Chapter 7 #2
“I don’t rent dive equipment, but I own some. And my boat will work as well as any Jako has for diving.”
“Aren’t you afraid your bank or insurance company will threaten to drop you if you help me?”
“Screw them,” Leilani said. “You know me. I’ve been through the fires of hell and lived to tell about it. I’m not afraid of some silly bank executive or insurance salesman.”
Hope swelled in Kimo’s chest. “Can you loan me your boat?” She cast a glance toward Rex.
His eyebrows rose on his forehead.
“Not only can I loan you a boat, but I can also drive it and dive with you.”
A frown pulled at Kimo’s brow. “I can’t ask you to go along. Those same people who attacked us the first time might come after me again.”
“Then I’ll bring my own personal bodyguard, Angel. I hear Rex was assigned to you. According to my guy, you’ll like him. He’s the strong, serious type. But I get the feeling he’s got a heart of gold beneath his stoic exterior.”
Kimo’s cheeks heated as she glanced toward Rex, hoping he couldn’t hear Leilani’s description of him.
She’d nailed it. Rex was the strong, serious type.
And he had given her a glimpse of the heart inside when he’d come to her defense while the detective had been ass and when Dillon had gotten in her space.
But it was when he’d held her hand after that last encounter that she’d seen his softer side.
Her fingers were still warm from contact with his.
Kimo forced herself to focus on her mission, not the man sitting patiently in the driver’s seat. “Still, I’m worried about how dangerous it will be. One of my friends is missing. I’d hate to lose another.”
“I insist,” Leilani said. “And having two Brotherhood Protectors will add to the safety of your effort. We might even ask Hawk to send a couple more. We’ll each need a dive buddy and a couple of armed men on the boat to protect the area around the boat.”
Kimo really didn’t want another friend to potentially risk her life. “I don’t have many options with word spreading that I lost a dive buddy and a boat.”
Rex leaned over the console and pointed at the cell phone. “Put her on speaker.”
“Hold on.” Kimo stared into Rex’s eyes. “Rex wants in on the conversation.”
“Good,” Leilani said. “He needs to be.”
Kimo handed the cell phone over to Rex.
He put the call on speaker. “Leilani, I gather you’re proposing taking one of your tour boats?”
“That’s right. One of my boats and me,” she answered. “But considering what happened to Kimo and Alana, I’ll bet money Angel won’t let me go without him, nor would I want to. I think we’ll need more than just me and Kimo to make this happen.”
“I agree,” Rex said. “I’ll contact Hawk and see if any other members of our team are available to accompany us. What timeframe are we aiming for?”
Kimo held Rex’s gaze across the cell phone. “As soon as possible.”
“Two of our boats are out on tour as we speak and won’t be back until this afternoon. The third one is in the shop for maintenance. I can have a boat ready by five this afternoon. If you find one to rent sooner, you won’t hurt my feelings. But I’m going with you either way, as will Angel and Rex.”
Kimo wanted to get out there sooner rather than later that afternoon. “Okay. I’ll let you know if I find another boat. Thanks, Leilani, for being my friend and being you.”
“I love you, Kimo. Let’s find Alana and bring her home. Now, I’d better get to work. I’ll have to service the dive gear and stage it for our dive. One other thing, since you’re poison to all the boat rentals and dive shops, you might want to come in disguise.”
“Good idea,” Kimo said. “That’ll help keep your reputation out of hot water.”
“And maybe distract whoever is out to trash you and your reputation,” Leilani said. “Keep me in the loop.” She ended the call.
“Sounds like we have a boat,” Rex said.
Kimo nodded. “I want to look a little more for a rental. I don’t like waiting that long to do something about finding Alana.”
“We can do that,” he said.
“First, I’d like to get a replacement phone with my own number. I can’t keep relying on yours.”
“I don’t mind loaning you mine.”
“People who don’t know I’m with you won’t be able to get a hold of me.
Like Leilani. If she hadn’t gotten a call from Kalea, she wouldn’t have known how to get in touch with me.
” Kimo waved a hand. “I run a business with customers expecting me to answer my phone. Some of the data I lost was supposed to go to those customers in the next few days. Not that I give a damn about those orders when Alana is who knows where.”
Rex reached out and took her hand. “Okay. Let’s go get you a phone.”
Rex drove back across the island to the store where Kimo had purchased her old cell phone.
After almost an hour, Kimo walked out of the store with a shiny new cell phone Rex had loaned her money to buy.
Though she hated being beholden to the man, at least she was back online, able to connect with friends and clients.
Once in Rex’s truck, she checked her text messages and found several from her corporate customers.
As Kimo read the first one, her heart sank to her knees. “The rumors have spread all the way to Oahu.”
“What do you mean?” Rex asked.
“My representative from the resort that contracted me to provide photos for their new marketing campaign texted me.” She shook her head.
“He says that based on information he received today about what happened last night and suspicion pointing to me as responsible for Alana’s disappearance, he regrets to inform me that he’s cancelling the contract.
” She looked up, meeting Rex’s gaze, the hand holding her new phone trembling.
“I was going to send them the files tomorrow. It was done. I only held onto it for maybe one more photo including the bioluminescence.”
“You’re being tried and found guilty by whoever is spreading the rumors. News reporters haven’t beaten down your door for the story. You’d think they would be the ones broadcasting that kind of news. I’ll have Swede look into the source.”
Kimo glanced back at her cell phone and gasped at the next text.
“And here’s another cancellation. The client stated pretty much the same thing.
” She scrolled through two more texts, her stomach roiling.
She switched to voicemail and found another customer who’d left her a message to cancel a photoshoot she’d scheduled for her business.
These were the kinds of accounts that kept her in business.
Without them, she’d lose everything. “My customers are bailing on me.”
“All the more reason to find someone to rent you a boat and get back out in the bay to find that camera,” Rex said. “Who else can you call for a boat rental?”
Kimo spent the next hour calling every boat-rental place she could find.
Rex texted Swede and then drove to the gas station to fill his tank.
No one would rent her a boat. When she’d exhausted all possibilities, she laid her phone in her lap. “As soon as I say my name, they say no. I don’t even get to ask them if they have a boat to rent.”
Rex had just pulled into a drive-thru of a fast-food restaurant and ordered two burgers fully loaded with fries and sodas.
“Let me try.” Rex picked up his cell phone. Before he could place a call, Kimo laid a hand on his arm.
“Don’t bother,” she said. “We have a boat at five. That’s only an hour away.”
“Okay, then. Now that that’s settled...” He pulled forward, paid for their meal, handed her the bag, stuck the drinks in the truck’s cupholders and drove the truck into an empty parking lot. “Let’s eat.”
He handed her a burger and an order of fries. “Sorry. I didn’t ask if you wanted a burger or something else.”
She took the hamburger with a grateful smile. “It’s not the time to worry about eating healthy. Besides, they make the best burgers in town.” She peeled back the wrapper. “As long as it has pickles, I’m in.”
“It’s fully loaded, including the pickles,” he said.
“Perfect.” Though her stomach was still knotted with concern for her friend, she bit into the burger anyway. It was so good she ate half of it before she gave up and picked at the fries. “Thanks,” she said.
Rex swallowed the last bite of his burger. “For what?”
“Taking care of me. I hadn’t even thought about eating since Alana disappeared.”
“I call it self-preservation.” He lifted his soda. “We have to keep up our strength, especially if we’re diving this evening.” He held his cup up. “To finding the camera.”
She tapped her cup to his. “To finding Alana.”
He nodded. “To Alana.” He took a sip from his straw. “Do you think your customers will come back when they learn you weren’t responsible for Alana’s disappearance?”
“I don’t know.” She’d been sick after getting all the calls and texts from her clients cancelling orders. “After the shock, I’m angrier than anything else. None of that matters if Alana doesn’t come home. Screw those customers.”
At that moment, Rex’s cell phone chirped. He glanced at the screen. “It’s Swede. Let’s hope he’s found something we can use.”
Kimo crossed her fingers in her lap. It was a silly gesture and probably wouldn’t affect the outcome of Swede’s search at all, but she was running out of ideas.
Rex answered the call and put the cell phone on speaker. “You’re on speaker with Kimo and me. What have you got?”
“Good,” Swede said. “I have Hawk on the call as well. I thought he’d like to hear what I’ve found.”
“Hey, Rex. Kimo,” Hawk said. “Go ahead, Swede.”
“First, there was one short news announcement about a woman who went missing during a night dive on Maui,” Swede said. “No mention of her name or of Kimo.”
Kimo frowned. “If it wasn’t in the news, how did my customers link my name to Alana’s disappearance? I can’t believe the gossips would bother to call the companies I’ve been working with to point their fingers at me. It doesn’t make sense.”