Free Walking in Fire: Hawaiian Heroes, Book 1 by Cathryn Cade

and done it? The two had been snickering with Dane earlier about what Malu and Cherie were doing alone in the woods, but in the morning light, they were quiet and subdued, looking very young.
    “I’ll call 911,” Leilani said when the party had disappeared into the trees. “Then we betta get dressed and get the boat ready to go.”
    Melia nodded, grateful to be included in the preparations. She’d go crazy if she had to sit and think. David Ho’omalu, where are you? Crazy, indeed—she barely knew the man, yet she was nearly beside herself with worry.
    She waited while Leilani called the emergency hotline. It seemed to take a long time to go through the procedure. After several moments, Leilani shook her head, frowning. She clicked the phone closed.
    “Police can’t send a boat right away. Got some kind of trouble in Kona.”
    “What about a helicopter?” Melia asked. She’d heard the craft crisscrossing the island since she arrived. They seemed to be used a lot here.
    “No room to land one here,” Leilani said. “Too wild. There’s a place well up the mountain, but it’s on a lava flow. They can’t be hauling the girl clear up there. Well, let’s get busy.”
    “But…Malu?” Melia blurted. She pressed her fingers to her lips as Leilani turned back, her dark eyes haunted.
    “Don’t know,” the other woman said starkly. “He…he better be okay. We…” Her voice trailed off, and she turned sharply away. “We can only deal with what’s before us, yeah?”
    It was the truth, no matter how unpalatable. An injured woman needed their help. They could do nothing to help Malu, not for the moment.
    The air felt hot and close when Melia stepped out of the shower, her skin damp despite her brisk toweling. She slipped on a pair of panties and the blue batik sundress she’d found in Kona. She’d seen the dress fluttering in the breeze that first day and bought it on the spot. That carefree shopping trip seemed so distant now. She just wanted something cool and comfortable.
    Putting the last of her things away, she left her duffle on the bed and went to help Leilani. As she passed Jacquie’s room, she saw the woman curled on her bed once more.
    “Should we get her up?” she asked Leilani.
    Leilani looked at her. “You wanna listen to her cry?”
    Melia shook her head guiltily. They packed a cooler with lunches, another with cold drinks, and carried them down to the boat.
    “Even in trouble, people got to eat,” Leilani said. “I’m going to start the boat up, make sure everything running okay. Then when they get down here with that girl, we ready to go.”
    The boat would not start.
    Frowning, Leilani checked the gauges, opened a hatch and peered in, then tried again. The big motor sputtered once and stopped.
    “Great,” she said in disgust. “Well, Frank have to look at this. I don’t know what’s wrong.”
    Melia looked back along the dock. She saw movement, the men emerging from the trees. Her heart leapt with hope, but no tall, broad figure strode into the hot sunlight. It was the twins, bearing a stretcher between them, with Frank and Dane on either side.
    “They’re here.”
     
    Frank, tired and harassed, scowled darkly when confronted with the news about his boat. He hopped aboard and dove under the engine cover, with one of the twins at the wheel as helper.
    Leilani looked after Cherie, who had been laid on her bed in the stretcher. Melia, who’d only had a glimpse of Cherie as they carried her into the house, gasped in horror. The redhead lay still, her face and limbs covered with horrific bruises, her hair and brief sarong stained with dirt and blood. She was lucky to have survived, Melia realized. Whoever had attacked her seemed to have wanted her dead or simply not cared whether she lived or died.
    Jacquie flung herself onto the rattan lounge by Cherie’s bed and burst into tears again.
    Leilani shook her head. “Dis bad,” she said. “Never happen in Kau long as I been