by Angel Payne
I want to be alone. Forever.
Tait read the note over one more time and returned the phone to Lani. Yeah, the message dripped in teenage melodrama, which should’ve had him snickering a little by now. But that was the guy he was a year ago. A guy who’d been through a year of pain a lot like Leo’s closing line.
A guy who also had a CO and a best friend who hadn’t given up on him.
The thought gripped him so deeply, he didn’t notice Lani pull away from Kellan and approach him. When she twisted both her hands into his, he started a little—then went completely still. Within seconds, the woman wrapped his soul and senses again. Seized by the desperation in her clasp. Eviscerated by the sorrow on her face.
“You’ve spent the most time with him in the last week, Tait. If you have an idea where he might’ve gone…what he might be thinking… God, anything…” Another cry burst from her, filled with distraught need. “He’s the only thing I have left. Help me…please!”
Chapter Twelve
Lani had been through a lot of fear in her life. Hiding in a cave from Hurricane Iniki when she was four. The night they’d come to tell her about Mom and Dad’s plane crash. Anytime Gunter and his gang came calling.
None of it came close to this new terror.
Her throat was clamped shut. Her veins ran with ice water. “He…he doesn’t pull stunts like this,” she explained, trying to breathe but getting ragged results at best. She peered frantically between Tait and Kellan. “He knows better than this. We are Kails. We don’t just run away from our issues. What the hell is he thinking?”
As if her thoughts had a conduit to the elements, the sky over the ocean snarled. They all looked to see massive thunderheads, rolling in fast.
“Well, isn’t that special.” In true Kamaˋaina style, Ike gave the situation a softly sardonic commentary.
“Shit!” Lani spat.
Tait and Kellan’s reaction, nearly the same wide stance with hands to their hips, gave her an odd, immediate surge of confidence. Without turning his assessment from the horizon, Tait asked Ike, “How long do you reckon before that shit hits?”
“Depends,” Ike supplied. “If the wind stays low, four to five hours. If it starts to blow hard, we could be under showers in an hour.”
Kellan turned to them. “Apologies for sounding like a guy who grew up just outside Spokane, but it’s still eighty degrees. A little rain won’t give the kid frostbite, right?”
Lani paced away from them then, unable to listen as Ike explained what a downpour did to some of the rocky cliffs along their side of the island. Hearing the phrases “slick as Vaseline” and “love-sick teenager with three seconds of patience” wasn’t doing a thing for her agitation level.
After the men deliberated for what felt like days, they moved into action at the same time. She jogged back over in time to watch Ike transfer the first aid kit and a blanket out of his truck and into her jeep. At Tait’s order to do so, he also peeled back the jeep’s convertible roof.
“That’s good,” Tait remarked as he emerged from the house with a coil of rope and some bottles of water. He’d changed into heavy khaki pants and a windbreaker. “We’ll have better sight lines without the lid.”
“What’s going on?” she asked.
Tait stopped to give her a tight hug. “I’ve got a pretty good idea of where he is,” he stated. “We’re taking the jeep because we can get it onto the sand.”
“I can drive,” Ike offered. “I grew up on this shore.”
Tait nodded tightly. “Good.”
Lani squared her shoulders. “I’m going with you.”
His features tightened. “Lani—”
“I grew up on this shore, too, hupo.”
He curled a hand around her nape to keep her gaze bolted with his, lowering his head to help the effort too. “You’ll be calling yourself an idiot if he comes back here, finds no one around, and decides to fly again.”
A unique yet familiar scent came from behind her. Kellan’s bergamot-and-musk essence instilled her with much-needed resilience. She was tempted to kiss him for it as he injected, “I’ll stay here, T. She needs to go.”
Tait looked up. The two men held each other’s stare for another thirty seconds, in which Lani could’ve sworn she was witness to a conversation that didn’t have its volume knob turned up. Tait actually nodded at the end of it, like Kellan had made a final point with which to concur. “Got a jacket with you, dreamgirl?” he issued. “It’s likely going to get a little breezy.”
She shrugged, not about to let her wardrobe be his next excuse for deterring her. “I’ll be fine. Come on; let’s go.”
Tait turned from her without a word and disappeared into the house. A few seconds later, he strode back out with a sweatshirt in hand, passing it to her on his way to the jeep. “Now you’re fine. Put it on and hop in. We’re racing the sky.”
She tugged the sweatshirt over her head, feeling tiny in the large garment. As she started rolling up the sleeves, it was impossible to avoid the intensity of Kellan’s stare—on her chest.
“I’ve always loved being in the army, but Starshine, you give the word new meaning.” He playfully traced the “R” that was pushed out by her right breast as he pulled her in for a kiss. Lani didn’t resist the fervent press of his lips. She wrapped both arms around his broad shoulders, gripping him just as eagerly in return. When they pulled apart, she moved one hand up to his stubbled, sexy jaw.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she confessed, meaning the words a thousand times more than she had in the kitchen last night. She hoped he saw the thankfulness in her eyes. His answering smile conveyed that he did.
All too soon, she had to step back. Kellan squeezed her hand one last time before he let her go. She pressed it into the center of her chest, hoping his strength seeped into the one place where she needed it most right now. Her heart.
* * *
“Pull in here.”
Tait’s shout prompted Ike to jerk the jeep’s steering wheel, directing it across the sand and toward the deep alcove in the cliffs to which he’d pointed. Lani fought to stay upright in the back seat as they bounced over the rockier ground of the shore. The moment Ike cut the engine, she glanced frantically to the clouds over the water before jumping out and joining the men, who tested flashlights and coiled rope for inclusion in the backpacks at their feet.
“Are you sure about this?” she questioned Tait.
He checked the attachments on a supersized utility knife. “Of course I’m not sure. But he’s a sixteen-year-old on a pretty small island who doesn’t have many options for a stunt like this. Besides that, he was gung ho about showing off this ‘discovery’ to me just two days ago. If this was Final Jeopardy, I’d write it in and bet everything but a buck.”
“But we’re over three miles from home. How could he have gotten this far, over the rocks, since school got out?”
Tait flashed her a rugged soldier’s version of his crooked grin. “Because he didn’t come from home.” He tapped the phone that had become a permanent fixture in her hand, a symbol of the hope that Leo would simply call and say he was just kidding and was back at Hale Anelas. “Timestamp on the email. Twelve thirty. I’m going to go out on a limb and bet he tossed in the towel on school after that.”
“And just phoned the bus driver for personal car service?” she countered.
“I wouldn’t put it past the kid, but not likely in this case.”
“So how did he get out here?”
His stare widened with speculation as he slipped on his backpack. “You really itching to know my theory on that one, too?”
Lani gulped. “Would the wise answer to that be no?”
“Probably.”
As the weight in her chest tripled, she gestured toward the cliff, giving him clearance to lead the way. As Tait stepped past her, he slipped a hand around hers and held on firmly. She accepted the support with greedy gratitude. Like his best friend, the man had figured out s
he talked a good game when it came to I-Am-Woman-Hear-Me-Roar, but having them confirm her strength by borrowing a bit of their own, through their simple physical reassurances, was what kept her putting one foot in front of the other right now.
The cave was wider than she originally thought, since a big portion was hidden by a secondary rock outcropping. The natural disguise also cloaked a path: a narrow dirt ingress that was wedged between the steep bluffs like a secret note between two books. Tait led them straight toward it. “Here’s where we’ll need the flashlights,” he instructed.
Unbelievably, the path tightened. Lani felt like the mountain was swallowing them, though she could still hear the surf on the shore—and the thunder in the sky, crawling closer. She coupled those observations with the packed dirt beneath her feet and summed up the courage to voice her conclusion. “The tide’s rising with the storm. We’re screwed if we’re not out of here in an hour.”
Tait didn’t break stride. “I like to save the word ‘screwed’ for different connotations, dreamgirl. I’ve cross-trained with enough SEALs to keep us alive and afloat in here if needed.”
The hoo-rah bravado didn’t fool her. The undercurrent in his tone was gooier than the moans of the wind through the tunnel. “But if we don’t reach Leo—”
“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, which looked deep enough to drown in, sat her little brother.
“Oh,” she rasped past tears. “Oh, thank God! Leo!”
She 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, 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 freak-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 goodbye 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. Assmunch 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 assmunch 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 the
billions of ways this douche-nozzle of a universe can dream 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, returning 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?”