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It seems to have slipped out of place, rather than broken. Now, I wan t you to just sit there, neck straight. Bend your back and shoulders forward just a tad. That’s right. Now, take a couple of deep breaths. Exhale all the way. Try to relax your muscles as much as possible, and let me do the work.”
    “Warn me before you pop it back in,” Zach told her.
    “Will do,” she promised blithely. “I’ll give you a count of three beforehand.”
    With one hand cradling his collarbone, and the other on his upper arm, Kelly braced her knee into his shoulder blade. “That’s right. Breathe in. Out. Relax. In. Out. Again.”
    At the bottom of his third deep sigh, with no forewarning whatever, Kelly wrenched his shoulder back into the socket. He gasped a surprised yelp. His face pallid as he fought the resultant waves of pain, he rasped irately, “You were supposed to warn me! You lied!”
    His indignation didn’t phase her. “It was for your own good. You would have stiffened up otherwise, and made it harder on yourself and me.” When he tried to turn toward her, she stalled his motion. “Sit still. Your shoulder needs to be wrapped, to limit the strain on the joint, before you start moving it too much. We certainly don’t want you putting it back out, which would necessitate putting it back in again. Do we?”
    “My shirt will suffice as a bandage, I suppose,” he conceded gruffly.
    She helped him shrug out of it. Working efficiently, she tore it into strips, wadded some for padding, and soon had him securely bound—even across his aching ribs. “We’ll rewrap this later, and check those ribs more closely. How does it feel?”
    “Much better,” he allowed.
    Her fingers probed lightly up the back of his neck, giving him chills. Just as Zach was wondering if she might be flirting with him, her hands came flat over his ears, her thumbs braced beneath his jaw. Again, with no prior notice, she gave his neck a swift twist to one side. Bones cracked audibly. Quickly, before he could recover from that sly maneuver, she yanked it back the other way. Again, the bones in his neck snapped and popped loudly, reminding him of a Rice Krispies commercial, tuned to high volume.
    His howl was more one of surprise than of physical distress. Zach leapt to his feet and whirled on her. “You sneaky little witch! What are you trying to do, twist my hea d off?”
    Her smile was more of a smirk. “Why? You using it for something important?”
    Again, the others laughed in appreciation of Kelly’s snappy retort. Before Zach had the opportunity to respond in kind, Kelly said, “You’ll notice that you can now bob your head up and down and turn it from side to side with ease. Which is more than I can do at this point. I wish someone would do me the same favor I just did you.”
    “Oh, lady! Just give me the chance!” Zach’s hands were flexing at his sides, as if itching to surround her throat. Then, tentatively, he rotated his neck. His eyes widened in astonishment, and his fingers relaxed. “God! I feel like a new man!”
    Kelly’s eyes twinkled. “Like I told you before—that’s what they all say. Even the big, bossy, know-it-alls like you.”

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 4
     
     
    P rior to resuming their descent, the ladies made a necessary trip to the bushes.
    “ Wat ch out for snakes and such, ” the Southerner warned.
    Alita nearly tripped trying to stop in mid-stride.
    Blair turned on the speaker with a frown. “If I recall my research correctly, there are no snakes in the Polynesians. Nor are there any wild mammals to speak of.”
    “Yeah? What are you, some sort of walkin’ encyclopedia?” the man jeered.
    Blair bristled, drawing herself to her fullest, if still diminutive, height. “Actually, I’m a librarian, and proud of it. So, what valuable contribution have you made to society, Mr .… ?”
    “Roberts,” the man filled in, shaking a cigarette from his pack and lighting it. “For most of my life, I was a