Chapter 9
Big Joe had been trying to catch Zara’s attention all afternoon, but she’d been swamped at the concierge desk thanks to a storm warning.
A Kona low was forecast to hit the islands over the next few days, and that meant that, for once, the “dry side” was going to get the brunt of the rain, wind, and high surf.
The waves were already picking up and several of the guests’ boating and surfing trips had been canceled. Her job was to find alternatives for them.
Finally, Big Joe swung by the concierge desk at a moment when she was gulping down an iced tea rather than checking on coffee farm tours and jungle adventures.
“Been wanting to tell you something,” he said, not taking the time for the usual preamble of chitchat. “Remember that weird Japanese dude with the sunglasses that we saw in hale twelve?”
“Yeah. Hard to forget that.” Her eyes widened. “Did you see him again?”
“Sure did. Not here,” he added quickly. “I was picking up a buddy over at the Kona Queen. Saw him doing security for a VIP and his family.”
“Was it Lincoln Kerr? That’s who he said he was working for.”
“Nah, bro. I asked my buddy and he said it was Kendo Tanaka. He’s on vacation with his family.”
“Who’s Kendo Tanaka?”
“You don’t know Tanaka? Scary dude. Kind of a crime boss, is what they say.”
She shuddered. “I guess it’s a good thing our security didn’t meet his standards.”
“It’s funny because their security is a joke compared to ours. And why did the guy say he worked for Lincoln Kerr?” Big Joe shrugged his massive shoulders. “Seems sketch as fuck. I took a photo and gave it to the guard shack so they’ll tell me if that dude comes back.”
“That’s smart. Hey, could you send it to me, too?”
“Sure. I’ll need your number.”
Darn it. She sighed and put it into his phone. A moment later, her phone pinged with a photo and an emoji of a flower bouquet. “Thanks, Big Joe. Hey, have you seen that new gardener?”
In all the busyness of the afternoon, she hadn’t once caught a glimpse of Jim since she’d asked him to check on Eddie. Maybe no news was good news, but it still seemed odd.
“Nah. Raoul was looking for him, too. Looked real mad.”
Her stomach tightened. She had to go check on her brother. Usually she managed to slip away from the desk every half hour or so and swing by whatever hale she’d put him in. Today, she’d barely had a second to breathe.
Glancing over at the receptionist desk, she saw that it was just as busy as she’d been.
“Do me a favor, would you, Joe?” She gave him her sunniest smile. “I just need a quick bathroom break. Could you stand here and tell the guests that I’ll be right back?” She didn’t give him a chance to say no. “Thanks-you’re-the-best-bye! brB!”
She flew across the foyer toward the front entrance—not the quickest way to a bathroom, but she didn’t have time for such details. Dodging past guests and servers circulating with free welcome mai tais, she made a beeline for hale eighteen.
The first thing she spotted was a leaf blower abandoned next to the hibiscus shrub by the front door. Jim must have gone inside, once again risking his job. The door was slightly ajar. She pushed it open and raced through the messy house, finding no sign of her little brother.
A low groan coming through the open sliding doors sent her racing through them. On the back lawn, she stopped in her tracks. What a mess—had a tree branch fallen? All she saw was a chaotic jumble of leaves and broken branches, and then a hand clawing out from under the mishmash.
“Jim?” she called. “Eddie?” No answer at first. She raced to the cracked branch and dropped to her knees.
“Zara!” From somewhere under that pile, Eddie was calling to her.
“Eddie! Are you okay?”
“The tree broke.”
“I see that. Are you hurt? Hang on, let me get this off you.” She got to her feet and gripped the branch with both hands. Pulling it off her brother was no easy feat. It was thick and heavy, and the part where it had broken off had huge jagged splinters of wood jutting out.
When she finally managed to heave it a few feet away, there was Eddie—but not just Eddie. He was clutched in the arms of Jim the gardener, who lay flat on his back, groaning as he tried to catch his breath.
She gently lifted Eddie off Jim’s chest. Eddie gripped his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist, hanging on like a monkey.
Since her brother seemed to generally be okay—at least alive and speaking, unlike Jim—she turned her focus to the gardener. “Jim, can you hear me? Are you okay?”
He turned his head from side to side, his eyes tightly closed, as if he was having a nightmare. “Crash. We’re going to crash. Refuse to die.”
“You’re not dead. Jim! Can you hear me?” She touched his shoulder, shook him gently. He didn’t wake up. Shit, was he injured? He’d obviously tried to catch Eddie as he fell, had maybe even saved her brother from crashing onto the ground. But at what cost to himself?
“Get down from there,” he mumbled.
“He’s already down,” she told him. “The branch broke, but Eddie is okay. Are you hurt?”
Jim turned his head from side to side and said, urgently, “We’re going to crash. We’re going down.”
“It’s over, Jim. You’re fine. You’re on solid ground and so is Eddie. Everything’s okay.”
Finally, Jim’s eyes opened, a slit of moody green against his sun-bronzed skin. His gaze found her, then dipped to Eddie. “Is he okay?”
“Seems so. A little clingy.” She peeled Eddie’s arms from around her neck and pulled back so she could look at him more closely. “Eddie, you’re safe now. You had quite the adventure, huh? Does anything hurt?”
“My leg.”
She peered down at his right leg and saw a rip in his favorite shorts, the ones with more pockets and zippers than a military uniform. Blood stained the khaki fabric.
“He got stuck on a branch stub,” Jim said with a wheeze. “You might want to get him checked out.”
She groaned at the thought of sitting in an emergency room on such a busy day. “Let me take a look first.”
She set Eddie down on the grass and gently lifted the flap of fabric. The branch had dug a shallow gash in his flesh, and bits of bark clung to the blood.
“Owww,” Eddie howled.
“We just need to clean this, that’s all. I’ll bandage you up and you’ll be fine.” At Jim’s skeptical glance, she added, “I have part of a paramedic certification.”
“Part of one?”
“I mean, I finished about half the course. Enough to know this can wait until after work.”
“We both hit the ground pretty hard. I really think you should—”
“I can’t leave work,” she said sharply. “I’ll lose my job, and while normally I would just go with the flow and find another one, right now I don’t have time for all that. I’m off in three hours, I’ll take him then.”
Jim shook his head, then winced. “I’ll take him.”
“You?” She stared at him with a frown. “When is your shift over?”
He struggled to sit up, brushing leaf debris out of his eyes. “It’s probably already over. Raoul’s been itching to fire me, and now he has a reason.”
“No.” She shook her head firmly. “I won’t let you get fired because of us. I’ll explain…” But she couldn’t explain without sharing how many rules she herself had broken. “I’ll come up with something. You were a hero. You saved this…this random child’s life.”
Crap. That wouldn’t fly. She would have to fess up if she wanted to spare Jim from getting fired.
“No.” Jim gingerly rubbed a kink out of the back of his neck. “It’s all right. Let them fire me. I don’t mind.”
“But you just started.” She’d be sad to see him go, to be honest. There was something very intriguing about Jim the gardener, something that didn’t quite fit. If he left, she’d never figure it out.
“It feels like a lot longer.” He maneuvered himself onto his hands and knees, then got himself up to a standing position, with a small assist from her. “Okay. So far so good. I think I’m fine, just a little winded. Good enough to drive.”
Eddie scooted his butt across the grass and wrapped his arms around Jim’s leg. Zara’s eyebrows lifted; he must have really bonded with Jim during this whole tree branch debacle.
“How’s your leg?” Jim asked him, putting a gentle hand on Eddie’ head.
“It’s kind of going thump-thump, thump-thump. Hurt-hurt, hurt-hurt.”
Zara looked more closely at the gash and saw that blood was still trickling past the scab that had started to form. He might need stitches if he didn’t want a scar. Her overall goal was to not scar her poor brother and sister while she had responsibility for them. Either emotionally or physically.
“Do you have a car?” she asked Jim.
“No.”
“You can take mine. I’ll catch a Lyft after work. Are you sure you don’t mind doing this?”
“I insist on it.”
Well, if he insisted. “Sit tight. I’ll be right back with my car.”
Employees were relegated to a tiny parking lot at the far edge of the property.
Many of the workers didn’t have cars, but instead took the Hele-On Bus to work.
A fair number came all the way across the island from Hilo.
She counted herself grateful that she didn’t have to take a two-hour early morning bus ride to work.
In her bright orange 1972 VW beetle, she sped back to the hale.
Cars were only allowed on the property for loading and unloading, in order to preserve the sense of serenity and peace that the resort claimed to offer.
She fielded a fair number of curious glances as various cover stories flitted through her mind.
A guest needed to borrow a car. A guest wanted to buy her car. A guest had a fetish for vintage Beetles. Whatever guests wanted, they got.
It wasn’t until Jim was inserting his long legs under the dash that it occurred to her that she was trusting him with a lot here. “If anything happens to either Eddie or the Kumquat, you’re a dead man,” she told him.
“The Kumquat?”
“My car. You’re a good driver, right?”
“According to Lewis Hamilton, yes.”
At her blank expression, he explained, “Famous race car driver.”
Wait…what? But she didn’t get a chance to follow up on that odd remark. She spread a beach towel on the back seat and settled Eddie on it. Should she go with them? It felt very strange to be handing off her brother to a gardener. But she trusted Jim—to an extent.
“My friend Buzzy is working at the Urgent Care today.” She gave him the address. “I texted her that Eddie is on his way. She’s going to call me as soon as you show up, and also with any updates. If I don’t hear from her in ten minutes—”
“Eddie is safe with me. You don’t have to worry.”
He held her gaze; the expression in them calmed her instantly. It was the look of someone who possessed relentless determination, someone able to bend people and events to their will. Normally, she might bristle at such a concept, but right now, for Eddie’s sake, she appreciated it.