wrath of the Sea Queen (143 page)

"
Interesting folks
you sent me to meet
.  I suppose you already knew that was
the doctor's
husband?
"
  Lorrie asked casually.

"
Of course
I did
.
"

"
Y
ou sent me away so that you could talk to your uncle in private.
"
  It was more of a statement than a question.

"
Do you have a problem with that?
"
  Scott turned to look at her. 

"
No,
I
just
wanted to be clear.  Did you figure out your puzzle yet?
"

"
Not yet.  It won't be
much
long
er
though.
  We are very close.
"

Lorri
e
smiled a wicked grin
and laughed
.  She knew that Scott
had no intention of keeping
her around for anything long term, but
that suited her purpose just
fine.  The relationship was mutually beneficia
l.  She was using him as well.

Lorrie had an innate talent for web design and graphic communication.  After college in Washington, she had started her own business and tried to make it on her own.  Unfortunately, she could not generate business as well as she could create the final product.  Therefore, in order to support herself, Lorrie finally returned home to Hawaii and earn
ed
her
two-year
nursing certificate, with which she quickly became bored
.

That boredom led her back to the States where she
first met Scott
.  A
few months earlier
,
Lorrie was
staying with a cousin
and doing s
ome graphic design work for
h
is
print
ing firm.  Scott
came
in
to
the
office to pick up a
brochure
proof
that she h
elped
design.  They hit it off and dated for a few weeks, until Lorrie
's help was no longer needed
at the printing house
and she
returned
to Hawaii once again
.

Th
at
brochure, coincidentally, turned out to be for the
medical conference
they were currently attending
.  Lorrie learned
, after the fact,
that
Dr. Jacobs was
Scott's uncle
.  The doctor
had taken
up residence
in Lorrie's hometown
more than
five years
ago
.  He
was
in charge of coordinating the conference
this year
. 
Dr. Jacobs
was the one who
had
placed the
order
for
the brochure.  Lorrie never actually met
Neal
until she returned home and Scott showed up a week later with intentions of renewing their relationship.

It was the longest that Lorri
e
had
stayed in any relationship since she was
a teenager
.  She had been running from her past for years, but no matter how hard she tried
to escape
, it always seemed to catch up with her
and draw her back to this town
.  At this point in her life,
Lorrie
was
finished
running and
had
decided to take matters into her own hands.  She was now hunting down
her
past and bringing it to justice. 
Lorrie
did
n
o
t care who else got hurt along the way. 
Scott
, however,
turned out to be a useful tool
and pleasant distraction fo
r accomplishing
her
task
.

"
Well,
it looks like
I
made
myself useful
after all
.  You said the
blood
sample
that Dr. Erickson provide
d to the
p
e
er
group
was from a female donor, correct?"  Lorrie asked.

Scott nodded affirmatively.

"
You
have already said that you
a
re certain she did not use her own blood.  It seems I managed to find out in two minutes what you could not
discover
in two months.  I know the identity of Dr. Erickson's anonymous donor.
"

With that declaration,
Lorrie
gained and
h
eld
Scott's undivided attention.  He scooted his chair over directly against hers and wrapped his arm tightly around her waist. 

"
Now
D
arlin'
, that is definitely an attractive bit of news.  Who is it?  Quickly, we
ha
ve
less than a minute before all hell breaks loose in here
.
  If I have that name, I can stop this and
avoid the unnecessary complications it will cause
.
"
  Scott tightened his grip on
Lorrie's
waist, fingers digging
deeply
into her side
until the pain caused her to squirm uncomfortably
.

"
Her niece
; i
t's her niece,
"
Lorri
e
wiggled
out of Scott's hurtful grip. 

"
Does her niece have a name?
"
  Scott fiddl
ed
with his wristwatch in order to disable the countdown and deactivate the trigger.

"
Better!
 
She is here on the island, though she did
n
o
t come to the conference today.  They did
n
o
t say why.  The other man at the table
i
s the niece's husband.  Apparently, they are all vacationing together this week.
"
 

"
Of course!  It was right there in front of me the whole time.  The other lady with
Dr. Erickson
at the airport
was her niece, her donor
. 
It makes sense that she would bring the donor to this event. 
How could I have been so
blind
?
"
  Scott slammed his fist onto the table, causing small sparks to fly about a foot in all directions.  One of them struck his wri
stwatch, and the resultant boom
echo
ing from
under the stage could be heard throughout the room.

"
Crap!
"

The
entire
room seemed to shake and
rapidly
began to fill with smoke.  Vin and Ben were already on their feet, moving
toward
Salma
.  She
st
ood
on the stage where most of the activity was centered
, having just
completed her presentation and started her question and answer session
when the commotion began.

Apela went to find Maku and
Pete
.  They
agreed to
meet at Apela's truck as quickly as they could.

Another explosion from further across the room shot flames
almost as
high
as the ceiling
.  The smoke immediately thick
ened
and the air
rapidly
bec
ame
difficult to breath.  Vin tried to help the situation by
using his gift to
blow the smoke into the corners of the room, but it was building too quickly with nowhere else to go.  Unless he could get one o
f the sealed windows to shatter
, the room would soon be filled with noxious fumes.  Vin kept trying to clear the air as they reached the stage.

By the time they made their way through the
panicked
crowd to the front of the room,
Salma was
n
o longer
there.  Ben caught a glimpse of her being ushered toward the stairs by Dr. Jacobs.  Ben r
ushed
in that direction, hoping to catch them, but was hindered by
the press
of people milling about in confusion.  Vin moved a bit faster, but could not reach them either, also blocked by the
throng of attendees
.  A third explosion, this time sounding as if it
came
from the floor below,
caused a section of the suite's floor to sag dangerously and become extremely hot
.  The
flames
continued to spread
quickly
around the suite,
making the
front and back exits
completely im
passable.