Page 100 of Pallas & Kawehi

Even though she didn't know that he was there, Pallas knew she was doing her best. He couldn't love her more than he did at that moment.

Nick pointed his free hand at his uniform. "I used to work security for these events. I know what to say and where to go. So they just thought I was on duty. It pays to blend in. It helped me get on base and I can carry around a weapon without anyone looking at me twice."

"Okay, but are you really going to use it?"

Her voice was tight and thin. Shaking a little.

He couldn't wait to hold her when this was over.

"I don't think I need to," Nick took a step closer to her and Kawehi stepped back reflexively, stumbling again, "unless you make me."

He advanced another step, and she backed up again, this time her foot plunking down into the water of Kaneohe Bay.

She yelped and then clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.

If he wasn't already there, Pallas would have been listening for a sound like that, but he knew what Nick's reaction would be to the noise.

"Shut up." He hissed the words through what sounded like clenched teeth. "Just walk."

She took another step back and Pallas saw movement out of the corner of his eye, even in the dark.

Buck was holding Maile against his side with one hand over her mouth to keep her quiet.

Any sound now could prove to be disastrous.

The other movement he saw was Riptide.

Pallas had never been as grateful to have a squid on his team as he was at that moment.

Riptide faded into the shadows and Pallas put his attention back on Kawehi. He had to be ready to move in when she needed him.

KAWEHI

It didn't take long for her to feel the water of the bay touching her knees.

It wasn't cold in temperature, but the emotions she was feeling certainly were.

Nick said he loved her and that might be in the past, but she couldn't imagine how he wanted her dead. That's what he wanted. He knew that she couldn't really swim and if he got her out far enough into the bay, that the ground was further below the water than her height, she could only last a little while before she'd drop down below the surface.

"Come on," he lifted his chin at her, pointing at the area behind her, "keep going."

"Please, Nick. Don't-" She gasped as her foot slid along the ground. "Don't do this. I'll sign the paper. I'll give you the house. Please."

"Right. Like I can trust you to let this go."

"You can." She reached her hands out to him. "I don't care about anything else. I just want to live."

"Live, right." She heard the hard edge of his voice. "You work every damn day. What kind of life is that?"

"It's a life that makes me happy, Nick. I know you never understood it, but I'm happy."

"It's this new guy, right?"

She slipped half a step back as he advanced closer to her. "Being happy? Yeah..." She wasn't going to lie. "He makes me happy, and we don't get to spend as much time together as I wish we could, but the time we have together makes me happy. We can both be happy, Nick. You can have the house and walk... walk away."

He wasn't stopping. He just kept walking toward her, that gun pointed at her chest.

She knew that if she tried to make a run for it, he could shoot her or push her into the water. With the water of the bay up to the middle of her thighs, she'd be slow, and she'd stumble.

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