The Spy Who Left Me (26 page)

Great, I’m the only one he doesn’t trust to bring home a clean pineapple mug!

Carrie insisted Treflee down a Dramamine before they got in the van.

Treflee humored her. “Satisfied?”

Carrie nodded and waved the girls into the van. Finally, the girls were all loaded up.

Grinning like an idiot, in a way that only made him more attractive and brought up her hackles of suspicion, Ty climbed into the van and opened the bag.

“Think fast!” He tossed a small box to each girl and watched their reaction times. Definitely impaired. Hopefully they’d sleep it off before they reached Hana.

“Heard you girls are on the lookout for Carrie’s ex. Thought these would help. Bonus—they’re great for scoping out the flesh on the beach. Very subtle.”

Carrie broke out laughing as Ty handed a box to Treflee.

“Hawaiian rearview spy glasses? ‘Check out the beach bodies and action behind you without drawing attention.’” Treflee arched a brow as she read the front of the box they came in. “You got these at the restaurant?”

He nodded. “Awesome, huh?”

Oh, the man is good.
He had a killer sense of humor.

“Funny, I didn’t see Bond’s gadget maker, Q, lurking about anywhere?”

He laughed. “He wouldn’t be much of a spy if you did, would he?”

She shook her head and leaned in to whisper, “Is that where you go for all your spy gadgets?”

He just grinned.

“‘Secretly see what’s going on behind you. For ages over five’” Treflee read aloud from the back of the box. “And look, they have UV filter lenses and flexible frames. Wow! High-tech.”

“Yeah, and they say Maui on them, too. Notice that?”

“Yeah, I did. Great camouflage for the vacationing spy. Blend right in with the other tourists and no one’s the wiser,” she quipped.

“Exactly!” He smiled and looked directly at the girls. “All the secret agents on the island use them.”

And then she couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing as she pulled hers out of the box. “Pink? Very subtle.”

“And girly,” he added.

Yeah. He knew pink was her fave. Nice of him to remember.

She put her glasses on and gave them a try. Hmmm, worked like a charm. She could watch Laci scowling at her with crystal clarity.

“Okay, let’s get this show on the road.” Ty started the engine. “We don’t want to be on the road in the dark.”

No, she didn’t want to be anywhere in the dark right now. Not after the vicious attack on the volcano. Funny how even though it had happened in daylight, dark still seemed scarier. Then there was the fact that being anywhere in the dark with Ty was dangerous business—to her heart.

They were off. One thing you could say about Ty—he drove smoothly. No sudden starts or stops, just fluid motion with the scenery humming by.

He should be smooth. He’d taken enough extreme driving school classes for half a dozen men. You didn’t get to be a high-performance driver like Bond without some schooling. Plus he loved to drive. Which meant that when they were out, he always did the driving and she did the backseat driving. Hey, whatever worked.

In this case, Treflee appreciated his smooth skills on the twisting, turning, sometimes one-lane roads, other times on the sharp turns. And she got to admire the view, which consisted partly of his strong profile.

In the back, the girls opened their liquor and had a round of pineapple schnapps, getting louder and sillier as they drove on.

Ty played tour guide to perfection, pulling over for all scenic spots and tourist traps. They stopped at the painted bark eucalyptus trees—beautiful. And the girls had another drink. The Maui Grown Market. Clink, have another drink. The Waikamoi Ridge Trail, where they strolled through trees, bamboo, and ferns. The Garden of Eden Arboretum, where they spent a fascinating few hours strolling the amazing gardens. And Ty got so up close and personal with her, Treflee began thinking of the reason God had made woman for man in the original Garden of Eden. Back before there were fig leaves! Was it really appropriate to be fantasizing about your naked nearly ex?

And of course, clink pineapple mugs! Have another drink or two at the van before departing.

While the girls were distracted by their pineapple mugs full of spirits, Treflee was totally distracted by Ty.

Somehow at each stop, wherever she turned, however she turned, Ty was there beside her, flirting, teasing, smiling. He stood too close, brushed against her too often, touched her arm or her shoulder, whispered in her ear when a simple comment from afar would do. How he could be so calm when she was looking behind every bamboo shoot for a guy to jump out with a lethal bike pump was beyond her.

Still, in a weird way, she was grateful. His casual attitude and demeanor were calming. And if he could flirt, so could she. She backed into him, smiled at him, stroked his shoulder as she “brushed a bug off.” She cooed and flattered. It had been years since she’d flirted like this and it felt good.

After the arboretum, they jumped back in the van. The highway pulled closer to the coast and water. As they came upon Nuaailua Bay, the road hugged the rugged edge of the hills, winding and curving into two narrow no-passing lanes. A concrete brick barrier, not tall enough or substantial enough for Treflee’s tastes, hugged the downhill side of the road. It looked to her like a person, or vehicle, with enough initiative could topple over it with no problem.

The view—deep blue and green water, gentle waves crashing against volcanic rock below, blue, blue horizon, and tropical vegetation—took Treflee’s breath away. It was both bluer and greener than anything she’d ever seen before.

Though the road was often crowded, this time of day most of the traffic was heading the other way, back to Lahaina.

Treflee relaxed. Though it had been only this morning, the race down the volcano seemed like days ago. “Wow! The view takes your breath away,” she said to Ty.

He smiled and nodded.

“I can see how a person could live here. Live here and never grow tired of this.”

He turned and looked at her. “Can you?”

Wrong thing to say! “Sure. Why not?” Though she was lying and was pretty sure he knew it.

He shook his head and smiled.

Devious girl that she was, Treflee got a wicked thought. He’d been tantalizing and teasing her for the entire trip. It was time to fight back. Treflee had taken her secret agent rearview glasses off several stops back and changed them in favor of her polarizing sunglasses. Now she pulled them out of her purse and swapped them again. In the backseats, the others seemed occupied with the view. Excellent!

She and Ty used to play a driving game to pass the time. No “I spy” or alphabet game for them. Their game had always had a much more sensual edge. It went something like this—she tried to distract him and he tried not to let it affect his driving, not to let the distraction show at all.

She leaned over and whispered, “Want to play a game?” At the same time she grabbed his knee and squeezed.

“You sure? This is a dangerous road. Most fatalities in the state.”

He was mocking her. He wasn’t afraid. He was up for anything she threw at him.

“You think I’m afraid?”

He nodded toward the barrier. “Lots of curves ahead. Not much protection if things get out of hand. Big drop-off. Water and rocks below.”

“Bring it on.” She ran her fingers along the inside of his thigh as he slowed and then accelerated into the next corner. “We’re on the uphill side.”

“Bet hedger.”

She laughed and lifted the edge of his shorts with her fingertips, sliding her hand beneath the shorts, inching upward on his taut, defined leg. She knew this territory well and liked the feel just as much as ever. Just how bold would she be with her cousin and crew in the seat behind her? Good thing she had her spy glasses.

She glanced at the group in her rearview glasses. What handy little devices these were. The girls were all drinking and gawking at the view.

“Oh, shit!” Ty said.

I have him!
The thought gave her particular delight. So long without her had made him way too susceptible to her touch.

Just then, Treflee caught a glimpse in her glasses of a car barreling up behind them and realized what his “oh, shit” was really about. “What’s that idiot doing? Is he drunk? Tap your brakes. Make sure he sees us.”

Ty shot her a quick deadpan look. “Oh, sweetheart, he sees us. Think bike pumps. Leis.”

The bright Hawaiian sun felt suddenly cold. Treflee’s mouth went dry. She squeezed Ty’s thigh.

Ty stepped on the accelerator.

The van, definitely not a high-precision driving instrument, hesitated as if it were thinking about maybe moseying along someday. Meanwhile, the other car, which obviously had more horsepower, gained on them. Mercifully, the van lurched forward just as the car behind them came up on their rear bumper, way too close for comfort.

Next to her, Ty locked his arms. She watched him tighten his grip on the wheel.

Ty thinks they’re going to ram us!

In the backseats, the others were still blissfully unaware of the danger.

Treflee started to shake. If this had been a Bond movie, the predatory car would have had some lethal ramming device on the front of it. A whirring saw blade. A stiletto tire puncher. Or it may have been equipped with an antiballistic missile.

She hoped they didn’t have any missiles, tacks, or machine guns. The most lethal thing she had on her was the nail file in her bag. Ty probably had a gun. But how was he going to draw it and shoot with any accuracy while negotiating this tangle of a road?

Carrie had a gun. Back at the plantation. Thank goodness, because at this point of inebriation, she was as likely to hit one of her bridesmaids or Ty as the bad guys.

Treflee scanned the other car, looking for a sawed-off shotgun or a semiautomatic hanging from a window as she dug her nails into Ty’s leg.

He grabbed her hand and pulled it off. “You’re about to draw blood before they do.”

“Thanks for the reassurance.” She clutched the edge of her seat with the same enthusiasm, totally white-knuckling it.

Ty floored it into the next curve.

One of the girls in the back yelled, “Go, Ty! We’re smokin’!”

The others began chanting, “Go, Ty!,” and raised their mugs to him.

Treflee was not amused. “You’re going too fast! The speed limit’s fifteen.” Backseat driver and wife instincts were hard to break.

“You’re worried about a ticket?” He checked his speedometer. “Now?”

“I’m worried about smashing into the side of a volcanic hill at a hundred miles an hour.”

“Calm down. I’m only going sixty.” He glanced in his rearview mirror.

Afraid she’d get carsick if she took her eyes off the road and turned around, she looked in her rearview glasses again. The maniac was still closing in on them. She closed her eyes and prayed.

The girls in the backseats finally caught on to the danger and began swearing.

“Is that Kane? I bet it’s Kane!” Laci’s voice pitched an octave higher in fear and excitement, becoming piercing and slurred.

“Call him, Carrie!” Faye yelled. “Tell him we’ll pull over and talk things out before he kills us.”

“I’m not talking to Kane. He can just go to hell.”

“Either he is or we are.” Carla, who evidently was used to emergencies, sounded calm. Good to know she was a happy drunk. “How good is your first-aid kit, Ty?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Brandy yelled. “You’re going to talk to the man!”

Treflee opened her eyes and stared in her glasses behind her, trying to calm down. “Does he have a gun?”

Carrie swiveled around to get a look. “Hey! That’s not Kane.”

“Gun?” Treflee repeated.

She watched Brandy squint and shake her head. “No gun. But the driver looks mean.” She paused. “And Chinese. He has a really cool tattoo on his neck.”

“Fuk Ching,” Treflee whispered, but not quietly enough.

“What did you say?” Carrie called up. “Did you just use the F-word?” She broke into a gale of giggles.

Treflee frowned. The things drunks found amusing.

The car rammed them, jarring everyone inside and shaking Treflee’s teeth. The picnic basket in the back tipped over and crashed against the back door.

Ty punched the steering wheel and cursed. When that didn’t work, he resorted to sweet-talking the van into submission.

“The bastard!” Carrie yelled out as if she’d just realized there was some danger. “He’s trying to run us off the road!”

“No one runs
us
off the road, do they, girls?” Brandy sounded indignant. She flipped the driver of the car the finger.

“No!” Treflee screamed at her. “You’ll make him mad.”

Ty shot her another one of his understated deadpan looks. “Really?”

“Mad!” Carrie screamed. “I’ll show you mad.” She opened the window and tossed her pineapple schnapps onto the attacker’s windshield.