Leia could see her now. The wind whipped Candace’s blonde hair around her face as she struggled to shove her boat into the waves. The abandoned ATV sat with its tires half-submerged in the water. The tide was coming in, and the high surf hampered the vessel’s movement. The other of the two boats that were anchored here had floated away in the tide. Candace must have tossed its mooring line off the pier.
Leia put on an extra spurt of speed. Her slippers came off in the soft sand, but she didn’t stop to retrieve them. Bane ran beside her. Candace saw them coming and jumped into the boat. She tried to start the motor, but it only coughed. Leia wasn’t going to let her get away. She threw herself into the water. The shock of submersion cleared her head of the smoke. Bane hit the waves beside her. A wave slapped her in the face, and she swallowed a rush of warm sea-water. She spat it out and began to swim in the surging tide. Bane’s strong arms sliced the waves beside her, and he pulled ahead. He reached the boat first, but Leia was only a stroke behind him. He grabbed the bow of the boat as Candace tried the engine again. It started this time, but Bane’s weight dragged the hull into the sand, and the boat was unable to move.
Leia grabbed the side and pulled herself over. She lay on the deck and looked up to see Candace scrabbling for her gun. Leia rolled to her knees and flung herself toward the other woman. The two collided, and the gun slipped away from Candace. She sprang toward it again, and Leia tackled her. The two fell to the deck with Leia on top. Candace bared her teeth as she fought to free herself, her fingers still reaching toward the gun, but Leia had six inches on her and was more muscular. She straddled Candace’s body with her legs and grabbed her wrists, pinning her to the deck.
“Let go of me,” Candace spat.
Leia pressed down on Candace’s arms. Bane clambered aboard the boat as well. Candace’s gaze went past Leia’s shoulder to Bane, and she finally quit struggling.
“You’re hurting me,” Candace said in a plaintive voice. “Let me up. Please.”
Leia moved off the other woman and released Candace’s arms. She stood and stepped closer to Bane as he dropped his arm over her shoulders. “Get up, Candace,” Leia told her.
Candace sat up and rubbed her arms. “You didn’t have to be so rough.” She rose and went to a box of artifacts. “Hey, we could split these.” She leaned over the box and brought out a piece of kapa. “I bet you’d like this, Leia. It’s worth a lot of money. Take a look at it.”
Leia’s gaze fell on the kapa. It was the most exquisite piece she’d ever seen. Her fingers itched to touch it, to unfold it and examine the pattern. She held out her hands, and Candace laid it in them. The cloth was just as soft as it looked. She unfolded it with a reverent touch. The pattern was flawed from age with a few holes here and there, but it was still the most beautifully designed piece she’d ever laid eyes on. She could only hope to be so talented some day. Her gaze fell on the tiny honu at the bottom. Her ancestors had often stitched a sea turtle like it on the kapa they’d made. Could this be the kapa her grandmother had talked about? If so, it wasn’t part of the artifacts. She’d have to ask her dad.
“It can be yours,” Candace said in a coaxing voice. “Just let me go, and give me a head start before you sic the police on me.” Her head jerked up at the sound of the sirens on the two Coast Guard boats speeding toward shore. “They can’t take me into custody. I was in jail once, and I swore I’d rather die than go back.” Her voice deepened and took on a note of desperation.
Bane squeezed Leia’s shoulder, and she tore her gaze away from the cloth. Staring into Candace’s face, she didn’t know if she could believe the uncertainty and fear lurking in the other woman’s eyes. “Who are you really? Is your name even Candace?”
“Of course it is.” Candace held her gaze for several moments before looking away.
She was lying. Even Leia could tell now that Candace was so close to being arrested. “I suppose the police will find out who you really are. How could you carry off such a full-scale lie for so long?”
Candace looked away. “Don’t preach me any sermons. I did what I had to do. Look at me, Leia. Look at this body, this face. Men turn to look wherever I go. All I did was use what I was given, and yet you judge me for that? You would do the same thing in my shoes. You use what you have.”
“You used people. That’s the difference.” She looked to wave at the police boats, and while her back was turned, Candace plunged over the side of the boat and into the water. The woman slogged to shore through the waves. “She’s getting away,” Leia screamed. She started to go after Candace, but Bane went over the side first.