Freefall (33 page)

After messing up that bad, he’d expected to be dismissed, not invited in. But this was a chance for answers he might not get again. He parked and locked the truck behind them, scanning the lot. He saw no sign of Bette, or paparazzi. Gentry’s life might not always be the circus it had seemed, but he kept his distance anyway.

She was right that he’d kissed her in part because nothing could come of it. Potential required opportunity to become reality. He didn’t deny the desire to touch and hold her, and kissing her was like shooting the curl of a cruncher, toes on the nose. He knew better, but something crawled inside his head and told him to catch it in spite of the damage it would do. He hadn’t meant for that damage to spill out on her, though.

She chewed her lip as they made their way to her uncle’s room, and he couldn’t help visualizing a trapped animal chewing off the offended part. The time to speak had passed, and he didn’t know how to make it right anyway. What he needed was to put the whole business behind him.

Robert Fox sat in a wheelchair by the window when they entered, the remaining half of his leg wrapped but uncovered. How would he handle a stranger seeing that? How would anyone?

“Uncle Rob,” Gentry said. “This is Cameron Pierce, the one who helped me find you.”

Her uncle held up his hand, his grip vigorous, considering what he’d been through. And he wasn’t as old as he’d seemed in the cave. Fifties not sixties, with the build of an athlete. With modern prostheses, amputees could live an active life, but still, what a blow it must be.

“Mr. Fox.”

“It’s Rob.” The man gave his hand a squeeze to match the warmth in his eyes. “Gentry’s told me what you did. Thank you.”

“The way things looked in the cave, I wasn’t sure I’d have this opportunity.”

“Me neither.” Rob’s mouth made a grim line.

“Without the lava tube, we couldn’t have gotten through.”

“Wish I’d known that way was there.” He sighed. “At least the Lord showed you.”

Cameron didn’t argue the point. “I’m sorry about your leg.” By the lack of a drape, he assumed forthrightness. In Rob’s place, he’d want the same.

Rob’s throat worked. “All things for a reason.”

Could he say the same if their roles were reversed? He doubted it. “So what now?”

“Now I work to keep what’s left.”

Gentry effused. “Paul says you’re doing great.”

Rob glared. “That man’s an insult encyclopedia. Do not give him your autograph.”

“That man thinks you’re awesome. It’s your autograph he’ll want.” Gentry settled cross-legged at the foot of the bed, a position evocative of cozy conversations. Forced levity for her uncle’s sake, or her own?

Cameron took the remaining chair and faced Rob. “I know you’ve spoken with the police, but can you also tell me what happened out there? Why you went over the falls?”

“I jumped in to catch Gentry.”

“You saw her fall?”

“I heard her scream, saw her hit the water.”

“But not how or why she fell.”

“No. And she can’t remember. But Gentry’s no novice. And it wasn’t a place that concerned me, or I’d have kept a better eye out.”

“You were behind her?”

He nodded. “About six yards.”

Yet he’d seen nothing. “Was anyone else with you?”

Rob shook his head. “Just the two of us.”

She had said the same and looked annoyed that he’d checked her answer, but part of investigation was cross-questioning, and her memory was still faulty. “Who else knew you’d be there?”

Rob pressed his palms to the arms of his chair. “You think someone caused her fall?”

Cameron got up, thinking in motion. “Gentry’s got sensations of being pushed.”

“I’m not—”

He silenced her with a glance, then continued. “She may have glimpsed a face in the forest, and recalls a dragon tattoo that matches a gnarly dude named Grover Malakua.”

“Dragon.” Rob ran his hand over his shoulder and arm. “Here?”

Gentry stiffened. “Yes.”

“Remember in that tavern we were planning our hikes. That guy came over with something mo bettah.”

She turned. “Then that’s where I saw him, Cameron. Not in the woods.”

Maybe. “Did he know you’d taken his suggestion?”

Rob frowned. “Knew we planned to. He sat down and helped us lay out a route for the best view of the falls. Though why he sent us to the top …”

Gentry stood up and stalked to the window. “He couldn’t know how fast we’d hike, what time we’d get to any particular point.”

“He could have been waiting.” Rob’s voice was gentle.

She turned. “Then why didn’t you see him?”

“I was filming. Out across the water, toward the crest of the falls.”

Cameron knew the answer but asked anyway. “Do you have the camera?”

Rob shook his head. “Dropped it when I jumped.” Something passed over his face. Pain? Post-traumatic stress? He masked it before Gentry looked back at him.

“Why would someone push me?”

Cameron hung his hands on his hips. “You’ve got enemies, Gentry. Haven’t you listened to Darla?” As much as he couldn’t stand the woman, she’d grasped the situation.

“You think he meant for me to go over the falls? I could have died.” She clenched her fists. “This is real life, not some script.”

And movies couldn’t touch real life. “Maybe I’ve got Darlene Glasier’s motive wrong. Maybe she thinks you used her son.”

She shook her head.

Rob said, “Gentry, who knows what whacko you’ve picked up with all the publicity.”

She turned on him. “I will not believe someone wants to kill me because I lucked into a movie part. Or because someone else told lies. Listen to yourselves.” Hurt and anger played over her face like clouds above the waves. “Then … I live and Uncle Rob—” Her voice broke.

“You think I’d want it the other way around?” Rob reached up and took her hand.

Cameron dug for his phone. “We need to call the police.”

“No.” Gentry fired the word. “The press will be all over it.”

He’d watched them eat her up, and she might not have it in her to face it again. Balancing that with any possible threat, he had to admit what they had against Malakua was pretty slim.

Rob turned. “Can you protect her? I’ll pay for it.”

She expelled a breath. “Cameron lives and works on the mainland. He can’t hang around.”

He did have cases pending, though none with imminent danger to his client—or himself. For more reasons than one, he was illprepared to accept.

“Can you do it?” Rob’s voice crackled with effort or exhaustion.

Looking from one to the other, Cameron nodded. “I’ll keep track of her overnight.”

“I don’t need a baby-sitter.”

Her petulance actually betrayed the fear she was trying to hide. “We’ll look at it fresh in the morning.”

Gentry could deny it, but his gut told him something had happened out there. He kicked himself now for going after blackmail instead of attempted murder.

TWENTY-SIX

The moment they left, Rob curled up
in pain. It had intensified as they spoke, and by the time Gentry and Cameron had helped him into bed, he’d nearly screamed. It had started with the flashback of jumping into the water. The cold, the rush, the plunge, and—
Oh, God
—the pain.
Lord
.

He was on Demerol, but this was different, this pain in the part of his limb that no longer existed. No drug would take it away. What had Paul said? Flex and relax. Stretch the muscles. Rob focused. They’d made clear the seriousness of contracture, but he didn’t think this was physiological.

Phantom pain. A disorientation of his brain, thinking him whole. He closed his eyes and felt the rocks like teeth mangling his flesh, shattering his bone.
It’s not there anymore
. He gripped the stump with his hands, squeezed and rocked. His breath wheezed as panic rose. He could not live with this pain.

Lord
. The effort it took to keep from Gentry the horror of his condition was more than he could stand. He had to get away from her. She believed what he showed her, but he couldn’t keep hiding it. Cameron had seen and almost asked, but he’d warned him off with a glare.

This was his battle. She would only hurt.

“ The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts—”
Pain screamed through his leg.
But this is too much!
He rolled and writhed. How had he failed? Why could he not grasp the grace he knew was there for him?

His chest felt heavy. If only he had died …

But God had never given him the easy way out. His life had so many if onlys. But every time, he’d fought through the harder way. He’d do it again. He clenched his jaw and confronted the pain. He sank right to the center of it. And there he found grace. In the pain. In the suffering.

He drew shallow breaths and absorbed God’s presence.
“My heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy… .”

He was not alone. Broken and maimed, he was not abandoned.
“ Your right hand will hold me fast.”
The hands of Christ covered his, squeezing the tortured leg, sharing the pain. Rob rested in that grasp until sleep carried him away.

Thrown back into turbulent waters, Gentry had fought just like the last time, but once again the current proved too strong. She had not intended to have Cameron for a watchdog. She had wanted closure. But worrying about her wouldn’t help Uncle Rob. By the end of their visit, he’d looked drained and ashen. She would not add to his burden.

She walked to the door at Hale Kahili, picturing Cameron helping him into bed with one hand under the maimed and bandaged leg. Neither had shrunk from the infirmity or obsessed on it. She was the one overwhelmed every time she saw the result of her mistake.

Uncle Rob had called after her, “Gentry, be careful.”

But what did that mean? It was bad enough when people wanted to kill her career, her reputation. Now they believed someone wanted her dead.

“Wait here.” Cameron walked inside and searched the immediate level. Coming back to where she stood in the entry, he said, “So what does your uncle do?”

The question took her by surprise. Was he distracting her with a thin sort of normalcy? Helping her forget she’d been a target, after working hard to convince her of it? “He’s an inventor.”

“Really.” He checked the entry closet. “What kind?”

“His first patent had to do with cell phone technology back when it was all piecemeal and none of it worked very well. His contribution was revolutionary. Now he’s working on some kind of chip for a satellite.”

Uncle Rob wasn’t a Mensa-type genius—just amazingly able to make things work, not quitting until they did. He never quit. Not even now, with a kind of challenge he’d never faced, an extreme physical limitation. Like Dad’s. But while Dad skirted his heart condition and pretended everything was bliss, Uncle Rob would meet his injury head on.

“Widowed?”

She turned. “What?”

Cameron moved from the closet to check the front window locks. “He’s got a wedding band, but I haven’t seen—”

“Aunt Allegra moved out two years ago. I tried to get her to come here, but I guess it’s asking too much.”

“They’re divorced?”

She shook her head. “Uncle Rob provides everything she needs, and I guess that’s good enough for her. As far as he’s concerned, she’s his wife, no matter what.”

Her words stiffened Cameron like starch. Okelani had said his wife squeezed his heart until he’d shriveled up, and now she saw it. He started up the stairs, and she followed, weary, angry, and scared. Cameron ducked into her uncle’s room on one side of the hall, and though he would doubtless complain, she moved past him to hers and shrieked.

“What! No.” She clenched the jamb.

“Don’t move.” Cameron pressed past her, stalking through the disaster with purpose. Closet. Bathroom. Under the bed. Back to her. He moved her out of the doorway into the hall, took out his phone.

Her head reeled. She felt herself falling, but this time there was no bottom. She just fell and fell and fell. Cameron talked to the police, but she just wanted to curl up someplace no one knew her name. The thought of making news again sickened her, but worse still was admitting she could have caused what happened to Uncle Rob. Didn’t this prove it? Someone wanted to hurt her, and he—

Cameron touched her arm. “They’re going to want to know if anything’s missing. Can you take a look without touching?”

Anger burned. “Shouldn’t be hard. It’s all laid out for me.” Everything she’d brought was thrown around the room. He’d said no touching, but she lifted a Versace silk tank torn down the front and brought it to her throat.

“Jewelry?” Cameron had come up beside her.

She went to the room safe in the closet, worked the combination. She wasn’t huge into jewelry, but what things she’d brought were there. “Couldn’t crack the combination, I guess.”

Cameron turned and scanned the room. “What would someone be after?”

Then it hit her. She turned to the nightstand where a thin, black cord dangled. “My phone.” She’d forgotten it when TJ and Nica picked her up for the luau. Was it just hours ago?

She rushed over and searched behind the stand, dropped to her knees and looked under the bed. She sat back on her heels and covered her face. “All my contacts.”