by Angel Payne
“We’re going to reach Leo.”
No darkness this time. Only determination that wasn’t accepting any hints at failure. Lani gladly supported that initiative.
They climbed deeper, then higher, then back down, until natural light once more poured in from above. The passageway widened into a cavern about the size of the front living room at home. Replacing the picture window was an opening in the rocks that gave a breath-stealing ocean view—and a direct drop of a hundred feet. Where the rug usually rested, there was a big puddle of water. Sitting next to that puddle, looking like the water was deep enough to drown in, sat her little brother.
“Oh.” She rasped past tears. “Oh, thank God! Leo!”
She only took only one step before Tait yanked her back. Leaning close, he murmured, “The thorn’s still in his paw, mama bear. Let’s do this carefully.”
She gave him a concurring nod and backed off, letting him approach Leo, instead. Though the man lowered quietly, Leo jumped as if Tait had turned into a giant scorpion. The tear streaks on his face ripped at her heart. She knew all this was only typical teen boy dramatics, but at that moment, if she wouldn’t have thought twice about selling her soul for the chance to teleport Parker Smythe here and bash his face in.
“Dude,” Tait chastised, grabbing Leo’s arm, “Chill. It’s only me.”
Leo slanted a glare back at Ike and her. “You’ve got serious problems with bending the truth, T-Boner.”
Despite her stress, maybe because of it, Lani had to stifle a little laugh. Leo had a nickname for Tait as well as Kellan. Her heart warmed. Judging by Tait’s smirk, it did the same for him.
“Your sister cares about you, man. She’s been a wreck. I think she said something about how you were all she has left.”
Leo snorted. “That’s bullshit. She has Slash-gasm now.”
Tait’s chuckle echoed off the walls. “Slash-gasm. Damn, why didn’t I think of that?” He sobered as he shook his head. “Despite the cool hashtag, you’re missing something key there. Kellan, like me, will be out of here in another week. And like it or not, the man’s hard drive doesn’t recognize the phrase ‘long-term relationship.’”
“Yeah? I call bullshit again.”
The hearth in her heart was swept by a gust of shock. She hadn’t missed the growing length in Kellan’s stares or the lingering tenderness in his touch, but until now, had written all of it off to the enchantment of the island, not her. Hawaii turned a lot of people into swooning idiots, even gritty Special Ops soldiers. But the surety of her brother’s statement couldn’t be denied. And the resulting confusion in her heart couldn’t be ignored.
“You wanna tell me your head’s in the same sand, man?” Leo pressed closer to Tait to murmur it, but the cave’s acoustics made his effort useless. “You see how he looks at her, right?”
For a long pause, Tait didn’t say anything. Lani told herself she was relieved, though the man’s profile, looking out to the sea as if he yearned to fly into the thick of the storm, yanked the feeling from her. The next moment, the expression was gone. He turned back toward her brother and uttered, “Look…Leo…”
“Fuck!”
Lani hissed. She got ready with a finger-snapping follow-up to condemn Leo’s language, a reaction as instinctual as teeth brushing and room cleaning reminders, but Tait stopped her with a firm glare. It felt odd and insane, but also natural and perfect, to step back in deference. This situation was beyond harrowing, and Tait’s lead on it was amazing—for which she’d be forever grateful. If he wasn’t here, it’d be her sitting next to Leo. Talk about the blind leading the blind—a holy-shit scenario to consider even when there wasn’t a sheer cliff drop just a few feet away.
“Going to let you have that one, kid,” Tait finally said. “The situation sucks, period.”
Leo’s shoulders fell even more. “Parker’s probably mooning over Kalea right now, and vice versa. That piss-sucking fuckwad!”
Lani prepared to snap her fingers again. Tait reined her back with another glower. This command was as daunting as the first, but his face contained a new element now—a tension that showed her every drop of freaked-out in his mental frying pan after Leo’s comments about Kellan’s not-so-hidden feelings.
Damn.
She’d fix it all soon enough. After all this was through, she’d sit Tait down and clarify things. She’d explain that no matter what the flight plan of Kellan’s heart, she had no intention of rerouting hers to match. More than anyone, she was aware of the depths in her soul and the passion in her spirit, and what they’d require from a man long-term. Too much. Kellan Rush was too good a guy to be drained by her outrageous needs. Once she explained that to Tait, maybe she’d even have an ally to help out with her good-bye to Kellan next week.
Right now, they had a more daunting task. Getting Leo to say farewell to this damn cave, before they had to breaststroke their way out at the bottom while watching the jeep get carried out to sea. Shockingly, Tait didn’t appear to share her urgency. The man smirked at Leo as if they were just kicking it at Waikiki, cruising the sand for babes.
“Nice face paint,” he finally said, pointing to Leo’s bruises. “Though I may need a four-one-one on what you’re going for. I’ve narrowed it down to marble table on crack, or zombie apocalypse wannabe.”
Lani rolled her eyes, only to watch Leo guffaw at the joke. “Really?” she whispered to Ike, who was laughing, as well. Men.
“Just tell me you smacked the same into Smythe,” Tait went on.
Leo snickered again. “You and Slash sharing hard drives again?”
Tait cocked a grin. “He said the same thing?” At Leo’s nod, he chuffed. “Figures. Ass-munch steals all my best lines.”
Leo slammed his chin atop his knees again. From Lani’s corner, she watched his face contort again. “Feeling you, man. Only the ass-munch in my world makes off with other guys’ women, too.”
His head dropped again. Tait wrapped an arm across his quaking shoulders. “Leo—”
“He even ripped off my words, T. All that stuff I practiced with you, speaking from my heart and shit? Kalea loved it. All of it.” His shoulders shook harder. “That choad took it all and retooled it to sound like his own. Everything about his game is a pathetic reboot.”
“I know,” Tait said softly. “And I’m sorry, But—”
“Don’t you dare give me some lecture now about losing shit and setting it free, then sitting back and watching if it’s ‘meant to be’ while smiling like an idiot in the rain.”
“Sitting on a pink fluffy unicorn?”
“Right.”
Tait curled his hand up to Leo’s head and ruffled his hair. “Unicorns are good for target practice, and not much else. Having your heart broken, in all the billions of ways this douche-nozzle of a universe can dreamed up for us? That’s another story. It sucks, plain and simple. I can’t teach you how to talk this one into a bridle, or tell you it’s going to get better tomorrow, because it probably won’t.”
Leo tilted up a quizzical glare. “You sure you came to help?”
Lani released a small huff of triumph. She couldn’t have said it better herself.
Tait yanked on his ear. “Listen to everything, you dork. I said it wouldn’t get better tomorrow. But it will get better…eventually. You’re an awesome guy, Leo. Another Kalea is going to come along who sees that.”
Leo shrugged him off and howled. “No! There won’t ever be another Kalea. Not for me.”
“Yeah, dude; there will be. And she’ll be amazing. I guarantee it.”
Her brother straightened. Stared Tait nearly directly in the eye, as if examining him, before issuing what was clearly an open challenge. “Just like you believe there’ll be another Luna for you, huh?”
Lani’s breath caught. She dropped the gloating stance she’d been throwing Tait’s way, now wincing in sympathy for the man—and feeling weirdly responsible for Leo’s knee-jerk words. But the man bore the blow with dignity, returni
ng her brother’s scrutiny with carefully-considered words.
“Tell you what. I promise to work on my pain if you promise to work on yours.”
Leo took a second to ponder that. “It’d be a hell of a lot easier to die up here, thinking of how much Kalea’s day will suck when I do.”
Ike snickered softly. Lani elbowed him. Tait barely moved before volleying, “No, it wouldn’t.” He finished it by lifting his gaze to her. The look only lasted a moment, but it tackled her with a million sensations at once as he reassured her, supported her, and adored her, all between one blink and the next. “The only one you’re going to devastate here is your sister. You really want to do that to a woman as incredible as her, who’s going to support you through everything and anything?”
Leo shot him a grimace full of sixteen year-old disgust. “Dude, she’s cool, but I’m not going as far as ‘incredible,’ okay?”
“Mahalo to you, too, twerp.” Lani threw him a smile full of loving sarcasm. When her stare scooted back to Tait, she softened her lips into a thankful smile. The man was right, of course. If she’d lost Leo tonight, much of her world would end. In the twinkle of his eyes, she still had a little of Mom. Thorough his broad and easy smile, Dad reached out and brightened each of her days.
There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for the kid, though lately his needs were getting more complicated. A plate of cookies and half a pizza often weren’t enough to help Leo anymore. Why didn’t life come with a guidebook? Just like the island maps carried by the stores in Lihue, she needed a set of directions for what curves were coming ahead. If she knew what to do, she’d do anything short of resculpting the Na Pali Coast for him. Maybe that, too.
She just wished, so desperately, that she could do something to help Tait Bommer in the same way.
Chapter Thirteen
Kellan wondered how many times he’d have to pace Franz’s lanai before the boards wore out beneath him. The estimate didn’t stop him from walking the same line as before, shooting a worried gaze up the driveway, then back toward the empty beach—and the looming storm.
“Fuck.” The sky looked like a page out of an Edgar Allen Poe story, dark as slate being chewed by demons. He cursed again, pivoted, and hoped the wind would hold the storm off a little longer.
As he finished the thought, the first plops of rain hit the dunes.
A second later, headlights from a jeep blared across the beach.
“Shitheads did that on purpose,” he muttered sarcastically. The vehicle bounced over the berm, barreled down the access road, and circled around to park next to the house. He observed Ike at the wheel. Tait was his wingman in the front passenger position. Lani was in the back—with Leo.
The air left his lungs in a thankful whoosh while watching Tait leap out, then open the door for Lani. Leo came around and yanked both of them into the same hug before turning to throw a hearty wave toward Kellan, too. He raised his hand in return. With the other, he rubbed at the ache that persisted in his chest, despite his relief.
What the hell?
The thought hit him more as confusion than complaint. The pressure was actually…good. Just unexpected. It usually hit him on occasions like Christmas, when first dropping his pack in Mom and Dad’s foyer. Or when he looked out the window of a transport and saw the summit of Mount Rainier. Or when his phone rang, and the window lit up with Kadie’s face along with the title she’d given herself in the device: Goddess Sister, ruler of your universe. Pick up at once.
Belonging. Home. Family.
After Leo released Tait and Lani, the kid swung back into the jeep. Ike backed the vehicle away. Kell frowned in deeper perplexity. He redirected the look at Lani as she bounded up the steps, not that she noticed. The woman was too busy launching herself into his arms, then clinging with zealous strength.
“It’s over.” She released a sigh into his neck that sounded both happy and tired. “Tait’s instincts were right. He led us right to Leo. The hupo was playing lone-man-dipshit-of-despair in a cave in the cliffs.”
He countered by pulling her perfect curves tight and close. So this was how it felt to hold a live flame. “Wish I could tell you this’ll be the last dumbass move he makes, but sweetheart, he’s a guy.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She pulled back to peel wet hair off her face, emitting another sound that bordered on a sob. “But for now, thank the gods, he’s safe and it’s over.”
He helped her with the hair-clearing effort, sifting his fingers through her soft tendrils. “Then where the hell is he going?”
“Kid’s pretty dirty and hungry,” Tait explained. “We were only halfway here when he put in a request with Ike for a ride home, a shower, and some chow.”
Lani gave that an open pout. “I still don’t understand why he didn’t want me along. I had at least the chow covered.”
Tait flicked a teasing glance. “No offense, Sister Kail, but tonight, you’re the wrong gender in his book.”
As Lani tossed back a huff, it sealed the deal on an impression which had only been a guess to Kellan before now. There was a new energy in the air between those two, a bond undoubtedly forged by the ordeal they’d just weathered together…though his senses registered something more. An unnamed “more” for now, but if so, then what? He couldn’t figure it out yet. He did know that he hadn’t seen Tait banter with a woman like this since—
Fuck.
Since the night Luna had met the team at that seedy bar in Los Angeles, declaring herself their newest mission member. On a wet and windy night, after a crazy adventure of a day…
Fuck.
Paranoia came in a lot of fun new flavors these days, didn’t it?
Wait. Was that what he really felt? Signing on for Special Forces meant he’d nearly agreed to have “Paranoia” embossed on his dog tags as a new middle name. He knew the burning, thumping tension he should be enduring, and this didn’t qualify. This shit skewed more toward deep curiosity, amplified by the profound affection he had for both these people. And it all still burned so deep in his gut, it could’ve easily been indigestion.
Enough of this crap. It was time move on. To celebrate.
With a casual smirk, he gave Lani’s nose a quick kiss. “Hate to say this, sweetheart. T’s probably right this time.”
Tait pumped a fist. “Score.”
“Don’t get cocky, asshat. I said this time.”
Lani tossed the guy another mocking glare. “He’s been doing too much of that ‘being right’ shit lately.” She was answered with Tait’s chuckle, and retaliated by poking her tongue at him.
That officially ruled out indigestion for the strange gut twinges. The conclusion was confirmed by a ruthless squeeze in Kell’s chest, tighter than the broadside of two minutes ago. But that wasn’t what caused him to suddenly stiffen. The credit for that shock belonged to his developing hard-on.
What the hell?
He couldn’t deny it. There was something about watching these two and their growing connection…something captivating, nerve-zapping…
His body instantly surged with the need to join the party. The private, illicit version of the event.
Damn. The universe was wreaking its karmic revenge over their sinful forest romp right now—on his dick.
You were mission leader on that episode, asswipe. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
He covered his surprise by clearing his throat. His johnson had the growing rainstorm to thank for its camouflage, distracting Tait and Lani with a new boom of thunder. He was more than happy to help the effort along. After grabbing Lani’s hand, he opened the door to the house and guided her through. “Time for shelter, starshine.”
The living room, which had glowed so bright when he and T returned from lunch, felt dim with the gloom of the storm all around. But when Tait hastened to activate more lamps, Lani held up a hand. “Can we leave them off? It’s more relaxing. And gods, I could use a little of that.” As lightning flashed, turning the edges of the clouds into celesti
al mountains for a moment, she grinned. “See? Lono himself is helping us. No need for the lamps.”
Tait spread his arms. “No argument from this corner.”
“Lono.” Kellan repeated it on purpose, psyched about getting to impress her with the Hawaiian culture research he’d snuck in. “He’s the god of storms, right?”
Lani slanted an impish grin at him. “And fertility.”
Damn. “Walked into that one,” he muttered, enduring the laugh shared by her and Tait.
Fortunately, his buddy came to the rescue. “Awkward moment fixer, coming right up.” Tait jabbed a thumb toward the kitchen. “Anyone hungry? I think I know where to find a fully-stocked refrigerator. I can manage a few BLT’s.”
Lani planted hands to her hips, looking as if he’d just asked to serve them arsenic brownies. “Are you really offering to make sandwiches, Sergeant Bommer? After what you did today?”
Tait let his thumb descend. “Uhhh…”
“Shut up and hump your ass over here.”
Tait’s face widened with incredulity—while he moved to obey her order. Kellan threw back his head on a loud chuckle. “Well, here’s a first.”
“Shut it,” Tait snapped.
“What?” Lani asked.
“Sweetheart, don’t you remember what I’ve told you about T’s—umm—fondness—for being the one in charge? Why he likes to be the one telling me where to shoot the bad guys?”
“Hmm.” She shrugged on her way to meeting Tait in the middle of the room. “No bad guys here.”
Kell snickered a little harder. Even as they neared each other, she was totally oblivious to his buddy’s textbook case of awkward, including shuffled feet, dropped head, and a slack jaw of watchfulness. Welcome to the Stupid-Over-Lani-Kail Club, dude.
She stepped closer. Tait visibly tensed, but Kellan didn’t flinch. His fascination—and his cock—swelled by the moment.
As Lani hauled him into a crushing hug, Tait’s breath left him on an audible grunt. The collision was perfect fodder for another good laugh, but Kell matched his buddy’s burst with a hard gulp, falling into silence, instead.