Page 4 of Raider Unleashed

Come on, come on.What the fuck were they doing in there that was taking so long? She was only here on a scouting mission. Nothing more tonight. The plan wasn’t to do anything until tomorrow. This was just supposed to be them casing the place.

She glanced around but the back of the strip mall was blocked from view by palm tree foliage. Damn good thing, since her sitting in the van stick out like a sore thumb. It had been okay while traffic was snarled to a stop. But then it cleared up. Now, anyone with any sense was inside away from all the ash,not hanging out in their vehicle like a sitting duck. She adjusted her mask and looked across the van through the passenger side window at the steel door that was sealed up tighter than Fort Knox.

She’d been here too long. They were supposed to go in and spend ten maybe fifteen minutes. She glanced at her watch. Thirty-eight minutes. They just had to make sure they knew where to set everything up for tomorrow. That’s it. What the hell was taking them so long?Shit.Every sense she had was on alert…this situation was fucked beyond repair.

Hang on!Signs of life had surfaced.

The steel door to one of the vacant stores opened and four men filed out. One was stumbling. Not good. Denlo had his ball cap pulled down low over his face and his jacket collar pulled up. The other two were half-carrying, half-dragging the third guy. He pulled open the back door. “We need to get water at the convenience store.” He gestured to her to get out of the van.

“What the fuck?” she mumbled as she got out. Getting water didn’t require two of them. She just wanted to be out of there. There’d been a huge issue with traffic before. She’d barely made it into the lot before the whole intersection became gridlocked.

They walked around to the front of the convenience store and Piper pulled the door open. She started in and almost walked straight into the man coming out. She looked up and cursed.

Raider?

Why was her ex-husband here? Standing right in front of her. She froze and Denlo plowed into her.

Raider reached out to catch her, but she jerked her arm away and gave him the tiniest head shake. He’d always been good at reading her body language, so he dropped his hand. She hurried down an aisle toward the fridge units in the back. She pulled open one of the doors and started to pull out the water. The coolness felt great on her over-heated face.

What the fuck was Raider doing here in Hawaii? Of all the times to show up. She hadn’t seen him in five years. Not since she’d broken his heart and kicked him to the curb after her world had been turned upside down in a stupid accident on the job. When she’d… when she hadn’t told him her reason, to keep his heart from breaking as much as hers had been…

She blinked hard and swallowed convulsively. She couldn’t think about that now. She needed to focus on the mission from hell.

She closed the door and started back toward the front of the store. Denlo was talking in a low voice to the guy at the cash register. They both shut up as she approached. What the heck? Did these two know each other? The store attendant was an older guy with short blond hair and mean dark eyes. His long-sleeved shirt gave off weird vibes, especially given how warm it was outside. She could just see the tip of a tattoo on his right arm. His hands had some scars on them like he’d worked construction or some other labor job.

“Got your shit?” Denlo demanded.

She nodded and grabbed the water off the counter, then turned and headed out the door. Raider was standing on the sidewalk just outside of the driveway. He was watching her but making it look like he was drinking water. She gave him another tiny shake of her head. Then she turned the corner and went to the van.

After getting into the driver’s seat, she turned and handed out the bottles of water to the guys in the back. She glanced at Vardis, the man the others had carried out. Ashen, sweaty, and not looking in the least healthy. He needed help or he might not make it.

Denlo got into the passenger seat and snarled, “Drive.”

She glanced back and watched as Wells and Baker tried to get Vardis to drink some water. He wasn’t doing it.

“Drive,” Denlo demanded again.

She put the van in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. Heading back towards the hotel seemed like the plan. She wasn’t going to ask. Denlo wasn’t much of a conversationalist, and he seemed even more terse than usual.

How the hell had she gotten here? Sharing airspace with her ex?

Raider here on the Big Island. Her stomach rolled. He’d seen her. Now he’d be wondering what the hell was going on.Join the club.

The weight of Denlo’s stare made the side of her face itch. She sent him a sidelong glance.

“You knew that guy in the store,” he accused.

Piper’s first instinct was to deny it. Tell him she had no idea what he was talking about but she’s been so obvious that she didn’t think he’d believe her. The last thing she needed was Denlo trusting her even less than he already did. “I..um…we…hooked up a while back. I was just surprised is all.”

“What does he know?” Denlo’s fingers closed around the butt of the gun tucked into the front of his belt.Another damn idiot who’ll probably shoot his balls off someday.

Piper looked in the rearview mirror. Baker and Wells were listening. Vardis was out of it. “He doesn’t know much. Like I said we hooked up a while back. There wasn’t a lot of talking going on, ya know? I didn’t know he was on the island. I thought he was back in San Diego.” That was the truth. Or more likely if she allowed herself to think about him at all, she’d think he was in some war-torn country or another.

“Why’s he here?”

Piper glanced over to Denlo and shrugged. “I dunno. I didn’t talk to him or anything. I was just surprised to see him. I got the water and we left. It’s not a big deal. He’s just a guy I knew for acouple of weeks like a hundred years ago, okay?” she made her voice sound frustrated and annoyed.Please let it go.

“Turn up there,” Denlo growled as he pointed to a street on her right.

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