Her Hawaiian Homecoming (Mills & Boon Superromance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

window. He gave her the oar, and she held it, keeping the boat in place near the window. “Stay here,” he warned, and flipped a small LED flashlight out of his back pocket.
    “Dallas...”
    “Stay with the kayak. Make sure it doesn’t float away.”
    She gripped the oar more tightly. “Okay.” Allie’s voice sounded small as she followed Dallas with the beam of light, watching as he disappeared into the darkened building.
    * * *
    D ALLAS C AREFULLY MADE his way through the Rainbow Daycare center, his heart in his throat as he dreaded what he would find inside. The small playrooms upstairs had been touched by the water: chairs and tables were overturned, soaked crayons leaked color onto the wet carpets. No children here, or their caregivers, either.
    The water had blown through and then receded, though it still covered much of the first floor. He made it to the main stairwell, and shone his flashlight into the salt water that covered most of the first flight of stairs.
    “Kai!” he shouted down, and then waited, but heard only the sound of water gurgling across the handrails. There was no way to explore that first floor, and even if he could, he thought, anyone down there would be dead. There was just too much water.
    Dallas thought about Kayla, the sweet girl who’d always begged him for shoulder rides with her dimpled smile, and felt a dull pain through the center of his chest. He missed her. She’s with her mother, where she belongs , he told himself, but somehow it didn’t make him feel any better. He turned the corner and saw a single white stuffed animal floating in the stairwell, and had a moment of panic, thinking it was Kayla’s bear, Mr. Cuddles. But soon he realized his mistake. The bobbing stuffed white kitten with a bright pink collar belonged to someone else. Dallas turned back to the second floor, opening the closed janitor’s closets and bathroom doors, knowing in his bones the building was empty, the search futile, but unable to stop until he’d checked every room.
    “Kai! You in here?” he shouted, his voice suddenly loud in the enclosed space, bouncing off the tiled walls. No one answered him. Maybe he got out. God, he hoped so.
    He heard a muffled call from outside. Allie. He’d left her outside with sharks and who knew what.
    “Allie!” He rushed back to the window, panting, blood pumping and ready for a fight.
    Allie, safe and in one piece, focused on the water beyond them, her eyebrow furrowed.
    “Listen,” she urged him. Dallas did as he was told. First, he heard nothing, and then came a distant plink.
    Could be nearly anything. A chair leg hitting an exposed pipe, maybe. A chain caught in the water, banging against a car bumper. The sound was far away and hard to place.
    “I think we should check it out,” Allie said.
    Dallas figured why not—he’d checked the day-care center already and found nothing. He climbed back into the boat, and they went paddling farther down the debris field. It seemed as if they’d gone a long way before they heard another plink . This one, a little louder.
    “Hello?” Allie’s voice echoed a bit in the dark night.
    No one answered.
    Dallas kept paddling until they heard another plink. They were getting closer. Finally, after a good ten minutes of rowing, the plinks came louder and more often.
    “Hello?” Allie called. “Is that someone?”
    The plinks came furiously, this time in response to Allie’s voice.
    Allie and Dallas exchanged a glance, both thinking the same thing: that nothing about the metal-on-metal sound was accidental.
    After a little more distance, Dallas paused in rowing as the kayak glided through wooden debris. “Hello?” he called this time. The metal plinks came once more, louder.
    “There!” Allie directed the light at a car, floating tires up. A man, his back to them, clung to the front fender.
    Dallas sped up the paddling. They turned the corner and saw Kai, clinging desperately to the car, a bleeding cut across