Chapter 14 #2
"It's okay," Kawehi smiled to put it in her voice, but she wasn't happy about being late. She was looking forward to seeing Dom. She was hoping that they might get a chance to dance. If they ever got to the festival.
PALLAS
Looking at his phone, he didn't see any messages or missed calls. He blew out a breath and barely resisted the urge to call.
"What are you looking for?"
Pallas looked up and smiled at Buck. "A message from Kawehi. I don't want to miss her when she comes in."
Buck looked at the double lines of people making their way through the discreetly covered metal detectors on their way into the hangar. "It's going to be awhile with this line." He gestured out into the night. "I heard that the guys at the gate say its bumper-to-bumper out there."
Pallas nodded. "I doubt she's going to message me if she's on the road."
"True." Buck shrugged. "You want me to wait with you?"
Pallas shook his head. "Let me message her and then I'll go with you to the static display. I'd rather do something with my time than sit here staring at the line of people coming in."
He looked down at his cell phone at the messages they'd already sent and decided to leave it be. She had to be on the way, and he didn't want to bother her on the road. At night with a lot of cars trying to make their way onto the base, a momentary distraction could be enough to cause an accident.
He knew that she'd send him a message when she arrived, so he slid his phone back into his pocket and walked through the hangar on his way to the tarmac on the other side.
Pallas and Buck looked at the scores of booths lining the serpentine path they'd created through the cavernous space.
"They have pretty much everything in here."
Pallas nodded. "Everything from snacks."
"Custom T-shirts."
"And a few car dealerships." Pallas shook his head. "Crazy."
"It's like those impulse buy shelves by the cash register in stores." Buck sighed. "Although I'm not sure how much of an impulse buy a car would be."
Pallas chuckled and lifted his chin at the red car on display at the end of the row. "Definitely not that Camaro. That's a chunk of change for a car. Certainly not something I'd just walk up to and buy at an event like this."
NICK CARTER
The two men continued on, laughing to each other. They didn't notice the man standing beside the Camaro with his back toward them.
But he noticed them.
He'd had his own investigation done in the short amount of time since he'd been served divorce papers. The one with dark hair and muscles to spare was the man trying to move in on Kawehi.
Nick Carter turned around and if his gaze could bore a hole through the other man's head, Domenico Pallas would be crumpled, dead on the floor.
He'd barely made it out of Florida alive after Charmaine's father found out about his.
.. trouble, but they'd all agreed it was better for him to come to Hawaii and get things straightened out.
He'd managed to convince them that it was a matter of a paper snafu and that he could find that non-existent paper in Hawaii.
He didn't think he had much time to get things figured out before he'd have to go back home.
His problem with the Marines wasn't easy to fix.
The brass on base had already told him that he was on thin ice with them.
Apparently, this Domenico guy had some friends in high places and that's how they'd found him in the first place.
Time was running out. He'd have to fix things quickly or he'd be in really hot water when he got back to Florida.
KAWEHI
Kawehi was relieved when they finally found a parking space.
It had been slow going, but the Marines directing traffic had done a great job keeping people and vehicles moving.
As soon as they found parking, she got her phone out and turned it on.
She was relieved that she hadn't missed any messages or calls from Dom.
She knew he had stuff to do at the festival and she didn't want to cause him any problems.
She typed out a message to Dom and touched the send icon on the messaging app, but it didn't send.
Kawehi tried it again, but nothing happened.
"What's up?" Maile was standing by the front of the car. "Did you get a message from Dom?"
"No." Kawehi barely resisted the urge to shake the phone as if that would make any difference. "I don't have any coverage."
"What?" Maile dug her phone out of her purse and turned it on. "Weird. I don't have any coverage either."
Kawehi turned off her phone and started it back up again. The phone still had the draft of the message in her phone, but it still wouldn't send. "I'm supposed to message Dom when I got here. Now, I don't know what I'm going to do."
Maile leaned in and sighed. "We can go to the entrance and try again." She pointed at the front of the hangar at the slowly advancing double line. "If we don't get in line now, we might never get in."
Agreeing with her cousin, Kawehi tucked her wallet in her jeans pocket and kept her phone in her hand. "Let's go. Maybe we'll find someone who knows where the guys are."
Maile gave her a wink. "Great! As long as it's not Axl. He can kiss my-"
"Okay, let's go." Kawehi wondered how long it was going to be before her cousin stopped fighting the attraction she felt for Axl. Knowing her, and learning about Axl, they both might out stubborn each other into their eighties! "You know how much I love lines."
"Ugh. Same here." Maile rushed ahead to get in line ahead of some other people who had parked their cars nearby and held a spot for Kawehi. They began the walk to the hangar and while Kawehi tried a few times to get a message through, she heard other people complaining about a cell outage.
An android user in the line laughed at their friend, bragging loudly that he had coverage.
"Jerk," Maile looked up at her. "He's going to get his butt kicked if he says it loud enough."
Kawehi put her hand on her cousin's shoulder. "Down, tiger. Don't do anything to end up in jail tonight."
Maile looked up with doe-eyed innocence as she put a hand over her heart. "I won't do that. I was just thinking someone with an iPhone might if he keeps making an issue of it."
A man in front of them in line turned his head to look back over his shoulder. "I was thinking the same thing."
Kawehi listened as the two commiserated over their mutual hate of the man about ten feet ahead of them. Nick had an Android phone. Right about now he'd be complaining and self-congratulating himself to anyone who would listen.
She really was happy to put him and their relationship behind her.
NICK CARTER
Nick was thrilled to know that Kawehi hadn't changed her phone. He saw the blip on the screen flaring off and on. He could hear people nearby complaining about an iPhone outage, but there must have been enough of a signal for him to see where she was. And that was just outside of the hangar.
Being back at KBAY was a trip down memory lane and while he'd never been with her on base, he had a feeling that this was the best way to get in touch with her.
He'd used his ID to get himself on the base as if he was still stationed here so he got a parking space that was easier to access than where she would have been instructed to park.
As soon as she made it through the hangar, he was sure he'd be able to pull her aside and talk to her. They could work this out quickly and he could get things straightened out with Charmaine.