“Your room on this side?” he asked.
She nodded, the motion only minimally jerky. “Yes. It’s a few doors up on the left here. It overlooks the back driveway and koi pond.”
The hallway was empty and straight, stretching way to the other end of the hotel. He could make out the arch of the elevator doors about two thirds of the way down the hallway. All clear.
“When we get to your door, I want you to stand against the wall on the other side of it and use your key to unlock it.” He kept his voice to a low murmur, for her ears only. “Let me go in first, then come right in behind me. Stick to my back like glue.”
He needed to clear the room but he was not leaving her out and exposed in the hallway while he did it. Sure, it might be overkill. But caution now was better than regret later.
Mali only nodded, her lips pressed into a line. He was scaring her. He’d apologize to her for it later.
They reached her hotel room. She did a great job of following his instructions exactly. Raul watched Taz carefully, but the big dog gave no signals of detecting anyone or anything alarming. They entered with no trouble, and once they were inside, he let the door close behind them and pressed her slight frame into the corner of the small entry area. Leaving her there, he methodically cleared the small hotel room and bathroom. It didn’t take much. The entire room was visible from the doorway. Taz explored the nooks and crannies, sniffing the floor and wall.
The two full-size beds were set on frames just inches from the ground. There was no place for a child, much less an adult, to hide. Bathroom and closet doors had been left open so he had a clear line of sight into those as well. One bedside lamp had been left on, and the curtains were wide open.
Certain the room was empty, he strode to the curtains and twitched them closed. After all, someone might be keeping watch on her room from afar. Maybe. It didn’t hurt to be paranoid.
“Does anything look like it’s been moved?”
Mali shook her head. “Everything is pretty much where we left it. I share this room with the other postdoc, Terri.”
The two of them weren’t exactly neat and tidy. Bras hung on the backs of the chairs at the small table in the corner of the room. Shorts and T-shirts lay strewn across the floor like fallen butterflies. The ladies enjoyed bright colors. As Taz made his way around the room, the big dog placed his paws carefully, choosing not to step on any article of clothing.
“Been here a while?” He tried not to guess which bras and panties belonged to Mali. He could guess, though. There was a distinct, if not significant, size difference in the unmentionables. He was a boob guy and pretty good at guessing size.
Mali liked lace.
So did he.
She brushed past him and pulled a tote bag almost as big as her out of the closet. Setting it on the nearest bed, she unzipped the bottom compartment and tossed in a pair of sandals she’d scooped up from the carpet. “A few weeks. This is my side of the room. Don’t make any assumptions, though. It looks like this as soon as I check in to a new hotel room. I like to explode my stuff and spread out.”
He decided it’d be wisest to stay where he was while she collected toiletries from the bathroom to dump into the bottom of her bag. “Makes sense to make a room yours if you’re going to be here a while.”
Taz sat in the middle of the room where he could watch both Mali and Raul.
“Something like that,” Mali grumbled. “There’s just a lot to see and do, interviews to conduct and data to work through when we get back to the room.”
Her packing style was easygoing, too. She tended to roll her shirts into tight cylinders before stuffing them into the top of her tote. In a few minutes, she had several choices of clothing and a sweatshirt packed. She’d also slid a compact laptop into the side.
“Ready? What room would be the meeting place for your colleagues?”
She stood in front of him, her brows drawn together with worry. “I’m good to go. Terri hasn’t been back to the room, though. I was hoping she’d be here. We only ever talked about meeting back at the hotel. No room was specified.”
He figured her roommate hadn’t been back since she’d said things were where they’d left them. “Could be in someone else’s room if she was spooked. You were unsettled last night after your experience.”
“We’re all here on the same floor.” Mali flicked a hand to indicate the hallway beyond the hotel room.
He turned and opened the door, taking the time to check the hallway again. Taz waited at his side until he murmured a quiet command. The big dog proceeded into the hallway and then paused and turned back to look expectantly at Raul. Still clear. “Let’s go down and knock then.”
They did, and he was happy to observe Mali following the instructions he’d given her for approaching her own room. She stood to the side at each of three other doors and knocked. He stood where someone could see him through the peephole in each door, close enough to hear if a body brushed against the door to look through. Nothing. Every one of the rooms sounded empty. Taz didn’t sit to indicate he detected anyone.
“Let’s go down to the front desk.” Raul figured there might be a message there. It was less likely that anyone would confront Mali in such a public space so it’d be safe enough.
He accompanied her back down the stairs and through the front doors to the hotel lobby this time. Mali stepped right up to the front desk with a sweet smile. The old man behind the counter returned hers with a smile of his own. “Miss Siri. How are you today?”
“Fine. I was out late and wondered if any of my companions left a note for me here?” She delivered her inquiry in a quiet tone, not loud enough to carry too far but not conspicuously hushed either.
Sensible.
The old man frowned. “There’s two messages here for you. I took the first over the phone for you. The second was left here. It must have been delivered while I was on my morning break.”
Mali held out her hand. “Hopefully they aren’t waiting too long for me. Mahalo.”
“Of course.” He handed her the folded notes with a deferential nod. “Have a good day.”
She turned away, moving to the side by a step or two in case someone else approached the front desk. Her expression was decidedly pleasant as she read the first. “My PI says they checked in for me early this morning, and I wasn’t here. They’ll be looking to meet up with me later today.”
She opened the other note. Her hands trembled slightly. After a moment, she knelt to ruffle Taz’s ears, and then she looked up at Raul. “One of my friends is inviting us out sightseeing.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah? Sounds good.”
She rose, handing him both notes and threading her arm with his as they walked out of the hotel and back toward where they’d left the car.
Raul was a patient man. He kept his attention on the area around them and on his partner as they walked down the street. The rental car was waiting just as they’d left it, and he saw Mali comfortably seated in the passenger side. Taz hopped into the backseat and settled down with little fuss. It wasn’t until he’d driven them away from the area and gone several blocks that he pulled over and took a good look at the second note.
“Who is this?”
Mali had been patient, too. She’d drawn her knees up to her chest, sitting curled up in the passenger seat, waiting as they’d been driving. “One of my contacts. I didn’t see her yesterday, but she wants to meet us at the plantation after lunchtime. Maybe she knows where the rest of the research team is waiting.”
“I thought you said—”
Mali shook her head. “Maybe my PI called the front desk. Maybe they already checked for me, and I wasn’t at the hotel. It’s part of our procedure. But if they didn’t find me, why didn’t they wait at the hotel for me? Why didn’t Terri go back to our room? It feels wrong.”
Her instincts were good. She was taking an analytical approach, and she had sensible questions. He was inclined to agree with her.
&nb
sp; “I don’t like it.” Raul scowled. “I should take you back to the house.”
“I don’t have a contact number for her.” Mali didn’t raise her voice as she reached over to tap the second note. She didn’t cajole or get sharp with him. Instead, her tone remained completely reasonable, logical. “This woman could be there waiting to give me a real message, and then my team will think I’m in trouble if I don’t show up. This is the quickest way to find out if we’re all freaked out for no reason or if there really is a need to take action.”
Raul tapped the steering wheel as he thought it through. “Seems too complicated.”
But then her research team were academics. They had established a fairly complex set of actions to take in the case of various circumstances. They weren’t military or law enforcement. Maybe this was just the way these people thought.
“I need to know.” Mali’s voice cracked a little as she spoke. “Is it that much more dangerous than coming out to my hotel in the first place? It’s a totally public place. You and Taz will be with me. It makes sense to find out as much about what’s going on as possible.”
Maybe. “This goes against my better judgment.”
“But you are not my keeper.” Again, she didn’t push with her tone. She simply stated fact. “I appreciate your help so far. I am really glad you’re here with me. But you’re not my bodyguard, and I’m not under any kind of protective custody. We’re not even sure if there is a situation to speak of, really. Whatever it was yesterday could have blown over by now. We need to know more.”
“You saw men in suits yesterday.” He understood the desire to downplay events, doubt what she’d seen. She might be second-guessing herself at this stage. After all, she was calmer today and probably more inclined to rationalize what she’d experienced. “You feel like something is off about the message from your PI. That’s your gut instinct talking, your intuition. Have faith in it.”
Mali was silent for a moment. She released her knees from her chest and stretched her legs, extending them and giving him a good view of her toned thighs. “I feel like waiting is the wrong thing to do. We need to get more information. Please. You’re with me. Take me to find out what my contact has to say. If we get there and you see any sign that there’s something wrong, we’ll leave. Right away. I’ll follow every instruction you give me.”
Raul growled. If she’d cried or yelled at him, argued in any kind of strident tone, he’d have overruled her and taken her back to the house. But she was chipping away at him with her reasoning. She’d demonstrated both yesterday and today how good she was at thinking on her feet. And she was right about needing more information. He couldn’t go get it for her. The contact wouldn’t speak to him, even if he did figure out who the heck it was. Mali needed to be there.
“Fine. Let’s go find out what’s going on.”
Chapter Seven
It’s drives like this one that really make me realize this is an island.” Mali stared at the front entrance of the visitor center at the pineapple plantation as Raul pulled around the parking lot and chose a spot. “North Shore is only another ten or twenty minutes away. We crossed the whole island in a couple of hours.”
“It’s a weekday. There’s only light traffic, but I’m guessing it wouldn’t take that much longer even on a weekend.” He opened his side of the car door and got out. “Let me come around and open the door for you.”
A flush of pleasure spread through her core at the gesture. She watched him through the windows as he came around the car. He wasn’t looking back in at her, though. His gaze swept across the parking lot and the surrounding area, scanning for things she hadn’t even thought to look for. The butterflies in her middle dropped, dead weight in the pit of her stomach. He even let Taz out of the back seat first.
She’d asked him to bring her out here, and he was watching over her, ensuring her safety. He protected people. It was his job. And he was doing this because she was his best friend’s little sister.
When he opened the car door she started to get out on her own, but was brought up short when he extended a hand to help her.
Damn it. She blushed as she placed her hand in his. “Thank you.”
“No problem.” His tone was warm, even if his gaze wasn’t on her.
They started walking toward the main building, and he let her get a half step ahead of him before placing a hand at her lower back. His touch sent shivers up her spine and down her tailbone as they continued forward. She bit her lower lip, willing her body to leave her alone.
“To your point, the island isn’t big.” He raised an eyebrow when she glanced up at him. There was a Big Island, and he might have been making an oblique pun but she wasn’t sure. If he had, he wasn’t giving her more of a hint than the incredibly sexy ghost of a smile playing on his lips. “When you can drive shore to shore in a couple of hours, where we’re used to taking double the time to drive across some states, it does make you realize what it means to be on an island.”
“Yeah.” She smiled, surprised he’d come back to her talking point. Conversation with him came naturally, and he had an easygoing way about him. Things weren’t working out the way they were supposed to, but having Raul and Taz with her made her confident she could find out what had happened.
“Our research has been in town so we haven’t come out here yet.” She veered to the right and paused on a porch overlooking ticket booths. People were promoting a few of the activities on the plantation. “This is basically a tourist attraction.”
“Not a bad place to meet.” He shrugged. He’d brought them to a stop with their backs to a wall between windows rather than standing with their backs to the clear panes. Taz sat at Raul’s left side.
“Public place.” She tried to follow his example and study the area. Everyone around them looked like them, tourists. There were a lot of parents with kids. If she thought about it, there weren’t many couples or single adults. “We’re supposed to go into the maze. It’s perfect for a meeting.”
He snorted. “What makes you think that?”
The ticket booth for the maze was directly across from them. She stared at the hedges and the sign advertising the attraction.
“Well, no one is going to see us wandering around in there. We could go in, and my contact could be in there, too, maybe talk to us through the hedges.” As she spoke, she got more confident about her rationale. This was definitely what her contact had in mind. She was sure of it. “She could give us any information she has, and no one would know we spoke directly.”
Silence. When she glanced back at Raul, he was struggling with a huge grin and not trying hard enough to hide it.
She frowned. “What?”
“I’m guessing you like to watch a lot of movies, maybe some police procedurals?” He wasn’t laughing at her outright but there was obvious amusement in his voice. “I’m betting you definitely like action movies featuring hit men and spies.”
“So?” She kept her tone neutral.
She didn’t think he was patronizing her. There was no smirk or lean in to pat her on the shoulder or back, yet. From experience, she’d made it a practice to never let it show even when she was feeling defensive. It only encouraged know-it-alls to wax eloquently on their comprehensive knowledge of life, the universe, and anything worth knowing.
Raul’s grin faded, and his expression became serious. “It’s important for you to learn places like the maze aren’t a good idea. As easy as it is for you to wander around in there, it’s a great place to sneak up on you. Too many ambushes could be lurking around the corners. Anyone could be listening from behind another hedge. Your line of sight is completely limited in there. There’s no way to know what could be coming at you from any direction and too many places to hide a surveillance device or worse.”
Images of hands reaching out to grab her popped unsummoned into her mind. Despite the heat of the day, a cold shiver raised goose bumps over her upper arms. Over the last few years, she’d started to think o
f herself as fairly aware of her surroundings, street smart. The perspective Raul was offering was a completely different level of observation. Maybe he was doing it to freak her out and maybe he wasn’t. She didn’t know him well enough yet but she didn’t think he was the type to scare anyone unnecessarily.
His lips were pressed in a grim line as he lifted his chin toward the far end of the maze. “This maze is directly adjacent to the parking area. You could be snatched and dragged right through the hedge to the parking lot where a vehicle would be waiting to take you out of reach before you can call for help. We’re not going in there.”
Who was he to tell her what she wasn’t going to do?
She bit back the angry retort and considered his comments. They made sense despite his joking about movies and television shows. Her knee-jerk reaction had been to prove to him he couldn’t tell her what to do, but it’d be spiting herself for sheer pride. He was the reason she was here at all, safe and in a position to look for her PI and research group. This was his area of expertise—and her sister’s—so at least she could give his perspective equal consideration.
She took another look at the tall hedges of the maze. Her imagination may have led her to the unwise assumption of a maze being a good idea but the same creativity let her envision what he was suggesting, too. He had a strong point, and it was a lot scarier.
“Okay,” she agreed, and if her voice was a little high pitched, hey, she was capable of vivid visualization. “Next steps then?”
“Your contact knows what you look like, right?” He was still waiting, watching, taking in everything around them. He wasn’t gloating about having won his point.
As nervous as she was now with his warnings in mind, she found his proximity very reassuring.
“Yes. I haven’t seen her yet, but she always tended to see me first in town.” Mali tried to picture the woman’s face. “She’d walk into my path and tell me to follow her to wherever she felt comfortable talking for a few minutes. It was never longer.”
Total Bravery Page 6