Lu chose to trust Aloiki, to believe in him and our club to bring him home to her each night. I was sure she was still terrified of losing him, but she no longer let that fear drive a wedge between them.
Aloiki might be the same asshole we all know and love—tous—but to Lu, he was better. He made a point to talk to her, rather than letting his actions speak for his feelings and intentions. They were also exclusive now, the drive that had made him want to share her with other men completely abolished. In fact, he was more protective of her body than ever.
It had sucked watching them suffer those first five years that they were together, and then seeing Aloiki’s misery during the years they were apart. I hated to admit it, but their time when they were broken up actually did both of them some good. But the idea that Kayl had somehow orchestrated it for his own sick gratification was… I didn’t know what it was. Twisted, maniacal, confusing… Was he really that patient, that Machiavellian, or was he taking credit where it wasn’t due? Maybe he thought he was cleverer than he actually was?
“What else?” I commanded. “What else did you do?”
His teeth were stained crimson as he lifted his head, smiling. “Kalea.” It was my turn to wince.Of coursehe’d pulled off that manipulation. “I didn’t expect it to be so easy. Didn’t expectherto be easy. But love’s a motivator, and even after youdumped herwith a baby, divorced her like she was trash, she still protected you.Every month, like clockwork, she paid me what I wanted and never, not once, even attempted to tell you why.”
I stared down at him, unmoving. Guilt threatened to break my hard exterior, demanding more blood and pain in repentance. Because he was right. Some might even argue that Kalea had a right to hurt me after I’d left her like that, and what better way to do that than to say “fuck you” to her blackmailer who was threatening my freedom, business, and reputation. Instead, for nearly two and a half years after I divorced her, she was still paying Kayl to keep my secrets.
I might not love her anymore, not in the way a husband should love his wife, but I still cared for her, and I would find a way to make her sacrifice up to her. Both her and Pualani.
Ending Kalea’s tormentor and rapist was a start.
“I already knew about Kalea,” I reminded him. “Tell me something Idon’tknow, or I go back to pulling triggers.”
What little color was in his face drained away. “Rory,” he gasped out so fast it sounded like “ory”.
My eyes narrowed. We had told him about Rory and what Aloiki had done to him when we couldn’t find Rory’s body on his boat. It was club business, but we had ourselves spread too thin with the search for Nishi and needed help. So Aloiki had called on Kayl, whom we had thought to be a friend of the club. Was his exclusion from the club also something Kayl hated us for? When we first joined the Royal Bastards, Aloiki had said that he didn’t want Kayl in because he’d be more useful to us on the outside, and Kayl had agreed. Saying it would cause issues with his bosses if he joined an outlaw biker club, plus it would also cut into his payday if he was part of the club. It seemed to work out nicely.
Had it been a lie? Had he been angry all this time that he hadn’t been invited to join? It seemed so childish, like we’d purposefully excluded him from our treehouse.
“What about Rory?” I asked, unable to guess the connection.
“Rory hates Aloiki almost as much as I do. After Lu left, we rarely saw each other or spoke, but from the moment she came back, he was plotting how to get rid of Aloiki. Jumped the gun when he found out she was pregnant, and the idiot paid the price. We had a meetup scheduled, but he didn’t show. I was in my car, about to pull out of the marina parking lot when you came in with his body.” He tried to smile, but his face just contorted in pain instead as he added, “Kalea threw up when I showed her that picture.”
My fists clenched with the need to wring his traitorous neck. I owned what I was, but Ineverwanted Kalea to see that. There was no reason for her to have that darkness, that image, in her head.
“You saved Rory’s life.” That was why we never found his body. Rory was still alive. “Where is he?”
“You’ll have to do a lot worse to me than fuck me with a gun to get me to tell you that.” He coughed, but only bloody mucus came out this time. “I know I’m not walking out of this, and he’s my retribution. He’s coming for you, for all of you. And one-handed or not, he’s going to make you allbleed.”
I walked around the whiskey barrel, and without warning, cocked the hammer back and pulled the trigger. Kayl screamed, the acidic aroma of piss filling the air. He flailed against the barrel, but much like a fish in a net, it was futile.
Yelling out again and again, he pulled and shook. I stayed behind him, letting him rage while keeping a steady grip on the gun in his ass. When he started to calm down, I pulled the trigger again.
Just for shits and giggles.
I did not remove the revolver as I walked around to his front again. “Only one in four now, Kayl.” I bent down before his face. “Tell me what I want to know.”
He launched himself forward with the intent to bite me, but his binds stopped him an inch or so before my nose. “You fuckingcoward!” he spat at me. “Did you forget what I did to Kalea? Do you want to hear more about how much she loved me fucking her? Do you want to hear all about the times I made her go to her knees andcrawlto me, made her beg me to suck my cock so I didn’t arrest you? How about the time I bent her over your couch and fucked her from behind while you stood out on your front lawn, talking to a neighbor?”
I had no way of knowing if that was true or not, and at this point, he could just be shouting shit to keep some control of the situation.
“Tell me about Rory,” I clarified, not moving away from him.
But he laughed. “Rory isn’t even the best part! Have you guessed yet?” he sneered, pulling on his binds again. Blood dripped down into the pool of filth beneath him. “Kalea ran, brah! She saw me coming down Aloiki’s drive, and the bitch ran! I had to bring her to heel. And what better way to scare a poor, defenseless bunny than to threaten her offspring.”
I blinked, straightening slowly. Kalea ran… He had to be talking about the week she’d abandoned Pualani at Aloiki’s. I hadn’t known Kayl had been at the house that day. Aloiki only told me that Kalea had left in a hurry, unexpectedly leaving Pualani with him and Lu. I didn’t know if I would have put the clue together that Kayl was her blackmailer if I’d known that little fact, but it fell into place now.
Kalea had said she left to get money. Aloiki was selling the farm, and she needed that cash to pay her blackmailer. But what if Kayl hadn’t known that? What if he thought she was running permanently?
The week Pualani had been at Aloiki’s house with him and Lu, a group of us were hunting Bloody Scorpions on the Valley Isle. We found a warehouse with surveillance pictures of Aloiki’s house, farm, and barn, including a hand-drawn floor plan. Seeing it made me rush back, especially when Aloikihadn’t been answering his phone. We got back just in time to see the destroyed house, an injured Aloiki, and Pua and Lu stashed away in a Conex box I used to store weapons in at the house.
The surviving Bloody Scorpions had named Kahoku as their benefactor, who had sent a redhaired man to pay them. A redhaired man we had assumed to be Rory until Kayl had provided us with adifferentredhaired man. A man whose tongue had been cut out by Kayl beforeour friendhad delivered him to us. A man who was now bound to a fifty pound weight plate at the bottom of the sea next to Kahoku and nine of his guards.
The triumph on Kayl’s face spoke volumes. Kahoku hadn’t paid the Bloody Scorpions to kill Aloiki.Kaylhad, and then he had them point the finger at Kahoku.