Going Hard: Divemasters, Book 3 (6 page)

He groaned at the painful reminder that their time was limited. Or might even have already run out.

Just like that, she felt as if her blazing
poi
had smashed into her, scorched her, and raised painful blisters over her entire body. Especially in the vicinity of her heart.

What was she doing? She could never abandon her homeland or her
pāpā
like her mother had. It would kill him.

Despite her desires, she could never be so selfish.

Tosin made her spirit soar even as he shattered her illusions. Because she didn’t have anything else to give this moment. Nothing more could come of their illicit interlude. And if she was teasing him by indulging their desires temporarily when she had no intention of pursuing their attraction after the first light of dawn, then she was only using him as others had done to her.

That kind of behavior she would not tolerate from herself.

“I—I can’t.” She shoved his shoulders, rolling him off of her, then staggered to her feet, leaving him crashed on the ground with empty arms and a monster erection. Add mortification to her agony. “I have to go. I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake. A big one. I can’t do this. I’m leaving before I make it worse.”

“Kahori, wait. I’m an idiot for assuming you wanted more, too. I wasn’t thinking. I’ll take anything you want to give me and be grateful for it. I didn’t mean that like it sounded.” He grimaced when she kept backing away toward her clothes. “Hang on. If you’re going, at least let me walk you home.”

“That’s not a good idea.” She shook her head. Her father would take one look at them and know what she had done. How she’d betrayed him. Not only by fooling around with an outsider, but by considering what it might be like to leave this place behind. To be greedy enough to want to spend endless nights in Tosin’s bed, damn the consequences.

Maybe she was her mother’s daughter after all.

Kahori flung her
pareu
around her, cinching it closed with a well-practiced twist.

Though Tosin attempted to catch her, he didn’t know the path as well as her and the darkness between the glowworm cavern and the sea meant he had to inch his way forward while his vision adjusted.

When she heard him cursing violently behind her, she winced. Sounded like he’d stubbed a toe. Hopefully he hadn’t broken his whole damn foot.

Add another black mark to her tally. She’d repaid him poorly for the pleasure he’d given her.

Staying would only make it worse for them both.

Once on the beach, Kahori cut inland. Tosin would never be able to track her through the thick jungle on the shortcut she sometimes took to her house.

Unfortunately, the other men who’d been lying in wait—searching for her around the rocks where their sandy footprints had vanished—would have no similar troubles.

K
ahori ran
. The underbrush became thin green switches that whipped her cheeks, her arms, and the uncovered upper swells of her breasts. She didn’t feel the sting. At least not until her tears dripped salt into the open wounds.

How could a night that had held so much potential turn into another mess?

Was she making everything worse?

She slowed from her dash to a jog and finally to a stagger, until the uncertainty and pain overcame her. Bracing her palms on her knees, she bent in half, trying to catch her breath and think clearly. Should she go back to Tosin? Beg him to forgive her waffling and confusion? At least explain what had set her off?

For a normally levelheaded person, being frightened and erratic—out of control in the face of her conflicted emotions—didn’t sit well with her. Her cowardice disgusted her. Drawing herself up tall, Kahori glanced over her shoulder toward the beach.

Tosin bellowed her name. If he wasn’t careful he’d draw attention from the island night guests, which was the very last thing she needed. Every nosy neighbor and town gossip would hear of their tiff, then speculate about what had caused it. Shit, had he even bothered to pull on his shorts before charging after her?

If not, she’d have a lot of explaining to do.

She had to turn around, if only to calm him so that he didn’t shout the whole place to the ground or tear the jungle apart searching for her. She got the feeling he wasn’t the type of man to give up easily.

Kahori took a single step in that direction before jumbled movement in the leaves surrounding her caught her attention. It wasn’t breezy. The disturbance grew too big to have been caused by a bird or even a wild boar. Someone was out there.

“Tosin?” she called softly even as the hairs on her nape stood up.

Her luck had run out this evening. It wasn’t her almost-lover. Instead, four men wearing black hoods and dark clothing emerged from the dense foliage. They stalked nearer, closing in around her like a casting net about to scoop up a school of fish.

“Who are you?” She stumbled backward, tripping over a vine before righting herself. Something told her that if she fell now, she wouldn’t be getting back up.

“You know, don’t you, Kahori?”

Hell, no.
She didn’t and she didn’t want to either. So she attempted to flee through one of the gaps before it was too late.

For one glorious moment, she thought she’d slipped out of their grasp. Until her hair pulled taut and wrenched her backward. One of them must have grabbed a fistful as she darted past.

Kahori’s instinctive scream pierced the night. “Help!”

This time it was terror, not pleasure, that echoed across the island.

Sleeping animals roused and charged deeper into the cover of darkness. She wished she could fly away as easily from the crushing impact of someone tackling her. The crack of her temple striking a log or a rock or something at least as dense as her skull ricocheted through her head. Her vision doubled before slowing refocusing.

“Where is he?” the man on top of her, pinning her to the dirt, snarled. His hot, stinky breath and aggression reminded her of the things she’d been trying to forget this evening.

“Get the fuck off me!” She lashed out—kicking, scratching, attempting to bite. Anything possible to inflict pain before he could.

Too late.

The man backhanded her, driving her teeth into her lips. An iron tang burst across her taste buds.

“You bastard! HELP!” she screamed again, projecting as loudly as she could manage.

This time she prayed Pāpā, Hemi, Uncle Kimo—or anyone else for that matter—could hear her after all. Let the entire village come running. She no longer gave a shit who saw. They had zero tolerance for violence. This would not go unpunished.

Hopefully she would be alive to see justice served.

“Now you’ve done it. We don’t have much time. Someone’s going to hear you squawking. So tell me…where is he? And where’s the good stuff? You can’t fool us with our own tricks,
yariman
.”

“Who? Tosin? What?” That rock must have rattled her brains. Nothing her attacker said made sense.

“Play dumb if you like. We’ll get what we’re owed however we can. Let this be a lesson about what happens when you cheat us.” One of the other guys kicked her in the ribs, knocking the wind out of her. She couldn’t have asked more questions or raised a ruckus if she’d wanted to. “Tell him next time we won’t stop here. Next time we’ll take you and sell you to anyone willing to pay for your pussy until you work off his debt.”

If that threat was supposed to subdue Kahori, they had miscalculated.

Instead, she redoubled her efforts to get loose. They might not have been very effective at warding off his blows, but at least they may have slowed the pummeling of his fists or impaired his aim.

Who would do this to her? Why?

Because she’d shown interest in Tosin? Because they wanted what she’d nearly given him?

Pure insanity. The sexy divemaster didn’t deserve the wrath of small-minded losers, who apparently hated him on sight. Or because he’d taken something they considered
theirs
. Kahori had known there were still some extremely strong traditions on her island home. But this… She never would have expected this.

Another instant her faith in her fellow humans shattered.

This time cut deeper.

Her own people had turned on her. Or had they? Why didn’t she recognize the voice of her attacker? Surely she knew everyone on Aitutaki.

It was impossible to think when they took turns waling on her now.

Kahori screeched and tried to crawl away, which only presented the perfect opening for them to drag her back by her hair again. As she lurched to the side, she felt the fine strings of her coconut bra snap. Someone grabbed her bared breast with bruising force.

Her thrashing weakened as horror bogged down her reaction time.

Hyperventilation didn’t help either. Lightheadedness mixed with agony and despair.

She cowered on the ground, flinching from the fist that flew toward her face.

T
osin had barely stumbled
out of the cave and onto the beach, his foot throbbing worse than it had that time a sea urchin had used it as a pin cushion, when he heard Kahori scream.

It wasn’t a sound of anger or frustration.

No, it was fear.

Terror with pain mixed in.

Fuck! Had she fallen? Hurt herself in the darkness worse than he had? “Kahori!”

The following silence nearly frightened him more. Then another cry rang out, this one more urgent. It came from within the jungle. How the hell would he find her in there?

Glancing down, he tapped the face of his watch, a dive model complete with compass. He was an expert at navigating with it. Sometimes the divemasters tested themselves. One of them would keep his eyes closed as his partners hauled him to a random spot on the reef to see if he could find his way home. Tosin had never lost that little game yet.

Tosin took off after her.

He might not know where he was headed, but he could damn sure make it out again once he’d reclaimed Kahori. There was no doubt in his mind that he would. He wasn’t letting her go that easily. And he sure as shit wasn’t going to let her suffer out there, alone, because the thought of burying himself in her pretty pussy over and over had caused him to lose his motherfucking mind and say stupid stuff.

Tosin had spooked her bad.

Ironically enough, he seemed to have done the damage with words most of his other playmates would have killed to hear him speak. He tried to think about how he would fix things when he found her to distract from the anxiety her escalating shouts caused in him.

He needed to stay steady, keeping track of his landmarks and compass readings, in order to find her then bring her out again safely. Losing his calm and charging toward her might get him there faster, but then they’d be stuck. And it sounded like she might need immediate medical attention.

Tosin wiped sweat off his brow as he grew closer. Except maybe someone had beat him to her? He could swear he heard the rumbling of a masculine voice up ahead.

“You bastard! HELP!” Kahori begged.

Then nothing could stop him. It hadn’t been a simple tumble that had downed her. Someone was mauling her! A person? Who the hell was out here hunting her?

Tosin took one final reading off his compass then crashed through every bit of foliage in the direct path between it and the struggle he could now hear clearly. A worthless motherfucker threatened her, spouting a bunch of nonsense, and then more rustling and grunts followed.

Was that Kahori fighting so viciously?

Pride and panic swirled together as he burst into the tiny clearing where she was being abused then launched himself at her assailant.

“Kahori!” Tosin roared her name like a war cry as he flew across the open area and intercepted one hell of a punch. It didn’t do much more than inconvenience him as it drove into his side, but it could have smashed the delicate bones in her cheeks or caused irreparable damage to her more delicate parts, like her eyes or her brain.

Fury the likes of which he’d never experienced before surged within him. He kicked the fucker directly in the chest, throbbing foot be damned. The impact knocked the asshole back at least ten feet from Kahori, onto his ass. He must not have been as stupid as he was evil because he took one look at Tosin’s unholy fury and took off, scrambling into the dense foliage. His cronies followed right behind.

Tosin looked between their retreating forms and Kahori, who sprawled in the dirt. She spit out a mouthful of blood then covered her bared breasts with one arm before attempting to stand.

“Catch them,” she ordered.

He might have tried if she hadn’t collapsed to the ground again, disoriented and wounded.

With a final lingering glare in the direction the men had disappeared, Tosin cursed viciously. He ignored her command. Instead, he rushed to her side and gathered her into his arms. “Fuck them. I’m not leaving you.”

He didn’t waste time with stupid questions like “Are you okay?” when she clearly was
not
okay.

Tosin cradled her as carefully as he could, somewhat alarmed that she didn’t object and instead burrowed her face into the crook of his neck while she trembled in his grip. He glanced at the compass on his wrist then began to work backward.

He still had a ways to go when familiar voices called to him. Archer yelled, “Tosin!”

“Over here,” he shouted in return, still angling for the shore.

“What the fuck, man?” Miguel asked when they practically collided with him.

Apparently he hadn’t been the only one who’d heard Kahori’s screams.

“I’ve got her. Someone jumped her. They ran away, heading northeast.” He turned down the volume when Archer, Miguel, and Banks came into view. “Where’s Waverly?”

“Standing by at the chopper with Sabine,” Archer replied. She’d spent the afternoon giving kids rides and admiring the aerial view. They’d never expected they’d need her services for an evacuation tonight. “She’ll be ready to take off the moment you get there.”

Banks crooned to Kahori while the guys made their plans. He inspected her for obvious injuries as he tried to calm her. “Poor girl, look what they did to you. Tosin’s going to get you fixed up, okay?”

She nodded then clung to him tighter, as if the twitch of movement was enough to cause her more suffering. They had to get the fuck out of here.

“Will you guys find her father for me? Let him know what’s happening. See if anyone can figure out where those guys went and who they are, why they did this to her. I’m not waiting around in case they come back. I’m taking Kahori to the doctor on the
Divemaster
. Then I’m locking her in my cabin where she’ll be safe.” Tosin had already started walking.

Though he trod carefully, each step jarred Kahori enough to elicit groans from between her split lips. She stirred, seeming like she might object, so he added, “Convince him to come to the ship with you guys. She’s going to need him by her side.”

“Thank you,” Kahori managed to croak. It seemed to sap the last of her energy. The next time her eyelids drooped, they didn’t reopen.

So he gave up trying to be gentle and sprinted for the makeshift helipad.