I paced away from her, the room feeling hot and stuffy. My hands were shaking with rage, my bare feet falling heavy on the soft carpet. I didn’t know if Kayl’s threat about having pictures and recordings of our illegal deeds was true. He certainly had been around enough of it that it could be, but thenhisdealings would also been revealed. The only way he wouldn’t be affected by that would be if he was already dead, and it was a final “fuck you” message to Aloiki and me.
I didn’t understand what happened. What had changed to make Kayl turn on us like this? Had we done something? Made him think we had stabbed him first? I didn’t think so. I couldn’t think of a single thing or reason why.
Had his goal been to break Kalea and I up? Why? It wasn’t like he’d pursued her afterwards or bothered to hide his identity when he’d raped her. What was his endgame? He was still getting money out of her, but she’d said he’d stopped the rape after I’d moved out. Was it no longer “fun” for him to fuck her once I’d divorced her?
Bile churned high in my stomach.
In spite of her confession and what I knew in my gut to be true, I couldn’t reconcile the friend I’d known for nearly thirty years with someone who could do something so vile. We all had our darkness, but for him to… It burned, and it was only my anger that kept me from weeping. But I would mourn later.
No, today I would burn. I would avenge the wrong done against Kalea. Tomorrow… I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring. But I knew there would be one less rapist in the world when the sun finally rose.
I did not callNeo or Bacon or anyone else. Kayl’s house was not too far from my warehouse in Kalihi Kai, though upon breaking in, I realized I hadn’t been back since the day we helped him move in over a year ago. Maybe I wasn’t as good of a friend as I thought I was. But that did not give Kayl the right to blackmail and rape my wife, now ex-wife.
I still only wore the formalpareoLu had picked out for me for the wedding. By the time Kayl walked through his door later that night, the ceremony and reception would have been long over. I did not hide in the dark like villains in movies did, waiting for my presence to be revealed when Kayl turned on the lights.
No, I left the lights on and was eating a leftover casserole I had found in his fridge straight from the glass pan on his L-shaped kitchen counter when he walked in. The meager evidence I had found in his wall safe was spread out on the table in front of me. I didn’t know if he had any more, but it certainly would have been enough to scare Kalea into believing him.
Kayl was not prepared to deal with the can of worms he’d opened when he went after Kalea.
“You used the wrong noodles,” I informed him without looking up. My eyes were still on the pictures I found of a very blood splattered Aloiki laughing as he held someone’s amputated fingers in front of his mouth like walrus tusks. He was younger, maybe early twenties. “Egg noodles are better.”
His hand inched towards his holstered gun still on his hip. He was dressed in casual American attire, slacks and a button up shirt. “I’ll be sure to tell mymamanext time she says she’s going to make me one.”
Did he think mentioning hismakuahinewas going to save his life?
I lifted my eyes to meet his. I didn’t say something so cliché as “there won’t be a next time”, but there was no doubt my face said it for me.
Kayl’s expression turned into a hateful sneer. “So the bitch finally told you. I was planning on reminding her of our deal at the wedding, but then she ran off like a scared pussy.” His hand did not move away from his gun.
“She didn’t tell me,” I informed him around my bite of casserole. “I figured it out.”
The smirk on his face was nothing less than arrogant. “Didn’t think you were smart enough for that. Do you have any idea how much fun it’s been, fucking with your heads all these years?”
I stabbed the fork down into the casserole. “Is that what all this has been about? Fun?”
“Well, it certainly wasn’t about friendship. Or have you forgotten? It was always Aloiki and Tangaloa, and where’s the runt? He’s probably hiding in their shadow somewhere.” Venom dripped from his voice with every syllable. “All brawn and not a single brain cell between the two of you. Neither of you knew that I was behindeverything. Every fucked up thing that has happened in your lives was because ofme.”
Shock paused the fork partway to my mouth. This wasn’t just about Kalea then. She was just one string in the web of lies and hatred Kayl had been spinning for years. What else had he fucked with?
The laugh that came out of him was nothing short of maniacal. “Didn’t know that part, did you? Then again, I never told the bitch either.”
My hand tightened around the handle of the fork. “Don’t call her that.”
Kayl mock pouted at me, and I had no idea how I could have ever been so blind. Or was he just that good of an actor? Wasthisthe real Kayl that I was meeting for the first time after decades of friendship?
“Really? Of all the things I did to her,that’swhat gets to you?” He laughed, and I saw him shift his weight more solidly onto his back foot. “How many times did you try to get her pregnant, and it only took me onefuck.”
I knew what he was trying to do, and yet I could not stop the shake of my hands, the stiffening of my spine.
“Did she tell you I made her come? Over and over and over again… Crying out for you, but you never showed. I fucked her in your bed as her tears stained your pillowand you never showed!” His words were framed like an accusation, like Kalea’s pain was my fault. And to an extent it was. I had trusted the wrong man. I had not seen through his farce to the snake that lay beneath, poised to strike. But I was no longer blind. The wool had been lifted, and I was seeing Kayl for the sadistic narcissist he truly was. “She’ll claim it’s biology, that she didn’t come willingly, but I know the truth. I know she liked it.”
“You raped her.”
Kayl snorted, amused. “That’s a bit of an exaggeration. She had a choice, andshechose.”
“You’re a cop, Kayl. You know damn well that’s just details. You came to our house and gave her an ultimatum: let you fuck her or you would have Aloiki and I arrested. You knew exactly which option she would choose.”
He chuckled like I’d told a good joke. “Yeah, I did. And to be honest with you, I only planned on it being that one time. But when I saw how much she liked it…” His smile was wide enough that he resembled a hyena. “Well, how could I say no to that?”