Page 10 of Riptide

“He’d saved me. Then when all the broken pieces had healed, he went to LA. To do that secret agent shit he did. I didn’t know the details. I only knew he’d been building a case against Giordano and Marretta. It wasn’t just the trafficking.” Kaimana nervously twisted a lock of her hair as she spoke. “When Evan died…all I got was a call. From a lawyer. The yacht. Money. He’d left it to me.”

“Evan? My Evan?” Confusion swept through him, his heart racing, as he struggled to make sense of her story. Kaimana knew Evan?

“Yes. Evan Tredioux.”

“He died and left you his boat?” Seth shook his head. “No. Wait…what?”

“He’s not dead,” she told him, her voice soft. “I know you might not believe that he—"

“What? No.” Seth stood and tunneled both hands through his hair. “Evan is dead. I was there that day when the accident happened.”

“He’s alive.”

“No. I saw him die.” Seth refused to believe her lie and his empathy morphed into anger. “Stop. Just stop.”

“You saw someone die, and I don’t know who it was, but it wasn’t Evan,” she insisted. “Look at this room. This was his.”

“You’re not making any sense.” Seth glanced at a stack of coffee table books on a bookshelf. Sky diving. Yosemite. Everest. Confusion swept through him, but there was no possible way he could be alive. “Look, Kaimana. I don’t know what happened to you but Evan…Evan Tredioux is dead.”

“Dom Marretta is running the organization who took him,” Kaimana said.

“Dom Marretta?” Seth had heard his name in the news. “The Hollywood dude? Wasn’t he just acquitted of assault?”

“He’s always acquitted. He finds a way. But he’s still a crime boss. A murderer.”

Seth scrubbed the scruff of his beard with his hand, trying to wrap his head around the situation. If the past year had taught him anything, it was that the impossible could easily become possible. Corporate espionage. Gunshots in the night. Club Altura set ablaze. Kidnappings. Evan dead. Until months ago, he’d never have believed that an expert skydiver, a former military badass like Evan, could have crashed and burned on a run-of-the-mill jump.

Seth struggled between a moment of optimism, hoping that his friend could still be alive, and the realism that the woman who’d kidnapped him was most likely spinning a tale of deception and that Evan was still very much dead.

“Here’s the thing. I don’t know you. I literally just met you,” Seth began. “So I’m not sure what your angle is but I—"

“Evan is alive,” she insisted. “Whoever died that day, it wasn’t him. They kidnapped him.”

“They?” Seth’s mind raced with possibilities. He fought the urge to fall into the conspiracy rabbit hole. “No, don’t tell me anymore. This. Is. Crazy. And so is how you found me on that cliff. Seriously, this doesn’t make sense. No. Please just stop.” He refused to give in to the fantasy. “Look. I don’t care why you rescued me anymore. Let’s just leave it be. Please. Let’s just call the Coast Guard and let them know I’m okay. I’ll tell them you saved my life. No harm, no foul. We both come out fine. You can get the help you need and I—”

“I’m not crazy.” She shot to her feet. “I have proof. I’ll show you.”

“I don’t need proof. I literally was there. I saw him drop from the sky. I saw him die.”

“Someone died. It wasn’t Evan,” she contended.

“Oh, okay. Do indulge me. Who died then? Really. I’d love to know since I literally got on a plane and went up in the air with him. I saw him jump out of his plane and then, then…I saw him plunge down to the ground, spiraling out of control until he smacked into the ground. And that is all the proof I need.” Seth sucked a breath, aware the volume of his voice had grown louder, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He closed his eyes, struggling to remain calm.

“I don’t know who it was,” she said, her tone softening. “I’m thinking someone knew they were taking on a suicide mission. There’s a lot of people out there who would literally die for money. Just think of all the people who sell their organs for money. Who knows who that guy was? Maybe he was in debt? Maybe he was suffering and suicidal? I don’t know. It’s horrible to even conceive of, but he may have known exactly what he was doing. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he was a trained operative who thought the chute would open. Someone who clearly was there to just play a part and walk away. But he didn’t.” Kaimana stood and crossed to the bar. She reached into the refrigerator and opened a bottle of water. “I don’t know who it was.”

“And why would this ever happen in your fantasy world?” Seth rolled his eyes.

Kaimana took a deep breath, her eyes glazed over as if she’d gone to a distant place. “It’s okay. Make fun of me. But I won’t stop. I will find him.” A deep pause filled the air but neither rushed to break the silence.

She slowly raised her gaze to his. “Let me ask you this. How well did you really know Evan? Because he was into a lot more shit than you could ever imagine. I know this for a fact because when he rescued me, he’d begun to infiltrate Marretta’s organization. And before you say a word, yeah, I know he had a full-time job at Emerson. But he wasn’t just a retired military, skydiving buddy who worked as an executive at Emerson Industries. I’m telling you that he was so much more than that. If you know him so well, do you think that if Uncle Sam called on him, Evan would ever say no to helping his country?”

The question hit him like a punch to the gut. All the employees at Emerson Industries had clearances, but the reality was that many of them had come from intelligence agencies, the military or other government branches. But unless someone had a need to know the specifics of an employee’s background, and most didn’t, they all worked willingly and happily under the cloak of secrecy.

“Evan had been involved with something dark, something that plagued him, drove him to do dangerous things. My kidnapping was only one reason they came for him. Evan knew things. Things very bad people wanted to know, but also wanted to stop him from exposing.” Kaimana crossed the room and closed the distance between them. She stood confident, her focus set straight on Seth. “Here’s the reality of the situation. You can choose to believe it or not, but when Evan went missing and was declared dead, he left me this yacht. This is his boat. And a skeleton crew who stayed on. All of whom are under NDAs by the way. And now, I’m on the run. But I’m determined not to die. And yes, I was there in Big Sur. Finding you there with Lars and the girl was incidental. When you fell, I chose to save you because you might have information that could help me find Evan. I don’t care anymore. You can choose to believe me. Or not. But it won’t deter me from my objective.”

“Which is?”

“To find Evan. To stop the trafficking of girls and women. And perhaps most importantly, to kill Marretta. They’ve done enough to hurt these women…to hurt our country. I’m not going to let that happen. But I…” Kaimana shook her head and laughed. “I don’t know if it’s because I saw what he did to you, or taking care of you, but I just thought…well, you were his friend. I thought here’s a guy who might want to help me find Evan.”