Page 54 of Deadly Aloha
“There’s no possible way you could know if it’s a boy or a girl,” she scoffed.
“If the universe wants to keep some sort of balance, it’ll be a boy,” I told her darkly.
Lu tipped her head back again, but this time she lifted a hand to keep my hat on her head. “What is that supposed to mean?”
I glanced down at her before looking up again. I didn’t have to watch where I was going, per se. Koa knew the way, but it still was a good idea to keep an eye out too. Horses had limited fields of visions, and Hawai’i had some natural dangers. “It means I know what men do to women. And unless the gods want a massacre on their hands in roughly eighteen years, they’ll bestow upon me a healthy baby boy.” My upper lip curled. “This island’s male population will not survive long if I have a daughter.”
Lu hesitated. “I get what you’re saying. I know what women have to go through in this world more than you do. But we haveto be realistic, Aloiki. There’s a fifty-fifty chance that she’ll be a girl. I need you to be serious about this.”
Something menacing and twisted brewed in my gut at the thought. “I was being serious,” I informed her. “Lu, I killed a man for striking you. You say it was ‘just once’, but that is still one time too many.”—I didn’t mention to her what I had done to Rory the night before. I didn’t want to risk her getting sick again, but I also wouldn’t keep it from her. I would just tell her when we were closer to a bathroom.—“What do you think I would do for my daughter?”
They were waitingfor me in Bacon’s living room. It was a hell of a lot bigger than mine, and the meeting room in the bunkhouse wouldn’t be ready for some weeks. Everyone but the twins was present, even Janko. No one grumbled at me for being late as I entered, though voices certainly hushed up quick when I strode into the room. Good.
I looked to Tangaloa, who was sitting at the wet bar with a glass of tequila. The bottle was resting half-full next to him. I didn’t judge the early morning hour. He was a grown-ass man who could drink at fucking nine in the morning if he wanted to. I was neither his mother nor his girlfriend.
However, I was a bit surprised by it. What had happened in the barn wouldn’t have affected Tangaloa as it might have others. It made me wonder if something had happened afterward that I didn’t know about.
“He still alive?” I asked my ex-brother-in-law without preamble.
“Was when we left him on his boat,” he said before throwing back the rest of his glass. He immediately reached for the bottle to refill it. “But he was also bleeding pretty heavily.”
I nodded once. I knew Tangaloa, and he wouldn’t have treated Rory’s wound. I didn’t bother to ask what happened to his hand either. First, I didn’t care, and second, Tangaloa would have ensured no evidence was left behind for the construction crew to find this morning.
“We’re not replacing the Nomad position at this time,” I told the group as a whole. “But we do have a new member among us.” I nodded to Janko. “The paperwork has gone through andShakalohais officially ours.” Clapping and banging on furniture ensued. My eyes, however, narrowed. “That does not mean you get to spend your days drinking and not working. I don’t give a damn if you go to work drunk, so long as the work is done rightthe first time. Janko is still the boss, and he has authority over all of us when it comes to production. That includes me,” I added for good measure. “I don’t know the first thing about making beer. If I pull a shift there, I expect Janko to ride me just as hard as he does the rest of you. Any questions about the brewery?”
No one spoke up.
“Good.” I looked to Bacon. “You got his cut?”
Bacon tossed some leather at me from where he sat. I caught it. Curious, I took a look at the road name, then I threw the leather at the big Jamaican with thick dreadlocks. “Welcome to the Royal Bastards, Hops.”
Hops caught the new cut and then put it on. “Good to be here, mon.”
The twins walked in. My eyes narrowed, becausebothof their cuts said ‘Thing One’ on their left breast. I’d left the horses with them, gotten Lu into the house, and then headed back to Bacon’s.
As they came in to take their seats, I noticed one had a slight limp. A moment later, the other matched his brother’s stride. I shook my head. That was too fucking weird for me this early in the morning.
“Lu’s pregnancy changes some things around here,” I told everyone, crossing my arms over my chest. “She’s not to be left alone. If I am not with her, I will be assigning one of you to watch her.” The threat was clear in my voice. I didn’t need to specify that they were toonlywatch her. They’d seen what would happen if they touched her.
“Who’s watching her now?” Tommy asked, his eyes glancing around now that the twins had arrived.
“Holly,” Bacon answered. “She’s more than capable of protecting her.”
Some looked to me with a measure of shock. But I did not elaborate. I did not need to justify my decision to them. “Where are we with Nishi?” I looked to Neo in the back.
They were sitting cross-legged in a fucking sex swing in the corner of the room with their laptop open on their lap. The expression on their face was so dejected that it had several of the men in the room look at them in worry. “Nowhere,” they answered, their eyes wide and sad. “We know she wasinAmsterdam, but after that…” They shook their head. “I don’t know, Paniolo. The Black Market Railroad isn’t exactly known for their record keeping.”
That wasnotthe news I wanted to hear. “What about Red?”
“Same thing. It’s a big world, Prez, and these people know how to make their victims disappear. He put me in contact with Keys, the Hacker from the Santa Clarita Chapter. They’ve had a number of run-ins with the Black Market Railroad and other traffickers. He gave me some pointers and things to look for, and he’s diving into parts of the Dark Web I’ve never navigated before. If he finds something, he’ll let me know.”
I didn’t like knowing that another Chapter’s Tech was doing what mine couldn’t. “Figure it out,” I snapped. “Do it with him if you have to. I don’t want to hear again that you don’t know how to do something that we need done and you’re not making strides to learn how to do it yourself in the future.”
Neo’s eyes cast downward. “Sorry,” they mumbled.
Saga reached over from where he was sitting and patted Neo comfortingly on the knee. Fuck, I’d just kicked the puppy. My gut twisted as my instincts warred with my nature.
“Neo,” I grumbled out through clenched teeth. They looked up, their eyes wide with so much hope and sadness that I actually had to plant my feet so I didn’t cross the room to comfort them myself. Goddammit, how the fuck did they do that?
