The Spy Who Left Me (27 page)

His wipers went on and he rammed them again.

Carrie cursed and shook her fist at him. “This is war! Battle stations!”

Battle stations?

“You don’t have your gun, right?” Treflee called back to her, fingers crossed.

“Left it at the plantation,” Carrie yelled back. She and the others were waving liquor bottles and pineapple mugs or reaching into their purses. “Ty, how you doing up there? Can you handle the driving? Need me to step in? I’m good at high speeds.”

Oh, boy!
Treflee could just see Carrie stepping in. No way Ty would be down with that. “He’s the designated driver, remember?”

“Yeah. Too bad I’ve had one too many.” Carrie sounded disappointed. “I really
am
great at precision driving.” She opened her window and tossed her pineapple mug out. “Bombs away!”

It landed with a bang on the pursuer’s hood and bounced off into the road. The driver shook his fist at them and pulled a gun from the front seat, taking aim at them as he drove with one hand.

“Duck!” Treflee screamed.

Carrie laughed and cursed. “Damn, I missed the windshield.”

Ty was going too fast. He took the curve wide, straying into the oncoming lane.

The gunman’s shot went wild and missed them.

Treflee took a deep breath, waiting for impact. It took her a second to realize they were still alive. Thank goodness no one was coming the other way.

Their pursuer nearly hit the barrier himself. He corrected just in time and tossed his gun down into the seat next to him. He pulled up on the inside, hillside lane, forcing Ty to drive into incoming traffic.

“He’s going to try to ram us over the barrier.” Ty’s voice was calm, almost unconcerned.

Treflee glanced at the way-too-short barrier. “Can he do that?”

He shrugged. “We have a high center of gravity.” Without breaking his concentration on the road, he smiled. “Don’t worry. I can drive us out of this.”

Male confidence and bravado!

In the backseat, Carrie and the girls had opened their windows.

“He’s dropped his gun! We have him on the run!” Carrie laughed with glee like a commander on the battlefield who smelled victory.

The girls began tossing out an arsenal of items, keeping score as if they were playing a video game as stuff flew out the window. So much for litter laws.

Treflee braved a bout of carsickness and turned in her seat to face them. “Hey, be careful! That guy’s a dangerous Chinese gang member!”

“He doesn’t scare us,” Brandy said.

The rest ignored her.

“You missed him!” Carrie yelled to Brandy. “Watch this use of subterfuge! I can hit him without looking.” She donned her rearview spy glasses and palmed a plastic container of tiny breath mints from her purse. “He won’t see this one coming.”

The Fuk Ching rammed them again, warbling Carrie’s voice. Somehow, Ty corrected and kept them on the road, speeding way too fast around the next corner.

Treflee felt green and sick, certain she was only holding on thanks to antinausea drugs.
Thank goodness for Dramamine!

Carrie clutched the mints, taking aim.

An absurd picture crossed Treflee’s mind. “Hey, sober up! Those won’t do any damage.”

Carrie laughed. “Are you kidding? At this speed these babies will be like bullets. Scare the hell out of that guy. Watch this!”

She tossed out the mints. The container broke into a zillion plastic shards. The tiny orange breath mints bounced around like hail against the car.

The driver swerved, coming dangerously close to colliding with the hill. He turned on the windshield wipers to brush the mints away just as Faye scored a direct hit with her pineapple mug. It sounded like an explosion as the guy’s windshield cracked.

Treflee jumped.

Ty grinned. “Nice to have a few drunk cops on hand,” he whispered to her.

“Good one!” Carla clapped and passed around a nearly empty bottle of Hawaiian-made wine. “What’s next? What do you think this will do?”

Ty shook his head as he drove for the relative safety of the inside, and their rightful, lane, cutting the attacker off at the corner.

Carrie and crowd launched another assault round—a flutter of drink umbrellas that had absolutely no effect except to cause another gale of laughter. A shopping bag that went wide, catching a breeze and missing the target. Finally a fluffy Big Auau beach towel did its thing, spreading across the windshield as if for a day on the sand.

“Bulls-eye!” Carrie yelled. “One hundred points for Laci!”

The girls cheered. “Hooray for Laci!”

The assailant lost control of the car. It slammed into the concrete barrier with a sickening screech as they rounded the next corner.

Even Treflee gave Laci silent kudos. She’d probably just saved their lives. Treflee glanced in the rearview mirror and shuddered even though the accident was out of view.

Ty turned to Treflee and whispered, “Don’t worry about him. I’ll call my guys to take care of it.”

She glanced at the bridal girls, feeling a strong sense of camaraderie with them after their life-and-death fight together. Carrie and her friends were real troupers. But she was still a little worried. “Let’s hope none of them think to call 911. They’ll want to give their fellow cops a heads-up.”

Ty picked up his phone from the storage bin next to the driver’s seat and waved it at the girls in the back. “You girls just relax. I’ll let 911 know there’s been a little accident back there.” He hit a speed-dial number she knew wasn’t going to be the cops, and whispered to her, “Satisfied?”

Treflee’s hands shook. “Go, just go. Get us out of here.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Ty pulled into a parking spot at Keanae Park and turned off the van.

“Should we be stopping?” Treflee hissed in his ear, glad he hadn’t gotten them killed while he was driving and talking in code to “his guys” on his cell phone, probably giving them cleanup instructions. At least he hadn’t been texting and driving. Everyone knew how dangerous
that
was.

“What if our friend back there somehow managed to walk away and called for reinforcements? What if he’s dead and the cops want to question us and bring us in for vehicular homicide?”

“Do you see any cops? Any guns blazing?” Ty winked at her. “Give me some credit. You have to trust me, Tref. My guys have this under control. Don’t worry.”

“Are we there yet?” Brandy called out, laughing at her own joke and interrupting any further argument.

Ty seemed unfazed by their brush with death. He popped right back into tour guide mode. “Keanae Park. About halfway. Time for a snack.”

He whispered to Treflee. “Maybe some food will sober the girls up.” He pointed toward a concession stand across the parking lot. “Banana bread, anyone?”

If the huge
BANANA BREAD
sign over the stand was any indication, that was their only option.

Treflee clutched her stomach. She wasn’t so certain she wanted them sober. Drunk seemed to be a blissfully ignorant and happy state. Maybe they were better off that way—fewer questions.

Ty gave her a sympathetic look and reached over and stroked her bare arm. Just like he used to do in the good old days.

She swallowed hard.

“It’ll be all right, Tref. Trust me.”

She stared at him a moment. “I hope you’re right.” She took a deep breath and scanned the area. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

Ty glanced around, apparently unconcerned. “Oh, yeah. This park’s a little less touristy than other stops, a bit less crowded, but we’re fine.”

“Meaning?”

“We have a handle on things. Let’s go!”

Before she could protest further, Ty jumped out and opened the van doors.

Not certain she believed him, Treflee climbed out cautiously, relieved to find she could still stand on legs that felt as if she’d just done a thousand squats in a row. She took another deep breath. Something about the smell of the warm, tropical salt air revived her. That and the tantalizing smell of banana bread and coffee. Not to mention the realization they were still alive. For the moment.

“That was fun!” Faye put her hands on her back and arched into a stretch. “And no boring report to fill out afterward.” She shook her head as if amused. “I’d heard the road to Hana was a bore. Go figure.”

Carrie seemed to be coming down from her drunken high and back to reality. “Fun? That was more than just fun. Holy piña colada, Batman! That was a fine piece of high-performance driving back there.” She looked at Ty with admiration and suspicion shining in her eyes. “Ever been to the police academy?”

Treflee froze.

Ty shrugged it off and shot Carrie a humble look that said she was crazy. “I’ve driven that road a hundred times.” He grinned. “Sometimes too fast.” He winked. “Surfers like extremes.”

Carrie didn’t seem totally convinced. She slid her spy glasses off, held her hand over her eyes, and squinted into the bright tropical sun. “What did that bastard want with you?”

Treflee’s stomach flipped.

Standing full-on in the sunshine with Carrie’s piercing look bearing down on him, Ty didn’t even break a sweat. He laughed. “With me?”

“The Fuk Ching certainly aren’t after us.” Carrie crossed her arms.

So Carrie hadn’t been too drunk to catch that. And she knew who the gang was. She was a cop, after all.

The other girls had formed a ring around them and were leaning in, listening with interest. Treflee felt sick, and not just because of the wild ride.

Ty shrugged. “I may owe them some protection money.”

Carrie arched a brow. “That’s generally their racket. What do you owe for?”

“A little business I have on the side.” Ty ran his hand through his hair, suddenly looking nervous for the first time.

He was faking it and doing a darn convincing job.

He lowered his voice. “Look, don’t tell Tita. She’d can my ass.” He blew out a breath. “I need the cash and a place to lay low right now.”

Carrie assessed him. “How deep are you in?”

The hand through his gorgeous thick hair again. Definitely trying to manufacture a nervous gesture.

“Nothing I can’t dig out of in a few days. I got a few dudes who owe me. Soon as they pay up, I’m golden.”

Carrie leveled her cop stare at him, slightly blurry eyed from drink, but still effective enough that it would have driven the truth out of Treflee. Then again, Ty wasn’t a wimp like she was.

“Chill. Really. That dude was just toying with me. Giving me a warning. If he’d been serious, I’d be dead. The Fuk Ching know how to use guns.” He grinned at Carrie with just a hint of nervous twitch.

The acting classes had obviously paid off.

Carrie tapped her fingers on her crossed arms. “These dudes of yours will pay?”

“Oh, yeah.” He crossed his heart.

“Soon?”

“Definitely.”

“You’re not selling drugs?”

“No way.”

“You should call the cops and tell them you’ve been threatened,” Carrie said.

“Yeah? Why? What are they going to do? Charge in and yell, ‘Book ’em, Dano’?” Ty bounced on the balls of his feet and fidgeted with his hands. He played the nervous surfer very convincingly.

“You don’t like cops? Don’t trust them?” Carrie persisted.

Ty grinned. “Pretty cop tourists are okay.”

Carrie raised a brow.

Ty grew serious. “I’m saying—what are the cops going to do? Issue a restraining order? The Fuk Ching aren’t going down because I complained, you know? Better to just pay them off and keep my mouth shut.”

Carrie shook her head. Finally, she let out a sigh. “Not my problem. I never heard anything. You never told me anything. I’m on vacation.” She paused and looked Ty in the eye. “From now on, I carry my gun.” She waved to the girls. “Let’s get some banana bread.”

*   *   *

The group took their bread and iced coffee and headed to the lava rock beach. Treflee sat on a large boulder at the edge of the water, well apart from the others. She munched her sweet, macadamia-nut-studded bread and stared at the rhythmic waves washing in, listening to the pounding of the surf and feeling the mist off the incoming water. She took off her shoes and dangled her toes in the little pools of water near her. Palm trees swayed on shore in the sea breeze. It was a pleasant, tropically pastoral scene.

Ty pulled up a rock beside her. “You okay?”

“I’ll live. I think. Thanks to Dramamine.” To emphasize the point, she finished the last of her banana bread and brushed the crumbs off her hands and shorts.

He grinned. “And my expert,
smooth
driving.”

She shook her head. “Your smooth moves almost drove us right over the edge of a volcano.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. Give me another chance and I’ll show you some moves that will definitely drive you over the edge.”