Page 34 of Shark Cove

She’d fallen down on her best intentions. She’d betrayed her friend by kissing the guy Camille liked. So many things seemed crystal clear to her; all the stupid shit couples in love did made total sense now.

Malia wouldn’t think about Camille anymore because heartbreak lay in that direction—she needed so badly to feel something good, and there wasn’t anything better in the world than the kiss she’d just had, whatever its cost.

Malia managed to get through her studies, and was able to log on a computer in the library at lunch to delete most of the Wallflower’s entries and suspend the blog’s activity. The relief she felt when she did so, told her it was the right decision.

Blake met her outside her last class at the end of the day.

“We need to talk,” he said. “I’ll drive you home.”

Malia stopped at the bus to tell the driver she had a ride home, avoiding Kylie’s accusing glare from one of the windows. On the drive back to her house, Malia took a brush out of her backpack and worked the bristles through thick ripples left by her braids.

Blake reached over, tangling his fingers in it. “So soft. This hair has got a life of its own.”

“That’s it exactly. Wild Latina hair.”

“I thought you were Hawaiian or something.”

“Or something. I’m Mexican. Adopted.”

“Interesting. You pass for local.”

“I know. Awkward. Not usually worth trying to explain to people, so I let them think whatever, but I end up feeling kind of—I don’t know. Like I’m a traitor to my heritage. Not that anybody knows what my bio parents were. Mom thinks maybe Mexican Indian. It’s Kylie with her hazel eyes that has Hawaiian blood.”

“I’m white and Korean. Little bit of both, a whole lot of neither.”

They exchanged a glance, a smile.

They shared this, a sense of being different, not really fitting in. Malia never would have imagined that, with his popularity.

She reached for his hand. “Tell me more about your family.”

“Well, Mama and Father aren’t doing too well. Mama misses her modeling days and hasn’t found enough to do since we moved here full-time, and Father is a workaholic. I’m an only child, which kind of sucks. It means they’re both on me like white on rice, and there’s no one else to distract them. When you get mad at your little sister, remember that.”

“I will. And talk about weird, my dad’s coming home. We have a family meeting scheduled and Mom wants me to go to counseling. Fun times.”

“But it’s good that Camille’s disappearance is solved. You can focus on dealing with your personal stuff.” He lifted her wrist and touched the bandage lightly.

He knew.

Malia wasn’t about to discuss her self-injury. “That’s the thing. I’m trying to let it go, but there’s still something weird about what happened with Camille.”

“The dad said he was paying for the camp, though, didn’t he?”

“Yeah, but there was something off about our conversation. I want to find out more about him.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that I sent Leonard William an e-mail asking how Camille was doing, with a little Trojan tracker in it. I was able to find his IP address, and his computer’s somewhere on the island.”

“What? Really?” Malia bounced with excitement. “I thought the guy was on a yacht, somewhere faraway.”

“Or maybe the yacht is parked in a Maui marina. I’ve started putting together a file on him—the businesses I could find, the articles on him and the family in the news, etcetera.”

“Tell me more.” Malia was impressed. “And I thought I was the nosy one!”

“Well, let’s see.” Blake navigated the car around a truck piled high with windsurf equipment. “William’s from money. He has an import/export business in Southeast Asia and the USA. Furniture, art, even some fancy spices that are packaged and sold wholesale to food companies. He basically gets stuff made for other companies. A middleman. He also has income from his family money. All of that, and his mobile office on the yacht, make for a handy way to smuggle arms, which he’s rumored to do, but has never been caught.”

“How’d you have time to do all this?” They’d already turned onto her street; time certainly seemed to speed by when she was with Blake.

He shrugged. “Been having trouble sleeping.”

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