Kimo leaned into him, warming his damp wetsuit. “You freed her.”
His lips pressed together. “If I’d known sooner…”
“All that matters is that you found me,” Alana said. “And Vaughan’s going to jail where he belongs.”
Kimo nodded and squeezed her friend’s hand. “Now that it’s over, you can get back to your life and plan your wedding.”
Alana snorted. “Or let the wedding planner do it.”
“The officer from the Maui Police Department told me that Detective Sykes is MIA,” Hawk said. “Sykes was in the office when they received word Lucien Vaughan had been captured and would be charged with murder. When they went to find him to send him out to investigate, he’d disappeared and wasn’t answering his cell phone. They have an APB out for him on Maui and at the airport on Oahu.”
Men arrived flashing credentials from the FBI, Homeland Security and the local emergency medical service.
Rex frowned as the EMTs loaded Vaughan onto a stretcher and carried him down to the dive deck, where a boat waited to take him to the hospital in Kahului.
“Are you sure they’re taking him to the hospital and not to a private plane that will whisk him away to some foreign country?” As slippery as the man was, Rex didn’t feel confident letting him out of his sight.
Hawk grinned. “Hank assured me the FBI agent in charge has been tracking Vaughan for a while. Every time he got close to nailing the guy, evidence was lost, and they had nothing. This time, he’s making multiple copies of everything and filing it with several agencies besides the FBI, including Interpol, Europol and the UK’s National Crime Agency.”
“Good. They can’t risk the evidence disappearing again,” Kimo said.
“Something else we found on the yacht you should know about. Bennett, Logan and Devlin broke into a locked room on a lower deck and found ten girls,” Hawk said. “They range in age from twelve to seventeen and hail from various countries.”
“Is one of them from Romania?” Rex asked.
Hawk nodded. “As a matter of fact, yes.”
Rex tightened the arm he’d had around Kimo’s waist. “She’s fourteen.” He shook his head. “Men like Vaughan need to rot in hell.”
Hawk nodded. “Yes, they do. In the meantime, the girls are being loaded onto a boat to be transported to Oahu, where they’ll get the care they need. For now, JD is waiting to take us back to Maui, unless you want to ride in the police boat or the charter the FBI and HSI folks arrived in.”
Kimo lifted Alana’s and Rex’s hands. “I want to go wherever these two go.”
Alana gave her a crooked smile. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not get wet on the way back.”
“Since they’re heading back the soonest, the FBI charter boat, it is then,” Hawk said.
The ride back to Maui on the charter boat seemed to last forever. The RHIB had moved a lot faster and handled the waves better.
The wind felt good on his cheeks, and the rain held off. In fact, the sea seemed a little calmer. At least, it felt like it was. Then again, they weren’t wearing their scuba gear and hanging onto an inflatable boat being splashed with every wave the craft hit.
Rex counted the minutes until he could be alone with Kimo again. Now that Vaughan was in custody, Kimo wouldn’t need protection. Rex would give the disk to the FBI agent Hank Patterson had recommended after he and Kimo had a chance to review it and make sure there truly was evidence captured on it.
The FBI agent had assured him that if the images were what they thought they were, the disk would be used in the case against Holte, Vaughan and all the people involved in handling the shipping container filled with young girls.
Leilani met them at Maalaea Harbor in her SUV. Angel settled in the passenger seat while Rex, Kimo and Alana climbed into the back.
Leilani drove to Lahaina Harbor, where Rex and Kimo transferred into Rex’s truck. They would meet at Leilani and Angel’s house in Lahaina for a meal and to decompress.
They sat outside in the shade, surrounded by bougainvillea, hibiscus and two plumeria saplings. After three years waiting and building, Leilani and Angel had moved into the home they’d had constructed in the wake of the fires that had devastated the little town of Lahaina. Like the other residents who’d survived, they chose to rebuild rather than leave Maui. The island was their home. No other place on earth would compare.
Rex had never seen Angel so happy. If Angel could find the love of his life, why couldn’t he?
As the sun crept toward the horizon, Kimo yawned and stretched. She crossed to where Alana leaned back on a lounge chair, soaking up the last rays before dark.
She bent to hug her friend and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “I’m glad you’re back.”
Alana caught her hand. “Me, too. And you don’t have to worry whether or not I’ll dive with you again. I’ll go.”
