LITMIR.BIZ

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renovating it. That meant Josh spent a lot of time there. Oahu and Kauai were a quick commuter flight apart, and he appreciated the relatively safe work of banging nails with a hammer compared with fighting off the drug problem all over Hawaii.

      “I have a deal for you,” Derek said.

      “The last time I bet you I had to rip down the crap metal garage on the back of your property.” It was almost two months ago and Josh still had the blisters on his palms to prove it.

      “Thanks for that.” Derek laughed. “But be warned because this wager could turn out even better for me.”

      “Do tell.”

      “If you give me the number of that redhead I saw walking around your condo last weekend wearing nothing but a bikini you can move in here for all I care. No questions asked about this afternoon.”

      Josh didn’t even remember the woman’s name. “She’s all yours.”

      Derek nodded his head. Even delivered one of those know-it-all grins as he picked the label off the bottle. “Hmmm.”

      “What?”

      “Nothing.”

      “I’m thinking you’ve got something to say.”

      Derek shrugged. “I just think it’s interesting, that’s all.”

      “What is?” Josh swallowed a groan as he watched Kane’s green pickup pull into the driveway.

      “You.”

      “Don’t do that,” Josh said.

      “Breathe?”

      “Psychoanalyze. I get enough of that from the agency-ordered shrink provided post-shooting.”

      “How’s that going?”

      “Let’s just say I prefer alcohol to therapists. But the head shrinking is over, so I’m not complaining.” Josh drank back his beer, relishing the fact that quitting meant no more conversations with the idiot who wanted to talk about his childhood.

      “Kane looks pissed.”

      Josh followed Derek’s gaze. Watched Kane slam the door to his truck and stalk toward the house.

      “Nothing new there,” Josh mumbled.

      Derek made a tsk-tsk sound. “I’ll try again. Is there anything I should know about the hearing?”

      “I testified and left.” More like told them to go to hell and walked out early.

      Kane took the three stairs to the porch in one step and stood before them in his official police-chief blues. The uniform made him look important. Despite the fancy clothes, Josh still thought of Kane as the guy who beat his ass in basketball on Sunday mornings.

      “Nice outfit,” Josh said with a smirk.

      “Glad you think so, since I’ve decided to kill you while wearing it.” Kane leaned against the railing facing them. “Seems fitting somehow.”

      “I’m not sure that wood is steady enough to hold you,” Derek said.

      “It’s fine.” Kane’s attention never wavered from Josh.

      With his dark eyes and black hair, Kane could be intimidating as hell. The death frown didn’t help, either. But Josh knew better.

      “What are you doing here?” Josh asked.

      “Hunting for a self-destructive jackass.” Kane grabbed the empty beer bottle out of Josh’s hand and shook it. “And, look, here you are.”

      “Is the hearing over?” Derek asked.

      Talk about a relaxation kill. “We’re not discussing that part of my life today.” As far as Josh was concerned they should never talk about it again.

      “I am.” This time Kane took Derek’s bottle and drank. “It’s over.”

      “My beer?” Derek asked.

      “The hearing.”

      Derek let his chair drop back down to the deck. “Now what?”

      Josh grew less interested in this topic by the second. “Don’t want to hear the play-by-play.”

      Derek smiled. “Then stop listening.”

      “Might try a little thinking while you’re at it,” Kane added.

      If they wanted to work off some extra energy, Josh would oblige. “You feel like going headfirst into the ocean, warrior boy? It will get your pretty uniform all wet.”

      Kane snorted and walked past them into the house.

      Derek waited until Kane disappeared to lean over and whisper. “He hates it when you call him that.”

      “Why do you think I do it?” Josh figured out early in the friendship “Kane” meant warrior in Hawaiian and had tortured his friend with the knowledge ever since.

      “Kane’s going to shoot you,” Derek said.

      “No, he won’t.”

      “I wouldn’t bet on that.” On the way back out to the porch, beer in hand, Kane smacked Josh in the back of the head with the end of the bottle.

      “Hey!” Josh rubbed the spot.

      “See.” Kane re-took his position against the railing. “I’m thinking you need something to wake your ass up. Maybe a bullet will do it.”

      “You were less uptight before you got married,” Josh said.

      “No, he wasn’t.” Derek laughed until he glanced at Kane’s serious expression. “What? You weren’t.”

      Kane shook off the unrelated topic. “The panel took your case under advisement pending additional testimony. Seems they had some trouble locating you this afternoon and got a little panicky.”

      “Why not just make a decision now?” Derek asked before sliding a look in Josh’s direction. “No offense, man.”

      Josh nodded in understanding. “None taken.”

      “This is pretty high-profile. They’re trying not to blow it,” Kane explained.

      Josh knew what that meant. It would be a few days of talking with lawyers and going over options before the government bureaucrats dropped the courthouse on his head and took his job away. Fine. He considered himself terminated anyway.

      And he knew the truth behind the hearing and what really happened to put him there. His boss had set up a bad mission and illegally used a local helicopter pilot as a lure for some drug runners. The idea was to shut down a huge meth supplier who worked back and forth between Nevada and Hawaii. Would have worked except that the helicopter went down, the pilot died, and the guy’s sister would not stop investigating the incident until she found the truth.

      The disaster of a job blew up, leaving Josh to shoot the sister in order to free her from the bad guys. During the resulting mandatory check-in from internal affairs, Josh told the truth about the actions of his boss, Brad Nohea. Brad fought back by shifting the blame and rigging the paperwork to support his position.

      All that ass-covering by the department convinced Josh he was done rescuing other people for a living. The grief just wasn’t worth the effort. He could handle paperwork. The constant lying and questions about his character were different.

      Kane hesitated a second. Someone who didn’t know him wouldn’t notice. Josh could tell his friend was waiting to drop a bombshell. “You’re blocking my view, so just say whatever you have to say and then move.”

      Kane didn’t even bother to deny it. “Deana Armstrong was there this afternoon.”

      The beer sloshed around in Josh’s empty stomach. “What?”

      “She came looking for you.”

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