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Leilani managed to get her feet on the ground and stand for a moment before her legs buckled, and she fell.
Alyssa caught her in a chair.
Leilani’s head lolled to the side as she slumped in the chair, her nose almost bumping into a wheel.
“Like your ride?” Alyssa propped Leilani’s feet on the metal foot flaps. “I borrowed this wheelchair from Makai. He’s not up to using it yet. It’ll be a long time before he can get around. Thanks to you.”
The woman was behind her now, pushing her across a parking lot toward the marina.
Leilani couldn’t comprehend what was going on and was too weak to do anything about it.
When they reached the dock, Alyssa kept going, pushing the wheelchair past a line of boats, standing eerily empty, the shadows around them swirling in Leilani’s vision.
Alyssa came to a halt next to a boat.
Leilani managed to tip her head to the other side, the name of the boat coming into view. “That’s my boat,” she said, her words slurring like she was drunk. She’d only had one drink. She couldn’t be drunk. It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. “I need to lay down.”
“You can do that as soon as we get you on board. Then you can sleep until your man gets here for your surprise.”
“Want to go back.”
“Sorry,” Alyssa said, her voice hardening. “There’s no going back. Now, get on the boat.”
Alyssa rounded to the front of the wheelchair and moved Leilani’s feet off the metal flaps. “Come on. On your feet.” Alyssa grabbed Leilani’s hand, yanked her up and out of the chair, then staggered backward under her weight. She spun and angled Leilani toward the boat, then gave her a big shove.
Leilani fell onto the deck, landing so hard the air was knocked out of her lungs. She lay still, trying to breathe and failing.
For a long moment, she thought she would die. That she’d never know what surprise Angel had planned for her.
Alyssa disappeared.
Leilani lay with her cheek pressed to the cool deck. She must have blacked out again because the next thing she knew, Alyssa was back, and she was pouring something from a big jug onto the deck.
The acrid scent of fuel assailed Leilani’s nostrils. Was Alyssa pouring gas into the boat’s tank? If so, she was missing horribly, spilling it all over the deck.
Then she set the jug down beside her and pulled what looked like a box of matches out of her pocket.
Leilani tried to tell her it was dangerous to light a match around gasoline. “What are you doing?”
Alyssa laughed. “The only thing I can do to fix what you destroyed.” She pulled a match out of the box and struck the tip against the side. The match flared, but a breeze kicked up extinguishing the flame.
Leilani tried and failed to lift her head from where it lay against the deck. “I don’t understand.”
“You ruined Makai and my chances to win the competition at the Eddie. Had we been able to participate, we would’ve won the contest and landed a number of lucrative endorsements for the cute couple who surfs together. I had it all lined up. All we had to do was get there and surf our best.” She lit another match. The breeze blew that one out as well.
“We could’ve paid off all our debt and had money coming in from the endorsements. But you just couldn’t let go of anything. You should’ve sold when Brentwood first came to you with the contract. He wouldn’t have sabotaged your business to force you into bankruptcy and make you sell your property in Lahaina.”
“What are you talking about?” She wasn’t making sense.
“Makai wouldn’t have felt bad about what Brentwood was doing to you and gone to bail you out. He wouldn’t have taken that damned spear in his leg. He’d be with me at the Eddie.” She swiped another match against the box. It lit, and she flung it at the gasoline on the deck. “Now, we have nothing but debt. The only way we can dig our way out is for you to die!” The match ignited the fuel and spread so fast the entire deck was in flames in seconds, except for where Leilani lay in the middle and Alyssa stood by the stern.
Heat built around Leilani, taking her back to her escape from Lahaina.
“No,” she said, dragging herself across the deck toward Alyssa. “You won’t fix anything if I die.”
“I will,” Alyssa said, her voice getting higher, tighter as she lifted the jug of gasoline and shook it at the growing flames. “Makai’s your only living relative. He’ll inherit your property. We’ll sell it and use that money to pay off our debt, buy a house on Oahu and get the hell away from this dead-end island.”
“Makai won’t inherit,” Leilani said.
