Chapter 5
PALLAS
Sunday turned his whole week around. He'd barely gotten up and dressed for a run before reporting to his team's training room when his phone lit up on the dresser. There wasn't a song or a ring tone that reached his ears. Just a single word. WOLF.
Pallas picked up the phone and answered it.
"Pallas?"
"Yes, sir."
He could hear Wolf's laughter in his voice. "When are you heading in?"
"I was headed out for a run, but I can come straight in instead."
"Good."
Pallas waited for Wolf to hang up, but he didn't. At least not right away.
"I just want to talk to you about something. Not an emergency if you still want to run."
"No, I'll be right in. I can run later."
"Okay. I'll meet you there."
Then, he hung up.
Pallas wasn't sure what was on Wolf's mind, but he wasn't used to that strange hesitation in his tone.
Knowing that there was no use in worrying over it, Pallas changed his clothes to his woodlands uniform and headed out to his Bronco. The parking lot was half filled being that it was Sunday. There were still men at church and others enjoying their day. Climbing up into the Bronco, he saw something flash on the screen of his phone.
KAWEHI: Aloha Kakahiaka
KAWEHI: Morning
Hesitating for a moment, he picked up his phone and sent her a return message.
PALLAS: Morning, beautiful
He picked up his phone, dropped it in the chest pocket of his uniform and got back out of the Bronco. If he made his way across the green spaces on base, he could get to the building just as quickly as driving. And Kawehi's morning message had given him a boost of energy. Clipping his keys to a beltloop, he started running.
The team's meeting room was a cinder block square along a parking lot near a wooded area on base. There wasn't a lot of road traffic in the area and there were two other square cinder block meeting rooms on other edges of the parking lot.
It looked boring from the outside. Painted in a basic neutral color that looked like every other utility building in the area. If the aim was to make their meeting room look like some kind of storage facility, they had been successful. Pallas knew what was inside the building. A lot of computer equipment, practice gear, and well... things he couldn't really tell anyone about.
Or he'd have to kill them.
Smiling at the stupid, overused idiom, he used his key to open the door and stepped in. The air conditioning chilled his skin right away.
"You ran over."
Pallas looked up and saw Wolf sitting at the desk along the wall, his feet up.
"I got my run in and saved on gas."
"Saving on gas, my ass."
Pallas shrugged. "I needed the run."
Wolf nodded. "Still made good time." He gestured at the desk closest to him. "Want a seat?"
Pallas tipped his head to the side. "Do I need to?"
Shaking his head, Wolf dropped his booted feet to the utility carpeted floor and stood up. "You're one suspicious man, Pallas."
"That's one way to look at it." Pallas almost smiled then and that must have caught Wolf's attention.
"What's that smile about?"
"What? What smile?"
"You're not hiding it well, if that's what you were trying to do." Wolf sighed. "Someone in your life?"
Pallas didn't need to hide it. "I met someone."
"Does she work on base?"
He shook his head. "Lanikai Lanes. She works there with her family. It's a nice place."
Wolf's brows raised a little. "I've heard good things about it. You serious about her?"
There was something about Wolf's question that put him a little on edge. "I think so. It feels that way."
"That's good, man. Really good."
Pallas narrowed his eyes on Wolf's face. "Why do I feel like you're not fully behind this?"
Wolf folded his arms across his chest and shrugged. "If it works for you, Pallas, I'm glad. I've been in the Marines for over a decade now and I haven't managed to find a woman willing to put up with me and the life."
"She actually needs a bit of help."
"From you? Or the Marines?"
Wolf's tone at the end said he was joking.
"Well, the Marines."
Wolf's eyes widened at that answer and Pallas explained what Kawehi was going through. What she'd been going through for years.
Pallas sighed. "I've gone down to talk to a few people and see if they can get her some help or even some advice on how to find him, but-"
"Hitting a few walls?"
Pallas nodded.
Wolf reached out his arm and gave the thick cinder block walls a few hearty pats. "Nothing worth having comes easy. You might have to break down a few walls to help her. If you’d like, I can contact a few folks that I know. They might be able to help. One works in an office that handles family services."
"As far as we can tell, he never informed the military that he was married." Pallas felt his own frustrations building up again.
"That's a problem of its own. I think we can work with that." Wolf pulled out his phone and made a few notes. "Is he on a mortgage with her?"
Pallas felt a muscle tick in his jaw. "No. He didn't have good credit, so their house is on her credit."
Wolf shook his head and a blood vessel swelled in his forehead. "We know not every man or woman in the military is a good person, but this guy..."
Pallas agreed. "I want him out of her life just because it will make things better for her."
"But you also want to be in her life, too." Wolf gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Then we should talk about the reason I asked you to come in early."
Pallas nodded. "Okay."
"You've been on my team for the better part of a year, and I know some people would expect Chicago or Buck to take over for me-"
Pallas felt his chest tighten.
"In case something happens."
"I don't think I'm comfortable discussing this with you, Wolf. We don't have to worry about this right now."
"It's always time to talk about things like this, Pallas. You know this as well as I do."
"Yes, I know what could happen. I just don't want to think about it. I don't want people to think..."
"I've already talked to Buck and Chicago. They were in full agreement before I even mentioned your name."
Pallas looked at him with open surprise. "They did?"
"They know your worth to the team. They also agree that you're a natural leader. Most of the men look to you first when things happen and I'm not in the room. It makes sense to have you take over when the need arises."
"If," Pallas knew his voice was louder than it should be, but he didn't like the idea of taking over for Wolf. No matter what the reason.
Wolf nodded. "We don't always know what our future has in store for us, Pallas. We're thrown into situations, and we don't know the outcomes."
Pallas shrugged. "That's why we train as much as we do. Some of the men say we're over trained."
Wolf shook his head. "Twinkie and POS?"
Nodding, Pallas agreed. "Maybe."
Wolf smiled. "You know them as well as I do, Pallas. You were born to be a leader. And I'm glad I have the chance to work with you and train you for when that time comes."
"In ten years or so, maybe."
Wolf let out a breath. "We'll never know until it happens, won't we?"
The door to the training room opened and almost half of the team rushed in. Twinkie stopped short and groaned. "I thought we beat Pallas for once."
Chicago shook his head. "I told you that you were dreaming. You have to get an early start to beat Pallas anywhere."
Twinkie looked downright affronted. "It'll happen someday."
Jester laughed and almost covered it as a cough. "Dream on, Twinkie. Dream on."
Wolf gave them all a make-shift glare. "Take a seat while we're waiting for the others."
Hoss pointed at the door. "They're outside getting out of their cars."
Axl sank down into his chair and looked over at Pallas. "How are things with your girl?"
Jammer grinned at him as well. "When do we get to meet her, Pallas?"
Axl reached out and shoved Jammer, tipping his chair to the side. "Like he'd introduce you to his girl."
"She's a woman," Pallas interjected and shrugged. "I'm taking her to Bellows Beach on Monday."
"Smart man," Riptide gave him a shaka sign as he sat down. "Bathing suits are always good."
Axl shook his head. "I don't think Pallas cares what she looks like in her suit."
Riptide grinned. "I was saying Pallas probably wants to impress her with how he looks in a suit."
The rest of the team filed in, taking the leftover seats in the training room.
Wolf stood up and moved to the center of the room to point at the Smart Wall screen. "Okay, we have some dates to discuss and some training to schedule in."
Twinkie groaned softly, but everyone knew that it was his pitiful whine that they heard.
"There's also a festival coming up in a few months. It's a big carnival celebration with music and concerts here on the base. The public will be allowed in to attend. The event will create lots of local interest and give the military a chance to impress the locals with what we do. Static displays of military vehicles will be set up on one of the airstrips and base command will be looking for a bunch of eager volunteers-"
A few of the men groaned only to have Wolf nail them all with a look before he repeated.
"A bunch of eager volunteers." He leaned closer to the team and cupped a hand behind his ear.
"Yes, sir." Came the rousing chorus from the team.
"Glad that we cleared that up." Wolf smiled. "I don't want to hear that any of you can't show up because you have dates. The event will be Friday and Saturday on that weekend. There will be musical groups on both nights and a beer tent."
"Yes!"
Wolf turned to look at Kid. "Son?"
Kid crossed his arms across his chest and looked at the room. "I'm twenty-three."
Jammer laughed out loud. "You still look like you're in high school, Kid."
POS predictably joined in the razzing. "Bring your ID. You know you're gonna get challenged, baby face."
Pallas clapped a hand down on POS's shoulder. "Leave him alone, man."
Kid gave Pallas a nod.
Arctic lifted his hand into the air. "Which groups are coming to play the concerts?"
Wolf paused for a moment as Arctic rarely spoke.
Then, he looked back down at the paper he held in his hand. "Jessie Dillon, country music singer."
Hoss slapped his desk with the flat of his hand. "She's great!"
Riptide gave him a high five. "Who else?"
"Saturday night, they're starting off with a Hawaiian Music Group, the... the Velasco family?"
The team looked around the room at each other. No one seemed to know the group by name.
"Then after that, they have a group called Downhome Country."
Axl looked up with some interest. "They're on the local country station all the time."
Buck looked at Axl from his seat behind Axl. "Hawaii has a country music station?"
"KHCM," Axl nodded. "It's pretty good, but I like listening to it when it's mostly music. The morning show people are kind of annoying."
Wolf cleared his throat. "Are we done?"
Axl held up his hands in the air. "Sorry, Sir."
Wolf gave him a smile. "For anyone who wants to know. KHCM is on Ninety-Seven point Five."
A soft round of laughter went through the group.
"Okay," Wolf pointed behind him at the screen, "now, let's get back to the agenda and-"
Wolf's cell phone flared to life on the desk at his side. "One second."
He picked up his phone and read the message on the screen, nodding his head.
Wolf walked away toward the door and murmured, "Pallas, continue with the announcements. I'll need a minute to make a call."
Wolf didn't wait for Pallas to agree with him, he walked out the door, flooding the room with bright sunlight for a moment before the door closed.
Pallas looked at the Smart Wall behind him and started with the next announcement. "There's a cub scout weekend event coming to the base the week-"
"Are we really just going to keep going with these announcements," Bacon leaned forward on his desk. "As if we don't know that something just hit the fan."
Riptide met Pallas' eyes before speaking. "Well, y'all are Marines. That's the sound that shit makes when it hits the fan."
Bacon flipped Riptide off and earned himself a glare from Pallas. "He's just pissin' on us because he's in the Navy."
Pallas fixed his gaze on Bacon and the other man sat back against his chair. "He's one of us in the team. I thought that was clear."
"He was until he pulled that shit."
Pallas shook his head. "He's trying to ease the tension in the room. Everyone take a breath. Now, for the cub scout event, they'll need folks willing to teach and test the boys and girls-"
Pallas saw that there were a few confused looks in the room.
"It's different now if you've been a cub scout before. They've opened the Boy Scouts of America and made it Scouting America or something like that."
Buck smiled. "You were an eagle scout. Right, Pallas?"
Pallas nodded. "You were, too."
Most of the men in the room nodded in agreement.
"So I can see that we'll have pretty much everyone signing up to help." Pallas saw Twinkie sinking down into his chair. "It's only a few hours and you'll enjoy it once you’re there."
Twinkie dropped his head into one hand, groaning.
POS was the startling voice of reason in the room. "Dude. Stop griping or you're going to end up being volun-told to do it."
Pallas pointed at POS. "That's right. Thanks, POS."
"Yes, sir. I'll help."
The door opened back up and every man in the room was suddenly all business. Wolf lifted his gaze to look at everyone in the room. "We're headed out in a few hours."
Pallas knew what that meant and knew by the weight on Wolf's metaphorical shoulders that he wouldn't be back in time to take Kawehi to the beach.
"What's up, Wolf?"
Wolf looked at Buck and gave him the hint of a smile. "We're headed to the Philippines. Apparently, the brass thinks that there's trouble brewing on the streets of Manila."
Jammer sat back in his chair. "They've got some trouble brewing with China and unrest is building."
Wolf nodded. "Reading the newspaper again?"
Jammer sank a little more into his seat. "Apple News on my phone. They're pretty good."
"Good. We're going in to assist the Marines at the Embassy. But we're going in as regular Americans. We don't want people in the area to think that the military is adding to its presence in the city."
Pallas nodded. If the people became aware of more military coming into the city, they might act out of worry or panic. Neither would be good or helpful if unrest was already building in Manila.
"According to the brass, we'll be there for a few days, at least."
Kid shifted in his seat and looked to Pallas first and then Wolf. "And the other end?"
Pallas set his hand on the back of Kid's chair. "We'll be there as long as it takes."
Buck nodded. "We're there to do a job and when it's done-"
"Then we'll come back here." Wolf gave them all a pointed nod. "I'll message you the details, but for now you can head back to your apartments and get packed."
The room emptied out quickly, but Pallas stayed for a moment, holding his cell phone in his hand.
Wolf came to stand beside him, his voice softened by their proximity. Maybe also the message.
"Something wrong, Pallas?"
Pallas bit into the inside of his cheek. "I've never had someone I had to... say goodbye to like this."
Wolf set a hand on his shoulder. "It's the problem that comes with the pleasure, I guess."
Pallas nodded. "I guess. I just don't like that I'm going to break a promise to her."
"Like her husband?"
Pallas swallowed down the knot in his throat. "Yeah, like that."
"She has to know that you're not like him."
"I think so."
Wolf tipped his head to the side. "Then maybe this is the right time for something like this to happen, Pallas. If she doesn't know that you're not him, you should find out now."
Pallas wasn't sure he agreed with Wolf's view of the situation. "Or maybe it's proving that I'm not him by coming back and making up for the broken promise."
"Maybe." Wolf's smile was one he'd never seen before. "You better give her a call before you pack. Do you want me to drop you off at your apartment?"
"Yes, thanks." Pallas smiled back at him. "I'll take you up on that offer."
Wolf took out his keys and tossed them back into his hand. "Let's go."
KAWEHI
Getting ready to go into work, Kawehi looked around at her bedroom and winced at the ridiculous mess that she'd made. "I wear the same thing to work almost every day. What's wrong with me?"
The answer sprung into her head easily.
She wanted to dress up in case Pallas came by.
"Silly," she grumbled at herself. "Silly, stupid girl."
She looked up at the clock on her wall and realized that she didn't have time to put the extra clothes away if she wanted to get in early enough to verify the schedules for the next two weeks and send in their timecards to her aunt, she had to get moving.
Just as she reached her door, her phone rang, and she quickly fished it out of her purse.
A quick glance at the screen said that it was Domenico.
"Dom? Hi!" She knew her voice sounded a little breathless, but she couldn't help it. It was a rush to see Dom's name on her phone, even better to hear his voice. "I wasn't expecting to hear from you."
"I have to go on... I have to do something for work."
Something for work.
"Are you going to be okay?" She sat down on her top step and concentrated on breathing. "Dom?"
"Yeah. Yes." She heard a laugh in his voice, but it sounded tight. Awkward. "I'll be fine, but I won't be able to take you to the beach tomorrow."
"Oh no. Of course not." She almost choked on her words. "I'm just... You're going to be okay."
"Yeah, Kawehi. I'm just doing something for work. I won't be on island, but I'll be with my team. We've got each other’s backs."
"Yeah. Sure. Of course you do."
The call went silent on both ends before she managed to say something.
"I'm sorry, Dom. I don't know how to do this. I'm sure there's a good thing to say. Like Maile did some theater stuff and they said, 'break a leg,' but I'm sure that's not the same thing for Marines."
"No," he chuckled softly. "That's probably the last thing we need to do."
"I know. I'm-"
"No need to be sorry. I just wanted to let you know that I won't be around for a little bit."
"Okay." Her skin felt clammy. Her heartbeat felt erratic. "I just want you to take care of yourself. Okay? I want to know that you're being safe. Oh god, that sounds stupid, doesn't it? It's not like you're going to try to get hurt. I just-"
"Breathe, baby. Breathe. I'm going to be okay. I'm going to come back. I just wanted to let you know before I get on the transport that I'm going to be away."
Okay. Oh god. Why was she such a mess?
She opened her mouth to say something and almost begged him to come back.
She really was a mess.
"I want you to know..." His voice was deep and even, sending shivers through her body. The best kind of shivers. "As soon as I'm back here in the islands I'm coming to see you."
She nodded, unable to speak.
"I'm coming to see you and we're going to reschedule that beach date and maybe another two or three dates because I'm going to need to make up for lost time."
She nodded again and then managed a few words because she needed to say them as much as she hoped that he needed to hear them. "I'll be waiting for you."
Kawehi heard something like a harsh breath on the other end of the call.
"I'm going to be missing you, every second." His voice was rough. "I'm going to be thinking about you every spare moment."
"Same here." She squeezed her eyes shut to stop tears from leaking out onto her cheeks. "Take care of yourself, Dom. I need you to come back."
"I'm going to do everything I can to make that happen, 'Wehi. I... I have to go."
"Okay." She forced a smile on her face hoping that it would make her voice sound happier than she felt. "I'll see you soon."
"Bye."
"Bye."
The phone call ended, and she tried to stand up, but ended up sitting on her front step struggling to hold back the tears that threatened to flow. She knew Dom was a good guy. She knew, on instinct alone, that he was a good Marine. He was fit and observant. He'd be okay.
Right?
She gasped in a breath, grabbed onto the railing at the edge of her steps and pulled herself up onto her feet.
She had to get to work. She had to do it safely.
She had people depending on her and she wasn't going to let them down.
Just like Dom hadn't let her down.
He'd called her.
He'd let her know that he was leaving the island.
And of course he couldn't tell her where he was going or for how long, but he'd called.
In that one moment, he proved that he was a better man than Nick had ever been.
She looked up into the skies above KBAY and said a few silent words.
Come back soon, Dom. I'll be waiting.