She lifted her hand.
“Ready?” he asked.
Kimo froze, realizing she’d almost reached out to smooth that strand of hair back in line with the rest.
She redirected her hand to tuck an imaginary hair behind her ear. Heat rose up her neck and into her cheeks. “Uh. Sorry. What did you say?” she asked, flustered at her near slipup.
“Are you ready?”
She blew out a breath in an attempt to calm herself and then nodded. “I am.” Ready to find Alana, not to touch Rex’s hair. “Let’s go.” Before I do something stupid.
She needed to be more like Rex and focus on the mission. Exhaustion was really taking its toll on her if she was fantasizing about a man she’d just met.
Rex was first to exit the house, where he paused to study the surroundings. Apparently satisfied she was safe, he stepped out of the doorway.
As Kimo walked by him, all her senses were on alert. So much so, she could smell the plumeria growing on the tree that shaded the porch and the cologne Rex wore.
Yeah, trauma and lack of sleep. That had to be it.
He held the door open to the passenger side of his truck and helped her up into the seat with a hand at the small of her back.
Once she’d settled, she fumbled with the seatbelt.
Rex stepped up onto the running board, reached across her and secured her belt. His shoulder grazed her breast, sending sparks of electricity shooting through her body.
He paused on his way back across her and stared into her eyes. “Are you all right?”
Again, her cheeks heated. “Why do you ask?”
“Your face is flushed.” He reached out and touched his palm to her forehead. “You don’t feel feverish, but our first stop will be the pharmacy for those antibiotics. I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to dive today.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted. “Really. Besides, I’m the only one available who saw that container and then escaped the gunmen. No one else could come close to figuring out where I might’ve dropped the camera. The chances of finding it out there are pretty slim—impossible without me.”
Rex touched the bandage on her calf, shaking his head. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“We don’t have much of a choice. No one else is having any luck locating Alana. She’s my friend. I have to do something. She’d do the same for me.”
Rex nodded. “Let’s get those antibiotics and pay a visit to the dive shop. Maybe by the time we get to Jako’s, Swede will have recovered your data.”
“Hopefully, the image of the container will show something useful marked on it to lead us to who owns it.”
“Then we’ll follow that trail.” He dropped to the ground, strode around the hood and slid in behind the wheel. “In the meantime, we’ll play the diving by ear.”
Kimo didn’t argue. It served no purpose. If she needed to dive, she’d do it.
Chapter 6
Rex stopped at the pharmacy and went inside with Kimo to collect the antibiotics the doctor had ordered. He paid for the medicine and brushed aside her assurances that she would pay him back.
While they were there, they picked up waterproof dressings in case their only choice was to go after the camera.
He wasn’t convinced Kimo was up to diving so soon. Her cheeks had been flushed and her breathing a little erratic when he’d helped her into the truck. Still, she was a trooper, hanging in there for her friend.
She wouldn’t stop until they found her friend. She reminded him of a bulldog—a pretty, petite Hawaiian bulldog with skin the color of mocha and eyes as dark as midnight. She’d taken time to tame her long black hair into a thick braid that hung halfway down her back, making her appear even younger and more vulnerable than the wild-eyed, crazy-haired female that had launched herself out of the back of an ambulance a few hours ago.
She sat in the seat beside him, her back straight, her eyes on the road ahead as they crossed to the opposite side of the island from the hospital and her home.
He didn’t know much about her, other than she was an underwater photographer and she lived alone, based on what he’d observed in her house. There had been no signs of anyone but her living there. As pretty as she was, she had to have a boyfriend. Her ring finger was bare. Rex assumed that meant she was single. Yeah, he didn’t know much about her.
