Page 18 of Deadly Aloha
Under the overhead light, I saw her cheeks flush. Her natural tanned complexion hid it better than Red’s fair skin, but there was no hiding that pinkish tint. “I don’t have to explain myself to you,” she snapped. She pointed behind me to the ocean. “Did you have to kill him? He was my best lead!”
For some stupid ass reason known only to the gods, I looked behind myself to verify we were talking about the same guy. Yeah, there was only one dead body behind me. “What the fuck are you talking about?” I demanded. “Lead to what?”
Her nostrils flared, and for a moment, I saw tears enter her eyes before she rapidly blinked them away. “Nishi,” she finally said. “She’s been missing for nearly three weeks. And he,” shepointed behind me, “was the last person I saw her with before she disappeared!”
My anger dulled a bit. Nishi was Lu’s best friend. The Japanese-Hawai‘ian woman was Lu’s Tangaloa. Like me, they’d met in elementary school and had been inseparable ever since. Nishi wasn’t a bad person, per se. I had always thought her naïve to the point of foolishness. Like the time she nearly got arrested helping strangers she thought were a neighbor’s cousin “move” some of her neighbor’s belongings, but it turned out they had no relation to her neighbor and they were actually robbing that apartment.
One could not fault Nishi’s kindness. I’d seen her sit with a lost little girl for hours on the beach, entertaining her until the parents could be located. What I didn’t understand is Lu’s unwavering loyalty to her best friend. Lu might be a danger magnet, but nothing she did was on purpose. Things just…broke or fell or shifted cosmically in her presence. With Nishi, her naïveté could almost be attributed to immaturity or a refusal to see the world as it is instead of through rose-colored glasses.
The fact that Nishi was missing was disturbing. Lu said that the man I’d just killed had been with her the last time Lu had seen her. And then her words registered. She’d called him ‘her bestlead’.
What. The. Fuck.
My anger returned to me in full force. There was no gradual acceleration. It was zero to three hundred in a split second. I ducked my head down to be closer to her, my hands going for her shoulders. “The fuck did you just say?” I practically snarled. “Are youinvestigatingthe Bloody Scorpions? What the fuck is wrong with you! Nishi is missing, you go to the police! You come tome. You doanythingbut what I think it is you are doing here!” I shook her. Not hard and not in anger. In fear. Of what might have happened, of her recklessness. Lu’s loyalty was something Iadmired about her, but not when it put her in danger. Not when she was painting a bullseye on her forehead. “What the fuck were you thinking!” I roared. “Tell me you didn’tpurposefullyget yourself captured by the Bloody Scorpions?!”
She pushed against my chest, but I did not budge. Lu was strong, but I had a lot of muscle on her. “Let go of me!” she demanded. I only tightened my grip on her. “You don’t control me, Aloiki! Nishi is missing and the police have no leads! What else was I supposed to do?”
“Anything!” I repeated. “Anything but put yourself in the hands of those bastards!”
“I had it under control! I had a plan?—”
I growled, the sound low and menacing. “Do tell,” I managed to get out through gritted teeth. “Tell me your master plan, Luana.”
Her eyes narrowed, though I didn’t know if it had to do with my derisive tone or my use of her full name. Luhatedher full name. “I needed them to take me to where they have Nishi?—”
“And what makes you think she’s stillalive!” I shouted. “What evidence do you have that she is even in a state that means shecouldbe rescued!”
For the first time, grief and worry replaced the fury on her face. Fuck, I hated that my words had brought on such a reaction, but fuck it all. She had gotten herselfpurposefullycaught by the Bloody Scorpions to try to find her kidnapped best friend. Of all the stupid, reckless things for her to do… And it chafed because Lu had done so without knowing I was here, without having an escape plan.
What had she been thinking? It wasn’t like Lu to be so irresponsible. Yet, what wouldn’t I do for Tangaloa? But that was different. Who knew what could have happened to her in the hands of the Bloody Scorpions? The one had already had his hands all over her.
“Don’t speak to me like I’m a child!” Lu slapped her palms against my chest. While I did not step back, I did loosen my hold on her arms.
“Why didn’t you callme?!”
She froze. “What?”
My jaw was so tight, I could hear the bones groan in protest. “Why,” I repeated slower, enunciating each word. “Didn’t. You. Call.Me?”
The confusion on her face was like a knife to my heart. And then she twisted the blade. In the most innocently puzzled voice, she asked, “Why would I call you?”
The lasso snapped. Everything I’d been suppressing from the moment Lu had walked out my front door, leaving behind her black pearl ring on my kitchen counter, came rushing back like a tsunami. It swirled and whirled inside my soul, a maelstrom of agony, heartbreak, and guilt. The knowledge that I’d had the best thing right in front of me, my fuckingsoulmate, and I’d allowed her to walk out of my life, out my fucking front door, and I never went after her. Because I knewIhad been the cause. I’d broken my promise.I’d broken her heart.
Seeing her finally standing before me was like a balm to a bad burn. The fact that she’d been socloseand felt she couldn’t come to me? That she’d been in trouble, or her best friend had been, and she hadn’t asked for help? It only cemented my resolve.
I’d watched this incredibly stubborn woman walk away from me once. She was not getting away a second time.
I gripped her chin tightly in my fist, ensuring she couldn’t look away from me. “Because you’re mine,” I snarled, letting her hear all the pent-up anger raging inside me.
Her mouth opened in a gasp, but I sealed it closed again with a passionate and possessive kiss. Lu might be determined enough not to believe my words, but I’ll be damned if she didn’t feel the declaration in my lips.
Mine.
Chapter Five
There was nothing in the world like kissing this woman. I’d kisseda lotof women. I’ve had sex with even more. Tangaloa liked to joke that I could stick my cock into a vat of bleach, and it still wouldn’t be clean. That was an over-exaggeration, obviously. I might have a lot of sex, but I was extremely careful. I practiced safe sex and got myself tested regularly. I might be an asshole, but I wasn’t a dick. I didn’t want an STD any more than the next person. I’d only ever been monogamous with one woman, and she was currently resisting the urge to kiss me back.
I could feel it, and her fight both aroused me and angered me.
