“I’ve been teaching her how to hack better,” Neo replied without looking up from their phone. “She knew enough to be dangerous, but not enough not to get caught. I’ve been giving her lessons.”
I put my fingers to my lips and let out a sharp whistle. This meeting was already getting way off track, and it hadn’t even started yet. “Bacon, you can stay. But nothing that is discussed in this room is to leave it. I don’t care if you have to enact the Arc of the Covenant or activate the Cone of Silence. Aloiki cannot learn about this. At least, not until after the wedding. Is that understood?”
Everyone’s faces turned serious as the four of them nodded.
I nodded back. “Mahalo. Now, Kayl and Neo know Aloiki’s sister, Kalea. Bacon and Lucifer, you likely only know her as my ex-wife who had an affair and tried to pass that love child off as mine. What I am about to tell you is going to be very hard to believe, but trust me, it’s all true…”
It was harderthan I expected to ride away from the barn and not head up to the house. It wasn’t even my banishment that stopped me, but the knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to leave again.
I entered Kalea’s house to find her and Pualani in the living room watchingSesame Street. Pua loved Elmo and was fascinated by the show’s puppets. Not wanting to disturb them, I passedthrough as quietly as I could, only pausing to squeeze Kalea’s shoulder and drop a kiss to the top of her head.
Logically, I knew that rebuilding a life with Kalea made more sense than a life pining for a woman, a teenager, I shouldn’t have. I wasn’t over what Kalea had done and what had been done to her, not by a long shot, but I couldn’t disregard our history.
The question was no longer if I could forgive her, but if there was something to forgive. How did I get over the fact that mywahinewas being raped in my own home for months and I had no idea? How did I move past that guilt and shame to even attempt to patch things up?Shouldwe patch things up?
I knew in my heart of hearts that if I had known about the rape and then we discovered her pregnancy, I would have stayed. I would have claimed Pualani, and no one would have been able to contest that relationship because her biologicalmakuakane’s body would be scattered across the islands in tiny pieces.
There would have been no question that Pualani was mine.
Kalea and I could have worked on our relationship, rebuilt anything that was broken so we came back stronger. I would not have thought her tainted, weak, or disgusting—nor did I think so now. But her insistence on keeping secrets bothered me. Even now, when there was a chance we could rebuild, she was not being honest.
Beetle was in the kitchen. Though only a lowly Prospect for us, Dr. Kevin Jang was a Professor of Entomology and did something relating to bugs for the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture. Personally, I had nothing against bugs. They were important to our environment and ecosystem, but I certainly did not want any for a pet or to have them tattooed onto my body. When Doodles came to Prospect for us, he also brought this scrawny little nerd with him. Despite the tarantula tattoo crawling up his neck, none of us honestly took a second glance at him.
But the North Korean refugee had a trick up his sleeve. Hewas also a Hapkido Third Dan black belt and an Ironman athlete. I didn’t know or care his legal immigration status, though I figured he had to have something arranged with the government to be able to work for them and a private university. The guy was wicked smart, even if he tended to talk about the mating rituals of tongue-eating louses during meal times.
Since I needed to meet with Kayl, Lucifer, and Neo—and apparently Bacon—I couldn’t leave Kalea and Pualani here alone. I sent out a message to the Prospects that the first one to get their ass here got to eat her cooking. Sucked to be Beetle, because Kalea’s cooking lacked taste and texture.
“Anything happen while I was gone?” I asked him, going to the fridge for a can of iced tea with pineapple juice.
Beetle shook his head. “She used her phone once, but Neo traced it to a girlfriend’s and hasn’t sent any messages that they can find.”
I popped the can open. Part of Neo’s assignment was to watch Kalea’s cyber activity. I believed her story without a shadow of a doubt, but the fact that she wouldn’t tell me who or why troubled me. I was missing a huge puzzle piece, including the key to her statement of how her actions were protectingme. Regardless, I couldn’t risk her sending a message to her blackmailer to inform him that I was now on his trail.
If it wasn’t for Pualani’s existence, I wouldn’t be so narrow minded as to assume the blackmailer was a “he”. It was less common, but women could also be rapists. What they couldn’t do was impregnate another woman.
I gave Neo and Kayl a list of men that I knew of in Kalea’s life that I thought could possibly be her blackmailer. I knew it wasn’t her abusive ex, because he was now shark poop floating around in the oceans. I went as far back as middle school and high school teachers, college professors, her dance instructor when she attempted to learn hip hop when she was eleven… Since I didn’t know what the blackmail entailed, I had no idea how far back to go.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around what she could have possibly done that was worth keeping a secret like this about. And why couldn’t she just be honest—with me, at the very least? How could she even consider us trying to patch things up if she couldn’t tell me what was going on?
What if we did get back together and I wasn’t hunting down thekanapapiki, son of a bitch? Was she just planning on continuing to pay him for the rest of her life? When did it end? I didn’t even know how much he was demanding. Enough that it affected her bottom line when Aloiki sold their family farm.
A noise brought me back to the present and I remembered Beetle was still in the room. “Go,” I told him.
He packed up his computer, making the tattooed ants on his skin look like they were moving along his hands and forearms. As he exited the back door, Kalea stepped into the kitchen. She hesitated in the doorway, despite that she’d spent the last two nights in my arms.
I crooked my finger at her. “Come here.”
Kalea hurried over, wrapping her arms around my middle as I brought my left arm tight around her shoulders. I pressed my face into her hair, and just breathed. There was a sense of peace, a settling in my soul, at having her in my arms again. Kalea had always been such a big part of my life, making the last two years without her feel like I was adrift without my anchor.
Yet, as I closed my eyes, a pair of sea-green irises stared back at me.
Silently, I cursed myself. I needed to move on from Caroline, and as much as it pained me, that meant Samantha too. I had to give both of them up, because I couldn’t have one without the other. I felt sick to my soul at the knowledge, but maybe that wasmy penance for my fuck-up with Kalea. Who knew what the hell Maui had planned for me.
“How long will she be occupied for?” I asked Kalea.
“Elmo’s Worldjust started, so maybe ten minutes.”
I pulled back from her, putting my fingers below her chin to tilt her face up towards me. “Good,” I said, and then I kissed her.