HIGH TIDE (25 page)

Joy dropped into a crouch, while the two crewmen vaulted backwards towards safety. Chavez jerked in retreat, his hands caressing his chest, grappling for signs of injury.

It was Nick’s calm voice that pierced the void.

“Briana.”

Her arm felt like it was on fire, and the tremors were nearly uncontrollable. Beyond the ringing in her ears she could hear Nick. Her eyes sought his and fastened onto them along with that wayward smile she had grown to crave.

“I missed you,” he whispered.

For one moment she discounted the fact that thugs surrounded them—that a channel of blood was winding towards her, and that her foot was secured to a crate stocked full of dynamite. For one moment, Briana focused exclusively on Nick’s face when she answered hoarsely.

“I missed you too.”

Chavez recovered and roared at the cronies sitting on their backsides, their automatics resting uselessly in their laps. The moans of the writhing crewmembers now became more intense as Joy cried out. “They need medical attention.”

“Oh shut up. If I had my gun, I’d take care of their
medical
issues.” Chavez narrowed his eyes on Briana.

“Throw the explosives over.” He waited for his men to respond.

“
Uhh-uhh.
” Nick jabbed the air with the sharp tip of the spear gun. “Not a good idea. Maybe this won’t kill you—well, it will if I hit an artery—but either way it’s gonna hurt like hell.”

The crewmen seemed to weigh their options. There was the promise of pain at the lethal point of the spear, or the threat of Chavez’s condemnation once this was over. Bleak eyes spilled over their fallen colleagues whose soft moans of misery had died down to muffled whimpers.

Blood rushed to Chavez’s face in a plum explosion as he raged. “Even if we let you just walk away from here, do you think that would be it? Do you honestly believe that we won’t hunt you down? This treasure is much grander than your ridiculous lives. I didn’t come this far and this close to fail now.”
     Nick arched an eyebrow and considered Chavez. “Treasure?” he repeated. “Of course it had to be something ridiculous like that.  But yes, I honestly believe that you won’t hunt us down. After all, you’ve already had us in your grasp and couldn’t manage to hold on then.”

Continuing in a controlled voice, Nick was nonetheless mindful of Joy’s careful sidesteps. She began to inch closer to Briana, and with each movement, his anxiety mounted.

“Hold it, honey.” He arched the spear tip in her direction and felt the impetus of the crewmembers instantly shift.

“Nick!” The warning slid from Briana’s lips as she spurted a round of bullets into the air. The shock of the noise once again froze the figures in place, though Nick seemed to be the most rattled. He shook his head and flexed his fingers, and then cleared his throat.

“Untie her,” he commanded of Joy.

Joy crossed her arms and gave him a cool look.

“Hey, it’s your choice, but you strike me as a shrewd woman. You know this is over.”

A huff passed
over her lips as Joy searched Chavez’s reproachful gaze and acknowledged his negligible dip of the head. Joy focused on the pitiless mouth of the Uzi as she stooped and began efforts on the thick knot.

Gingerly, Briana tested her newfound freedom by rotating her ankle. Even though her restraint had been detached, she remained rooted, paralyzed by the situation. Sensing her turmoil, Nick add
ressed the remaining crewmembers. “Okay, toss the guns in the water.”

Hesitating, one of the men finally grunted in conformity and heaved the automatic into the air. A splash was heard
below. With a harsh expletive, his crewmate mimicked the action.

Nick rolled his shoulder and tried to relax. The situation was gradually falling under his control. All credible threats were being eliminated and Briana was free, standing there anxiously watching him.

Come here
, he mouthed.

He saw her eye Joy and Chavez, ensuring that they were contained. Satisfied, she inched closer.

“Well dear, I hate to tell you this,” Nick began softly, “but I got here by swimming.”

A flinch.
  Slight, but telltale. Her shrug was deceptively casual.

“I pretty much guessed that,” she muttered. “What about
them
?”

***

Just the thought of sinking into the water was already attacking Briana’s nerves. How absurd. There had been automatic weapons trained on her, and explosives tied to her foot—and still, thoughts of the water made her recoil. A practical dose of reality awakened her as she heard Nick respond.

“Keo’s got them covered. I want you to get a head start,”
His voice was serious, his eyes solemn. “Can you do that?”

In other words could she do it on her own, without him by her side? Considering that question, her normal reaction would have been to bristle at the inference, but with Nick she had gone beyond that. She knew how sincere his concern was. She nodded tentatively.

“The explosives? If we leave here now, what’s to stop them from blowing up the ocean floor?” In her periphery she caught Chavez crossing his arms with a baleful smirk on his face.

Nick twisted his wrist and noted the time. “The Coast Guard is on its way, along with the HPD. Naoki is taking care of it.”

“Naoki? He’s okay—” Briana’s shoulders sagged.

“Yes, he and Kathy called the police.
Things are under control,” he emphasized.

At the sound of the outboard motor, they both turned in its direction.

No. Things were definitely not under control.

CHAPTER
FOURTEEN

Hazarding a glance off the starboard side, Nick squinted at the craft that hefted into the air on each crest of a wave. Two slender silhouettes were initially indiscernible, but he caught a shock of black hair on one and pale locks whipping in the wind on the other. He rubbed a hand over his face.

“Briana,” he
uttered with resignation. “Your musketeers are here.”

Glancing at Joy and Chavez first to
ensure they remained still, Briana approached the rail.

“
Naoki
.”  Her breath rushed in, and then spilled out in a mute curse.

“Nick, don’t let anything happen to them.”

Briana was close to him now.
Close enough to touch
and he wanted so much to brush his fingers across that sunny hair and pretend that it was just the two of them out here.

A poignant slip of a smile crossed his lips. “I’m not going to let anything happen to
any
of you.”

It was a bold testimony, but
he recognized what was important to him
.

With his right arm wrapped tensely around the spear gun, he reached with his left hand and dusted the tips of his fingers
under her chin. His perusal was interrupted by movement behind Briana’s shoulder. Chavez shuffled his right foot. In reflex, Nick mechanically raised the tip of the spear, and the Mexican yielded with his arms raised.

“Briana!” Naoki waved his hands over his head as Kathy dove to control the speedboat.

“You know,” Nick stooped slightly to speak in Briana’s ear, “you really need to have a talk with them.”

Briana sighed, but tossed a confident smile over the rail at the couple now bickering for possession of the controls. Softly, she concurred, “I don’t know where they get this insubordination from.
”

***

Nick grinned and Briana picked that moment to decide that she was in love with him.   

Fifteen minutes later, having survived her scrape with the sea, and now aboard the
Inquiry
, she found it hard to control her anxiety. Naoki and Kathy’s sympathetic hands were on her, but the grasps were meant to secure rather than comfort. She strained against them, and yelled, “That man is insane. He’ll get himself killed.”

When no one responded, Briana shot an angry glance at the behemoth Hawaiian. He cringed under the assault.

“Does he have a death wish?” she challenged.

Meaty shoulders raised in a shrug. “
Nikolo wants you to be safe. He wants his island to be safe. You’ll get used to it, Briana.”

“
Used to it
?”

The implication that she would be with Nick long enough to grow accustomed to his overprotective nature warmed her. But how could she think of a
possible future together when Nick was still on the trawler, single-handedly holding the entire crew at bay until the authorities arrived.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Keo began cautiously, “Nick had about the same thing to say when we first got here and saw
you
on the deck of that damn boat.”

“I was kidnapped—I didn’t volunteer.”

Able to view Nick’s profile thirty feet away, Briana raised the binoculars to her eyes to ensure that Joy and Chavez were unarmed. Joy’s stance hinted at boredom. Her arms were crossed, but the tense posture of her legs revealed anxiety, like a horse, ready to break from the gate. Chavez’s expression remained guarded, and Briana had a queasy feeling in her stomach that had nothing to do with the rolling surf beneath her.
    Nick was stoic except for an intermittent glance towards the east in search of Coast Guard vessels. They were out there—but so far away, and impossible to identify on a fading horizon.  The sun had begun to descend into the violet ocean and it was getting more difficult to read the expressions of those on the other boat.

“You’re sure they said they were on their way
, Naoki?” Briana’s voice trembled.

“
They confirmed that Nick had called it in and that they were en route. Probably some damn cruise ship blocking their way.”

“What about helicopters?”

Keo shrugged. “With the price of fuel, it takes an act of congress to get those things up in the air. I guess they felt this didn’t warrant the need.”

Her blood boiled.
“Is there anything on the radio?” she asked. “Can you contact them again?”

Keo reached overhead and tuned the dial to the emergency frequency. He grabbed the handheld microphone and barked into it, listening to the garbled response.
In a deep, grave voice he chronicled their situation. A slight pause ensued, and then Keo jerked his head and said gruffly, “Mahalo.”

“Yep,” he announced. “They are passing Diamond Head now.”

“Thank God.” Briana saw the jagged profile of the crater in the distance. It seemed so far away.

Clouds rolled in and formed a dense barrier that concealed the sunset that would normally shimmer with an ethereal glow. A murky amethyst, the sky grew darker, cloaking the passengers of the nearby trawler.

“I’m switching the lights on, Briana. It will give the Coast Guard a better visual.”

The binoculars were useless now, hindered by the overhead
beacons. Shadows consumed the deck of the adjacent boat and soon all that was left was its indistinct silhouette off the port side.

“I’m worried.”

“Of course you are. But don’t worry about Nikolo. He will be okay.”

Briana wished she shared Keo’s optimism, but she was nearing a panicked state. Her hands trembled and her chest constricted.

There was a soft touch on her arm.

“He strikes me as being a very resourceful man,” Kathy whispered.

Beneath the glow of the overhead bulb, Kathy’s face looked gaunt, her almost-silver hair lying flat on her cheeks. Cerulean eyes watched Briana, as if she waited for her aggressive boss to emerge and take charge.

Briana looked beyond the waif and found Naoki shifting edgily from foot to foot. Her heart swelled and climb
ed up into her throat. Emotions kicked into high gear.

“You both did
so much. I’m sorry that you’re even involved in all this.”

Briana saw Naoki’s mouth open, ready to protest, but her ascending hand curtailed him. “I’m serious
, Naoki. You’re Grandmother is going to have my hide when she finds out about this—”

“Bree—” Naoki fumbled, “It was all my fault. I—”

Muffled shouts sounded from off the port side, followed by the unmistakable staccato of the Uzi. Briana’s heart harmonized that rhythm as she lurched out of the bridge and leaned over the rail, straining for any subsequent calls of assurance from Nick. A jet flew overhead, obscured by the clouds, but loud enough to muffle the action nearby. Anxiously she waited for it to pass. Beside her, Naoki, Kathy, and Keo were similarly engaged, and she wondered if the same cold fingers of alarm choked them as well.

The explosion that rocked the
Inquiry
sent them all hurtling backwards into the bridge. For a moment there was nothing but a jarring pain at the base of Briana’s skull. She clung to that ache as a link to reality, but darkness soon consumed her.