Primitive Flame

by Lakes, Lynde

  Minutes later, he reappeared, carrying the unconscious guard over his shoulder. He dumped the man on the ground beside the car and rushed to a nearby hose attached to a faucet. He turned it on full force, spraying the blaze with streams of water.

  After he’d put out the fire, he returned and tossed Lani’s damp, smoky clothes onto the floor of the car. Lani’s teeth chattered and her lips trembled. She slipped her arms through the long sleeves of Cort’s shirt, but her fingers shook too much to manage the buttons.

  Cort slid in behind the steering wheel of the car and rested his head against it. His silence tore at her. She opened her mouth to break the devastating quiet, but no words came out.

  Finally, Cort asked, in a voice husky with bewilderment, “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

  “I…” Lani started to say she didn’t know, but as she looked out at the site, she knew what she had unwittingly done. “I marked the area of the dead.”

  “You almost set the whole place on fire. Are you some kind of firebug?” He grabbed her shoulders, then released her at once as though afraid of what he might do. “How’d you light that torch?”

  “Pele lit it.”

  He slammed the steering wheel with the flat of his hand. “Not that Pele crap again!” He took a deep breath. “Why did you take your clothes off? What were you thinking?”

  She touched the top of her head. Where was the haku lei of o’helo berries and scarlet lehua pom poms? “When Pele put the garland on my head, the dead dancers ripped off my clothing and wrapped a tapa cloth around me.”

  He pounded the steering wheel again, this time with his fist. “There was no Pele, no dead dancers, and no tapa cloth.”

  His voice sounded far away. Was she crazy? No. It was real. Cort shifted, and moonlight fell on his glistening, bare torso. The sight of him struggling with his frustration brought feeling rushing back into her body. She touched his shoulder, and he moaned and pulled her close, grinding his lips into hers. It hurt, but she didn’t pull away. The pain proved she wasn’t still caught in her sleepless nightmare.

  As suddenly as he’d grabbed her, he pushed her away. “Dammit, this craziness has to stop!”

  She heard the agony in his tone. Lani touched a fingertip to her lips, hot and swollen from his kisses. “You could stay away from me, forget me,” she said softly.

  He laughed without humor. Tiny prisms of light from a security lamp near the trailer glistened in his eyes. “I’d rather cut out my heart.” His gaze raked over her semi-nakedness. Roughly, he pulled his shirt more firmly around her, as if covering her would leash the desire that simmered in his eyes. “I’m beginning to think I can’t let you out of my sight,” he said huskily.

  Sensing his vulnerability, she said, “Don’t you see there’s a reason for all this? Pele’s helping us to—”

  He grabbed her wrist in a powerful grip and drew her so close she could feel his breath on her face. “Get this straight: Pele is a myth.”

  Lani lifted her chin. “What about the aumakua statue wedged in the banyan roots? And what about what Pono said about Pele?”

  “There’s no proof how the statue got there. And all Pono said was he made love to a woman named Pele. He didn’t say he made love to a fire goddess.”

  “How do you explain what I saw?”

  “I know you think you saw something.” His lips narrowed to a line of unyielding denial. “I can’t explain how, or why you set the fire, but Pele had nothing to do with it.”

  “She did…I know it. And it was different this time.”

  Cort raked his fingers through his hair. “You’re right. It was worse! You’re not only claiming to see images, you’re dancing with them.”

  Lani felt a surge of excitement. “Pele knows we found the bones and relics.”

  “Dammit, Lani, reality was so clear before I met you. Now I’m not sure of anything.”

  “You can be sure I love you,” Lani whispered.

  “And God help me, I love you. But what does loving you mean? Is our relationship destined to be one crazy episode after another?”

  The shredding patience in his voice hit her like ice water in the face. If she didn’t get her life back to normal, he’d tire of the weird stuff and leave her. But he was here now. “Somehow I’ll find a way to put an end to all this. I have to.”

  “Lani, my sweet, optimistic Lani.” He folded her in his arms and pressed his lips to her temple, his breath warming her face. “You’re amazing.” Cort shook his head. “Even with all that’s happened, you speak with such certainty.”

  “I know what I saw—know it the way I knew relics were buried there. Now I have to figure out what to do about it.” Lani fought the tremor in her voice. “Don’t give up on me.”

  Cort’s muscular shoulders slumped. He stared straight ahead toward the highway, his profile grim. “I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.” His voice was solemn, resigned. “But we can’t fight this alone. We should call Dr. Kahaluu.”

  Lani winced. “Darnit, Cort, I don’t need a shrink. I need you to open your mind and work with me on this.” She pointed out the window toward the blackened area. “I believe Pele defined the sacred area with that phosphorus glow to help us. Don’t you see? I burned a perfect rectangle around it, marking the perimeter where the bones and relics are buried.”

  He glanced at her cynically. “You don’t know that. You can’t know that.”

  She wouldn’t let him dampen her enthusiasm. “The spirit world must’ve joined with our world to…to merge purposes.”

  He shook his head. “No. Dammit. I can’t accept that. And I can’t accept Pele as—”

  A loud rumbling startled them. “Oh, no!” Cort said as the big yellow truck drove onto the site. “Just what we need, someone’s called the fire department.” He looked at her near nudity and shook his head. “Thank God it’s dark. Get dressed. I’ll handle them.”

  In an instant, he was out of the car and running to meet the fire chief. As he pointed to the burned area, the ambulance for the unconscious guard pulled onto the site.

  As Cort led the medics to the guard, Lani ducked down. When their voices faded, she rose enough to see what was going on. When they loaded the man into the ambulance and took him away, Cort turned his attention back to the fire chief.

  While they surveyed the site, Lani struggled into her damp clothes. Her hands shook and her face burned with embarrassment. Would she and Cort laugh about her mortifying predicament some day? Or would he even be around that long? No matter what he said, she feared he’d give up on her.

  Dressed, she sat upright in the seat, wondering what she should do now.

  The fire chief and his men climbed back onto the truck. The chief waved as the big noisy truck moved slowly off the site.

  Cort came back to the car and thrust himself behind the wheel. “It was tough to explain a second fire here in less than ten days. The chief saw the torch, said the fire looked like arson. I told him it must’ve been kids.”

  “They stayed so long,” Lani said softly. “I was afraid…”

  “You didn’t have to worry. I wouldn’t have let them turn you in to the cops.”

  “You lied?”

  He nodded. “I couldn’t let them blame you for something you couldn’t help.”

  “Is the old man going to be all right?”

  “Once he sobers up. The fire chief smelled the alcohol and thought he might’ve had something to do with the fire. I assured them he didn’t. The medic said the guard’s blood pressure was dangerously low, and he needed emergency care.”

  “Maybe for him, this was a blessing in disguise.”

  “Yeah, they’ll dry him out.” Cort glanced at his watch. “Look, I’m stuck with sentry duty until morning, but I can’t let you go home alone.” He gently brushed a strand of hair from her face. “You can rest on the couch in the trailer.”

  “Rest? Not until we figure this out.”

  He shook his head. “What’s to figure?
You’re a pyromaniac who likes to dance naked.” He kissed her forehead lightly and put his hands on her shoulders. “Go inside, please.” His voice deepened. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

  “No way,” she said. “We’re clearing up this Pele thing first.”

  “Not that again,” he muttered.

  She let a small smile curve her lips. It was time to use her legal training, and Cort might be the most important juror she’d ever have to sway. “Please, just for the sake of analysis, let’s assume that some force is operating in our lives.” She raised an eyebrow. “All right?”

  “That’s a given.”

  “Now, for identification, we’ll call this nebulous force Pele.”

  He frowned. “You should be a lawyer. You sound just like one.”

  “Please, go along with me on this.”

  He sighed. “And where will that get us?”

  “Well, I’m still working on that.”

  “Oh great,” he said wryly. “Maybe I should try to see the humor in this. You stripped naked in an isolated spot by the beach, and all I could think of was covering you up.”

  “Is that really all you thought about?” Lani murmured, smiling up at him.

  When Cort looked down into her eyes, her heart skipped a beat. Was he feeling the same overwhelming love? As though in answer to her question, he tightened his arms around her and gently covered her mouth with his. His kiss became demanding, hot, savage. When he slipped his hand under her damp sweater, she felt her nipples harden and a tingly warmth flow to a special spot deep within.

  After a few knee-liquefying moments, he released her. “I’d really like to continue this,” he said huskily. “But I need to secure the site, and you need rest.”

  Disappointment washed over Lani, and with all that was in her, she fought the lingering desire. She had too much to do to let herself be swept away. She hopped out of the car and headed for the burned area, calling over her shoulder, “I’m not resting until we’ve thoroughly discussed what happened here.”

  “Hey, what the devil are you doing now?”

  She heard his booted footfalls pounding the ground behind her. “I want to step this off.”

  “Why?”

  “To measure this blackened rectangle.”

  As Cort inspected the burned area, his expression darkened. “Let me get a measuring tape from the trailer.” He paused and grabbed her hand. “On second thought, we’ll both go.”

  She laughed and let him pull her along.

  After Cort got the hundred-foot tape, Lani held the beginning of it at one corner while he extended its length midway to the next. When they’d measured the perimeter, Cort said, “It’s a hundred by two hundred and eighteen. Roughly half an acre.” He held her gaze. “So what does that tell us?”

  She turned and headed for the trailer. “It gives us some numbers to work with.”

  Cort caught up with her and grabbed her arm. “What are you talking about?”

  She wondered if her smile revealed how much pleasure she was getting from her secret. Lani reached for the trailer door. Cort grabbed the handle first. “Thank you, gallant sir,” she said, entering ahead of him. When she perched on the edge of his desk, swinging her leg, he plunked down in his big swivel chair in front of her.

  A muscle in his jaw twitched. “Okay, give. Explain yourself, you smug nudist.”

  She laughed, bubbling with her building excitement. “Suppose the state buys only the area where the bones and relics are buried—the roughly half-acre rectangle we measured. And suppose they designate the sacred area as preservation land, and allow Mr. Wang to build on the remainder.”

  Cort shook his head. “Even if we could prove that’s the only area with relics, I doubt the state would go along with it.”

  “If Wang alters his design to fit the dignity of the burial site, why not?”

  “Let me count the reasons,” Cort said. Still, his eyes lit up with interest. “Hmmm. Blending structure and nature—” She heard a germ of hope in his voice.

  Cort picked up a pencil and turned it between his fingers. “You know,” he said with surprise in his tone, “in theory, that sounds good. It’s reaching, of course, but…” He tapped his desk with the pencil. “If we could prove the rectangle is the only area where bones and relics are buried by doing spot borings on the rest of the site—”

  “Yes, yes,” she said. “That’s the idea. Go with it.”

  Cort leaned back and put his feet up on the desk. His legs were long and powerful looking. “Even if this worked, we’d have one helluva time getting the state to settle for preserving and condemning just that small area.”

  “We can cross that bridge later,” she said. “Just see if it’s feasible.”

  “Right, because if there isn’t enough land left to do the project, we’re dead before we start.”

  “Think positive. You know the plans and what it takes, and I’m sure you can find a clever way to alter the design to make it work.”

  He took his feet off the desk and stared at the plans open on his desk. “Maybe if the building were turned slightly.” He rubbed his jaw. “There’s a slim chance it would work.”

  “It’s worth a try.” She moved close and looked over his shoulder. The faint odor of smoke, leather, and his own musky scent wafted up at her. She suppressed the urge to kiss the top of his head.

  “It may be a waste of time.” But as he said it, he was already making calculations.

  His eyes glowed with interest. She’d read him right. He couldn’t resist a challenge.

  While Lani brainstormed ideas and kept their coffee mugs filled, Cort spread plans and plat-maps over his desk and rapidly scribbled calculations.

  Later, as the sky outside lightened from gray to a splendid wash of dusty pink, Cort leaned back and stretched. “I’m bushed.”

  Lani moved from the window and massaged his tight neck muscles. “You can’t stop now! Please, I know you’ll find a way.”

  Cort got up and put his arms around her. “What I’m finding is something new about you every time we’re together.”

  She grinned, hoping it was saucy enough to mask her own fatigue. “Like what?”

  “For one thing you look good at any hour, with or without sleep, and with or without clothes on. Plus, you’re a bloody slave driver.”

  He looked good too. The blond stubble on his strong jaw line wasn’t at all detracting. She slipped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “But I’m sure if you keep trying you’ll find the perfect design.”

  Mischief brightened his eyes. “I already have. It’s really a better plan too.” He guided her toward the desk and pointed to the plat with one hand while keeping the other firmly on her waist. “The same structure can be built just by turning the building slightly, like this. The architect can modify the plans without much problem. And, if the state will purchase just the burial grounds, it will actually mean more profit for Wang.”

  Lani hugged Cort. “I knew you could do it.”

  “But,” Cort warned, “the biggest job is still ahead. I have to convince the state that it’s in their best interest to give a variance so the same building can be constructed on less acreage. And find a way to convince Wang to cooperate without going to court.”

  Cort looked at his watch. “Chinn should be up in about an hour. I’ll call him then. Now, you go home and get some rest.” He handed her his keys.

  She didn’t move. “I want to be here when you meet with them.”

  His eyes twinkled. “That means either you don’t trust me, or you just want to see a master salesman at work.”

  “I trust you completely.” He had to be a master salesman because she’d never dared to trust anyone the way she trusted him. “But you’re right. I wouldn’t miss this show for all the diamonds in Africa.”

  “Wang and Chinn won’t want you here.”

  “Please, Cort. Talk them into it.”

  He studied her face as though considering all the ramifi
cations of her request. “Only if you promise not to say a word.”

  She smiled and tossed Cort’s keys in the air and caught them again. “I’ll be back with bells on. Just telephone me with the time.”

  ****

  After Cort made his calls, he rose and went to the window and stared out at the burned area, remembering the curvy brown flow of Lani’s nude body as she’d stood before him brandishing that flaming torch. The flames had highlighted her hair with strands of gold, and her eyes sparked with proud, bold rebellion. He didn’t know what to make of her antics. Her pyromaniac actions had really tested his loyalties. His job was to protect the site, materials and equipment. And Lani had almost sent everything up in flames. He couldn’t accept what was happening to her, so how could he explain the other fire and Lani saving him just in time? What about finding the relics just as she’d said? Now this. He couldn’t rationalize any of it. Although he hadn’t seen anything but her and the fire she’d set, he knew she was in the grip of some force. It awed him how each time she faced a new horror, she managed to recover with such determination and courage. Her tenacity and bravery were greater than any he’d ever witnessed in any other person. Hands down, she was the most splendid woman he’d ever known. For her sake, he wanted this plan to work. Hell, for everyone’s sake.

  He shook his head. Despite his reservations, he’d caught Lani’s fever, her enthusiasm. In his present predicament, those things were as necessary as breathing because to persuade the tough audience at this meeting, he had to believe the plan would work.

  He’d lined up all the players for the meeting with greater ease than expected—everyone’s free time meshed, an unusual happening in the construction business. New excitement surged through him. Wouldn’t it be something if Lani’s wild scheme actually worked?

  Chapter Thirty

  Lani glanced at the clock on the microwave, then continued pacing. Why didn’t Cort call? Maybe the others objected so strenuously to her attending the big meeting that Cort had been forced to cut her out. She had to be there! Keys. Where were her damn keys? She dug through her purse, pushing things every which way, then dumped the whole mess onto the counter.