watch Joel murdered, right in front of her.”
“We’ll heal her,” Daniel swore. They had to, or break the hearts of so many people—Daro, Melia, Bella’s mother Grace, and Daniel’s own sweetheart, Claire.
Frank nodded and then looked down at the man lying beside Hilo. “He gonna live? He’s a good guy. And he and Bella—”
“Ho’omalu,” said a new voice from behind Daniel. “Can one of you mokes explain what the hell happened here?”
The three of them looked around. The captain of the Coast Guard cutter, a friendly acquaintance of Hilo and Daniel, stood on the sand, two of his crew behind him. They were all looking around the camp with their eyes wide under their regulation ball caps.
Frank cleared his throat. “I was here,” he said. “I can tell you exactly what happened. That woman over there…” He pointed to a slender, white-clad form lying in the sand, one arm out-flung, eyes staring sightlessly. A litter of dead leaves and blossoms nearly covered her bloodstained body. “…tried to murder all of us. Her name is Camille Helman, and she’s from da Helman ohana, out of California.”
Daniel rose, cradling Bella as he turned to glare at the body of one of his family’s worst enemies. He hoped she was the last of them, or he would personally mount a hunt for the others and cast them into the sea to be devoured as they’d intended to devour his island.
“Those are all her men, dead,” Frank went on in his cracked voice. “The little blonde passed out over dere is a model, and somewhere around here, probably hiding in the deepest hole they could find, are two more kids who came along with Bella and Joel here, to take some pictures.”
The captain nodded, still obviously bewildered. “And then what happened? Freak storm?”
“A microburst,” Frank agreed hoarsely. “Never seen anything like it. Now, anybody got a drink of water?”
Chapter Nineteen
Joel was dreaming. It was kind of a freaky one, because he was lying in a helicopter, being flown into the Hawaiian sunset. But it was good, because Bella lay by his side. Safe and alive. He turned his head and watched her sleep, smiling to himself. She was so pretty with flowers still clinging to her face, throat and wrists.
She’d scared the hell out of him back there at Na’alele. First jumping off that cliff with only a vine to hold her, and then drinking that stuff to save his sorry ass, and falling down in a drug-induced stupor. And when she’d come out of it—man, he’d never experienced anything like that. It was as if she’d awakened with another woman in her skin, one with a voice like thunder and freaky gold sort of trailing from her as she moved. Pixie dust, only hard edged, dangerous. He guessed if the island goddess Pele ever awoke, she’d have that same glittering aura.
Part of him knew that if he were awake, he’d be terrified by what he’d seen her go through and by the things she’d done, the way he had been when he was awake. Watching a girl—one with whom he’d just had hot, intimate sex, the kind that made him forget there were other women—bring down a tropical forest on a bunch of big thugs toting automatics, had just about blown his mind.
Good thing he was tougher than the average dude, because even knowing she could bring him to his knees with a houseplant if she chose, he had no intention of letting her go. He’d take her with him, everywhere. He was well and truly caught, as surely as if she’d wrapped him up in one of those vines, as she had Li. Huh, he wondered if the little slime ball was still hanging from that tree? He kind of hoped so.
He smiled at his wahine again. But now fear clawed through Joel’s sleepy haze. Bella was too pale. He struggled to lift his hand and touch her, make sure she was warm, but he couldn’t move his arms. Damn, they had him strapped in to the stretcher.
He opened his mouth to call for help. The words died in his throat as the pilot of the chopper turned and rose, filling the cockpit with her terrible beauty. He stared at her beautiful face, dark golden skin, and her crown of flame, and the long black hair that crackled around her, her skirts of smoke.
“You’re her, aren’t you?” he whispered. “Pele.”
She inclined her head, one of her hands resting on Bella’s blanket-covered body.