in Hawaii.”

  Cal decided to cut through the bullshit and get to the point. “What’s with the list?”

  Josh leaned against the wall under the window. “Dan had it and obviously hid it before he died. We’ve been trying to figure out how extensive the network is.”

  “I checked,” Ted said. “The list includes houses here and houses in California. Some have been hit, some haven’t.”

  Cal tried to work out the scenario in his head. “So, someone went to the trouble of checking out potential properties and preparing a list of victims?”

  Cassie folded Ed’s hand next to his side and stood up. “Sounds like it.”

  Not that any of this explained what was happening. Cal knew there was more information out there. Things Josh failed to share. “This is a joint DEA-police operation?”

  “Sort of,” Josh said.

  “How did anyone put this together?” Cassie said, diffusing the situation. “I mean, I’m guessing that the police in Hawaii and the police in California don’t regularly share information on domestic robberies.”

  Her quick mind attracted him to her from the beginning. That and her sexy little body.

  Josh touched his hand against his shirt pocket. Whatever he was looking for wasn’t there.

  “Problem?” Cal asked.

  “Lost my pen.” Josh shifted his weight, looking as uncomfortable as Cal had ever seen him. “Unfortunately, the criminals moved past simple theft. They killed two people in two different houses, one here and one there. A maid who wasn’t supposed to be home and a kid in bed sick with the flu.”

  Horror flashed in Cassie’s eyes. “That’s terrible.”

  Cal dealt with the blow differently. He seethed with the need to find the bastards and take them apart piece by piece.

  Josh continued. “The murders still didn’t bring all this together. A bigwig technology millionaire did. His house in California got hit, as well as his vacation ho
me here.”

  “Talk about unlucky,” Cassie mumbled.

  “It was on purpose, and a dumb move. The man came to me. When I started looking into it, all of the arrows pointed to Bobby Polk and his girlfriend.”

  “Who else are you looking at as a suspect?” Cal asked.

  Josh’s gaze darted to Cassie then back again. “We’re still investigating.”

  The way Cassie’s mouth clamped shut suggested she was not going to accept that for a response. “Answer Cal’s question.”

  Her voice vibrated with anger. Cal wanted to fight this battle for her. The vibes she sent out and the tension pulsing through the room showed she could play this one without him.

  Respect. She demanded it. Earned it. Cal wondered again how he would ever walk away from this woman. He entertained spending a few more weeks with her. But he knew why he was in Kauai. Sooner or later he would have to tell her that he was the one who shredded Dan’s military career and set him on the path that killed him. Then she would show him the door.

  “You think Dan had something to do with all of this.” She marched over to Josh and stood in front of him as if daring him to deny the charges.

  “Damn.” The expletive escaped Cal’s lips before he could stop it.

  She spun around with a storm brewing in those beautiful eyes. “You believe this? You think Dan was their courier?”

  Cal didn’t want to believe Dan had run that far afield. But what happened to a man when his dream got yanked away?

  Cassie looked around the room. Her movements, disjointed and a bit frantic, ripped their way straight to Cal’s heart. When she focused her full and unwavering attention on him, Cal felt his carefully balanced world tilt.

  She pointed a finger at Cal’s chest. “Dan trusted you enough to call for help.”

  The begging rang through his brain. In the span of a few minutes, unspoken doubts had driven her to her knees. Comfort words caught in his throat. He looked in desperation to Ted.

  She backed away from all of them. “You’re wrong.”

  Josh tried to lessen the blow. “Ms. Montgomery, I didn’t say—”

  A huge fist squeezed Cal’s heart. “Honey—”

  “Don’t touch me.” She pulled back before he could touch her.

  The flinch speared through him like the slashing blade of a knife, so unexpected and immediate that he pressed a hand against his stomach to check for blood.

  “I don’t want any part of the lynch mob. I’m leaving.” She grabbed for the door handle.

  Her threat snapped Cal out of his stupor. “Stay right where you are.”

  “Get a clue, flyboy. I don’t take orders from you.”

  Each word dug the wound deeper. “That much is obvious, but the criminals are still out there and it’s clear someone helped cause Dan’s helicopter crash. So, your little butt is not going anywhere until I know it’s safe.”

  “May I make a suggestion?” Josh asked.

  She didn’t even look at the other man. “No.”

  “Then I’ll try.” Ted put a hand on the small of Cassie’s back. “Take a break. Go downstairs to the cafeteria for a few minutes.”

  “Are you nuts?” Cal tried to step in front of her.

  “She can take the guard posted outside the door. We’ll be here with Ed, so he’ll be safe. Everyone needs to cool off.”

  Ted handled the situation in true police style. He spoke nice and calm with a low voice that soothed and convinced. He took a toxic situation and neutralized it.

  Cal hated every minute of the strategy.

  “Fine,” she said.

  The fact Cassie agreed so easily made Cal even more skeptical. “Not a chance. She stays with me.”

  Josh gestured toward the door. “For God’s sake, give the woman five minutes alone.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled at Josh, then pulled the door open. “I’ll be downstairs.”

  The battle was lost. Cal knew when to give up, even if he refused to do so graciously. “You have ten minutes.”

  Her dull eyes showed only contempt. “I’ll be back when I’m back.”

  Within ten minutes, she was downstairs at a table in the nearly empty cafeteria. Ten minutes later while the police guard fetched a cup of coffee, she slipped out the side exit.

  Cal’s betrayal ripped her stomach inside out and shredded her to the core. He believed the worst about Dan. All this time she had depended on Cal to defend her, to defend Dan’s memory. At the first opportunity, he turned against them both. His words crushed her hope and left her heart bleeding from the open wound.

  Away from the building, Cassie doubled over, bringing her forehead level with her knees. Tears pushed against the back of her eyes and her stomach cramped.

  If this was love, she could do without it.

  After a few minutes of feeling sorry for herself, she stood up, looked up, and saw nothing but perfect blue sky. Fluffy white clouds drifted by, carried by a soft cleansing wind. The air carried the smell of sea salt and plumeria.

  The need to talk with Dan, to ask him all the questions stuck inside her brain, assailed her. Growing up she idolized her big brother. He was everything she wasn’t—a daredevil, a sweet-talking charmer, a hero. Now Cal was trying to tarnish that memory.

  It was time to move on and investigate without Cal. And she’d use his rental car to do it. She’d start with Dan’s house. The police tape was up. There weren’t any antiques or drugs there. She could tear the place apart.

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Josh waited until Cassie left the room to let out a soft whistle. “The pretty lady was pissed.”

  Cal did not need the newsflash. “Because of you.”

  “What did you expect me to say?”

  “About Dan? How about nothing. Did you ever think about that?”

  Ted leaned back against the window. “Thinking isn’t always Josh’s greatest strength.”

  Cal felt the need to do what he had failed to do during Dan’s life—defend him. “You’re wrong about Dan and his involvement in all of this. He had his problems in the past, but nothing like this. He would never get wrapped up in murder.”

  “I didn’t say Dan was involved,” Josh insisted.

  Cal sensed the word trap. “You let Cassie think her brother was the mastermind, or at least an integral part of the plan.”

  “No, man. You did.”

  Cal looked to Ted for assistance. The deputy shook his head. “Sorry. Josh didn’t make that leap. You and Cassie did that all without his help.”

  “I tried to step in and stop you, but you seemed determined to ruin Dan’s reputation to Cassie. Interesting move, by the way.” Josh sat down hard on the metal stool by the door. “I can only guess you like sleeping alone.”

  Cal felt the blood rush out of his head. He implicated Dan? He crushed her beliefs and hopes? “You’re saying…”

  Josh shook his head. “Dan wasn’t involved. Not the way you think.”

  Ted balanced his hands against Ed’s food tray. “That’s a pretty definite statement. What haven’t you told me?”

  Cal watched the byplay between Josh and Ted with growing dread. For once, Josh didn’t look smug. But that wasn’t good enough for Cal. The man needed to crawl. Maybe Josh didn’t say the words, but he led Cassie to the place where she felt betrayed.

  Launching his body across the room, Cal knocked into Josh before he could see the attack coming or prepare. Cal slammed Josh’s shoulders against the wall. Outrage drove him, feeding his adrenaline and giving him the advantage.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Josh came out spitting. He fought back like a man gasping for his last breath.

  Cal obliged. Planting an elbow on Josh’s windpipe, Cal trapped Josh against the wall and quickly regained the upper hand. “Answer Ted. Tell me the entire story or I’ll snap your neck.”

  The threat was not as empty as it should have been. A killing rage stole over Cal, wiping out all other emotions.

  “Let him
go, Cal.” Ted said the correct legal words but there was no heat behind his order. He did not move to help, either.

  “Not until I get a straight answer.” Cal did let up on the pressure. Seemed that strangling the man before he could provide the information was not a smart move.

  The bit of space allowed Josh a little leverage. He pushed against Cal, sending him back a few feet and putting enough distance between them to be able to fight back. “Try that again and I shoot you.”

  “Just tell me what I want to know.”

  Josh glanced at Ted. “Thanks for the help there.”

  “Well, I just figured out I put my job on the line without having all of the information from you.” Ted stared at the ceiling as if wrestling to control his anger. “Is this what’s going on with Nohea?”

  Cal refused to get lost in verbal subterfuge again. “What is Nohea?”

  “Brad Nohea. My boss at the DEA,” Josh said. “Dan wasn’t involved in the drug deals.”

  “You couldn’t say that to Cassie and save me from the wrath I’m about to face?”

  “I tried but you cut me off.” Josh’s raspy voice was the only sound in the room other than the beeping of the machines tied to Ed. “Dan figured out that Bobby Polk was using Dan’s transfers and his plane to move drugs around the islands during what was supposed to be business-related runs. He contacted our office.”

  Everything fell into place for Cal. “And you were right there to use him. You had him risk his neck working for you, didn’t you?”

  Josh had set Dan up. Marked him for death.

  Josh pushed back until his chair rolled against the wall, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “Before you go apeshit again, the answer is no. My boss enlisted Dan’s help.”

  More fucking excuses. “Same thing.”

  “No.” Ted stepped into Cal’s line of vision. “You don’t know Brad Nohea. Josh has been backstopping that idiot for years.”

  “And this time was no different.” Josh lowered his voice. “I was already watching Polk. Dan started showing up at the drops. Knowing him, I doubted he was running drugs. After some snooping, I figured out Dan got roped into the deal by higher levels in my office and I approached him.”