HIGH TIDE Read Free

She searched his face, which was haloed by the sun. The eyes were brown, although on closer inspection she saw myriad swirls of cognac beneath a veil of black lashes. Her gaze traced jaw muscles clenched in determination until she dropped to the full lips, flattened by ire.
    “Look,” the lips moved and Briana blinked, “I’ll be seeing you again, Ms. Holt, only the next time it won’t be under such amiable circumstances. I’ll be armed with a lawsuit that will put an end to your construction site.”
    As unsubstantiated as his accusations were, Briana felt the first tentacles of fear. Damp palms clutched the cool fabric of her skirt.
    Could this government representative really shut down her dream?
    Rather than reveal her panic, she challenged in a low voice. “Try it.”  

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
     
    “Okay, so I tracked his name down to UH. He has an office there, but he works mostly in the field.” Naoki recited, looking up from behind the monitor at Briana as she paced back and forth before his desk.
    He shook his head and delved back to the screen. “Dr. Nicolas J. McCord, a Ph.D. in Marine Geology, but seems to tackle most every natural catastrophe that hits this state. He was involved in those landslides at Kohala Gulch. Nearly got himself killed from what I can see.”
    Briana refused to be impressed. She crossed her arms and resumed her stride. “That’s all great. So what’s he doing at Manale, and what does it have to do with our housing project?”
    Naoki reclined in the chair. He studied her and offered, “Beach erosion is something taken very seriously.”
    “I know that.” She plunged both hands into her hair to draw it back from her flushed face. “But we’re doing nothing to tamper with the water—oh, never mind he’ll probably drop it anyway. He’s most likely just some professor looking for fodder for his next class, I’m not going to sit here and let it eat at me.”
    That was exactly what she was going to do. Naoki knew it, and Briana knew that he knew it. She managed a weak smile. “Go on home, Takanawa. We’ll deal with it tomorrow.”
    The digital clock on the wall read half past six.
    “I’ll go, because if I sit here and read all the notable facts on Nic olas J. McCord, you’re going to get sick.” He waited for Briana to rise to the bait, but she remained mute. “Okay, I’ll go, but one last question—”
    Briana’s eyebrow arched. “Yes?”
    “What did the Professor mean when he said, if you hadn’t been distracting me? And how did you know him, because you can’t deny that you didn’t, the two of you looked like you were either ready to kill, or—”
    “I—” She cleared her throat and retreated to the doorway, prepared to make good on an escape. “I ran into him, more or less, about a half hour earlier. He seemed like a decent enough guy, at least when I didn’t know who he was.”
    Naoki shoved his glasses high atop the ridge of his nose. “Mmmm -hmmm.”
    “What, mmm-hmmm?”
    “Nothing.” He smiled. “Look, have a good night. And please, dear God, don’t spend the rest of the evening sitting here going over zoning restrictions.”
    ***  
    Alone in her office on the fourteenth floor of the Kapaa Tower, Briana set the stack of zoning blueprints down on her desk and moved to the wall-length window. Her forehead rested against glass made cool by the air conditioning as she gazed out onto the harbor. Beyond Aloha Tower the ocean was turning dusky rose under a violet twilight. The lights of the marketplace flickered on, and further beyond, a freighter moored at Sand Island became an illuminated hulk on the dark horizon.
    From up here, or even on the crystal shore at Manale, the water looked innocent. Briana knew that the placid surface was full of deception, though. Yes, she as much as everyone else loved to look at the ocean, to stroll its opalescent beaches —but she would not go in. No, she would never go in.
    The ocean was a killer.
    It murdered