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Her lips curled for a moment. “Once, when a man didn’t understand the concept of No.” Kiana lifted her chin. “I’d always wondered if that little can of mace really worked.” She shot a glance toward Dev. “It did.”
“Do you still carry it?”
She nodded. “Like you so wisely stated earlier, it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”
“Good to know.” He grinned. “Remind me not to make you mad.”
The directions led Dev past a shopping mall, a row of businesses and a convenience store, where he turned and drove through a mix of apartment buildings and smaller businesses. As he neared their destination, Kiana leaned forward.
“It’s the building just past the dive shop,” she said. “Go past it, turn left and park behind the building.”
He did as she directed and parked at the back of a building that appeared to be a business on the ground floor with apartments above. A small brass sign hung over the back door with the words Aloha Escorts written in fading black letters. The building had been painted a dark gray at some point. Sun and salty air had taken its toll on the paint, making it curl and flake.
Kiana stared through the windshield. “It looks even seedier than when I was here last.” She shrugged. “It’s not like the escorts hang around inside. There are usually only a few people here: Cliff, the manager; Niko, the runner; and Rose, the secretary. Cliff and Rose field the calls, schedule the escorts and run payroll. Niko does whatever errands Cliff and Rose have for him. If an escort’s car isn’t working, Niko will get that person where she needs to be on time. If a girl gets in a jam, he bails her out.”
“Does he do that often?” Dev unbuckled his seatbelt.
“More often than you’d think. Mostly because the client has passed out drunk or has left without the escort.”
Dev slid out of the driver’s seat and hurried around to open Kiana’s door. He held out his hand and helped her to her feet.
She hesitated, staring at the building.
“What?”
Kiana shook her head. “When I left Oahu, I swore I was done with this life. It feels surreal being back here.”
“Are you afraid?” he asked.
“Of these people?” Kiana shook her head. “Of stepping back into this life? Yeah. I guess so.” She gave him a shaky smile. “I don’t like living paycheck to paycheck, wondering when I’ll get the next call for a modeling job. I hated having to supplement my income as an escort. Sure, modeling was fun and exciting at first. But it was like being a foster kid. You never knew how long it would last. One day, everything would be great. The next, you were worried about being thrown out because you couldn’t pay the rent or your foster family didn’t want you living there anymore.”
Dev touched a hand to the small of her back. “You’ve got a job on Maui. A steady one, as far as I could tell. You don’t have to come back to Oahu to live.”
She shook her head. “The problem is, I feel responsible for Meredith and Tish. I never should’ve left them. We were supposed to look out for each other. It’s my fault Meredith is missing, and Tish was attacked. I failed them by leaving.”
“You didn’t attack Tish, and you didn’t make Meredith disappear,” he reminded her.
“If I had stayed,” Kiana said, “none of this would’ve happened.”
Dev pulled her up against him and brushed his lips across the top of her head. “You don’t know that. Beating yourself up over something you couldn’t control is a waste of energy.”
“You’re right.” Kiana squared her shoulders. “I need to focus on what I can do, not what I should have done. Let’s find Cliff and hear what he has to say about Meredith’s client.”
Dev wanted to say more, to reassure Kiana that she wasn’t to blame for what had happened to her sisters of the heart. Bad shit happened whether you were there or not. He knew it, had experienced it and could do nothing to change the course of events after the fact.
Dev and Kiana climbed the steps.
Before Dev could raise his hand to knock, Kiana reached for the doorknob, turned it and pushed the door open.
Dev raised his arm in front of her to keep her from stepping inside. He pointed to the concrete porch and whispered, “Stay.”
“But—” she started.
He shook his head and repeated, “Stay.” Though his tone was hushed, she responded to the command by planting her feet firmly on the concrete with every intention of staying right where he’d pointed.
Dev rested his hand on the hilt of the knife clipped to his belt and eased through the open door into a shadowy interior.
He hadn’t gone two steps when cold metal pressed against his temple.
