Then why the knot in her gut? It wasn’t like he belonged to her. Kimo had no hold on the man. He’d been hired to protect her. Nothing else.
Still, thinking of him with another woman felt...
He held out the cell phone. “It’s for you. It’s Leilani.”
The knot in Kimo’s gut loosened, and relief flooded her as she snatched his cell phone from his hand.
He left her with the cell phone and rounded the back of his truck to slide into the driver’s seat.
Kimo swallowed hard and managed to eke out, “Leilani?”
“Girl! Why am I hearing second hand that you’re in trouble and that our sweet Alana is missing? What the hell?” Leilani practically yelled.
“Oh, Leilani.” Kimo’s eyes filled, blurring her vision. “They took Alana.” Tears slipped down her cheeks.
Leilani’s voice softened. “Kalea told me. What can I do to help?”
Kimo scrubbed the tears from her cheeks and forced herself to think. “I need to go back to where we were diving.”
“You can’t do that. What if those men return?”
“I have to. I dropped my camera out there. It might have the clue I need to locate Alana.”
“What clue?” Leilani asked.
“Did Kalea tell you about the shipping container?”
“She did,” Leilani said. “Man, I can’t imagine finding something that horrific. Those poor people.”
“Did she tell you the Coast Guard didn’t find the container?”
“Could they have been looking in the wrong place?”
Kimo shook her head. “I gave them the coordinates. I used those same coordinates to relocate it after surfacing for more air. It was there. I won’t believe the Coast Guard can’t locate a specific set of coordinates. They’re trained to find people at specific locations. They didn’t find it because it wasn’t there. The container is gone.”
“How will finding your camera help?”
“We took pictures of the container before and after we surfaced for fresh tanks. I hope there are some identification numbers on the container captured in the photographs. If there are, we might be able to trace the container to its owner. Maybe they’ll lead us to who was out there in the same area—the people who attacked us and took Alana.”
“What if it was stolen?” Leilani suggested.
“We’ll have to figure it out from there. Photos of the container will prove it exists and that there were human bodies inside. I can’t let their deaths go unnoticed. Someone chained them inside and dropped them in the ocean. Those people need to pay for doing that.”
“You’re right,” Leilani agreed. “What are the police doing about it?”
“Nothing that I can tell. The detective on the case questioned me like I was the one who made Alana disappear.”
“What the hell?” Leilani exclaimed. “You and Alana are as tight as sisters.”
Kimo nodded. “We might as well be sisters. We’ve known each other and have been friends all our lives.”
“If the police aren’t taking your story seriously and the Coast Guard can’t find the container, what can we do?”
Kimo’s tears had dried, and her resolve stiffened. “I need to find my camera.”
“You think you can?”
“I don’t have a choice. I have to find it. I just know that the shipping container is connected to the people who took Alana. I think the same group is also the one that trashed my house. They’re afraid someone will take me seriously and look for that container.”
