Touch of Betrayal, A (11 page)

Before my tears could ball into an uncontrollable mass, Annie removed Maddie from my lap, adjusted her in an antique highchair, and set a toy computer on the tray. An odd, but appropriate mix of old and new. Kind of like my life before and after the Annie-slash-Pierce invasion.

“That’ll keep her busy for a while,” Annie said, pouring some strange red liquid into a sippy cup, and then handing it to Madigan.

My vision telescoped to pinpoint for a second, then broadened to take in the entire kitchen. Sunlight streamed through the window, a slight breeze ruffled the sheer curtains over the sink, and filled the air with a hint of tropical flowers. No individual fragrance, but a soft mix that I’d only found on the islands.

Madigan chortled at the clicking sound from her keyboard, Pierce straddled a beech chair on one side of Maddie, and Annie perched on her other side, both keeping tabs on the baby. There was something about the arrangement that spoke of experience.

Normalcy.

A contrast to the reality of the pixels staring at me from Annie’s computer screen.

No wonder people went insane. A brief rap on the kitchen door snapped me out of my melancholy. Adam wandered in, Merlin tucked under his arm.

Pierce dropped his forehead to the kitchen table, covering his head with one arm, and reaching for Maddie’s computer with the other.

Madigan lunged for her uncle, knocking her computer off the tray. Pierce grabbed it with a single motion as Annie snapped Madigan up nanoseconds before the high chair tumbled over.

My jaw flapped open. It was like watching a mini Cirque du Soleil. If they knew this was going to happen, why the hell didn’t they prevent it?

Adam set Merlin on the floor, lifted Madigan from Annie’s arms, and tickled her.

The four of them clearly had some sort of baby radar communication going on that was beyond me, which was just fine, because I was focused on the tiny bundle of fur racing toward me.

I hadn’t seen Merlin for more than a year because of the Hawaiian quarantine laws, and he hadn’t yet been released the last time I visited Annie. The Havarnese-Maltese mix bee-lined straight for me, brown eyes shining, curly fur flopping, doggie grin in place. I leaned down to grab him, grunting under the eight-pound impact, and then I clutched him to my chest, sanity-preserver that he was.

Merlin and I went way back to one of the early cases I’d worked on with Adam. He was the sweetest dog ever, and he’d led me straight to some crime-breaking clues that incriminated his owner. Adam adopted him, a true happy-ever-after.

A series of welcome barks ensued, and then Merlin pressed his wet nose into my neck. The whole fricking world was falling apart, and I was being bombarded with babies and puppies. The irony might kill me if I didn’t clear up the mess with Mitch sometime yesterday. Puppy licks tickled my ear, intruding on my mental meandering. Damp grit had left splotches on my legs, and I lifted Merlin’s squirming body into the air. “Oooh, dude, you need a bath.”

Adam nudged my shoulder, rearranged Maddie in his arms then planted a kiss on top of my head. “No hello for me?”

“Depends.” I glanced at Annie. She nodded. “Your sister says you know about the alleged accusations against Mitch, so no. No greeting.”

Sadness washed over his features. I’d been Adam’s adopted sister since the first case we’d teamed up on for Chief Hayes, and, yeah, I was being harsh, hard-assed even. But my whole surrogate family had turned strange, hidden the truth, or created falsehoods—who knew? And until I did know—well, they’d painted me into an uncomfortable corner, and I couldn’t see my way clear to forgive them. Yet.

Baby and puppy images notwithstanding, I’d kept my fingers to myself, but the temptation to touch Adam was strong—except that I didn’t want any images about what he’d been up to lately polluting my already boggled mind. Not that I wasn’t going to run my fingertips over him some time in the near future, especially since Merlin carried some interesting images of a dark-haired guy with gentle hands, and I wanted Adam to find someone special. But it would have to wait until I started functioning normally again.

Adam had the grace to back away from me, opening some breathing space. I exhaled a sigh. Brothers could be good that way, even surrogate ones. I flashed him the best smile I could summon, and stood. “I am, however, going to give your dog a bath.” I looked down. “And clean myself up while I’m at it.”

I balanced Merlin in one arm while I shoved my iPad into the handbag I’d slung over the back of the chair, and then I closed Annie’s computer. No way was I going through the rest of their supposed intel with an audience.

Silence followed me as I disappeared into the mudroom and locked the door behind me. It was petty, but I needed time, and the mundane chore of giving a dog a bath would give me space to think without the distraction of prying eyes.

I settled Merlin in the huge sink, found a bottle of doggie shampoo in the cupboard, and went to work. “Guess this happens to you a lot, huh? Otherwise Annie wouldn’t have your shampoo in her mud room.”

Pouring my heart out to Merlin worked well. He didn’t argue with me, just listened attentively, offered a comment here and there in the form of a lick or nuzzle, and never once looked at me with anything but an adoring expression.

Best of all, it gave me a chance to practice one of my favorite coaching techniques: mindfulness. I cleared my mind, focusing on the warm water, soft, soapy fur, the bubbles tickling my skin, and the scents of wet dog and flower shampoo assaulting my nose.

By the time I’d rinsed Merlin, sponged the dirt off my legs, and toweled both of us dry, I had a mental list ready to type into the note app on my iPhone.

1. Talk to Mitch.

2. Work on clearing his name.

3. Straighten Annie, Pierce, and Adam out.

3. Find my grandfather.

4. Find/protect Millie and Harlan.

5. Question Millie and Harlan.

6. Learn the truth about who killed my parents.

7. Insure the rat bastards are brought to justice.

8. Borrow a weapon, because this situation had the feel of a freaking disaster.

 
Thirty minutes after locking myself in Annie’s mudroom, I strolled out, cradling one slightly damp dog against my chest. “I have things to do, and I’m taking the Jeep,” I announced to the circle of expectant faces.

I deposited Merlin in Adam’s lap, snagged my handbag off the back of the kitchen chair I’d previously occupied, marched into the great room, palmed the Jeep keys from the hall console, and dashed out the kitchen door.

ELEVEN

No one followed me. I kept
my eye on Annie’s front door until I rounded the corner of the house, then broke into a run until I hit the far end of the circular driveway. I chanced one last glance behind me as I slipped into the Jeep, and then focused on starting the engine and peeling out of the driveway. Safe. And free in a round-about sort of way.

If Pierce and Adam hadn’t stopped me from leaving, it meant they either had a tracking device attached to the Jeep, or there was one stashed in my handbag, or both. Pierce had plenty of time to put one on the Jeep while Annie and I talked. Even if he didn’t have any spy equipment with him, he could have phoned Adam and asked him to take care of it. And both of them, or Annie, could have secreted a device in my handbag while I gave Merlin a bath.

The scent of wet dog permeated my busy mind. Damn, I should have allowed time for a shower when I planned my exit strategy. But every member of the
team
was both smart and annoying, so it would have been dumb to give them too much time to implement more surveillance stuff than a simple tracking device.

Past experience had taught me how these guys worked. Not that it mattered all that much, since I was headed to my grandfather’s house, and a trip there would be both predictable and expected. And if I were being totally honest, since I didn’t have a weapon, it was best to have someone watching my back. No matter how annoying it was.

What they didn’t know: I planned to park at his house, look around, and then take a casual stroll to my grandmother’s former homestead. The house had been demolished months ago, but her grave remained, tucked in a quiet corner of the property. My grandfather, the Kahuna, would have left any subliminal messages for me there. Or so I hoped.

This visit was benign, so I’d be safe enough, but I had to see about borrowing a gun from Annie—not that she’d hand over a weapon until I’d proved my mental stability. Why did Hawaiian law have to require completion of a safety class and a two-week waiting period prior to purchase?

The ten-mile drive from Annie’s house to my grandfather’s neighborhood passed quickly, so I didn’t have much time to think or brood. Probably a good thing. I was better at action than rumination anyway.

The road was two-lane without much traffic, and offered the occasional glimpse of waves breaking against the shore. Nice. I parked the Jeep just down and across the street from Kahuna Aukele’s, and dug out my cell to check for messages from Mitch. I should have done it sooner, but wanted privacy in case he said something unexpected.

I clicked the phone on, and a text from Mitch popped up. I squeezed my eyelids closed, wanting a minute to fill myself with memories of happy scenes we’d shared. His smile, the wire-rims sliding partway down his nose, walking his land while he captured photographs of nature, and how the lines around his eyes softened when we made love.

My mind insisted the intel on him couldn’t possibly be right, but a niggling sensation that hovered between my shoulder blades told me different. Fear raced along my nerves as I opened my eyes to read the message.

Stay safe. On way to HI. Never forget how much I love you.

Guilt. Oh, God, the man was so guilty of something it knotted my stomach. But it could be as simple as not sharing his thoughts with me, or why he made whatever decisions that had led Pierce and Annie to suspect him of spying on me. And maybe he did love me. Probably he loved me. And I loved him. But now I had doubts.

I shuddered. That I even questioned our relationship indicated a serious problem. My fingers grazed the keypad. What could I possibly say to him to make this any better? One of my favorite bits of wisdom rang loudly in the back of my mind—don’t say anything unless it improves the silence. How could I improve the silence? And not lie.

Safe with Annie. See you soon. Love you, too.

I pushed Send with shaking fingers. I
did
love him. But doubt had created boundaries that boxed in the freedom for me to love unconditionally. He was going to have to tell me everything, no matter if it broke the super-spy code of ethics or not.

And it had to be in person, when I could look into his eyes, and yes, touch him. Damn. And I’d worked so hard to build shields to protect him from my fingertip invasions. A moot point. Now I needed truth—unvarnished, bold, and raw—or our marriage wouldn’t heal. But to touch him with the intention of gathering images that might condemn him? That was a huge breach of trust, and I’d have to be absolutely sure I wanted to cross the boundary.

Did he know we were in trouble?

I turned onto the side street that fronted my grandfather’s house. Playful shrieks cut into my morose thoughts, and I glanced up to see a group of ragtag urchins chasing an oversized ball down the deserted street. The red, white, and yellow stripes bounced erratically as the kids kicked it, its once-vibrant colors dulled and battered from hard play and exposure to the tropical sun. It kept tumbling out of reach because their laughter and undeveloped gross motor skills made them adorably clumsy.

A pang of longing gripped my chest. Not from wanting children. Definitely not. But because I craved the release of laughter and moments of carefree fun. It had been too long since I’d played.

I slipped my phone into a zippered pocket of my shorts, tucked my handbag under the seat, and faced my grandfather’s house. Time for me to put my ESP skills to work and find out what Kahuna Aukele had done with Millie and Harlan. Not that I expected to find much here, but I had to check.

Noon sun beat down on me as I trudged along the road beside my grandfather’s house. The usual island breeze had faded to nothing and a sleek layer of sweat coated my skin. I should have grabbed one of Annie’s floppy-brimmed hats and some sunscreen, but I’d been focused on escape from the Terrible Trio, not on protecting myself from the elements.

I avoided the front stoop, and looped around the side of Aukele’s house, where a massive wall of lush green plants stopped me cold. The mini jungle appeared to be about ten feet tall, so dense I couldn’t see through it, and it was covered with a plethora of colorful blooms. The heavy scent tasted deliciously sweet in my dry mouth. Why had I neglected to stop somewhere for a bottle of water? I swallowed, facing the task in front of me with equal parts determination and trepidation.

Closing my eyes, I let my mind drift beyond the obvious. Why would a talented Kahuna have an inaccessible back yard? Duh. To hide stuff, of course. Dropping more deeply into meditation, I spread my mental doors wide open and hoped for inspiration, answers or—in my best-case fantasy scenario—a yellow brick road.

No go. The size of the jungle wall should have been an effective deterrent to exploring, but something kept me from backing away. Maybe the answers
were
here, and not at my grandmother’s homestead.