Rolling in the Deep: Hawaiian Heroes, Book 2 (19 page)

Tina nodded serenely. “Our
mo’olelo
, our legends, tell us that Pele walked across the sea before time began, in search of a home. When she found these seas, she called forth her fire and began to forge a dwelling place.” Her voice deepened, her face mysterious in the flickering firelight.

“Now she is weary from her labors, and she rests in her mountain. But at times she rises and comes forth to see how her home is faring. She walks in fire. Her path spills before her to the sea, and her footsteps leave a trail as black as night and hard as the lava with which she builds. And when her
a’a
reaches the sea, it rolls on into the deep. Then we Hawaiians know she is going to visit her younger brother, Kanaloa.”

Claire realized she was holding her breath and let it out with a soft gasp. Tina turned her head to look at her, and Claire froze.

Homu laughed, an easy, comforting sound. “My wife talks story very well, yeah?”

Claire relaxed. Ghost stories around the campfire, a tradition as old as time.

A black shape moved beyond the light of the tiki torches. Daniel Ho’omalu, silhouetted against the sea’s pewter sheen as he walked up out of the water. As Claire watched, he reached down to adjust himself in his shorts. She leaned her face on her knees, hiding her guilty giggle. He’d been for a swim, washing himself and his shorts in the sea. At least, being a woman, she hadn’t had to worry about that.

He turned and looked back at the group around the fire. She gazed back, yearning and resentment tangling inside her. He was like a half-wild creature, skirting the intimacy of the group, proud, even arrogant in his independence. But, was it only her imagination or did he look lonely standing there by his ocean?

Half of her wanted to go to him, resume their fiery embrace. But the other half remembered the determination with which he’d pushed her away until today, and the woman he’d been with after the wedding. Nope, she was not running into his arms like a silly romance heroine of old, not again. Daniel Ho’omalu had some ’splaining to do.

When the others rose to leave the fire, Frank picked up a small shovel to douse the coals. Claire stayed curled in her lounger. Then Daniel walked up from the beach, and her attention was riveted on him as he spoke quietly to Frank. Frank nodded and headed up to the house.

Daniel looked at her across the embers of the fire, his face lit with a red-gold glow. She shivered with mixed pleasure and resentment. So must his ancestors have gazed at their women, claiming them with a look that spoke of needs banked like the fire, to burn in the night.

“Why did you…kiss me and hold me like that?” she asked him.

He poked the fire, a spark flying up between them to disappear in the dark sky. “Why’d you let me?”

She watched as he carefully shoveled sand over part of the embers. She could lie and say he’d manhandled her into submission, or she could tell the truth. She didn’t hide from it with others; she refused to with him. “Because…I wanted you to.”

He met her gaze, heat arcing across the space between them. “Same here, tita.”

A smile tugged at her lips, but she frowned, remembered hurt clogging her throat. “You don’t even like me.”

“I like you,” he said quietly.

“But you don’t want to.”

He shoveled more sand, the embers nearly covered. His next words nearly broke her. “No, I don’t.”

“Why?” It was a cry from the heart. “Is it because of that other woman? And who is she to you? If she’s your girl—oh, excuse me,
woman
—friend, you and I are not happening, so you can stop your…your flirting, or whatever it is.”

He looked across at her, just enough light to illumine the glitter in his eyes, the tensing of his body. And nothing could hide the emotion in his deep voice. “That’s all she is—a friend. Someone who can handle what I need. ’Cause I am who I am, tita. I’m not one of your nice college boys. I’m not my brother, or my cousin. I’m a rough kanaka from dis island.”

“So? I’m not Melia or Bella, either. I’m a tough girl from a rough fishing town.”

He chuckled, a low sound in his chest. “Yeah, you showed today you’re tougher than I thought. Tita—a mean wahine who’ll beef wit anyone who gets all up in her face.”

A last shovelful of sand fell on the fire, and the darkness was complete. Except that now the night came to life around them—the light of the stars winking between the clouds, the faint silver sheen of the sea and the glimmer of lights from the house above.

“So, you’ve been all up in my face,” she murmured. “You done with that, or do I have to hurt you?”

Her words hung in the soft air, her blushes hidden in the shadows. Couldn’t he see that who he was, was so overwhelmingly gorgeous and sexy? Why would he think he was unattractive to her, especially with his tsunami-force lovemaking? Gawd, it made her knees melt just remembering.

“Think you could?”

“You’re damn right I could. So you’d better watch yourself, Ho’omalu.”

“Then Pele watch over us both,” he muttered.

Chapter Eleven

Sunday, June 16
^th

Frank was firing up the motor of his little fishing boat when Daniel came across the lawn the next morning. Dawn tinted the eastern sky a faint pearly lavender, while a bank of puffy clouds built in the west.

Frank nodded good morning. “Your
makua kāne
is coming out with us.”

Daniel turned to see his father walking down across the lawn, carrying a small cooler, a jacket over his shirt and shorts. He handed a cooler to Frank.

“
Aloha kakahiaka
,
good morning,” he said. “Breakfast from Leilani.”

“
Makuahini hiamoe?
” Daniel asked wryly. “Mother’s still asleep?”

Homu chuckled. Tina hated getting up early. If her husband and sons wanted to go fishing, they were on their own for breakfast.

Daniel usually loved early mornings, but this morning he was short on sleep, his head aching. He’d lain awake for a long time in his huge bed, staring into the shadows of his bedroom. Somewhere in the long night, he had come to terms with the realization that Claire was his version of kula—a temptation he could not resist. He thirsted for her as he did for the waters of his native ocean, and until he lost himself in her, he would find no peace from the desire that surged through his veins.

He’d been so close to taking it all the way on the lanai. He’d had her in his arms, his hands full of her ass and his tongue halfway down her throat. A good thing they’d been interrupted, or he would have done even more than dry hump her by an open window with family and friends inside, deaf and blind with lust.

But he’d also finally realized something else, something that eased the dread accompanying his need. She hadn’t run or even tried to. She’d pushed him away, yeah, but only after she’d come apart in his arms, whimpering into his mouth, and only because her friend was on the verge of finding them mauling each other. Before that, she’d been hanging on to him like an octopus, her arms wrapped around his neck. He’d shivered as he remembered the way she’d dug her nails into his skin, sweet pain. When she’d sucked on his tongue, his imagination had shot straight to imagining her sucking on his cock the same way. He’d come like a high school kid getting to second base with his date.

Maybe…just maybe, it could work between them. At least long enough for a hot few days and nights. At least he knew he wouldn’t break her, not after her demonstration with Zane. He grinned at the memory, imagining trying some wrestling moves with her in the waters of his little bay.

Homu clambered into the boat, and Daniel yanked his attention back to his surroundings. Better get his mind back on the task at hand, or he’d have to dive in and cool off instead of going fishing. He cast off the mooring lines and stepped into the boat, pushing away from the dock with his back foot. The two older men settled into the captain’s chairs, Daniel on a small rear seat.

Frank reversed expertly and turned the small craft, piloting out through the gap in the reef. The water was a ghostly silver, shading to lavender to the east around the southern point of the island. He kept their speed slow until they were safely away from the reef, and then pushed the throttle forward. The little boat nosed down and sped through the gentle waves, headed into the dawn.

Like Daniel, Frank wore a cotton sweatshirt over his usual tank top and shorts, a baseball cap pulled down tight on his head.

“Coffee?” Frank indicated the thermal mugs in the holder on the dash. “Got some breakfast sandwiches in the cooler.”

“Thanks.” Daniel took the mug his father handed him, took a drink of strong, hot coffee, and settled back, enjoying the sensation of being the only humans about this early. They rode in companionable silence for several moments until Frank slowed the boat and turned on his Loran Fishfinder.

Daniel helped him rig the fishing lines with bait, and they settled back to eat fried-egg-and-bacon sandwiches. The air was still, only an occasional seabird whisking by to break the silence. The sun began to break over Mauna Loa, the air turning golden, the water glinting as if it were molten.

“Talked to one of my friends in the Coast Guard yesterday,” Frank said. “That yacht,
Hypnautique
? You’re not gonna believe who owns her.”

The hair on the back of Daniel’s neck stood up. Frank smiled humorlessly. “CalTrend Corporation, a fully owned subsidiary of Helman Corporation.”

“
Hemolele pāna’i,
” Daniel said. “Holy hell.” He’d been right. And he wished with a sudden black rage that he’d been wrong. Because the enemy had indeed sailed once more into Hawaiian waters. And they could not be allowed to stay or to survive.

Frank nodded. “Pretty much.” He looked at the electronic screen hooked to his dash. “Ah, here’s a few nice big ones.”

As if he’d summoned it, one of the short fiberglass fishing rods bowed, the line going taut. Frank jumped to his feet and grabbed the rod, pulling it from the rod holder to crank the reel.

Soon they were hauling a struggling ono into the boat. Daniel smacked the long fish over the head, killing it instantly, and opened the cooler for Frank to lower it in. The silvery length reached both ends.

“Mahalo, Kanaloa,” Homu murmured. Daniel nodded.

“Can’t help but wonder why Denas Helman would come on vacation to the place where his brother died so recently,” Frank said as he finished baiting the hooks again, and stood to pay out the line into the water.

“Perhaps he wanted to mourn at the place of his brother’s death,” Homu said mildly.

Daniel met his father’s gaze, both certain they knew why Denas was here. The Helmans hadn’t gotten to where they were without sticking to their goals. They wanted to bring their Kona Kula into Hawaii, and they would not stop until they’d done it.

Also, Daniel suspected the younger Helman might have another motive now. Stefan Helman had died on this island while attempting to smuggle drugs. The police had ruled it an accident, caused by the party straying onto a fault line over an old lava tube. But since the Helmans were by vocation thieves and murderers, it was natural that they should suspect foul play in the death of their brother and his men.

Daniel knew that if a Ho’omalu had died in the Helmans’ territory, the other Ho’omalus would leave no stone unturned in an effort to learn exactly what had happened and wreak revenge on anyone who’d caused the death.

“Mourning might be part of it,” Frank said dubiously. “But I heard from my cop friends that the Helmans also threatened to sue the state and the county. Their high-priced lawyers cooked up some damn scheme about wrongful death, negligence, something like that.”

Daniel snorted. “Wouldn’t be the first lawsuit like that.” Visitors came to Hawaii for the wild beauty, but then many seemed to expect the locals to protect them from every hazard as they clambered down steep trails and played in the ocean.

“Yeah, but da Helmans’ law dogs could make some real trouble, if they go through with this,” Frank said. “They’re one of the biggest firms on da West Coast. Made their name savaging anyone who gets in their client’s way, even the government.”

Daniel scowled as he gazed at the sea. Yet another ugly hole in the net he must use to catch these po’inos. He’d hoped to cook up an excuse to get the police or Coast Guard onto the yacht, but he could imagine what the Helmans would have to say about police harassing them ‘on vacation’.

No, the Helmans were not only suspicious but still intent on their foul purpose. And since their suspicions were dead on, Daniel now had to do everything in his power to prevent them from learning the truth, and taking their revenge on Hawaii.

And he had to do it alone, or with his family’s help.

The three men caught two more fish, giving Daniel and his father each a turn to reel one in. Then Frank turned the boat back toward the island.

“Drop me off in Kailua Harbor?” Daniel asked. He needed to get to work. Frank’s sonar had given him an idea. Maybe he couldn’t call the Coast Guard yet, but there was nothing to stop him from using another tack. If he kept his head in the game, maybe he could find the “hard bad”, destroy it and get the Helmans the hell off his island by the time David and Melia got back from their honeymoon.

Frank nodded. “Sure. You gonna drive back out?”

“I’m bringing da
Nui
back out.”

Frank grinned. “The big tita, yeah?”

Daniel nodded, resigned to the older man’s amusement.

The trip to Kona-Kailua was fast. They bounced along, none of them minding the rough motion of the little boat on the waves. Daniel scanned the western sky with the eye of a native. Rain clouds moving in from the sea for a typical Kona late afternoon shower—nothing to worry about. It would be a fairly calm day.

Kona Town basked in the humid midmorning, the waterfront esplanade already thronged with tourists, vehicles inching along the streets between the crowds on the walkways.

A cruise ship floated offshore, her massive white bulk looming against the western sky, dwarfing the smaller boats in the harbor. A tender chugged in toward the pier, full of day-trippers coming to shop.