Freefall by Kristen Heitzmann Read Free Book Online

what?
    She leaned her shoulder to the door. If she fell out, would another blow to the head restore her identity like a character in a zany cartoon, conked with a hammer twice her size? Tears stung. “Lord,” she whispered, then startled with the revelation.
    It had felt natural and right to call on God. Reflexive. Habitual. She must believe. She couldn’t conjure an experience or practice of religion, but in that unguarded moment, she’d looked outside herself for strength. Did faith exist with nothing concrete to anchor it? And if memory never returned, would she still have such reflexes to live by?
    The shoreline they wove through was lovely, forested with lush flowering trees that gave way to half-moon beaches of golden sand and turquoise water crashing white and retreating. Paradise found, but what had she lost?
    As they approached the combined Hanalei fire and police building, did she imagine Cameron slowing? She kept her face to the window, refusing to react. Maybe he would leave, go back to wherever he came from and forget about her. Hah .

    Back home, Nica slid out of the truck behind Jade, absorbing her weariness and confusion as she’d soaked up their tension. She felt battle weary, though the last part of the drive had been silent. Doubt and scrutiny, resistance and fear had tugged at her like the ocean she hadn’t stepped foot in for years.
    She was failing to bring peace to the person entrusted to her care. “The doctor said to rest, Jade. Do you feel like lying down?”
    “Maybe I should.”
    “There are books in the cabinet next to the bed, if you like to read.”
    Jade shrugged. “Maybe I do.”
    Coming around the truck, Cameron didn’t stop Jade from walking straight-backed into her room.
    Nica said, “I want you to stop, Kai.”
    “Stop?”
    She nodded. “Now that I know she’s all right—”
    “She’s not all right.”
    “A full recovery, the doctor said. This isn’t like the others.” A shadow passed over her spine. Some called her an angel of mercy; she felt like the angel of death. “She’s going to recover.”
    “I don’t think she wants to. I think she’s hiding something.”
    “What?”
    Hands on his hips, he hung his head back, exasperated. “Come on, Nica. Something happened out there.” He swung his arm inland. “Why won’t she help us learn what?”
    She could think of reasons. In fact, she understood Jade’s reluctance better than he knew. Some things belonged to the shadows.
    He cocked his jaw. “You don’t really think she went off by herself and took a tumble.”
    “I don’t know—”
    “Anything about her.”
    “But—”
    He raised his hand. “I don’t want to fight. You called because you knew something wasn’t right. Don’t lose sight of that in your desire to help.”
    She did think something more was wrong than a hiking accident, especially with Okelani’s warning. But that didn’t mean she blamed Jade. She wanted Kai to help her, but his doubt was a quagmire sucking them both in. “Why are you so distrustful?” He hadn’t always been, but she shouldn’t have said it. “I’m sorry, Kai.”
    He brushed it off. “If she hasn’t remembered by tomorrow, I’m going to the police. You could be harboring a—”
    “Don’t say it.” She didn’t want him planting thoughts that could shake her belief in Okelani, her trust in Jade. Cameron no longer believed or trusted, not without proof. And so many things in life happened without proof.
    He looked toward the house where Jade had disappeared. “There’s more to this than what we’ve heard.”
    “That doesn’t mean Jade’s keeping it from us.”
    He sighed and pulled her into a hug. “I just want you prepared for whatever happens.”
    As though that was ever possible. “Okelani would have told me if there was anything like that.”
    “Okelani has an uncanny connection to God’s mind, but she doesn’t know everything.”
    When he let her go, she felt the loss. There was no safer