Total Bravery

by Piper J. Drake

  * * *

  “Damn.” Raul fumed at the delay as he and Taz threaded their way through the crowds on the sidewalks. Even in late morning, traffic headed into the Waikiki area—or “town,” as locals called it—was insanely slow. On the island of Oahu, it seemed like it was tourist season year round, and Waikiki was overrun by them.

  He headed down the side street he thought would bring him out at the beach closest to his destination. It was a risk because he was going by memory from a vacation years ago. He hadn’t had time since he’d arrived to refresh his knowledge of the area.

  Hopefully, Arin’s little sister was going to see him coming and give him a sign or he was going to be screwed trying to spot her right away. Hawaii, especially Oahu, had a huge number of Asian visitors and locals with some Asian ancestry, so it wasn’t as if the woman was going to stand out in the crowd just based on physical features. He could spot Arin in a heartbeat, even in a crowd, but Arin had told him that she and her sister didn’t share a strong physical resemblance. It was a family joke. Beyond that, Arin didn’t talk much about her family besides how incredibly smart her sister was. Intelligence didn’t help when Raul was trying to recognize her on sight. And considering the places he and Arin had served in, neither of them had carried pictures of family or those close to them.

  His best chance had been looking in the hallway closet. He’d traded instant messages with Arin the night before, the way they did a couple nights a week. Arin had told him how she’d met with her sister for dinner. How it was funny her sister was on the island for some sort of research thing and Arin hadn’t known ahead of time. Mali had simply texted her out of the blue. Mali had forgotten her jacket at dinner, and Arin was holding onto it, expecting to meet with her again.

  There’d been one jacket in the closet that looked like it belonged to a young woman. It was more of a lightweight hoodie in teal. Arin rarely wore anything outside of a monochromatic black and white color scheme so Raul had grabbed it, guessing it belonged to her sister. The rest of the core members of their team were male, and Miller’s wife was of a completely different build. No way did the hoodie belong to her.

  As he and Taz came out on the beach, Raul headed straight for the catamaran booth where tickets were sold. The catamarans came back up on the beach in right about the same place. To his left and right, big chain hotels rose up and towered over the beach.

  No one else was waiting around the booth. The next sail wouldn’t go out until just before sunset. A quick scan up and down the boardwalks extending in either direction revealed no suspicious characters. Of the people out and about, he and Taz were actually the most conspicuous. Then again, there weren’t a lot of big dogs on the island, and Taz was wearing a service dog harness.

  Stealth wasn’t one of his objectives today. In fact, if his presence scared off whoever was after Mali, all the better.

  There were a bunch of women wandering past. Several of them glanced at him with interest, but there was no flash of recognition. None of them approached him. Just about every female in the area was with a partner, friend, or group of friends. No lone woman anywhere, much less one looking nervous or waiting for someone.

  “Taz.”

  His partner looked up at him immediately, ears forward and ready to work. If they’d been working alone, he wouldn’t even need to use the dog’s name. But here, in a crowded place, it was best to make it clear he was addressing Taz.

  Raul retrieved the baggie containing her hoodie from the small backpack he’d slung over his shoulder. He held the plastic bag open for Taz, showing him the scent article inside and allowing his partner to sniff it liberally. “Zoek.”

  Track. Taz was trained to respond to Dutch commands, one of the standard languages used to train working dogs, and this was his primary skill set: finding people.

  His partner went to work. The big dog ranged back and forth in front of Raul, sniffing first the ground and then lifting his nose to catch additional airborne scents on the breeze. Taz proceeded forward once he’d systematically checked everything within the current grid, from the sand to the side of the booth to a nearby retention wall. In a few minutes, Taz froze, his stillness deliberate.

  He’d found a trail.

  “Braaf.” Even as he praised the dog, Raul’s heart pounded. Just because Taz had hit on the trail didn’t mean Mali was safe. It just gave them something to follow to her, so long as the trail remained clear and wasn’t disrupted farther ahead. Raul also didn’t know if Mali had left the area of her own free will. If she’d been taken or if she’d had to run, there was no way to tell from the ground around the booth. The loose sand and the passersby left no hints. All he knew was that the woman he’d come to help wasn’t where she was supposed to be, and his partner had a trail that might be hers. He needed to assume the worst and hurry as best he could. “Zoek.”

  Excited by the trail, Taz surged forward to the full length of the six-foot lead. If this had been a sanctioned search and rescue in coordination with local law enforcement, Raul would’ve let Taz off leash. In this case, he kept the GSD tethered. If they were stopped by police or other security, he wanted to be with the dog when they approached so he wasn’t mistaken as lost or without a handler. But considering the urgency, Raul let Taz set the pace.

  They moved at a fast walk. Taz followed the trail along the narrow boardwalk past the huge hotel. Despite the heavy foot traffic, the big dog proceeded with confidence. He was locked into working mode and wasn’t allowing anything else to distract him. They paused once or twice as Taz sniffed the ground and the railing before continuing.

  She must’ve paused in each of those places.

  A few minutes later, they were moving out onto the broad expanse of Waikiki beach. It was getting to the hottest part of the day, and Taz was panting now between sniffing the air to catch scents. Heat rose up off the hot sand.

  Raul called Taz to a halt and gave the big dog a quick drink, making sure his nose got good and wet. The water served two purposes. Taz’s well-being was paramount. A handler always thought of his dog before anything else. The second reason was the impact of the harsh sun on the bare sand of the beach. As the area dried out from the morning, scent particles would be harder to catch unless the dog was well-hydrated. Taz’s panting, the increased saliva, and a wet nose maximized Taz’s ability to keep and follow the trail.

  It took only moments and Taz was back on the trail. The dog veered away from the path. Mali must’ve decided not to go back toward the street. It was a smart choice, but where had she gone? Raul saw nothing but sunbathers and tourists lounging out on the beach.

  His partner wasn’t relying on sight, though. Taz weaved his way through tourists and locals.

  “Don’t touch the dog, please.” Raul smiled to diffuse the disappointment as people sat up or leaned toward Taz. “He’s working.”

  Even with a service harness on, there were a lot of people who tried to pet a working dog. Though a decent number of people scooted away when they caught sight of Taz, too. At around eighty-five pounds of muscle, he was a good-size canine. His mostly black face, with only hints of tan, was intimidating.

  Despite the reaching hands, Taz remained focused on his task, nose to the ground here and lifted to the air there. It was Raul’s job as his handler to run interference so Taz could do his job.

  They had a lady in distress to find.

  In moments, Taz approached a group of girls. Raul hesitated, keeping his eyes on his dog, but Taz was all about the trail. The big dog sniffed right up to a petite sunbather with an amazingly shapely, tight behind and poked his nose right into her golden bronze hip, then sat, looking back at Raul expectantly.

  “Taz.” Raul was scandalized. Jesus, the hoodie must not have been Mali’s. Instead, they’d ended up molesting some random girl…

  The bikini-clad, dainty woman stirred and peered up at them from under a bright white, floppy hat. The face…

  …was a ghost of Arin’s, about five years younger, w
ith a more delicate jaw and rounder cheeks. The biggest difference was in the eyes; the skin folds of the upper eyelids covering the inner angle of the eyes. Maybe most other people didn’t see the resemblance, but he did.

  Taz leaned toward the woman’s face, sniffing, and then gave a soft bark.

  No doubt about it, Taz had found his target. Raul pulled a well-chewed tennis ball from his pocket and tossed it to Taz as his reward, then turned his full attention to the woman. “Mali Siri?”

  “My full last name.” Her voice was hoarse. “You said you knew it.”

  Fair. Even if Taz was proof that Raul was the person she’d spoken to on the phone, she was smart to get confirmation that he knew her older sister as well as he’d claimed.

  “Srisawasdi.” He fumbled over the pronunciation a little. The r, the last s, and the i were almost silent but he tended to miss the correct intonation. Intonation mattered in the Thai language, he’d learned, and could completely change the meaning of the word. So he spelled it out for her, too. “It was strongly implied that it would be better for your parents to shorten their surname to something easier to pronounce when they immigrated to the United States, so it was shortened. But Arin never forgot the full name and the meaning behind it.”

  Mali closed her eyes then opened them slowly, her expression weary. “Neither did I, but she’s always been angrier about it. It’s a long story. I’m just…tired.”

  Raul looked sharply at her face. Her lips were cracked, they were so dry. “How long have you been laying here?”

  He kneeled immediately and handed over a spare water bottle. Now that he wasn’t embarrassed out of his mind about his dog poking a strange girl’s butt with a cold nose, he took a more serious look at Mali Siri. Her golden bronze skin had a red undertone to it. She’d been in the sun long enough to burn. “Sip that slow.”

  She did as he advised, her movement sluggish and her hands trembling. She spilled some water down her chin as she sipped.

  Muttering a curse under his breath, he scanned the area to confirm no potential threats were nearby and then he draped her hoodie around her shoulders. “Take your time. You’re safe now.”

  Chapter Three

  We’ll take you up to the main house once we’ve got you cooled down,” Raul called into the bathroom.

  Good. Mali hadn’t wanted Arin to see her with salt and sand in her hair, ready to pass out from overexposure and about to have a heat stroke. She’d asked for the chance to put herself back together. Raul Sá had hesitated but offered the use of his hotel room.

  Her sister’s friend was cute. Under different circumstances, she’d have taken his offer as an invitation. But at the moment, her nerves were a mess. She’d spent long minutes expecting people to find her, yank her off the sand, and make her disappear like the others.

  Somehow, she’d gone past terrified into a semi-conscious state out there, hiding and waiting. Never had she realized how hard it was to be still when all she wanted to do was break cover and run. Only there’d been no cover. She’d been exposed with no alternative but to hope they didn’t notice her. It’d taken about an hour, her heart pounding in her ears and the sun burning down on her back, before his dog had found her.

  Turning on the shower, Mali set the heat to a gently tepid temperature. It’d help cool her down, and she could use the hotel lotion to treat her skin. There was no getting away from the sunburn, but she could do her best to minimize the damage.

  If she wasn’t well, her older sister wouldn’t listen to a word Mali said until Arin was satisfied Mali was taken care of. It was a quirky silver lining that Raul had answered when she’d called her sister’s line.

  There was a precise knock at the bathroom door. “I had room service bring up water with cucumber slices and a plate of fresh fruit. If you can sip and eat, it’d be good for you to rehydrate. It’ll be right here in the room after you come out of the shower.”

  Mali stepped toward the door. “Okay.”

  There was a pause then. “I’ll leave Taz in the room. Leave the bathroom door unlocked. If you feel faint or something, just call. He’ll let me know to come help you. Otherwise, I’ll be out in the living area so you can have your privacy.”

  “Thank you.” She didn’t have the energy to say more as she stepped under the cooling trickle of water. Never had she been so thankful for the gentle fall of a rainfall showerhead.

  He was kind. A lot of men in her life were sincere enough in that they consciously made an effort to be nice. As men of academia, they were intelligent and sophisticated, schooled to a higher level of thinking and applied theory. But many of them lacked a gut understanding of why they did what they did. They required explanation and logic, a concise hypothesis and sufficient supporting evidence to take action. They’d have tried to calm her down earlier today until she’d simply disappeared.

  But Raul had acted. And now, he was taking action again. His kindness, his consideration, was intuitive and came from a desire to help a friend’s sister or a damsel in distress. He probably wasn’t thinking too hard about it. He was just doing the right thing. And for that, she was grateful.

  It wasn’t until she tasted salt on her lips that she realized she was crying. Ducking her head under the water, she let the shower clean away the fear of the day. She breathed in the steam and detected the faint scent of eucalyptus. She tried to order her thoughts, organize them so she could take the next steps.

  “Field research involves risks.” She was muttering, but the words were for her anyway, not for anyone else. Hearing the sound of her own voice helped her find her own center.

  Her colleagues, her friends, needed her, and she needed to pull herself together. They’d all been downtown conducting interviews to gather data earlier this morning when her principal investigator had blown his alert whistle in a shrill warning. It’d scattered her routine and sent her through the streets, looking for safety. She was a professional researcher and had acted in accordance with her training and established procedure. The time for fear was past, and she should consider what came next. But she wasn’t over it.

  A funny noise echoed in the shower, the sound of her teeth chattering. She wrapped her arms around herself and leaned against the tiles. Damn, damn, damn. As much as she wanted to pull herself together, she was shaking herself apart just like she used to as a child.

  Arin wouldn’t be like this. Her older sister would’ve done everything differently, would turn everything around.

  Maybe, if it’d been Arin with them in Chinatown, they would all be safe and simply continuing on with their research. Maybe…

  Something cooler than the shower water touched her hip. Instinctively, she shrank away and pressed herself harder against the tiles. “What?”

  Mali blinked water from her eyes and looked down into dark brown eyes. Taz looked up at her, one paw in the shower with her, and whined. She didn’t know dogs the way Arin did—and maybe it was her imagination—but this dog looked concerned.

  She swallowed. “Shh. Don’t bring him yet. Look, I’m getting out of the shower now.”

  Having a large canine practically in the shower with her was new. It was weird enough to shake her out of her mental spiral, and for that, she was grateful to the big dog. Gingerly, she turned off the water and reached for the towel.

  The big dog gave her space but remained within arm’s reach as she wrapped the towel around herself without bothering to dry off and made her way unsteadily out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. As she slid onto the bed, she reached for the cool glass of water to sip.

  Only then did Taz relax and sit back on his haunches, still watching her intently.

  “Thanks.” She studied him. “Did you turn the doorknob? Seriously?”

  She could’ve believed it if the door had a handle like some of the more ornate décor one might find in nice hotels. But the door to the bathroom had a round doorknob. That was a lot harder to turn when one didn’t have thumbs. Hell, she had trouble turning a doorknob w
hen she put too much lotion on her hands.

  The dog only opened his mouth and panted, his ears up as he watched her.

  Her stomach was roiling with nerves but she took a piece of pineapple and nibbled at it. What she really wanted was a musubi or onigiri. There was nothing like a good rice ball to settle her stomach and she’d been spoiled the last few days with the availability of good ones here on the island. Back in Boston, she had to go to restaurants specializing in Japanese cuisine, and even those might not have her favorite snacks in favor of Americanized sushi.

  Actually, she couldn’t remember seeing Spam anywhere. Musubi were a new passion.

  Taz placed a paw the size of her fist on the edge of the bed. Once he seemed sure he had her attention, he withdrew his paw.

  “Are you allowed to eat pineapple?” He was looking at her face and not the pineapple in her hand, and she didn’t think well-trained dogs were allowed to beg. The plate of fruit on the nightstand was well within his reach, and he wasn’t paying any attention to it either. “I don’t speak dog.”

  She had a PhD in Human Rights and Transnational Studies and was struggling with communications issues across species. The situation was heading into the surreal.

  Someone knocked at the bedroom door and she jumped, dropping her piece of pineapple. Taz discretely picked up the fallen piece of fruit between his teeth and placed it on the edge of the plate.

  * * *

  Raul made sure to give it a solid three count from when he heard Mali give permission to enter and when he opened the door. He didn’t want any chance of misunderstanding and catching her by surprise. When he saw the looks of guilt on both Taz’s and her face, he wondered if he should just turn on his heel and head back out.

  “I didn’t feed him.” Mali’s immediate reassurance had Raul looking at Taz.

  Taz had his ears back a touch and his head angled as if leaning away or exposing his neck. There was dog denial in every line of his posture.