Her Hawaiian Homecoming (Mills & Boon Superromance) (4 page)

Allie, safe and in one piece, focused on the water beyond them, her eyebrow furrowed.

“Listen,” she urged him. Dallas did as he was told. First, he heard nothing, and then came a distant
plink.

Could be nearly anything. A chair leg hitting an exposed pipe, maybe. A chain caught in the water, banging against a car bumper. The sound was far away and hard to place.

“I think we should check it out,” Allie said.

Dallas figured why not—he’d checked the day-care center already and found nothing. He climbed back into the boat, and they went paddling farther down the debris field. It seemed as if they’d gone a long way before they heard another
plink
. This one, a little louder.

“Hello?” Allie’s voice echoed a bit in the dark night.

No one answered.

Dallas kept paddling until they heard another
plink.
They were getting closer. Finally, after a good ten minutes of rowing, the
plinks
came louder and more often.

“Hello?” Allie called. “Is that someone?”

The
plinks
came furiously, this time in response to Allie’s voice.

Allie and Dallas exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing: that nothing about the metal-on-metal sound was accidental.

After a little more distance, Dallas paused in rowing as the kayak glided through wooden debris. “Hello?” he called this time. The metal
plinks
came once more, louder.

“There!” Allie directed the light at a car, floating tires up. A man, his back to them, clung to the front fender.

Dallas sped up the paddling. They turned the corner and saw Kai, clinging desperately to the car, a bleeding cut across his forehead.

“Kai!” Allie shouted, putting down the light and leaning forward. “Kai! Are you all right?”

Kai turned, opening a bleary eye. “I’ve been better,” he half croaked, his voice raw and hoarse. “I think my leg’s broken.”

Dallas glanced down and saw his friend was right: his leg seemed oddly disjointed, and he floated in a pink cloud of blood.

“We have to get you out of there.”

“Don’t worry about me. Is Po all right?”

“Po?”

Kai pointed to the top of the floating car. There, a little boy lay. He looked no older than three or four. He sat up, holding a small metal pipe, which he’d been clanking against the car’s muffler.

“Hey, are you all right?” Allie asked the little boy, who nodded, his almond-shaped eyes wide and serious.

“That’s my buddy,” Kai said. “You did it, pal. Good job with the pipe.” Kai grinned, but he looked pale. Dallas glanced around, looking for something that might act as a floating stretcher. A commercial refrigerator, like the kind filled with soda at the convenience store, bobbed nearby. He saw a few plastic bottles of soda and some broken shelves lined the bottom along with a little water. The tsunami had ripped off the original glass door at the hinges. Amazed at the force of the wave yet again, he grabbed the refrigerator by the closest edge, pulling it toward them.

“Allie, help me empty this,” he said.

She turned and got to work, pitching bottles of Coke overboard and pieces of shelves. They were nearly done when the sound of debris smacking together made Allie turn, shining her light in the distance about a hundred feet.

“The shark’s back!” she cried, voice high, her light on the tip of the tiger shark’s fin. She caught it for a split second before it dipped silently below the surface. “Dallas!”

“It’s not going to have you as a snack,” Dallas promised Kai, whose grip tightened on the car.

Po, on top of the car, whined anxiously. “Shark!” he cried, pointing and looking scared.

“Don’t worry. We’ll get you, okay?” Allie said. “Just sit tight.”

“Give me your hand, Kai.” Dallas was already reaching out, trying to pull Kai into the open case. The first time, the case nearly tipped over, and Kai fell back in the water. They tried twice more, failing each time.

Furiously, Allie shone her light back and forth, trying to find the shark. “I can’t find it, Dallas. I can’t find the shark.” Panic laced her words.

“Something brushed me,” Kai murmured, trying to keep calm. “Something big.”

Allie shone her light frantically, but all she illuminated was blue water.

Dallas knew it was now or never. The shark, drawn by the blood from Kai’s leg, circled beneath the waves, trying to decide if Kai was worth a bite.

“Come on!” he cried. With one mighty heave, Dallas pulled, and Kai shouted in pain as his broken leg came out of the water. He thumped into the open refrigerator case just as Allie shouted, “There!” Her spotlight caught the fin of the shark, sweeping so close to the kayak its tail nearly slapped the boat. Dallas grabbed some rope from the storage compartment of the kayak and tied the case to the back of the boat.

“That was close. Too close,” Kai said, leaning his head back on the edge of the refrigerator. “Your turn, Po.”

Allie shone the light on the shark as it disappeared underwater again.

The little boy sat on the floating car, shivering, his eyes wide with fear. He’d seen the shark, and the stubborn line of his chin said the last thing he wanted to do was go near the water or in a small kayak.

“Come in, buddy. Come in here with me. It’ll be okay.” Kai tried to coax the boy off the car and into the refrigerator case, but the boy didn’t want to budge. Suddenly, Allie reached into the pocket of her sundress and pulled out a piece of mango candy from Teri’s shop.

“Hey, Po. Do you like mango candy?” The boy’s eyes grew bright with excitement. “You can have
all
these pieces. Just let Kai help you.”

The boy studied the sweets in Allie’s hand. Then he glanced warily at the water. Eventually, he made his choice and hopped into the case with Kai. Allie handed the boy the small bunch of candy, and he swiped it eagerly, ripping open his first piece.

“Good thinking,” Dallas told Allie with approval as he started to paddle them away from the car.

“How’d you find me?” Kai asked.

“I came as soon as Jesse called, telling us you weren’t answering your phone.”

“Lost my phone as soon as the first wave hit.” Kai grimaced as he shifted his weight, trying to get comfortable. “I’d left the beach, packed up my board and was on my way when I drove by the day care to check on my cousin’s daughter, Reese, and saw a bus full of kids and a frantic preschool teacher. The bus driver was arguing with her that they had to go and was threatening to leave her. I stopped, and that’s when she told me Po was missing. Turns out, he’d run off across the street to the gas station. He thought he saw his mom’s car.”

Kai ruffled Po’s hair.

“I sent the bus along, promised the teacher I’d look for Po, and she, in a panic, left,” Kai said. “I found him at the gas station, wandering around, not even crying. He’s one tough kid.” He ruffled Po’s hair. “But then I saw the water come. We ran to the day-care center, headed upstairs. The first wave shook the building and knocked the power out and tossed some furniture around, including a pretty heavy snack refrigerator. That’s what broke my leg. The second and third waves were really bad, and the third washed us out of the second floor completely. That’s when we ended up outside.”

Po blinked at Kai, a big black mud smudge across his nose, dirt and mud the only signs he’d been in a tsunami at all. “Po can swim, let me tell you. He’s a surfer in the making. He rode that third wave as if he was meant to be there.” Kai ruffled the boy’s jet-black hair again. The boy smiled. “I tried to stay close to the day-care center. We spent a lot of time swimming to it, but my leg made for slow going. I knew Jesse would send someone there if she didn’t hear from me, and I figured it was our best shot. Plus, Po here said they keep a big thing of goldfish crackers and apple juice boxes in the top shelf upstairs in the snack room, and we were getting hungry, weren’t we, Po?”

The boy nodded sharply.

“Did you see any other survivors?” Kai asked them.

“No,” Dallas said softly, thinking of the man who didn’t make it.

Kai whistled. “There were still cars on the street when it hit.” He shook his head, solemn. Everyone in the boat grew silent as Dallas paddled, and the only sound for a while was the plastic oar dipping in and out, dripping salt water. After what seemed like forever, they got back to the sparking signal light not too far from where they’d parked.

“You doing all right, Po?” Allie asked the little one, who was busy chewing on the sticky candy. The boy nodded furiously. When they finally got to the shoreline, Dallas saw the water was farther from the truck than he remembered. The floodwaters were receding, slowly but surely. Allie helped Dallas pull the kayak up and dragged the floating refrigerator case to the shore, which took some doing. Once safe from the water, Dallas backed up his truck, bed side facing Kai, so that all they’d have to do was lift him a short ways. Dallas held one of his arms and Allie held the other, and together they lifted him to the truck bed, where they laid him down. The effort caused him quite a bit of pain, and he grunted as he slid down on the metal, his face going pale. Dallas glanced at the wound, wishing he knew enough first aid to help, but didn’t as he stared at the leg, clearly bent the wrong way. The bone had broken the skin, and blood dripped down. All in all, Dallas didn’t like the look of the leg, not one bit.

“We’ve got to get him to the hospital,” Allie said. “Where’s the closest one?”

“Kona Community Hospital,” Dallas said as he swung himself in the driver’s seat. Allie helped Po into the cab of the pickup, but he wanted to turn around and stare at Kai through the window. Kai gave him a “hang loose” sign, and the boy mirrored it. Dallas handed Allie his phone. “Call Jesse, would you? Tell her what’s happened.”

Allie pulled up his contacts and dialed while Dallas drove through the roads that were far enough from the water that they were left largely undamaged.

“Jesse? It’s Allie. We’ve got good news and bad...” Allie began.

Dallas tuned the rest out. He had to focus on driving. A few streetlights were out, making intersections treacherous. Not many people were on the roads, but enough were, and he hadn’t planned to save Kai just to get in a car accident. He glanced in his rearview, watching the bobbing head of Kai against the back window, hoping his friend was all right. Kai looked way too pale and weak. He’d lost a lot of blood.

“Okay, Jesse. We’ll meet you there.” Allie ended the call. “She’s on her way,” Allie told Dallas, who just nodded.

After easing through a blinking red light and down the street, Dallas saw where most of the people were: the hospital parking lot. Cars and trucks were parked in every available space. Without an alternative, Dallas pulled close to the emergency room entrance, the spot where an ambulance had already stopped, and put on his parking lights. He went into the ER to see if he could get help, and found chaos instead: gurneys and beds lining the hallways, patients overflowing into the waiting area. He grabbed a nurse in blue scrubs and tried to explain what they had, and she hurried out the door with him and a wheelchair.

Together, all three of them got Kai out of the truck and into the hospital. She took one look at the leg and whisked him straight through the people waiting in the hallway. Dallas didn’t take that as a good sign at all. He noticed Kai had turned even paler, and worried again about how much blood he’d lost floating in that water.

“I’m taking him in to see a doctor,” the nurse said as she pushed him through the automatic sliding doors of the interior room of the ER. “Wait here, please.”

She held up a hand, leaving Allie, Po and Dallas standing in the hallway.

“Kai!” Po called. The boy’s bottom lip quivered, as if he might cry.

Well, now what?
he wondered.

Allie put her arm around the boy’s shoulders, gently guiding him away from the closed doors. “Come on, Po. Let’s see if we can find a snack machine.”

He looked at her in wonder as she calmly but decisively distracted Po from what would have no doubt been a huge, heart-twisting fit. She seemed to have a magic touch.