Page 49 of Emi's Hero

The sun was well on its way toward the horizon when George slipped his feet into his shoes and woke Emi. “Ule will have dinner ready by the time we reach the ranch house and wash up.”

She yawned, stretched and reached for her sandals. “Is Ule that bad?” she asked as she slid her feet into the borrowed sandals.

George laughed. “No. He’s that good. All his years as a Navy chef, feeding hundreds of sailors on board the ship, helped him hone his skills.” He rose to his feet and offered his hand.

Emi took it and let him pull her upright and into his arms.

She rested her hands on his chest. “I thought we were going to take it slow?”

“This is slow,” he said, brushed his lips across hers very slowly and then raised his head.

Her brow dipped. “That’s just a tease.”

“Yup.” George grinned, spun her around and sent her toward the ATV.

“Not fair,” she muttered loud enough for him to hear.

George chuckled as he reached the ATV. “Want to drive?”

Her face lit up. “Can I?”

“It’s easy.” He waved a hand toward the machine. “Climb on.”

She slung her leg over the seat and gripped the handles.

George mounted behind her and wrapped his arms around hers, his fingers pointing at the different levers. “These silver levers are the brakes. The right handle is the throttle. Twist it, and it gives it gas. The shift is by your left knee. Hold the brake while I start the engine.” He turned the key in the ignition, and the engine roared to life. “Okay, let go of the brake and give it a little gas by twisting the handle.”

She twisted the handle and sent the ATV leaping forward.

George almost fell off the back before he caught Emi around her waist and held on.

After a few jerky movements, she settled into a slow, steady pace.

George relaxed on the back, loving that he could hold her all the way back to the barn.

Kalea emerged from the Brotherhood Protectors’ office and ran toward them. “Where have you two been? Hawk wants to see you ASAP.” She waved her hand at the ATV. “Leave it. I’ll put it up.”

George hopped off the back and helped Emi dismount. Together, they hurried to the outbuilding where they’d find Hawk.

After quickly navigating the biometric reader and opening the secret tack room panel, George grabbed Emi’s hand and ran down the corridor to the war room.

Hawk was at the conference table with Swede and Kyla on the big screen. He turned when they entered. “Oh, good. I’m glad you two are here. You need to hear this straight from the horse’s mouth.” Hawk looked back at the screen. “Go ahead, Swede.”

“We ran a scan through the boat owner registration databases to find who owns yacht class boats made by Reva Manufacturing here in Hawaii,” Swede said. “They must have had a big sale. There were hundreds.”

“We also ran a search on the Blue Eye security systems’ customer database and identified the most recent purchases of their system from customers in Hawaii. Again, they must have had a sale.”

“We cross-checked the lists from the two different databases and narrowed the search down to four people or businesses,” Swede said. “All of them are based on Oahu.”

Kalea entered the room with her father, Mr. Parkman. “I thought you might want my father in on this discussion in case he recognizes some of the names.”

Hawk nodded. “Yes. That would be helpful.”

“The first name on the list is Randall Matheson,” Swede said. “He owns a shipping business responsible for moving cargo to and from the mainland to the Hawaiian Islands. He owns property on Oahu, Maui and Kauai, as well as a number of places scattered throughout the contiguous forty-eight states.”

“We found this photo from a news article about Randall Matheson,” Kyla said.

A picture popped up on the screen of a barrel-chested manwearing an orange-sherbet polo shirt and khaki trousers. His graying hair was slicked back from his forehead.

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