a Touch of Intrigue (2 page)

ONE

MY HEART DRUMMED—TOO TIGHT
in my chest. Fred was the single remaining unknown from when Pierce and I solved the mystery of my parents’ murder, and satisfied my quest for revenge. Was this it, the last step in my journey to closure? Traffic was at a temporary standstill, so I turned my cell phone to show Annie the message from Pierce. “Do you think he really found Fred? The Fred?”

Annie tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “Yes. Is there some reason you doubt his text?”

I skimmed my fingers over the surface of the phone. “No, Pierce has never lied to me. I guess I’m afraid to hope that I’ll finally have the whole story.”

“Uh-huh.” Annie’s attention had shifted to merging with the new flow of traffic.

Really? Where?
I typed into my phone, then gripped it tightly, waiting for Pierce’s answer. “And just wait until I see Kahuna Aukele. How could my grandfather have kept the news about this property a secret?”

Annie boomed out a laugh. “Seriously? He’s the most enigmatic person I’ve met, and I’ve communicated with some of the most inscrutable covert agents in the business.”

“Yeah. There is that. But this is important, critical, especially if I used to live on the property. I guess the big question is
why
didn’t he tell me?”

On Island. Home soon
.
I grinned at my phone. “Pierce is coming home.”

“Did he say when?”

“No.”

She shrugged, then glanced in the rearview mirror.

Whipping around, I checked the car behind us. “What? You think he’s following us?”

“It’s been known to happen. But if he found Fred, and Fred is roaming Oahu, I have to guess Pierce is tight on his tail.” She grinned. “Bet he’d rather be tight on—”

“Don’t say it. Just don’t.” I settled into a more comfortable position and started typing.
How soon?

Annie wrinkled her nose. “Don’t tell me you asked him when he’s gonna get here.”

“Well, yeah. I need to know so I can prepare. Primp, you know.”

She gave me a long-suffering sigh. “Just a heads-up. When has he ever given you any notice about his arrival time?”

I blew out my own sigh. “Never. But that doesn’t mean I can’t trick him into it one of these days.”

Annie shot me a sideways look. “Are we talking about the same Pierce. The one who never reveals his location. Ever. You do realize this man you’ve fallen in love with has an, um, checkered past, so to speak.”

“Well, of course. And I don’t want him to say or do anything that would put him in danger, but—”

“There are no buts, Everly. His life depends on keeping his location under wraps at all times. He’s made a lot of powerful people damn angry, and they want him dead.”

A shiver worked its way down my spine. “Same can be said for you, and you’re living a normal life.”

Annie took the turnoff for the Manoa area of Honolulu. “Almost there. Did you really just put normal and my life in the same sentence?”

“Okay, so maybe not exactly normal since you live in a fortress. And have a fully-equipped arsenal in your basement.”

“Um-hmm. And I have one of Pierce’s security systems installed in my home, plus I test all the new equipment he designs.”

I thought about the first time I’d stumbled into Annie’s command center. It was in a room that didn’t show up on any blueprints, and was filled with computers and a lot of high tech equipment I’d never seen before. She’d hustled me out of the secret space before I could get a good look, but not because she wanted to hide things. As she explained—it was for my safety. The less I knew about her super spy world, the safer I’d be. I was all about living these days, so I had no complaints—and for once in my life, no questions. On this particular subject, my curiosity was non-existent. But now that Pierce and I would be living together… “He is going to move in with me, isn’t he?”

Annie turned to me, her eyes hooded. “I don’t know, Everly. If he can protect you, yes, probably. If he has any doubt about keeping you safe, then no, he’ll stay on the move.”

My heart landed somewhere around my knees. “Life is so crappy sometimes. The thing is, I’m fairly well trained now, can take care of myself in most situations. And I’ve given up my coaching practice so there’s no threat to my former clients.”

“That was a good choice,” she said, pulling onto a paved path barely wide enough for her car. “Especially since Fred is still a loose end and possible threat.”

About a mile down the road, Annie parked her car.

We faced a wall of trees. Confused, I unfastened my seatbelt, and leaned forward. “
This
is my property? It’s solid trees?” I couldn’t pinpoint the emotion swirling in my gut. Disappointment? Surprise? Hope? It was a messy stew of feelings that I figured I’d better ignore, at least until I had more data.

“Yes to the property question. No to the solid forest. I did a Google Earth search, and though it didn’t show much, I’m pretty sure there’s an open tract of land in the middle of these old-growth trees. Pretty spectacular aren’t they?”

She had that right. I craned my neck, looking up. “They practically touch the sky. Like magic.”

Annie poked my arm. “How about we take a closer look?”

It was a moot point because we were both out of the car before I had time to answer. I wandered toward the tree line, reaching for the earth through the soles of my feet. Time to rev up my Huna training so I could focus completely on the situation at hand. Why had Aukele kept this a secret? It was a huge question, because enigmatic as he was there had been times I desperately needed a hideaway. And he knew it. I closed my eyes and did an intuitive scan of the scene in front of me. “It’s a maze.”

Annie grunted, sounding so much like Pierce that my eyes popped open. “Did you already know that? From your Google search?”

“No. It was blurry, and I’m guessing your grandfather did some kind of magic to keep it hidden.” She grinned at me. “He does that sort of thing you know. And it’s my understanding he’s fond of puzzles,
and
isn’t there a maze protecting his house on the North Shore?”

“There is. It makes sense that he’s protected this property with magic and a maze as well, but Aukele is so damn unpredictable it’s hard to guess what he’s done.”

We’d reached the tree line and I planted my palm against the trunk of a koa tree. Energy flowed through me, swift and strong, anchoring me to the earth. “Oh, yes. This is my grandfather’s work.” I trailed my hand over the bark, appreciating the vibrant life it shared with me. “Holy trees. And in spite of word-overuse, I have to say they’re utterly
awesome
.”

The majesty and the power emanating from them was overwhelming. I yanked my hand back, pressing my palm tight against my thigh. “Leaves me weak,” I said, and swallowed the lump filling my throat.

Annie rested her hands on her still-flat abdomen. “I think I’ll just refrain from touching them until we know exactly what’s on the other side of this maze.”

“I’m with you on that decision. Connecting with the energy in this forest about brought me to my knees.

She patted her stomach, then let her hands drop, loose at her sides. “You know where the entrance is?”

“Not here.” I turned to the right. “This way I think, but I’m not nearly as skilled as Aukele in following energy trails, so it’s just a guess.”

Letting earth energy guide me, I made tracks through the maze. The closer I got to the middle, the more my head pounded with the force of the protective field Aukele had placed around the property. He’d about buried it beneath layers and layers of ethereal fortification. I rubbed my temples to ease some of the pressure, then spun around to check on Annie. “Hey, you okay? It’s intense in here.”

“I’m fine.” The tiny line between her eyebrows deepened. “What’s wrong?”

Obviously she didn’t have a duplicate of my throbbing headache. “Head hurts.”

“You’re pale.” She frowned. “And at the risk of repeating myself, I’m fine, having a rush of energy for the first time in weeks.”

My brain slicked in with a loud snap. “You’re pregnant.”

She nodded, her eyes turning wary. “Fact.”

I motioned toward her abdomen. “It’s the baby. Embryos have a strong ethereal connection, and I’d bet your child is basking in the energy, giddy as hell to be playing with Aukele’s creation. Oh, damn. Another baby. I’m gonna be stuck saying flippydoodles and fudderbutter for
years
.”

Annie grinned, then made a swishing motion with her hands. “Go. Maybe your headache will ease up when we reach the center of the maze.”

It was a good observation, and I desperately needed relief from the pain, so I upped my pace to a light jog.

Less than five minutes later we broke into a clearing, and I stumbled to a dead stop. “Holy…”

“Uh-huh. I’m with you on that. It’s…exquisite.” Annie whispered the words, reverence threading through each one.

I glanced at her, a brief reality check. Yes, we were both standing here. Yes, there was a house tucked into the landscape. Nope, I was wrong about that. “It’s not like a man made structure at all. More like a continuation of the environment.”

Annie tilted her head to the side, considering. “Um-hmm. Like Frank Lloyd Wright collaborated with Mother Earth. I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s so much…respect for nature in the design.”

I sidestepped to look at it from a different angle. Probably I should have just embraced the awesomeness and headed for the front door, but I needed time to take it in, to accept that it was going to be my home. It appeared to be a single story house, but I couldn’t see the back to affirm my guess. Three steps led to a wrap around porch that weaved in and out of the various trees and shrubs hugging the house.

If I didn’t watch him, Pierce would start digging up the plants since they were the perfect cover for illegal entry. But it was highly improbable that anyone would be able to find the house in the first place, and I liked the landscaping a lot. “You think I can reason with Pierce about keeping the trees and shrubs?”

“Unlikely, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Yeah. It would ruin the effect to take them out. There’s a strange balance of safety and danger, of modern architecture and homespun comfort, of the past and the future that surrounds the house. And maybe of fear and hope. I can’t believe I’m going to live here.”

Annie grinned. “You’ll miss having the ocean close by, but why wouldn’t you live here? Anyone would be thrilled to discover this kind of inheritance. Oh, but I forgot. You’re not exactly normal.”

If she wasn’t pregnant, I’d have tried out a new jujitsu move on her—one guaranteed to lay her flat on the ground. “Close enough to normal that I have a lot of questions, and I’m thinking a visit from my grandfather is way past due.”

“Are you going to try and find him?” There was a note of dark curiosity and worry in her question.

I put her momma hormones to rest. “Not unless I have to. It works better if he initiates all visits, but if it takes more than a day or two for him to show up I’ll start tracking him.”

Annie wrinkled her nose. “It’s not that the Kahuna is a bad guy, and I’d definitely want him on my side in a fight.”

“But?” I held back a grin.

She twitched. “But the way he appears and disappears out of nowhere is unsettling.”

“It’s downright annoying.” I drew in a long breath, and the sweet scent of plumeria filled my senses. “Okay. I’m going in. No. Wait. We should walk the perimeter first, right?”

Hands on hips, Annie surveyed the house and property. “It’s always best to know your surroundings as thoroughly as possible, but it would take a Houdini type to find their way through that maze.”

Fear ghosted over my skin. “Yeah. Which makes it all the more important to research all possible exits. Anyone who made it through would be a formidable adversary.”

Annie nodded. “Good reasoning.”

I didn’t get many compliments from my team. Adam, Whitney, Pierce, and of course Annie, were tough teachers and rarely cut me any slack, but the timing of her positive reinforcement was right on. Some of the weight lifted from my chest, and we took off at a slow jog to check out my newfound inheritance.

Anticipation welled around my heart. My parents had walked this ground. And me. I’d probably played here as a child. I stopped, and bent to touch the earth. Waves of memory hovered on the surface of my mind before the pain took over, shooting from my neck into my head. “Damn it all to hell and back.” I dug my knuckles into the knot of pain, hoping for some relief.

Annie shoved my hand away, and ran the tips of her fingers over the spot. “You haven’t seen a doctor about this yet, have you? There’s sort of a bump near your shoulder blade, and I think you should get it checked out.”

I winced, guilt taking over as the pain eased. “Making an appointment hasn’t reached the top of my to-do list yet.” I stood, dislodging Annie’s hand from my neck. I didn’t like anyone to touch that spot. Ever. “The pain doesn’t happen very often, and honestly I keep forgetting about it because there’s been so much other stuff going on.”

Her lips were tight. “It just hit the top of your to-do list, and we both know some good medics from my time at Tripler. In fact, I’ll make the appointment for you.”