I lowered my hand. “Then where is my daughter?” I demanded. I didn’t even realize until later that the title I’d used publicly claimed her.
“We told you,” the left one said.
“She’s with Trudy,” the right one said.
Holy fuck. I was getting a headache. It would be so much easier if they were just one person instead of making my eyeballs play a tennis match between them.
“For the last time, who the fuck is Trudy?” I growled.
Turned out, Trudy was a tan, rust, and black nine-foot carpet python. I stood in the doorway in shock and terror at the sight of my little girl curled around her like she was a fucking stuffed snake from the toy shop.
“What the fuck?!” I barely had the wherewithal not to shout. I was not overly familiar with snakes, though I know enough not to startle one. What I didn’t know was how to safely get my daughter away from one when they were both sound asleep. At least, I was pretty sure that snakes slept.
“Better than any guard dog,” the twins said proudly together.
I had no idea if they were geniuses or clinically insane. Maybe a bit of both.
As comfortable—and arguably safe—as Samantha looked, I still had promised her mother that I would bring her back up to the house. “Um, how do I…?”
I had never been in the twins’ bedroom before. They’d moved into the loft when Aloiki had first hired them, and it didn’t take me long to figure out why it looked funny up here. There was only one bed, which Samantha and, uh,Trudynow occupied. One bed, two brothers. I tried my damnedest not to judge situations. They were adults and they could do as they pleased, but it made me damn curious about their past.
Together, they walked over to a large tackle box—and Isworethe damn thing moved before either of them touched it. The fuck? What were they keeping in there?
A small trapdoor at the bottom of the trunk opened up, and a second later, the fattest rat I had ever seen managed to squeeze itsway out of that tiny hole. And just before the twins closed the trapdoor again, I saw a human finger try to follow it out.
My eyebrows shot to the barn roof. “Do I want to know?”
They sat down in unison on top of the tackle box lid. “No.”Lesu Kristo, and these two had been babysitting my daughter all day?
The rat squeaked. The snake—Trudy—picked its head up. I had no idea if it was accurate, but I remember watching or maybe reading somewhere that snakes didn’t have good hearing. But they were experts at detecting prey and sensing heat. Samantha did not budge as Trudy slithered out of the bed, slowly working her way onto the floor. Fuck, she was long. She had a good width to her too, maybe the size of a beer can. The rat continued to squeak while fighting to escape the room.
What the hell was in that trunk that had scared the rat? Or should I ask,who?
Trudy struck, and in a single heartbeat, had herself coiled around the rat.
The twins preened like proud parents. With the snake thoroughly occupied—I hoped—I skirted around the foot of the bed to gather up Samantha. She barely budged as I brought her to my chest, resting her cheek on my shoulder.
“Uh,mahalo.For, uh, you know, babysitting,” I said to the twins awkwardly.
“Any time!” they chorused, and with identical smiles, waved at me.
We wereslow moving the next morning, but I managed to get Samantha and Maisy occupied before Aloiki hunted me down. He wanted to go see Kalea. I was a bit surprisedhe hadn’t yesterday while I was talking with Maisy, but I didn’t question him.
We parked in her driveway behind her cage. I dismounted, ready to head to the door, but then realized Aloiki was still sitting on his bike, staring at the house.
“I haven’t been a good brother.” I was shocked by his words. Aloiki wasn’t the sort who doubted himself. “MakuahineandMakuakanewere great parents, and suddenly I had a sixteen year old to raise. I let you step up because you were the more reliable of the two of us, but I never thanked you for it.” His hard eyes fell on me. “And I’m not going to now. I let you seduce and marry her. That was thanks enough.”
I snorted, because only Aloiki would view my failed marriage to his sister as some grand appreciation on his part.
“I didn’t see it. With Kayl,” Aloiki added. His eyes went back to the house. “I’ve been pissed at her for hurting you, but she was still my sister. But it turns out she needed both of us, and we weren’t there.”
Aloiki was echoing my exact thoughts. “He was our friend since we were eight years old. Why wouldn’t we have trusted him? Until a few days ago, I couldn’t tell you a single instance where I didn’t trust him. It’s going to take a while for both of us to get over it.”
“And her,” he tipped his chin towards the house. “We both falsely blamed her.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. Both of us only wore our shorts and cuts for this ride. “We also both lied to her and kept a lot of secrets from her. If we hadn’t, she wouldn’t have kept certain secrets from us.”
Aloiki looked back at me. “Fair enough.” His jaw tightened. “I feel like I keep failing, and I don’t like it, brother. First Nishi and now Kalea. How do we fix this?”