Distant Echoes (17 page)

He glanced at his watch. “What are you doing up already? It’s only twelve.”

“Can you meet me at the front gate in fifteen minutes?”

“Sure.” He clicked off his phone and went to tell his aide he’d be off base for a while. He hopped in his Jeep and headed toward the gate. The two-hour nap had refreshed him. Kaia wasn’t there yet, so he parked and waited.

His cell phone chirped again. The caller ID revealed a name he hadn’t seen in a long time, and he stared at it, wondering if he was seeing it right. It chirped again, and he reluctantly pressed the button. “Matthews.”

“Hi, Jesse. It’s Steve.”

The familiar voice made Jesse’s stomach clench. “Steve. I saw your name on the caller ID.” He didn’t know what to say.

“I bet it gave you a start. Got your new number from Jillian. Surprised to hear from me?”

“You might say that.” Surprise was an understatement. Christy’s family had cut off all contact with him after Christy’s death. Three years had passed since any of them had spoken to him. He gritted his teeth and wondered what Christy’s brother wanted from him.

Steve gave a nervous chuckle. “You’re not making this easy, Jesse. You haven’t so much as sent a Christmas card.”

“Was I supposed to? You told me you never wanted to talk to me again. As I recall, you called me a ‘baby killer.’ I’m sure your parents still hate me. They’d be furious if they knew you’d contacted me.”

“Dad’s gone now. You didn’t know?”

“I hadn’t heard. I’m sorry.”

His father-in-law hadn’t had much use for Jesse. Resignation filled Jesse, and he pinched the bridge of his nose hard.

“We used to be good friends, Jesse. Do you know what today is?”

Like he could ever forget. “Of course. The baby would have been three today if he’d been born on his due date.”

“I wasn’t sure you ever thought about it.”

He didn’t bother to hide the anger he felt rising. “Do you think I’m some kind of monster? My life changed that day, Steve. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t think about it.” What did he really want? Jesse couldn’t read his voice. Steve had always been a little strange—one minute friendly and the next as aloof as if Jesse had been a playground bully who had taken his toys. He was Christy’s twin, and the two had been close.

“I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t have called.” Steve’s voice grew husky.

Jesse sighed. “Well, you did, so you might as well tell me what you want.”

There was a long pause, then Steve cleared his throat. “It wasn’t your fault, Jesse. I know that now.”

“Come on, Steve, don’t throw me any bones. You and I both know the truth. It’s something I live with every day.” He didn’t even try to keep the regret from his voice. Part of it
had
been his fault. He’d come to grips with it, but it didn’t change the truth.

“No. No, it wasn’t. Christy was to blame, and that’s the truth.”

“I shouldn’t have argued with her that day. I knew she wasn’t thinking clearly, but I’d thought once the baby was born . . .” His voice broke. Jesse didn’t want to relive that day, but the memories crowded in like a school of piranha fighting over a wounded animal. He closed his eyes. Christy’s agitated voice rang in his ears.

“You never let me do anything! I’m stifling in this house. I wasn’t meant to be only a mother, Jesse. I want to have a career. We can hire a sitter. This kind of job offer only comes along once in a lifetime.”

“The doctor said you need to rest, Christy. You’re not able to do it now.” He glanced at her then turned his attention back to the road.

“If I don’t, I’ll lose the opportunity. I’ll be sitting at a desk all day. I can take a stool and put my feet up. Just think of it, Jesse. ‘Chat with Christy.’ My own radio spot. It’s my dream come true. I’m not giving it up just because you want me barefoot and pregnant.”

“Our baby is more important than a job, Christy. You can’t endanger the baby and your own health like that.”

Her voice rose. “I’m doing it, Jesse. And you can’t stop me. If I have to, I’ll abort this baby.”

Shocked at her words, he jerked his head to look at her. “You wouldn’t!”

“I will.” She thrust her jaw out.

While he stared at her in shock, her eyes widened. “Jesse, look out!”

His gaze whipped back to the front but too late to react to the curve coming up fast. Too fast. He slammed on the brake and fought the wheel. The tires screamed in tune with Christy’s
shriek of terror.

Jesse blinked and realized Steve had said something. “I’m sorry?”

“I just said I wanted to put the past behind us. I’ve been attending a church lately.” He paused and cleared his throat again. “I treated you badly, Jesse. Can you forgive me for the harsh words I said at Christy’s funeral?”

“You didn’t say anything I haven’t said a thousand times over to myself. I should have been paying attention to the road. I deserved every word.”

“No, you didn’t. And I’m sorry.”

Jesse found it difficult to swallow.

Steve’s breath sounded erratic and shaky. “We should have been comforting one another. Instead we acted like wounded animals snapping at a helping hand. It made the grief worse not to have you there too. You’d been part of the family since we were kids.”

“Christy was eight the first time I saw her.” He could still remember the gap-toothed smile she’d given him that day. He’d fallen for her right then. They’d fought and made up and fallen in love over the fifteen years they’d lived next door to one another.

“Mom and Dad loved you like a son.”

“They turned on me fast enough.” He rubbed his knuckles into his burning eyes.

“They had to blame someone for the pain they felt. So did I. You were handy.”

Jesse’s vision blurred. He didn’t want to talk about it anymore. “I have to go, Steve. It’s been good talking to you.”

“Don’t shut me out, Jesse,” he pleaded. “I’ll be—”

Jesse cut him off. He couldn’t take any more. “Good-bye, Steve,” he said. He clicked off the phone and leaned against the headrest.

K
aia didn’t want to do this. She’d tried to think of a way to get to the bottom of things alone, but she had to be honest. She didn’t have the skills to figure it out without help. She needed Jesse’s help, much as she didn’t want to involve the navy. And Mano’s current situation demanded immediate action.

Besides, she needed to get her mind wrapped around something other than her grandfather’s crazy plan. She didn’t want to think about seeing her mother again. What if she left again? Kaia knew she could never bear that kind of rejection more than once.

Jesse was standing beside his Jeep when she got to the front gate. She pulled behind his vehicle and got out, conscious of the way the SPs watched her. Her heart felt as heavy as a boat anchor. Even now, she cast about for some way out of revealing everything to him.

She thought he looked a little pale today. His eyes were cloaked with some dark emotion she found hard to name—fear, or sorrow maybe. His uniform was a little rumpled too. Maybe there had been a problem with Heidi. This was probably a bad idea. He had enough on his plate without her problems too.

He didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “You sounded upset. What’s wrong?”

The concern in his voice released the valve on her emotions, and she wanted to cry. “I need your help, Jesse. I think my brother is in trouble.”

His blue eyes softened, and he touched her arm. “Bane or Mano?”

She was surprised he remembered her brothers’ names. “Mano.” Jesse wasn’t going to be happy with her when she told him why. She dropped her gaze to the ground. “You know those men who tried to grab me the other night when I sprained my ankle?”

“Yeah.” His voice was deepened with wariness.

“I recognized them. I just didn’t want to tell you.”

His face didn’t change. He just nodded as though he already knew. “Okay, tell me now.”

He was being too nice to her. It made her want to throw herself against his chest and wail out her fear, let him carry it all. She took a step back and told herself she needed to look at him like a father figure. “You remember I mentioned Pele Hawai´i once before?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I haven’t been back on the island long, but it’s been long enough to hear about them and their violent tactics. They want to force the U.S. government into giving Hawai’i sovereignty. They sound more like a terrorist group than a bona fide political group.”

“I guess that’s exactly what they are.” It hurt to admit her brother could be involved in something like that. “The leader, Nahele Aki, was there with two of his men.”

“Why didn’t you want me to know? Is he a friend of yours?”

His voice had risen, and she wondered if he could be jealous. She shook her head. What a stupid thought. He was justifiably angry with her for not doing what she should have done sooner. “No. I didn’t want you to suspect Mano of being involved with those three. He joined the group in the past month.” She rushed on before she lost her nerve. “I’ve seen such a change in him. He’s turned into a zealot.” It felt wrong to be talking about her brother like this. She should have gone to her grandfather first. Maybe he could have reined in her brother. She bit her lip and reminded herself this affected national security.

“He’s navy, isn’t he? How does he reconcile the two?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of. I think they’re using him to gain information about the base. And that he’s involved in the security breaches.” She closed her eyes as she whispered the last sentence. She never would have thought that Mano would do something like this. Or that she would ever cast suspicion on him. Her eyes moistened, and she opened them to stare into Jesse’s face.

He raised his eyebrows. “Do you have any proof?”

Kaia told him what she’d overheard.

“Do you have any idea when they plan to do this?”

“No, but I think I know how to find out.”

“Tell me.”

At least he wasn’t brushing her off. “I want to follow Mano, see what he’s up to, and try to get him away from the organization before he does anything irreversible. You’re a security professional. You have surveillance equipment that could help, right?”

“Have you tried talking with him?”

She nodded. “He’s not listening. But something is wrong. The brother I know wouldn’t willingly participate in this kind of sabotage. I think he’s being manipulated. But if he knows
you
know what’s going on, maybe we could persuade him to help us bring Nahele down.”

Jesse’s gaze never left her face. She could see him considering what she said. “If Mano is as involved as you say, my duty is to turn him in, Kaia. If I hesitate, I could compromise the entire base.”

“You can’t! Not yet!” She never should have asked him for help. “If you won’t help me help my brother, I’ll take Nani and pull out and you can track down your intruders yourself.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Besides, you have no proof without me. I won’t testify against him.
And
, if you take out Mano without get ting Nahele, you’ve still got a huge problem on your hands: they’ll just get someone else to do their dirty work!”

He pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “You drive a hard bargain, Kaia.” He sighed. “Okay, we can poke around first and see what we can find out. But this might turn out wrong. He might be more involved than you’d like to believe. What if you end up proving he’s in this up to his neck? He could be charged with terrorism or espionage. He could go to prison.”

Kaia gulped. “All the more reason to save him before he does something truly stupid. He’s already getting kicked out of the navy. When he’s thinking clearly, he’ll be heartbroken. He was always so
proud of being a SEAL.”

“You’d better face the possibility. Sometimes we think we know someone and find out we didn’t know them at all.”

His blue eyes looked bleak, and fatigue deepened the lines around his mouth. Kaia wanted to touch his hand, to reassure him, but she dropped her gaze instead. They needed to keep their relationship strictly business. He obviously carried baggage she wasn’t sure she wanted to deal with.

He glanced at his watch. “I can get my equipment and meet you at quitting time. We could have a couple of hours before we hit the patrol duty.”

“What about Heidi?”

“She’s with Faye. I’ll call and let them know I can’t come by tonight.”

“How about if I go get her for a while? I feel bad that I didn’t make breakfast the other day.”

“Have you slept at all today?” His gaze traveled over her face.

“About four hours.”

“I imagine Faye would like a visit. She seems lonely.”

“Maybe I could take them both out for a shave ice to make it up to her.
Tutu kane
would enjoy having them come to the lu’au on Friday too.”

“I’m sure Heidi would love it, the way she talks about the last one.” His gaze softened. “I appreciate all you’ve done for Heidi, Kaia. She’s crazy about you.”

She wished he wouldn’t look at her like that. It made it hard to concentrate on remembering she wanted to keep her distance. “I’m glad she likes me.”

“What’s not to like?”

The warm smile extended to his blue eyes. She turned to get into her car and pretended not to hear.

Thirteen

F
aye wished she could go to her room and shut the door. She’d forgotten how tiring it was to listen to a child’s prattle all day long. And her nails were a mess. They’d made sand castles, and her red polish was worn and chipped. The last thing she had time for right now was to sit for another manicure.

She glanced at her watch. Jesse wouldn’t be here for three hours. Faye didn’t know if she’d make it that long, though she would have some relief for a few blessed minutes. The girl had fallen asleep on the living room floor just a little while ago.

Why had she ever agreed to this job? So far, every attempt to get close to Kaia had failed. It was just one more failure to add to Faye’s collection.

The phone rang, and she saw Curtis’s cell number pop up on the caller ID. He was out running errands. “Can you come rescue me?” she asked, making her voice as pitiful as she could.