Page 66 of Riptide

“Data?” Seth raised an eyebrow at her.

“Yeah maybe.” Her expression tense and eyes widened, she nodded. “Drugs?”

“Probably fentanyl laced drugs. Opioids. Heroin. They’ve been coming into Hawaiʻi.”

“It’s possible he’s selling to the sellers,” she guessed.

“Evan must know. If you said he’d been tracking them for a long time, he probably has all kinds of evidence. The Evan I know isn’t going to give it to them.”

“Evan will survive. He’ll get revenge.” Kaimana’s heart raced as she spoke the words true to her heart. Evan would fight like hell to stay alive. And she’d move heaven and hell to find him. “Dom Marretta is going down.”

Chapter Nine

Within an hour of the jet touching down in Kauai, they’d arrived in Hanalei. An old friend of Seth’s had arranged for a rib boat.

The sunrise crested over the horizon as the boat skated across the ocean. Knowing how close they were to finding Evan, adrenaline pumped through his veins as he drove the boat through the bay toward the open water. Though reality warned him not to get too excited, his optimistic spirit was convinced Evan was alive.

“Coast Guard is meeting us there,” Marcus called to him as he tapped at his cell phone.

“I hope you guys have vetted some of these agents. There are moles.” Kaimana crossed her arms and looked to Seth.

“She’s right, man. We had them at Emerson. If Marretta is half the player we think he is, he’s paid off people in the right places.”

“My team is clean,” Marcus insisted. “I’ve taken great care to vet them. If shit goes down today, you know you can trust them.”

“We’ve got to get him locked up,” she told him.

“Hey, I know you don’t really trust me, Kaimana. And I get it after what happened to you, but you have to believe me that this is personal,” Marcus replied.

Seth sensed a story and pressed him. “How’s that? Is there another reason you took this case?”

“I’ve been working trafficking a long time, bro. Someone’s got to put these bastards away.” Marcus sighed. “My cousin, Alice, was taken when she was just a teenager. She met one of these monsters online. It’s a common thing. They go where the kids go. They’ve got this sixth sense for telling the ones who are unhappy at home. Maybe need a little more attention. He talked her into leaving home one night. We lived in Riverside, and he lured her up to San Francisco. But he wasn’t the nice guy she thought he was.”

“I’m sorry,” Kaimana offered, her voice empathetic.

“Yeah, it was rough. We couldn’t find her for six months. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a miracle we found her. Many of these women and girls are shipped outside the country and they never see their families again. Alice was found at a stadium during a football game in New York City.”

“Is she okay now?” Seth asked.

“She’s safe.” He shook his head in contemplation. “For now anyway. After we found her, she returned to the perp who took her. He was out on bail.”

“What? No.” Kaimana’s eyes widened.

“Yeah. There’s some sick trauma bond. It fucks with their heads. Pretty common that some victims will go back with the abusers. But in this case, I was able to scrounge up some other felonies. Got him on murder one after we found pictures of a dead girl from New Orleans in his apartment. We got a match on DNA and he’s never gonna see the light of day again. But Alice?” Marcus pinched the bridge of his nose and then adjusted his sunglasses. “She struggles. Depression. She drinks a lot of alcohol to dull the pain. There’s no magic pill to ever take away what happened.”

“Where is she now?” Kaimana asked.

“She’s in residential care in Seattle. It’s a special program for victims. I’ve got a job lined up for her when she gets out. My other cousin, Rachel, has her own place so Alice will move in with her once she’s ready. She’s going to have as much support as she needs. It’s a really hard road though. So…” He blew out a breath. “Yeah, it’s personal. I’d been working on the East Coast for a few weeks but when this came up with Garrett I jumped.”

“I’m sorry, Marcus,” Kaimana began. There were no words that could make it better. “I’m glad she made it out alive. She’s lucky to have you.”

“Today we’ve got to focus on making a difference for the girls who are still in this nightmare,” he said.

“Damn straight.” Seth nodded.

“Let’s review the plan,” Kaimana suggested. “Have either of you been in the caves? I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan.”

“I’ve done some caves in Maui for sure,” Seth said. “It’ll be low tide when we get there but we’ll have to work fast. Evan might have found a way to keep from being washed out to sea, but it depends on the cave. I don’t know what we’re getting into.”