Paradise Wild (Wild At Heart Book 2) (16 page)

“He had four hours. And it’s a forty-minute flight to Honolulu. I would have gone to see him for four hours.” She felt hurt. “Hell, I would have gone to see him for four minutes.”

Jacqui massaged Ellie’s shoulders and directed her back to the sofa. “Don’t be so hard on him. He probably didn’t have time to think things through.”

Olivia nodded. “You need a little faith, Ellie.”

The fading sun illuminated the trees outside, coloring them pink. In the dimming light, Ellie tried to conceal her sorrow. “Maybe you’re right. He did say he’d make this up to me when he came on island again.”

“See?” Jacqui settled back in her chair. “You can’t keep looking at what’s missing, Ellie. You’ve got to open your eyes to what you’ve got.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “What I’ve got is the creeps. He said someone tried to break into his house too, but the alarm system stopped them.”

Olivia straightened her back. “Did they catch the guy?”

“He didn’t say. Just asked me to keep an eye on things. Like I’m going to do any good.”

Jacqui settled her phone into a docking station and pushed some buttons. A rhythmic Tibetan chant pulsed quietly from small speakers hanging in the corners of the room. She pushed the coffee table and papasan to the walls and draped three yoga mats side by side on the floor.

“Time for your lesson, ladies.” She tipped herself upside down on her elbows and arced her legs to the ceiling.

Ellie and Olivia stared. Ellie was the first to speak.

“I thought we were hanging out. Relaxing.”

Olivia nodded. “Yeah. I don’t want to throw up again.”

Jacqui regarded them from the floor. “Off your butts and onto those mats. Relaxing? Just wait until I get through with you.”

Chapter 16

The second week of November, Ellie received notification that the security system was fully installed at Vivyenne’s house. She set up an appointment for that afternoon. The company representative walked her through the set up. It took longer than she thought. She glanced repeatedly at her phone and finally spoke up.

“Look. I have to run back Upcountry to get a few things before tonight. Do you think you could do the final testing without me?”

The young man shrugged. “Sure. I can call you with the code or you can make one up.”

Ellie put her hand on the doorknob. “Call me.”

In the car, she texted Denver to let him know the news.
I’m going to run over to his place in my undies the second he gets home.

Jacqui helped carry Ellie’s suitcase to the car. Her eyes glinted with mischief and a trace of regret. “Just when I was getting used to you.”

Ellie returned to the living room and shoved Viv’s reluctant body into the cat carrier. “Things are heating up with Mr. Car Dealer, anyway. You’ll be happy to get Viv and me out of your hair.”

“I don’t know.” Jacqui poked her fingers through a gap in the zipper to stroke Viv’s cheek. “I still haven’t gotten him to do a single yoga pose. It can’t last much longer.”

Ellie lugged the carrier to the car. “What about tantric yoga?”

“Don’t mock it till you’ve tried it.”

Ellie gave Jacqui a squeeze before hopping in the driver’s seat. “Thanks, Jacqui. I really owe you. I feel so much better about the Wailea house now. I think I needed some time away.”

“You needed a security system. And with Denver due back any day, you’ll have two. One electronic. The other electric.”

Ellie laughed.

Before she had driven a mile, the alarm company called. Ellie pulled the car onto a grassy verge near a plant nursery.

“The house is armed.” The man sounded bored. “You have one minute to enter the code. Any questions?”

Ellie switched to the notes program on her phone.

“Tell me the code again.”

She typed it in a second time and confirmed it. A convertible with the top down sped past her.

“What if I mess up?”

“Hit clear and try again. But you only have a minute.”

“I’m not good under pressure.”

“If you trigger the alarm, we’ll call you. Give us the password, and we’ll turn it off.”

Ellie triple checked the password. She pulled back onto the road, wondering why security had to be so stressful. The sun fell low in the sky over the ocean, casting the water in shades of orange and pink. The mountains of West Maui loomed dark against the graying sky, their softness flattened into jagged two-dimensional harshness in the fading light. Clouds skimmed the peaks, obscuring their contours. But her hands tapped the steering wheel nervously.

Don’t panic. What’s the worst that can happen? Embarrassment. Not like
that
hasn’t happened before.

Near the sugar mill at the bottom of the slope, her phone rang again. She pulled abruptly onto the side of the road opposite the tiny brown Puunene Post Office, a cloud of red dust rising behind her. When she looked at the screen the name of the alarm company stared up at her. She answered. Her jaw slowly dropped.

“Somebody broke in? Already?” She searched in her purse for her headset. “No. I’m nowhere near the house.”

She gave up the hunt and eased the car over the bump onto the pavement, one hand holding the phone.

“Yes, of course, you should call the police. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

Ellie pushed the accelerator and hit sixty-five, blinking each time she passed a forty-five miles per hour sign. When she neared home, blue flashing lights flickered at the end of her darkened street. Ellie rolled her car to a stop opposite the house’s open gate, in front of which a police car was parked at an angle, as though it had arrived in a hurry. She rolled down her window and listened for the sound of the alarm but heard only the roar of the ocean and an occasional gecko chirp.

“Viv, you stay here.” She scratched the top of the carrier in the passenger seat foot well. “I’ll be back once I find out what’s going on.”

K-Rao stood waiting for her at the foot of the front steps. She was tempted to give him a hug, but something in his posture told her to keep things official.

“Is everything okay?” She glanced at his hip and was relieved to see his gun still holstered.

“I’m here to warn you.”

Ellie felt her knees weaken and held onto the banister.

“Did you catch someone? Was it Noa? Is there blood?”

“We found someone in the house. But…” K-Rao rubbed his chin. Ellie thought she caught sight of a smile behind his hand. “It’s a woman. She says this is her house.”

“What?” Incomprehension widened her eyes. Then recognition slowly dawned. “Vivyenne? Here?” Her face sank.

“I thought it would be a shock. That’s why I waited for you.”

“Shock?” Ellie shook her head. “I’m going to lose my job. I locked my boss out of her house. I didn’t give her the alarm code. And I set the police on her.”

“You didn’t give her the code?”

Ellie put her hand to her head. “The alarm just got installed. I hadn’t gotten that far.” The house’s eerie silence accentuated Ellie’s rising panic. She turned to K-Rao, her eyes pleading. “Come in with me. There might be bloodshed.”

K-Rao chuckled. “You should have seen her when we arrived. Spitting like an angry mongoose.”

Ellie punched his arm as they strode through the front door. “Be serious. I’m in huge trouble.”

“Don’t worry.” K-Rao patted his gun. “I’m ready.”

Inside, Ellie peered cautiously around the kitchen doorframe. A female officer leaned against the counter near the refrigerator, arms crossed, with a fed-up expression. Ellie inched her head farther into the room.

Vivyenne stood at the breakfast bar with her back to the door, standing erect, phone to her ear. She wore a long white linen jacket with three-quarter length sleeves. Thin, shapely legs tapered to tan open toed sandals with two-inch heels.

Ellie scanned her own outfit of baggy hiking shorts and a frayed University of Delaware sweatshirt.

Does that woman always look like a fashion model?

K-Rao gave Ellie a gentle shove and she stumbled into the room. Vivyenne turned toward her. She looked at Ellie like an ice sculpture turning on a pedestal.

“It’s you.” The two words seemed to convey all Vivyenne wanted to say but wouldn’t in front of the officers.

Ellie pulled distractedly at her ponytail. “I’m so sorry, Vivyenne. The alarm only got installed today. I was going to text Devora the code when I got here. I’ve been staying Upcountry.”

Vivyenne lowered her phone and turned it off. She radiated confidence, disdain, and, Ellie thought, repugnance.

“So I gathered.”

Ellie fidgeted, trying to figure out which one of her excuses Vivyenne had responded to.

“I texted Devora this morning. I told her it was almost installed.”

The stare from Vivyenne’s dark eyes seemed to look both at Ellie and completely through her into the hallway beyond. Vivyenne jerked her chin at the female officer who, with an unveiled look of disgust, moved toward the kitchen door.

“Devora has the flu.” Vivyenne’s tone made it sound as though she’d uncovered the depths of Devora’s depravity. “She isn’t responding to most texts. And when she does, she seems to be delusional.”

K-Rao stepped into the kitchen. “If things are set here, we’ll be off.”

Ellie turned to him, ready to hang on his arm to make him stay. But he winked at her and turned to the hall.

Ellie swiveled back.

Vivyenne put her hands on her hips. “The code.”

She searched her empty brain, eager to give Vivyenne what she wanted but unable to make the connection.
What code? The Da Vinci Code? My ZIP code?

Vivyenne closed her eyes. “The alarm code. Give it to me.”

“Oh, gosh, sure.” Ellie fumbled with her phone. “Here.” She scooted the phone across the counter with an outstretched arm, moving minimally, as though giving money to a bank robber.

Vivyenne typed. Bent over, her jet-black Cleopatra haircut emphasized her uncannily square shoulders.

Looks like a skinny football player in drag
.

Vivyenne passed the phone back, touching it only with her fingertips, and looked for the first time directly at Ellie.

“I’m staying here. In the house. I want to inspect the progress and get to know the neighborhood. I booked you a hotel room.” She pulled a perfectly folded printout from an invisible jacket pocket and placed it on the counter. Ellie picked it up and read it.

The room’s at Jacqui’s hotel.

Ellie looked up. “I can stay in the guest room if you’d like.” As soon as the words left her mouth, Ellie knew she’d made a mistake. The corners of Vivyenne’s mouth wrinkled. Ellie backtracked. “Or I can go back and stay with my friend Upcountry. That way you wouldn’t have to pay.”

“I’ve experienced how long it takes you to get here from Upcountry.” Vivyenne drew in her breath. “You’ll stay at the hotel. Be back here tomorrow morning at seven. We can review what’s been done on the house so far, what still needs to be done, and what needs to be done over because it’s wrong.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Ellie’s brow wrinkled in surprise.
I’ve never said that before. To anyone.

Vivyenne swept past Ellie and marched toward the master bedroom. She turned with her hand on the door. “Where is the cat?”

Ellie blinked. “You mean Viv?”

Vivyenne stared at her, her face a mask of impatience.

“Of course you do. He’s in the car. I’ll go get him.”

Vivyenne pushed open the door. Ellie caught a glimpse of leather luggage standing near the bed.

Thank God I cleaned before I left.

“I’m tired. Bring him in and set up…whatever it is he needs.” The door closed behind her.

Ellie exhaled a sigh of relief in the hallway and shook her arms as if flicking an unwanted substance from her hands. She stopped in mid-flail when the bedroom door reopened and Vivyenne’s head poked out.

“Turn on the alarm when you leave. Can you handle that?”

The door closed on Ellie’s answer.

“Yes, ma’am. Will do.”

Ellie screwed her eyes shut and leaned against the wall.

At least I still have a job.

Out in the car, she curled up on the passenger seat with Viv on her lap. The cat purred contentedly. Ellie set her phone alarm for five-thirty the following morning.

Better get here early.

The bedroom lights shone from the house. “That woman’s a nightmare.” She tickled Viv behind the ear and reclined in the seat. “I don’t even know why she wants you back. I should take you to the hotel with me. It’s not like she’ll really notice if you’re there or not.”

***

One house to the north, Denver pulled the door of the guesthouse quietly shut behind him. The half moon cast long shadows across the lawn. Lights from Ellie’s house blinked through the dense shrubbery.

He rubbed his hands and grinned from ear to ear.

She’s back from Upcountry. Luck’s finally with me.

He tightened the towel around his waist, looked from the driveway to the bushes and back again, and thrust his way between the areca palms. The fronds scratched his bare chest and arms. The beach naupaka that followed was easier on his skin but more difficult to climb through.

Did I go a different way last time?

He eventually stumbled gratefully onto the trimmed grass on Ellie’s side of the vegetation. Her lanai lights shone like beacons from across the garden. He saw a woman’s figure in the living room settle onto the couch and felt a responsive pulse from beneath his towel. He closed his eyes.

No more holding back. But before you kiss her. Before you make love. You tell her everything.

He pulled up the random Target beach towel he’d grabbed from the Kirkpatricks’ mountainous supply of identical towels in their guest cottage. It had seemed like a good idea back there, when his eagerness to see Ellie had almost overwhelmed him. Now he felt awkward.

What if she thinks I’m assuming too much?

He surveyed the hedge behind him, not eager to retreat through it to put on some clothes. His gaze roamed back to the living room.

I won’t touch her. Until I’ve told her.

He turned his back on the house and undid the long towel, repositioning it so that the gap was at the side and the folds draped over his knees.

I’ll say I was going for a swim and saw the lights on.

He crouched low as he dashed across the soft lawn, his bare feet leaving tread marks in the sheen of drops left by the sprinkler system. He leapt the steps two at a time, stood, slightly breathless, at the front door, and tried the handle. It yielded to his touch. He entered noiselessly, leaving it open behind him.