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When he dragged the chest toward him, one of the spearfishing guns tipped over. As it teetered, Leilani noticed it had a spear loaded in it. They never stored them loaded.
“Wait!” she called out a second too late.
The gun fell, bounced against a box and discharged.
Makai dropped the ice chest to the ground and slumped over it, cursing, “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What the hell?”
“Oh, sweet Jesus.” With her heart in her throat, Leilani rushed forward and wrapped her arm around her cousin to keep him from falling. When she saw what had happened, her stomach clenched.
The spear had pierced Makai’s thigh, the arrowhead embedded in the thickest part of his muscle.
Makai’s dark skin blanched white, and his eyes rolled backward.
Leilani cried out, “Angel. Help me.”
CHAPTER12
Angel had turned away,carrying the big ice chest, when he heard the speargun discharge. When he glanced over his shoulder to see what had happened, he heard Leilani’s cry for help.
He dropped the ice chest and leaped toward Leilani and Makai, catching them both before Makai’s weight took them to the ground.
Angel and Leilani struggled to hold him upright long enough for Angel to assess the position of the spear. Then they eased him to the ground on his side, careful not to bump the spear and send it deeper into his leg.
As soon as they safely got Leilani’s cousin on the ground, his eyes blinked open, and he started to sit up.
Angel held him down. “Don’t move.” To Leilani, he said, “Call 911.”
She was already halfway there, having pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and hitting the emergency feature.
“What happened?” Makai asked.
“A spearfishing gun went off, and you’re the unlucky recipient of a spear in your leg,” Angel informed him.
Makai leaned his head up and frowned at the spear jutting from his thigh. “Get it out,” he said roughly, reaching for the spear.
Angel grabbed his hand. “Don’t touch it. The arrow’s point is embedded in your leg. If you try to remove it, it will do more damage than it already has, and you could bleed out. You’ll have to have it surgically removed. Leilani’s on the phone with 911 to get an ambulance here. In the meantime, you need to stay still.”
Makai’s face was pale, his jaw tight. “It hurts like a motherfucker.”
“Yeah. I can only imagine. I’ve been hit with shrapnel, but never a spear from a speargun.”
Leilani ended the call and turned to her cousin. “An ambulance is on the way.”
“Hey,” Josh Wright, the deckhand from Windsong II, jogged up to them. “What’s going on? He glanced down at Makai, and his eyes widened. “Holy shit. What happened?”
Leilani’s lips pressed into a tight line. “The speargun was left loaded and propped against the wall in the shed. When Makai pulled the ice chest out, it fell and discharged.”
“We never store the speargun loaded,” Josh said.
Leilani nodded. “Exactly. Do you know who was the last one to use it?”
“Hell, it hasn’t been used since before the fire. It’s been in the shed the entire time.” Josh’s brow knitted. “I know for a fact it wasn’t loaded yesterday when we stowed the ice chests in the shed. Hell, it was hung on the rack above the spare life vests.” He pointed to the empty rack. “Who would take it down, load it and leave it where it could fall and go off?”
“I’d like to know the answer to that question myself,” Leilani said, her tone tight, angry. “I’ll be back in a minute. I want to talk with Captain Dave.” She glanced down at her cousin. “Are you hanging in there?”
Makai grimaced. “As well as to be expected with a spear sticking out of my leg.” He moved slightly and winced. “All I can think is that it’s better that it hit me, not you.”
Leilani reached for his hand and squeezed it gently. “I’d rather it had been me. This shouldn’t have happened to you. The one time you came to the dock to see me, this has to happen.”
