Ever Hayes - Redemption

“Don’t.” She pointed a finger at me. “Don’t say it.”

“Fine.” I reached out and grabbed her hand and pulled her back against me. “I only want you to be happy here. I want you to know you’re safe.”

She turned her face toward me and gave me a weak smile. “I know.” She kissed me one more time. “And I appreciate it.”

I knew my speech hadn’t solved the problem. If anything, she was even more distant now. I tried tickling her but playtime was over. She pushed my hands away and kicked off toward shore. “I’m gonna go check on Ollie.”

Dang it. “Okay. I’ll be right up.”

She shook her head. “No, you stay down here and hang out with everyone else.”

Ouch. Why do I feel like I should take that personally? She was swimming away again. I slapped the water as she walked up the beach, that beautiful backside peeking out the sides of her bikini bottom, swaying with each step. Way to go, idiot! Real smooth.

As Tara made her way up the hill, I emerged from the water and grabbed a towel off a beach chair. I sat down and put it over my head. I didn’t even hear Hayley walk up. “What’s going on, Dad?”

I flipped the towel back off my head and squinted up at her. “Nothing.”

“Tara didn’t look happy.”

“I don’t even know what to say.”

“Well, did you say something to—”

“No! Nothing…at least I don’t think I did. We were just playing around out there, and I was—”

“I don’t need those details, Dad. None of us are blind.” She gestured towards the others. “I only ask because she seemed happy when she went out there with you and then…”

“I know. Tell me about it.”

“Is everything okay with Ollie?”

“Yes.” I sank back into the beach chair. “I think. I don’t know. I thought everything was okay, but for some reason she’s all freaked out about this rescue mission.”

“Seriously?” Hayley sounded like she didn’t believe me. “You think she’s upset about the rescue mission?”

I stayed silent. What else would it be?

“No, Dad, none of us are even going on—”

“That’s exactly what I said. I thought I could ease her mind somehow. I don’t know…I probably said the wrong thing.” This time, as much as I expected her to, Hayley didn’t disagree with me. At least not vocally.

“Do you want me to go talk to her?” Hayley placed her hand gently on my right shoulder. I shrugged. “Dad, don’t take it personally. Girls can be weird sometimes…or so I’ve heard.” I smiled, and she took my hand, pulling me up. “Come hang out with the rest of us for a while. By the time you get up there, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Hopefully. Tara wasn’t easily upset. There had to be something deeper to what she was feeling. But I didn’t know if even she knew what it was yet.

While everyone was down at the beach in the cove, Lazzo was waiting for a chance to sneak back into Danny’s room for another look at the book. He could hear Kate downstairs singing something about loving a bushel to Ollie, but he knew she’d be taking him back to Ryan and Tara’s soon for a nap. When she finally left and had been gone about a half hour, he checked his watch. He figured he had a good twenty minutes to look around—the time it took for someone to climb the hill from the cove—so he snuck out of his room and into Danny and Kate’s. He made mental notes of where everything was in the room, from Kate’s clothes on the bed to Danny’s stack of papers on his nightstand. Lazzo carefully and methodically moved objects in a specific order to make sure he could reverse the sequence and leave everything exactly as he found it. When he finally moved the panel and punched in the key code on the safe, he took one last look out the window. He was alarmed to see Tara nearing the top of the cliff trail, meaning he had less than ten minutes to flip through the book. He swung the door open and stared in horror at the inside of the safe. The book was gone.

When Lazzo had recovered enough to think clearly, he rapidly put everything back in place. Then he hurriedly looked around the rest of the room. The only other place he could think of where the book might be was Blake’s office. He swung open the door and quickly stepped out of the room, nearly plowing into Kate and Ollie.

Kate jumped. “Lazzo?”

“Kate.” Lazzo tried to remain calm.

“What are you—what are you doing in my room?”

“This is rather embarrassing.” He couldn’t look her in the eyes.

“Okay…” Kate took a few steps back.

Lazzo didn’t like the look on her face—obvious distrust. He tried to think of something quick. “I… I ran out of underwear.” He could feel sweat running down his backbone. “But don’t worry, I wasn’t looking for yours. I thought maybe Danny—we’re the same, uh…” He stopped talking. He didn’t know if she bought it.

“Yeah…” She laughed awkwardly. “You could have just…”

“Asked?” Lazzo smiled. “It’s really not that easy. I’m so sorry. I’m so embarrassed.”

“I was going to suggest laundry.” She smiled uneasily.

He noticed with relief she hadn’t backed any farther away. “I’m afraid that wouldn’t have solved my—er—problem with what I have—or don’t have.”

“Ah. So. Well, did you—”

“No.” Lazzo shook his head. “I couldn’t get myself to try your—I mean his—I… no. I’m okay. I’ll wait until next week if I have to. I’ll have someone buy me some from the market.” He hoped his embarrassment and stuttering had sufficiently masked his initial guilty response.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, please. It’s okay. Please don’t tell Danny. You have no idea as a guy how…” He looked away, still acting.

“Don’t worry.” Kate laughed again. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Lazzo headed back to his room and sat on his bed, still trembling. That was too close. Way too close . He had been so close to being caught in the act. If he hadn’t seen Tara coming up the hill, Kate would have walked in on him and then… then what?

But now what should he do? He couldn’t risk going back into Danny and Kate’s room. If he were caught again, he was sure no one would believe him no matter what he said. But where was that book? Was Danny carrying it with him now? Was it in Blake’s house?

Lazzo was in a full panic. He was running out of time and couldn’t chance being caught snooping again. He had to start thinking about another way to get the information the Libyan commander wanted. At that moment it occurred to him that he hadn’t thoroughly explored the van in the Waimea Bay parking lot. Was it possible he’d missed something there?

He knew this might be his last chance to go back to Kauai since there would supposedly only be one more strategy meeting—Saturday—before the aircraft carrier left, and who knew how security would change around the ship’s departure. He grabbed his sweatshirt and headed down to the cove—needing to leave before the Pack came back. The others were hanging out at the top of the cliff trail so—to be courteous—he asked if anyone needed or wanted to go with him to Kauai. Kate smiled at him and he looked away quickly, pretending to still be embarrassed. He breathed an inward sigh of relief when no one else wanted to go. “Okay, I’ll be back in two hours.”

When Lazzo reached the Waimea Bay parking lot on Kauai, he hopped into the van. He searched the glove compartment, visors, and ashtray. Nothing. In frustration he slammed his fists against the steering wheel. There had to be something here. This was Libyan intelligence. They wouldn’t just leave a van here and hope he came up with a use for it.