Page 16 of Riptide

“You just met me. And you don’t owe me anything. I wasn’t there for you that day anyway. I did it out of instinct. Remember?”

“I don’t care why you did it. I would have been dead if you hadn’t fished me out. One solid wave and I would have been swept out to sea or smashed against the rocks. Fish food for sure. But you made the decision to save a stranger. Doesn’t matter why. It only matters that your instinct was to do it. That’s who you are.”

“You don’t know me.” Kaimana shook her head and looked up to Seth.

“I know enough.” He sat down beside her on the sofa. “Look, Kaimana. What just went down tonight is some serious shit. We’ve got dead bodies on the boat. I mean…come on. You know it’s gonna be bad just letting them sit there.”

“You don’t have to tell me that.”

“We don’t have a lot of choices. Shall we review? Number one. We could call the Coast Guard now. Number two. Wait for the Coast Guard to board us randomly. Which by the way, as soon as we get to port, they might do anyway. There’s going to be a whole load of questions if that happens. Or, lucky number three, we can call a friend. Garrett.”

“I don’t know—” Her anxiety rose at the thought of contacting him.

“He works with the government. He can call in the kind of people who will identify these guys and work to track them down. But if we’re going to have to work with them, you’ve got to tell me what the hell is going on. You have to tell me what happened to you and what you know about Evan too.”

“I can’t…I—” Kaimana struggled to articulate what had happened to her…to her mentor. No one would believe her.

“Please, let me help. I swear I won’t hurt you. You can trust me.”

Seth’s fingers brushed over hers, leaving her skin tingling in awareness. Emotion welling in her chest, she intertwined her fingers with his. It had been so long since she’d trusted anyone.

“About two years ago I was surfing on the North Shore.”

“Maui?”

“Yeah. Hoʻokipa Beach.”

“You live there?”

“No. I live on Oʻahu right now. I was just staying with a friend for the weekend.”

“I’ve surfed there too.”

“It was rough that day. It was gnarly. Huge swells, but killer…you know the kind.”

Seth nodded.

“Perfect sunshine. My friend baled early, and I stayed out.” She blew out a breath, recalling the nightmare. “There were a few tourists out but not many. So I see this guy. He doesn’t look local but he’s holding his own. Until he couldn’t anymore. Ends up in the wash water, slams into some rocks. I swam over, helped him out.” She shook her head in frustration. “In retrospect, I was so dumb. God. Fucking long story short…when I got him settled on the beach, he waited until I turned around and he knocked me out with something. I don’t know what. Whatever, the next thing I know I’m waking up chained to a fucking pipe in a warehouse somewhere.”

“Jesus, Kaimana. I’m sorry.” Seth’s expression softened. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, well. That’s debatable.”

“No, it’s not. These people are monsters.”

“The people who do this are into all kinds of fucking shit. Trafficking. Drugs. Weapons. Stealing government secrets. Data,” she told him, her voice but a whisper.

“Jesus. What did they do to you?”

“Slapped me around a bit, but nothing compared to what I saw them do to another girl there. She…” Kaimana fought the tears that burned hot in her eyes. “I mean, I wasn’t there very long. But I saw them. The others. The women. The girls.” She tightened her lips, fighting the rush of nausea that always surfaced at the thought of what happened…what was still happening.

“But I got away. Fucking social media.” She gave a sad laugh. “It’s this guy who’s always talking about one hundred and one ways to escape zip ties and handcuffs. Anyway, part of what they do is they keep the girls drugged up so they don’t cause any problems. Force them to take it. And when it was my turn, I pretended to take the pill they gave me. I just acted compliant and then pretended to be drugged. So when they thought I was passed out, I broke off the zip ties. Dumb mother fuckers left a gun on the table while they got high. I shot two men that night, not realizing they were doing some kind of a sex video in the next room. And on my way out, that’s when I saw him…Giordano. He was with a woman and another man. They were laughing watching this girl on camera. I guess they were selling them. The other guy…he only saw me for a second. It was Marretta. I don’t know who the woman was. I didn’t see her face.”

Kaimana hung her head, her gaze on the ground. “I just ran. I ran so hard. And then I started firing at the guys who came after me. But I made it into the forest. I thought they’d catch me for sure. I was barefoot and my feet were killing me. I hid behind this tree. And there was more gunfire. It was all around me. I was screaming and running. And the next thing I knew there was this guy…I didn’t know him. I was terrified. He came from behind and put his hand over my mouth then shoved us into this thick brush. I thought I was dead. But he didn’t kill me. He whispered to me. Told me I was safe. It’s a blur now. I don’t know how he got us out. I just know he did. It was Evan.”

“Evan?”

“I can’t risk going to the police. I know this thing…this organization, it’s so much bigger than just a few bad actors. That’s why I didn’t want to call the Coast Guard.” Reliving the trauma was too much to verbalize and she began to cry. “I know they have him. I’ve got to find Evan.”