wrath of the Sea Queen (91 page)

"
Great!  Put the guy up front who can't swim
,
"
Jeremy confided to Vin, who st
ood
behind him in the line.  Jeremy joked, not believing there was any real chance that he could fall in
to the water
.  There were two sturdy men in front of
Jeremy
who would have to fall in first, and then drag him along
for the slide
. 

"
Don't worry, Skinny.  The earth would have to shake me loose before it could knock you into the
sea
,
"
the man in front of
him
said. 
Maku
was one of the men
to which
Apela
had
introduced them. 
He
was an island native, five feet
ten
inches tall, thickly built, and well-muscled. 
He and Apela
had been friends since childhood
.  They played on the same sports teams and worked many of the same summer jobs
, mostly at the hotel
.

Apela explained to Vin that Maku's
younger
brother
, Pete,
was sick.
 
Maku work
ed
odd jobs to help make enough money to pay his brother's medical bills.
 
Pete
contracted a serious illness several months
earlier
and
was
now
too
frail
to work.  Despite his busy
work
schedule, Maku still
came forward with the first
volunteer
s
when the community needed help with
projects
like this levee.  Maku knew how important it was to the safety of the
entire
island.  Vin already liked this man and joined the laughter as Maku and Apela teased Jeremy.

Vin's laugh was only half-hearted.  His mind was not completely on the task at hand.  His thoughts kept drifting back to C
a
eli.  He went through the motions of passing the sandbags up the line, one after the other.  They seemed to be making good progress, and the gap
in the levee
rapidly clos
ed
.  Perhaps they would be done before lunch
.  Vin
had not actually seen C
a
eli in person since the night before and
was
eager
to get back. 
As he
mentally
review
ed
the events of the previous day, it occurred to Vin that he
ha
d
heard the name Franks
recently
.

"
Jeremy, are you any relation to Colonel Franks from the local guard unit?
"
  Vin asked the younger man.

"
Yes, actually, I am.  He's my dad. 
Do
you know him?
"

"
I don't; not directly. 
I recall m
y wife me
e
t
ing
him yesterday.  He
rescued
her and her aunt from a media mob at the hotel.
"

"
Oh, dude! 
Th
at was your
wife
with Dr. Erickson
?  You
a
re one lucky
man
!  I mean
,
I didn't
really
get a chance to
see her on the ship, and didn't get a good look at her
during the car ride
last night because she was sick and all.  But
,
I saw a news clip from your hotel late last night. 
Man, s
he
i
s one hot ticket!  No wonder you came all this way to
help
her.  If I
could land
a lady who looked like that, I
would
never let her out of my sight."

"I'm beginning to consider that very notion," Vin replied
only half joking
. 

It seemed to him that whenever he and C
a
eli were apart, bad
things
happened to her
.
  He remembered when she went out of town on a
n overnight
trip to help a client set up
for
a grand opening event.  She
ha
d gone down to the hotel pool th
at
evening
for a
relax
ing swim
. 
As she loung
ed
in a poolside chair
with a book
, C
a
eli watched a grade school girl jump in
to
the pool alone
.  The girl
ha
d
difficulty
keeping her head
above the water.  C
a
eli helped
he
r
to safety, and then got back in the pool to teach the girl a few swimming basics.  They
ha
d been there about twenty minutes when a
piece of electrical equipment
in the nearby maintenance room caught fire
and t
riggered
a
subsequent,
huge explosion
.  That
entire section
of the hotel
had been
destroyed.  Had it not been for the water in the pool, C
a
eli
and the girl she sheltered
would
have been killed in the blast.

Another time, Vin was running late as he drove to meet her
at the bank
.  C
a
eli was waiting for him
t
o
sign some paperwork on their mortgage.  In the meantime, the bank was robbed and a teller was
shot
. 
C
a
eli rushed to help the lady despite the
thief
's orders for everyone to stay put. 
Th
us, th
e gunman
chose
C
a
eli
as his
hostage to make his escape.  In a fortunate twist of fate, the robber sped
his vehicle
through an intersection and crashed into Vin's car a few blocks
away
. 
Neither she nor Vin
had been
seriously injured, but it was another example of how her good nature repeatedly put
C
a
eli
in harm's way.

Now that Vin thought about it, he could think of several incidents in which C
a
eli had been
helping someone when she was
threatened
or hurt
.  Trouble seemed to have a way of finding C
a
eli when Vin was
n
o
t a
t her side
.  Jeremy's notion
started to
sound
better and better the more Vin
considered
it.
  Of course, C
a
eli
often
joked with Vin that he was already overprotective. 
N
ever
theless,
she truly appreciated his concern
and
thoroughly
enjoyed
his company
. 
C
a
eli ha
d been through enough mayhem in her life to welcome
the fact that
Vin
wanted to keep her safe
.

"
Actually,
I think I
shoul
d extend that
compliment
to include th
e
doctor, too
," Jeremy continued
.

"
S
he
i
s not so hard on the eyes either. 
I wouldn't mind
seeing
her
fine
f
ace
every day
either
.
"

"
Th
at
doctor
is C
a
eli's aunt.  Tiptoe lightly around the family tree,
"
Vin teased. 
             

"Gee
z
, there are some good genes in that tree.
"

Jeremy's words caused Vin to
recall an
image
of
C
a
eli in her favorite pair of jeans, and he had to agree with the play on words that he kept to himself; yes, very good jeans.