Page 136 of Still See You Everywhere

“Then we’ll wait for official rescue. You can tell them I did everything. I’ll take the fall. For you, Leilani, I’ll do anything. I will give you anything. All of these years… You were the one I saw. You were the one I missed. Pua lei… Roaming the streets of Honolulu, forced back to the shadows of our old home, locked up forever in a prison cell, I saw you everywhere. I will always see you everywhere.”

Leilani brushes her hand against her cheek. Wiping away tears? I can’t tell in the moonlight, and by her own admission, she doesn’t cry, but I wonder. This exchange isn’t anything I’d expected. I’d accused Leilani of doing all this out of teenage rebellion or financial ambition. But maybe this is their version of family therapy?

“There are a lot more people on this atoll we still have to kill.”

“Let me bandage my ankle, and we’ll get to it.”

“I don’t mind the violence. I honestly don’t feel much one way or the other. But I’m tired, Keahi. Do you know what it’s like, to look ahead and feel nothing but exhaustion?”

“Then we’ll rest first. Even if Frankie has gotten away with one of the sat phones… It will be days before rescue arrives. Plenty of time. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“They still have a rifle. And now they’re dispersed and on high alert. These aren’t stupid rednecks you’ve lured home with the promise of sex. They’re ready for you.”

“I have some tricks up my sleeve.”

“I’m tired.”

“You are young. You will recover.”

“And then? What happens next? They die. Maybe. Rescue comes and believes my story. Maybe. I return to Mac’s old life and take over everything. Maybe. And then? I have hated you for so long. You and Daddy and Mac. The three of you did everything, took everything, were everything. Like the center of my entire world, except none of you cared about me. It was always about you. And I knew it. I couldn’t change it. Not before. I could only hate and resent and plot and scheme… Rage is my only genuine emotion. Payback my one true mission. I’m not sure I know how to live without it. I’m not sure who I am without it.”

“You have plenty of time to learn. You’re still so young—”

“Then why do I feel so old?”

“Pua lei…”

“Do you remember when we were in Texas?” Leilani asks abruptly. “We shared a room. I can still picture it. Tiny and dark and so cramped the two single beds nearly touched one another.”

“Yes.”

“I hated the dark. But you would take my hand. While I was falling asleep. Every time I jerked awake. Your fingers, curling around mine. That first year in New York, I reached for you so many times.” Leilani is moving, lowering herself to the ground. As I watch, she spreads herself out beside her sister’s form. She extends her arm. Slowly, Keahi unfurls beside her. She also reaches out, her fingers finding her sister’s, her daughter’s.

And they lie there, just like that.

“Did you fear death awaiting your execution?”

“No.”

“And now?”

“I’m with you, pua lei. I fear nothing.” Keahi turns her head to the side, meets her daughter’s eyes. “I still see you everywhere.”

“I don’t.”

Leilani raises the pistol. She fires the first bullet into her mother’s skull. The second into her own.

She slumps back to the sand, the sound of gunshots echoing away.

A moment later, the next wave rolls ashore, and the birds return to wheeling overhead.

CHAPTER 40

I STUMBLE MY WAY BACK TO MacManus’s lodge, sat phone in hand, babbling away to some poor person unfortunate enough to answer my 911 call.

“We need immediate medical assistance. Lots of people wounded. Gunshot victims, concussion victims, torture victims—”

“Ma’am—”

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