Page 76 of Just My Luck

Even if they made it to the beach before the Zodiac, did they have any chance against so much firepower? Would it be smarter to call in his own mini-army to rescue Rory later on?

No. He had a plan. He just had to execute it.

He jumped. As he soared through the air, he felt weightless for a moment, suspended between place and time, before and after, then and now. Then he crashed onto the table-like rock, hitting his knee hard. He started to slip down. When he looked—big mistake—he saw nothing but a deep, dark, endless crack below. He shivered in horror at the thought of getting stuck down there.

Robert grabbed him by the arm and hauled him the rest of the way up the rock. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Lincoln ignored the pain in his knee. “Thank you.”

“We say mahalo. Or mahalo nui loa, extra big thanks.”

Lincoln let out a breathless laugh. “Mahalo nui loa, man. That was close.”

“Nah, I got you. You good? Ready to go?”

“Yes.” From this new vantage point, he squinted down at the beach below. He could see Rory now, held by two armed men as they waited for the Zodiac to reach the shore. “Is that the path there?” He pointed to what could almost be a trail that wound its way through rocks.

“Yeah, that’s the best route. It’s got some loose little stuff, like gravel, so you gotta watch you don’t slip and fall on your ass.”

Lincoln nodded. “I got it from here. Thanks for getting me this far. Mahalo,” he added.

“You sure?” Robert looked surprised.

“Yes. I don’t want anyone else in danger from all this. It’s my gig. And just in case someone decides to make trouble for the rest, I’d rather have you up there with them.”

“You mean Zara.” Robert grinned.

“Yes, of course Zara, but the others too. I’ll never forget how you all took care of me.”

“Lincoln Log, you’re a good man. Maybe you don’t even believe that, but you are.”

Lincoln wasn’t sure that any words of praise had ever meant so much to him. Although he’d been unconscious at the time, Robert had rescued him from both of his plane crashes. He felt a real need to be worthy of his efforts. “I plan to do my best,” he said. “Wish me luck, man.”

And he climbed off the table onto the next tumble of rocks, aiming for that slender, possibly imaginary trail. By the time he reached flat ground, his feet were bleeding from an unknown number of cuts; he wouldn’t know how many until he could sit down and take a look. But he could see why Robert had recommended going barefoot. Several times, only the grip of his toes curling on the rocks had kept him from catapulting down.

The “trail” had dumped him into a cranny between two boulder-sized rocks, so he was out of sight of Rory and his captors. The sand was black here, unlike on the Kona side, and rough under his wounded feet.

Surprise wasn’t part of his plan, so he simply inhaled a deep breath and stepped from behind the shelter of the rock.

“I’m Lincoln Kerr,” he called, nice and loud, raising his hands in the air.

The two guards spun around, nearly toppling Rory into the sand.

“Tell Tanaka I have a deal for him. Tell him now, on your comms.”

“Lincoln, what the fuck are you doing?” Blood dripped from a cut on Rory’s eyebrow and his upper lip was swelling, but other than that, he looked uninjured.

“Let him go,” Lincoln told the guards. “I know everything Rory knows, but he can’t make a deal. I can and I will. Tell Tanaka.”

It was a gamble. Tanaka must have come after Rory because he hoped Rory had information about the CHUM. Lincoln needed to offer the man something more than that to keep Rory out of his hands.

“What deal?” Rory yelled. “Fuck that.”

One of the guards wrenched Rory’s arm behind his back, while the other stepped a few feet away to talk on his satellite phone. Lincoln caught Rory’s eye and tried to send him reassuring thoughts.

“We should just take you both,” growled the guard still on Rory duty.

“You could. I’m unarmed. But for any deal, this part is non-negotiable. You let Rory go and you take me.”