HIGH TIDE Read Free Page B

had thought about marriage with Meleana Kane. She was beautiful and headstrong, and in the end, her career came before her relationship.
    Still, an image of the beguiling creature on the beach today with sandals in hand fascinated him. She didn’t look like she was hungry for power. She looked like a woman who wanted to indulge her bare feet in the pleasures of the sand, and was startled when she was caught doing it.
    Nick touched the cool glass to his lips. That woman on the beach was just a fantasy brought on by the sun. Reality was the contractor that pointed her finger at him in open challenge.
    Over whispering palms, he listened to the ocean. There was a soft effervescence nearby, unseen but comforting. This was the sound he had fallen asleep to nearly every night for the past thirty-five years.
    Tonight he strained to perceive more from the sea, listening blindly to the patterns of the waves, seeking explanation from its murky depths.
    What was she hiding?
    ***   
    “I’m heading down to the Palms, are you ready to go?”
    Briana sifted through precarious piles to locate her green Warriors mug. “No, I want to make a few phone calls first. I’m waiting for the offices to open at the DNLR.”
    “The Department of Land and Natural Resources? That geologist really did get to you.”
    Briana’s hair was pulled back in a casual ponytail, revealing her frown. “No, I’m just checking the numbers. All of the waterfront properties are over forty feet away from the shoreline. That meets the law. The seawall we built wasn’t a large one.  We didn’t use boulders for hardening the coastline as they refer to it. I’m just checking if we missed something.”
    “He got to you.”
    “ No , but I’m going to get to you if you don’t get out of my office in the next ten seconds.”
    Hands aloft in defense, Naoki grinned. “I’m outta here. Anything for me to pass along to the troops?”
    “Yeah, be careful.” She looked up. “No mistakes, I don’t want a drop of trash on that site.”
    With a brief salute, Naoki muttered “Aye, aye.”
    Briana shook her head and reached for the receiver. A glimpse at her watch calculated that the government facility was open by now. Nimbly punching numbers on the dial, frustrated by the series of messages that never led to a live operator, Briana growled into the mouthpiece before she slammed the phone back into its cradle.
    “It’s only eight-thirty. Bad day already?”
    Her head snapped up. Resting against her doorjamb was a man that made her hasty breakfast donut repeat on her.
    “It just got worse ,” she replied coolly.
    Amusement glinted in the eyes that measured her, and then Nick McCord seemed to remember the paperwork tucked under his arm. He approached her desk and slapped the stack down atop an already unstable pile. “ Now it’s worse.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Conclusive results.” Nick reached for one of the redwood chairs in front of her desk. “May I sit down?”
    No . The thought erupted before she admonished her immaturity. She could handle this obnoxious arbitrator. “Of course.  Coffee?”
    “Yes, thanks.”
    She nodded to the cart just outside her doorway. “Help yourself.”
    Nick settled in the chair, casually hooking an ankle over his knee, ignoring the offer. For a moment, penetrating eyes grabbed hers in a silent face -off. She was the first to retreat, succumbing to curiosity about the manila folder wrapped with rubber bands. She wrenched them off and flipped through the handwritten notes.
    “This doesn’t exactly look official.” Briana scoured through his precise annotations, the series of calculations and condensed hypothesis handwritten on the last page. She also noted with a concealed smile the doodling in the margins. Slapping the folder shut, she crossed her hands over it and gazed with composure at the relaxed creature across from her.
    The intrusion of her phone made her jump.
    “Excuse me a second.”
    ***   
    Nick