Burning up the Rain (Hawaiian Heroes) (31 page)

The other two stayed by the doors—so no one could leave, Lalei realized with a shock. Jack was right, something was going to happen.

“Agents Phipps and West of the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the judge said, respect and a certain relish in his voice. “Welcome to Hilo. How may we assist you this afternoon?”

The male FBI agent nodded to the judge. “Thank you, Your Honor. We’re here to take Mr. Frank Decker into our custody.”

Decker jolted in his chair, alarm flattening his florid face. Sharpe stood, uncoiling like a snake. “On what charges?” he demanded.

The female agent spoke. “Oh, we have a list, Counselor. Money laundering is at the top. As of now, all CalTrend’s assets are frozen, pending our investigation. And you know, since this is a joint investigation with the DEA, it could take years.” She allowed herself a small smile.

Decker’s eyes closed, his face paling as if he were ill.

“But what about the development?” it was Jack’s acquaintance Harland, rising from his seat. “W-we’re ready to break ground. You can’t just—” He peered around at all of them as if someone would surely see his side. Lalei would have felt sorry for him if Jack hadn’t told her what a crook he was. Benton sat by his side, pale with shock.

“Any contracts entered into by CalTrend are null and void,” the woman said. “Wouldn’t wait around to start work if I were you.”

Harland turned on Sharpe, his eyes wild. “Do something,” he demanded. “You’re the hotshot lawyer—tell them we’ve got a contract. This deal has to go through.”

Sharpe gave him one contemptuous look and then turned his back on the smaller man, leaning over to speak with his two colleagues and Decker. Harland collapsed slowly into his seat like a deflated balloon.

“Mr. Decker, if you’d come with us,” the FBI agent said. It was not a request.

After another hurried few words from Sharpe, Decker rose slowly to his feet. He drew himself up and walked ahead of the agents from the courtroom, followed by Sharpe and the other lawyers.

There was a short silence. Lalei was still struggling to believe that she had actually just watched Federal agents take a man away for questioning. It had been so civilized.

Homu said something to Ned, who rose. “Mr. Helman, my clients have one more question about the disputed piece of property.”

Darien Helman smiled crookedly at Homu. He looked exhausted. “I thought you might. As far as I’m concerned, it’s yours. I don’t know how long the legal wrangling will take, but have your lawyers write something up, and I’ll sign it. When it’s all over, the land is yours.”

Jack stood. “What about the rest of that property?” he asked. “It’s nearly a whole section. You’re not going to sell it, are you? There is still the potential for someone to come in and develop the mountainside.”

Helman nodded. “True. So here’s my idea—we put it in trust for the people of Hawaii—under the Homestead Act, or wild lands, I don’t care. Whatever works. Make up a local citizens committee to decide.”

The Ho’omalus nodded, and Tina turned to beam at Jack as proudly as if he were her son. When he sat down again, Lalei gave him a big kiss on his warm, smooth cheek. “That’s my ku’u ipo.”

“Great question, Jack,” Bella added. “I wouldn’t have thought of that until it was too late to ask.”

Lalei smiled proudly at her. But her gaze was caught by movement on the other side of the aisle. Harland, disheveled and pale, was glaring at Jack. Lalei clutched Jack protectively, shaken by the raw hate in the other man’s eyes. Benton had risen to his feet and was moving away along the aisle. Lalei felt a pang of pity for him—she hoped he didn’t lose too much money on this.

Darien Helman cleared his throat. “I have one final thing I’d like to say to the Ho’omalu family. I know…there is a history between our families. All of my siblings seem to have been driven by the same love I feel for Hawaii, only theirs was twisted—as only Helmans can do—into the urge to destroy what they couldn’t possess.”

“I want you to know I share none of their urges,” he said to the Ho’omalus. “I grieve for their deaths, but more for the children I knew than for the adults they became. And I’m deeply sorry for the trouble they caused you.”

Homu rose. “Mr. Helman, the difference between you and the rest of your ohana is very clear to everyone. We cannot change our birth, but we can determine the kind of people we become. You are a good man. We are proud to have you on our island. And for everything you have done here, mahalo. From my family and from the people of Hawaii.”

“Mahalo,” chorused Lalei along with the rest of her family.

Outside in the courtyard, the Ho’omalus lingered to chat. Everyone wanted to thank Darien Helman and Kay Iolani again.

Jack was in the center of it all, somewhat to his amazement. The Ho’omalus seemed to consider him a crucial part of their victory. He tried at first to demur, but they would have none of it.

“Wasn’t for you, we’d have missed the property overlap,” David said with his trademark glowing smile. “You did good, brah.” He moved on to shake hands with Darien Helman.

Jack looked around and found Lalei waiting behind him, smiling at him—a real smile, with her heart in her eyes. He turned, reaching for her.

Only to see her eyes widen with horror as someone tackled him, striking his shoulder with a solid blow that knocked him sideways against the huge metal sculpture in the middle of the courtyard. His back struck the flat metal with a force that shocked a whoosh of air from him, and the side of his head rang the metal like a dull gong. It echoed inside his skull, rolling in a wave of pain.

Lalei screamed his name.

“
You bastard
.” It was Mike Harland, his hands fisted in Jack’s shirt. “
You
did this—you ruined everything, all over again.”

He was crying, his face red and wet as a furious baby’s. He shoved Jack again. “You’re out to get me, you smug bastard. Think you’ve got it all, don’t you? Well, now you’ve made me lose it all. Yeah, Choy told me you’re the one behind all this. My wife is going to leave me, d’you hear me? And it’s your fault. All of it.”

This last jolted Jack out of the shock of being physically attacked. Thrusting his arms between them, he got his feet under him, grabbed the smaller man by his shirt front and pushed him away, holding him there.

“
Listen,
” he roared, cutting through Harland’s litany of self-pity. “I didn’t do any of this to you, you stupid little shit. You did it all to yourself. Choy was playing you—using you to hurt me. But all you’re doing is hurting yourself.”

Behind Harland, Daniel and David loomed, scowling. He shook his head at them, and they stopped a few steps away. Around them, the others waited, hushed.

“You’ve been making bad choices, Mike,” Jack told Harland, shaking him. “You think I don’t know what that feels like? Well, I do. But you screwed around with other people’s business, their money. And you got caught, so now you pay. It’s that simple.”

He let go of the man, shaking his head in pity and disgust. “Now go on, go back to your hotel and have a few drinks, cry in ’em. And then start thinking about what you’re going to do with the rest of your life. It’s not going away just because you screwed this up.”

Behind him on the courthouse steps, Jack caught sight of Benton Choy. He stood watching, a smirk on his face.

With an inarticulate cry of rage, Harland came for him again, this time with his hands clawed for Jack’s face. So much for being civil. Jack let his right hand clench into the fist it craved, and with all his anger and disgust behind it, he punched Harland solidly in the face. Bone and muscle struck flesh with a dull smack.

The man’s eyes crossed. He swayed for a moment and then went down like a felled tree, hitting the concrete walkway. No one moved to catch him.

Lalei ran to Jack, patting him anxiously. “Baby, are you okay?”

He shook his head in disgust. “I’m all right.” His fist ached, but he wasn’t going to admit that—sounded wussy. He flexed it surreptitiously behind his back.

“Good.” She glared down at the man sprawled on the ground. “Can I make it rain on him, please?”

Jack peered at her. She wasn’t kidding. He started to laugh as he slipped his arm around her. “No, you can’t. I don’t want to get wet.”

“Okay.” She looked up into his face. “You were right, you know. What you told him. It’s all about the choices we make.”

Jack turned his head and found Choy, still watching. Over Lalei’s head, Jack smiled at him this time, holding her closer. “That’s right, baby.” Choy gave him one last glare and turned away.

“Damn straight,” David said over Lalei’s shoulder. “It’s our choices, brah.”

“Mahalo,” Jack said to both of them. “For this greeting-card moment. Now can we go home?”

David grinned. “Yeah. Now we can go home. Come on, everybody.”

“Oh. What about him?” Jack looked down at the wreck of what could have been a good Realtor. Harland groaned and lifted one hand woozily to his face, now covered with blood streaming from his nose.

“Let them take care of him,” Daniel growled, jerking his chin at the TropicSun lawyers exiting the courtroom after Choy.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Jack said. “They probably kill their wounded. Hold on, I’ll call a cab for him to take him back to his hotel.”

“We’ll take care of him,” Darien Helman said, stepping forward with Kay Iolani. He squatted beside Harland. “In a way, he’s my family’s mess.”

“Hopefully the last one you’ll have to clean up,” his partner said, shaking her head. But she opened her purse to hand him a bunch of tissues.

Lalei tugged on Jack’s arm. “Come on, Jack. Everyone’s waiting for us.”

“Mahalo,” Jack said to Helman and his partner. Then he followed the Ho’omalus away from the courthouse. He wasn’t sure if the guy would be fine, or not. But only Harland could determine that.

The flight back to Kona that evening was very different. The big helicopter flew into the sunset over the island. Lalei gazed down at the Big Island, the green, verdant folds of land limned in the misty gold of sunset, topped with the gray, smoking crater of the volcano, her heart full of joy.

Around her, the family sat peacefully, watching the scenery. And beside her sat the man she loved and admired. He was a good man—he even cared about someone who hated and envied him.

From their seat in the last row, Jack pointed at a segment of rainbow glimmering among a cluster of clouds, and she smiled with him.

“Glad you’re in a good mood,” he said in her ear. “The flight home yesterday was a little rough.”

She wrinkled her nose at him. “That wasn’t me, haole boy. Just Kona winds.”

He chuckled, that low, dirty sound in his throat. “Blow
me
,” he begged.

She swatted him, laughing. But she squirmed in her seat at the thought of taking him in her mouth, of having him at her mercy that way.

“Oh God,” he muttered. “You’ve never done that either, have you?”

She shook her head. Then she gave him the little smirk she knew drove him crazy. “But I’m a very fast learner.”

He groaned and reached surreptitiously for the front of his loose shirt, pulling it lower over his groin. “Are we there yet?”

Keeping a careful eye on the profiles of her cousins in the rows ahead, Lalei shifted in her seat and laid her hand on his hard thigh. “You just watch the scenery, haole boy, and we’ll be home in no time.”

He let her cop one feel of him. He was long and thick under her fingers. But he captured her wandering hand in his, pulling it safely onto his thigh, and gave her a look. “Oh, no you don’t. You’re not torturing me all the way home. I should’ve spanked your gorgeous ass when I had the chance.”

“Ooh, I’m scared,” she taunted, batting her eyes at him. “Maybe you could give me what I deserve when we get back to Nawea.”

“I plan to,” he promised. “After you give me what I deserve, with those smartass, virgin lips of yours. Your mouth makes me want to do dirty things, Ms.
Lah
-lei.”

She ran her tongue over her lower lip, watching him watch her. “My mouth is watering.”

He didn’t exactly whimper, but the sound was as close as a big, strong man got. That was only fair when her panties were soaked with arousal.

Somehow they survived the ride from the Kona airport to Nawea and even managed to exit the SUV and act casual as they wandered off into the trees instead of into the house, although Lalei wasn’t sure they managed to fool anyone. Daniel winked at her, and she saw Malu grinning.

Down in the deep shadows of the trees with the surf washing at their feet and the breeze rustling in the leaves overhead, they stopped by their special rock. Jack pulled her into his arms and kissed her hard, his lips fastening on hers, his tongue slipping into her mouth to taste her and tangle with hers. She kissed him back, glorying in his taste and heat, in his strong arms around her, his hands stroking her.

But when he moved her back against the rock, she broke free of the kiss, shaking her head. “No, me first.”

He stroked his hand up under her skirt, his fingers reaching for the lace of her panties. “Baby, I want inside you—bad. And I know you’re wet for me.”