The Spy Who Left Me (19 page)

If Ty hadn’t known better, he would have suspected she’d been trying to get pregnant without telling him. But that was crazy. They’d always been honest with each other about their relationship. They didn’t keep secrets like that from each other. She would have told him.

He dismissed the very idea. It was more likely watching her friends and coworkers having babies that had sparked her sudden maternal urges.

She filed for divorce. And he left. If only he could find out what had happened, he could make it right. Fix it. That’s what he did, fix things. Save the world. So why couldn’t he save his own marriage?

In the meantime, he had an opportunity to show her what she was missing and giving up. Sometimes what he thought he really needed was a geomarital analyst to tell him where they’d gone wrong.

Women were too complex. Ty preferred the straightforward nature of his other mission—stopping Hal from delivering the real Pinpoint Project to RIOT.

Part of the intel for the Pinpoint models came from the Air Force Maui Operations Observatory, or AMOS, located at the crest of Haleakala. With practically no light pollution, Haleakala was the perfect spot for an observatory, and it housed the Department of Defense’s largest telescope.

Hal had been assigned to go to AMOS and collect the data, see how operations ran, and assess how to use this data in the new tool. Not only did Pinpoint predict enemy actions, but if it fell into enemy hands, it could be used to predict the location of American submarines, battleships, satellites, even drones, with pinpoint precision.

Unfortunately, Hal did more than his job while in Maui. He was busily selling the Pinpoint Project off a piece at a time to RIOT, using the Fuk Ching as an intermediary.

The State Department wanted the whole ring caught red-handed. Time was running out. Saturday was fast approaching. And now Hal had real data to pass on.

Ty was supposed to expect a drop—a nonvolatile secure digital extended-capacity memory card, SDXC card, with altered data and falsified code—from an air force officer during the crowded sunrise viewing at Haleakala’s summit. Somehow Ty had to switch it for the drive Hal planned to sell.

That’s where Tref came into the plan. Ty was going to use her to get to Hal. But she wasn’t going to like playing Bond girl.

Greg pulled the Auau van into a parking lot at the base of the volcano and turned the engine off. A van and trailer from the bicycle touring company waited to take them to the top of the mountain. From here, Greg would drive around to the campsite near Hana and set up. Ty would stay with the women, meet his contact, and escort the women on their ride down the switchback roads of Haleakala to Baldwin Beach Park in Paia. At the park, he’d pick up a rental van and drive the women to Hana.

In a secluded pool beneath a waterfall near Hana, he planned to seduce his wife.

*   *   *

Treflee woke when they made the transfer to the Exciting Maui Bicycle Adventures van. Groggily, she decided she didn’t want an adventure. She wanted a sunrise stroll on the beach. She could have gotten up nearly three hours later and just walked across the lawn to the beach for it.

It was still dark. Settled into her new seat, she wanted to go back to sleep, but the twisting switchbacks and narrow road made her too nervous and carsick. She stared straight ahead instead.

Half an hour later, they wound up Haleakala Crater Road and came to a stop at the second visitors’ center, the one at nearly ten thousand feet. The parking lot was filling quickly.

Keoni, their beefy Exciting Adventure guide, looked more like a football center than a cyclist. He opened the van door and ushered them out. “
Aloha.
Welcome to Haleakala!”

Carrie scanned the thickening crowd. “It’s getting busy already.”

Keoni looked around and shrugged. “Eh, no more than usual. Don’t worry. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. The horizon’s a large stage.”

Carrie didn’t seem reassured. Without waiting for Treflee to get out, she, Carla, Faye, Brandy, and Laci headed toward the viewing spot.

Treflee was last out of the van. Ty gave her a hand out and hung on too long. “Still remember how to flirt?” he whispered.

“Barely.” She wanted to goad him.

“Give it the old college try.” He leaned in and kissed her neck.

“Stop it.” Ignoring the tingles running down her spine, she pushed him away. “The others will see.”

Moot really. Carrie and company were already elbowing their way to the front of the crowd, vying for a spot on the edge of the crater.

“Come on.” He took her hand. Without pushing or shoving, he led her through the crowd to a spot by the visitors’ center right in front of the railing that kept visitors from the crater and stood behind her.

Ty was good. He knew how to invade enemy territory and personal space while looking oh so innocent. As the crowd grew and pressed in behind him, he pressed up against her. Despite the chill in the air, and being bundled in a sweatshirt and baggy bike shorts, she was aware of his body heat and the familiar posture of his body protecting hers. Ty always made her feel safe.

As the sky turned from gray to light blue, Ty’s arms were suddenly around her.

On the far horizon, the edges against earth turned slowly pink, then deep red. To the Hawaiians this was sacred. The crowd of hundreds grew silent. A park ranger began performing the
mele oli,
a melodic, ceremonial chant to welcome the sun and the day, as the sky above grew bluer and the sky below turned orange then golden.

“Here comes the sun,” Ty whispered in her ear just as the tip of the golden sun peeked above the mountain.

It lit the clouds above orange, pink, and gold. As it warmed the earth, ground fog rushed down the sides of the crater and into the bowl. The sun shone through the fog, throwing shafts of sunlight vertically through it.

It was hard not to get caught up in nature’s spectacle. Hard not to feel that something large, profound, and eternal was happening. Hard not to feel all alone in the crowd. Treflee’s eyes stung with the emotion of it all.

She’d never seen a sunrise so beautiful or pristine before. Sunrise on the top of a volcano.

As the sun rose fully to the point where it sat in the bowl of Haleakala, Treflee couldn’t take the feeling of insignificance and loneliness. She leaned back into Ty.

He lifted her hair from her neck and kissed it.

This was peace and heaven.

“Awesome,” she whispered.

“Oh, babe,” he cooed into her ear.

The sun climbed higher, lighting everything on fire. With Ty holding her, Treflee felt the fire, too. Everything felt right. Maybe it was right. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe Ty did care. Maybe they
were
soul mates. Maybe what he gave her was enough.

She turned in his arms to face him, looked up at him, deep into his eyes, to see if he felt it, too. His eyes sparkled. He tilted his head and leaned down to kiss her.

Her breath caught. She lifted her face to him. His insistent lips came down on hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck, closed her eyes, and opened her mouth to him.

Never in her life had she experienced anything like the thrill of kissing Ty on this volcano, in this communal place where heaven met earth, backlit by sunrise. Where her soul seemed to collide with his and she felt the full meaning of her wedding vows—she was one with him.

She wrapped a lock of his hair that fell down the back of his neck around her finger. Her tongue danced with his. He kissed her greedily. She couldn’t get enough of him.

She was lost in his kisses, so oblivious to the world around them that she was startled when someone jostled into them. Treflee’s eyes flew open in time to see a man clap Ty on the shoulder before moving on.

From her vantage point, she only got a fleeting look at the stranger as he blended with the crowd and disappeared.

Ty put one hand in his jacket pocket.

And then it hit her. He was checking for something. This was all a setup, a drop he’d carefully planned. Kissing her at the spiritual moment of sunrise was probably the signal all was clear to proceed. The guy, a fellow spy, had bumped into him and placed something in his pocket.

Even here, in this pristine, sacred place, Ty was working. And working her. She pulled away from his kiss.

Now that the sun was up, people began dispersing. Her awareness of her surroundings came back. The park ranger was telling people to come back and see the sunset or return to watch the stars. The park was open twenty-four hours. Very little light pollution up here. Lots of observatories. The Air Force Maui Observatory was even here. Very important air force spot. Largest telescope the air force owns. No, you can’t take a tour. Top secret stuff there.

Air force installation? What a coincidence.

Treflee stared at Ty and whispered, “That was a drop, wasn’t it?”

When he didn’t answer, she shoved him away from her. “You’re always working. Always. Whenever I need you, even if it’s just to reach out and touch you so I know I’m not alone in the universe, you’re working. Was kissing me a signal?”

“Tref—”

“Can it.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “I know you’re pissed, but stay undercover or the deal’s off.”

Her heart raced. She wanted to slap him. Hard. Hurt him like he kept hurting her. She wanted that divorce. She
needed
that divorce so she could move on.

“That wasn’t the deal.” She hated the way her voice shook.

He reached out and stroked her cheek. “Look, I’m sorry. Is it so wrong to mix business and pleasure? Can’t a guy do both at once—save the free world and get the girl?”

He looked and sounded sincere and truly puzzled by her reaction.

She swallowed hard and took a deep breath.

He reached for her, stroked her chin, put his hand behind her head. “Kiss and make up?”

She stared at him.

“Don’t fight. People are watching,” he whispered as he leaned down and rested his forehead against hers.

“Fine.” She could pretend it didn’t matter. She could act as well as he could. She reached up and stroked his chin, then very gently kissed him on the lips as lightly as a butterfly landing on a flower.

Keoni yelled at them and waved them over. “Come and get it. Breakfast’s ready!”

She pulled away. “Great. I’m starving.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Keoni had set up a continental breakfast with tea and coffee in the back of the van. It was nearly six-thirty. The sun continued to put on a show, lighting up this cloud and that, changing the color scheme as it rose higher and higher toward daytime. From her volcano vantage point, Treflee felt almost as if she were free-falling above the clouds obscuring the body of the island. Her emotions were certainly on a downward slide.

Damn Ty for using her. She blinked back tears, trying to pretend they were the result of the emotional power of the sunrise. Soon the clouds would burn off, leading to another beautiful day in paradise. If only she could find a way to put Ty out of her mind and enjoy it.

Treflee had been so wrapped up in her thoughts, it wasn’t until she got close to the van that she noticed the group of Chinese people at the bicycle tour van next to theirs. The Chinese group lounged and breakfasted on bowls of runny porridge, dunking strange fried crullers in it as they talked and laughed. Their breakfast looked like something you might see in a bad Chinese remake of a Dickens movie. More gruel, sir, please!

But the Chinese gang ate with gusto, appearing content and excited. Maybe it was only her imagination, but they seemed poised on the brink of an adventure and happy about it.

This particular Chinese group was all handsome people between twenty and thirty-five or so, an even pairing of men and women. They wore identical black spandex bike pants, lightweight bright yellow windbreakers emblazoned with Chinese characters and a logo of a red dragon surrounded by a red swoosh that looked as if it had just been dashed off by an artist’s brushstroke, and matching yellow T-shirts. Just below the dragon logo were the English words “Chinese Adventures, Tailor-Made Experiences.”

Treflee recognized them at once as the Chinese wedding party from Mrs. Ho’s. Plus the words “sponsored by Sugar Love Plantation” printed on the backs of their jackets were a dead giveaway.

The whole group was a walking billboard.

It’s funny how initial perceptions taint observations. When she’d first seen the Chinese group milling and crowding around at Big Auau, she’d assumed they were bride and bridegroom, together with their bridal party. But now as she watched them, she was struck by how they each seemed paired off as couples, obvious couples. In love.

What a stark contrast to Carrie’s ex-bridal party. While some of Carrie’s girls may have been looking forward to a one-night stand with one of the groomsmen, they were all decidedly unattached.

Treflee frowned, perplexed, playing a game of “guess who’s the bride” to divert her thoughts from Ty and occupy herself as she helped herself to a Styrofoam cup of coffee and a coconut-cream-filled pastry.