Page 42 of Deadly Aloha
When Calvin asked me to move in with him, though, I knew then that there was nothing I wanted more than to gohome. Nishi had already been trying to talk me into it for a long time, but I was steadfast about remaining on the Mainland. If I went back… I knew whose doorstep I would end up on.
But I couldn’t move in with Calvin. It wasn’t even a debate in my head. As soon as he asked, I said ‘no’. Which was when he struck me, and I met therealCalvin.
It did not bother me that Aloiki had killed him. It should, but it didn’t. There was something fundamental about knowing that my man would kill for me. And I needed that reassurance right now. Especially because there was no current news on Nishi.
The rollercoaster of emotions that was my life had my stomach flipping upside down most days.
In many ways, I was the happiest I’d ever been. My rekindled relationship with Aloiki was beyond strong. My love for that man was beyond my comprehension, and he was doing so much this time to prove to me that his love for me was infinite.
Who knew Aloiki Ka’ana’ana could be such a romantic?
He wanted me with him every step of the way in building his new club. I knew nothing about motorcycles, though I enjoyed the hell out of riding on his.
Aloiki hadn’t changed, but I think I had. Maybe it was not wanting to ever suffer through losing him again or knowing thepain of being apart, but I was more open-minded. The fact that he was able to tell meeverythingalso helped. My love for him had never fractured the way my trust in him had. And he was doing his damnedest to repair that.
So far, there had only been one time when he hadn’t taken me with him. They’d gotten word about a possible sighting of Nishi outside of Amsterdam. Jameson had chartered them a private plane and put the club in contact with people overseas who could help. Aloiki wouldn’t let me come with them.
Hiro had stayed behind. Not much of a fighter, they were better staying where they had the equipment needed to help Aloiki, Tangaloa, and the others. I had to wait four days for their return, though I had known long before then that they were coming back empty handed.
None of the women they’d found had been Nishi.
It was so disheartening. Guilt warred with my happiness daily. How could I have been so stupid to let her go off with that man alone? I replayed that night over and over in my head, and I didn’t get it. Nishi had insisted she was okay, that it was fine for me to leave, but howcouldI? I’d left my best friend behind to be kidnapped by a human trafficker. Logically, I was aware that there was no way I could have known, but that didn’t stop me from feeling like Ishouldhave known.
I’d done the smart thing. I’d taken a picture of the guy’s driver’s license, which turned out to be a fake, and a picture of him. Nishi had her phone on her and I had access to her location. We did everything right.
But it hadn’t been enough.
The worst part? I hadn’t even known something was amiss until the next morning. I still didn’t know if the text messages I’d gotten throughout the night were from her or her captor. Since she hadn’t used her codeword to signal she was in trouble, Icould only assume it was from her and she hadn’t known she was in trouble yet.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
I knew Aloiki’s priorities were stretched thin. He was building the clubandsearching for Nishi, and it fucking sucked that I could only help him with one of those things.
I liked Holly, the other Ol’ Lady, but she wasn’t Nishi. And hanging out with her and getting to know her made me feel guilty because I wasn’t out therelookingfor Nishi. Holly was socially awkward, and sometimes there was this ‘danger vibe’ I got from her that made no sense. The woman was five-two and weighed a hundred pounds soaking wet. And the way she looked at Mal, it was a mixture of worship and devotion. I knew the two of them were in the BDSM lifestyle, which was great if that worked for them. No judgement since my fiancé and I did porn, but there was just something about Holly that I didn’t get.
A lot of the club members were people Aloiki used to run with, so I knew them or of them, even if it had been years since we’d seen each other. I was trying really hard to call them by their road names now. Some were easy, because I didn’t know them to have a habit of calling them by their real names.
Like the twins. I knew they were Harlan and Sawyer, though I had no idea which was which. They were now called ‘Thing One’ and ‘Thing Two’. No one knew if they switched cuts to fuck with us or if one twin always wore the same cut. Secretly, I sided with Aloiki and thought we needed to mark them somehow so we could figure out who was whom.
Mal was easy enough to switch to. My understanding was there had been a pig slur made against him during their first Church meeting, and the former cop had run with it. He was now ‘Bacon’. I liked it, though I would have gone with ‘Pua’a’.
Rafe and Sebastian were also strangers to me. Rafe chose ‘Tick’ as his road name and Sebastian wanted to be called ‘Saga’.I didn’t know either of them well enough to guess why, though I did learn that Sebastian had an eidetic memory and had a tendency to tell stories.
Lonnie was a former priest, so I didn’t know why he would want to be called ‘Lucifer’. Seemed to me that the man had some inner demons he was fighting with.
The ones I kept slipping up were the men I knew from before the club. Virgil, Kanoa, Rory, Hiro, Nohea, and Tangaloa were the ones I was struggling with. I wouldnevercall Aloiki ‘Paniolo’, which he didn’t seem to mind. In fact, I had a feeling I was the only person who could have gotten away with refusing to call him by his new road name.
I liked Virgil’s name. A British soldier was called a tommy, so I thought the road name was fitting. But damn if I could get the word out of my mouth. I usually ended up calling him “Vir—Tommy”, which he seemed to get a kick out of.
Hiro didn’t seem to mind when I called them ‘Hiro’ instead of ‘Neo’. At least, I thought they didn’t until every electronic device I owned started playingThe Matrixmovie every time I went to use it. It was certainly an effective method of getting me to remember.
I didn’t see Rory often, which was a shame because we used to be friends. He took the position of Nomad, so he was on his boat a lot and away from the farm. Calling him ‘Skipper’ was fun, but it still didn’t roll off the tongue easily.
It was easy to remember the name ‘Spirit’ when I thought of Kanoa. He was the most spiritual and grounded person I knew.
I didn’t know Nohea that well. I couldn’t say if we’d ever met in person before now, but I knew his name and reputation. It was easier to call him ‘Mako’ than the others.
To my knowledge, Tangaloa was the only member who did not have a club name, choosing to keep his birth name. I hadn’t yet had a chance to speak to him about that, and if there was anunderlying reason behind that decision. Either way, I loved his name. It was unique and beautiful.
