Page 8 of Deadly Aloha
My small farmwas only about five acres. It was bigger once, but different generations had sold off parts over the years. My parents had bred and rescued horses for a living. When I wasnineteen and my sister fifteen, our mom had gotten too close to a traumatized, young stallion that had been treated so poorly by his previous owners that everything spooked him. At her funeral, my heartbroken father had made me swear that I would not abandon or blame the horse for my mother’s death.
Then he walked off, and we never saw him again.
It took years of patience and a lot of sugar cubes, but I kept my promise. Koa was now the sweetest, most loyal horse I’d ever had the pleasure of owning.
I had four other horses on my land along with Koa and boarded seven others. The twins, Harlen and Sawyer, lived in the loft above the shed row barn and were in charge of the horses’ wellbeing as well as keeping any boarders away from my house, especially during a shoot. The two were extremely codependent, and I could not recall ever seeing one without the other.
Tangaloa lived in my house with me. He’d arrived on my doorstep drunk and out of his mind with grief and betrayal at the news that my niece, Pualani, was not his daughter, and he never left. I didn’t mind. The house was too big for just me anyway. It was meant to have a family and kids living in it;Ijust wasn’t meant for those things.
It was still early the next morning when Red and Aftermath pulled into my drive. Since they had to spend who knew how long across the island, Kensi and Nadia were coming with them. I wasn’t overly thrilled about that, but what could I do?
In an effort to keep the women away from the business with the Bloody Scorpions, I tasked the twins to give them riding lessons for the day. Neither one had ever ridden before, so they seemed excited when they were told the plan last night. I’d also had a very strict talk with the twins thatbothladies were off-limits, despite that only one had a wedding ring. I did not need bad blood just to pay back this favor to Jameson.
I stepped onto the porch as the SUV parked in front of my house. I saw the twins leading Anakahonua and Moanikeala out the open gate in the pipe fencing. A task which only required one of them, and yet they were both there. While neither wore shoes, I was glad to see both had put shirts on. At least they were taking my talk seriously. Sometimes it was hard to tell with them. I approved of their choices of horses for the women. Both Ana and Niki were very gentle mares that did not spook easily, and they were getting up there in age but still needed exercise. I was not quite ready to retire them.
I watched the men say their goodbyes to their women before Nadia and Kensi headed towards the twins. Then Aftermath and Red came up the stairs towards my front door where I was waiting for them.
“Slippahs off,” I told them, indicating the pile by the door.
They both bent to untie their boots, which looked so constricting.
“Seriously,” Red asked as he stood to toe off his boots, “do you guys do anything normal around these parts?”
My smile was wolfish as I answered, “Depends on your definition of ‘normal’.” Turning, I called over my shoulder, “The twins will take care of your women today. Don’t worry. They know to keep their hands to themselves.”
“They better,” Aftermath grumbled.
Tangaloa was sitting at my table drinking a cup of Kona coffee as I led the men inside. He had a tablet in front of him and was scrolling through the pictures. He raised his cup to them in greeting, “Howzit?”
“Coffee, tea,” I pointed offhandedly to the counter to my right then pointed to my left. “Luais down the hall on the right.”
“Oh, I know that one!” Red said excitedly. “That’s your word for ‘toilet’.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him, and of course, his cheeks reddened as soon as my attention was on him. And because I’m such an ass, I couldn’t let the opportunity slide to make his face even redder. “Good boy. Do you want a cookie?”
Aftermath and Tangaloa chuckled when Red’s face blazed like it had been sunburned. At least, he wasn’t wearing an outrageous amount of sunscreen today.
Aftermath headed over to the coffee pot. “What did you figure out?”
“While you two were fucking your women and getting your beauty sleep last night,wewere working,” I said pointedly. I took a seat at my table, indicating the tablet in Tangaloa’s hands. “We didn’t have a shoot scheduled last night, so I sent my guys out to all the different storage facilities in the area. They found your trucks and added trackers to them, as well as got pictures of some of your Bloody Scorpions.”
Red took a sip of his coffee. “That’s great news!”
“Not so much,” Tangaloa said gravely. He turned the tablet around to show the Royal Bastard brothers. “We don’t just havesomeBloody Scorpions on O‘ahu. We have an infestation.”
Red and Aftermath neared. Red put his coffee cup down on the table to pick up the tablet and start scrolling through as Aftermath looked over his shoulder. I didn’t have to look. I already knew what it was they were seeing. Bloody Scorpions. A lot of them. We still had to officially count by comparing the pictures, but there were at least three dozen.
I wasfuming. I’d left my life of crime behind me. I’d gone straight, to keep a promise I had made in vain to become a man worthy of… Well, not to sound cliché, but to be worthy oflove. I wanted so badly what I had thought Kalea and Tangaloa had had, what I now see that Aftermath and Kensi, and Red and Nadia,have, that I’d made that promise.
And she’d still walked out that door.
I’d been under the fucking delusion that my life was better for it. I didn’tneedlove in my life. But I had to admit I’d scared myself with how far I was willing to go. My rock bottom hadn’t been when my front door had slammed closed behind her, but when I’d been staring down the barrel of a gun. If Jameson had been ten seconds later, I wouldn’t be here. Then again, if he’d come ten seconds later, I wouldn’t owe him the debt I was currently paying off.
After little to no sleep last night, I was still debating on if I was happy about that or not.
The look Tangaloa gave me as Red and Aftermath continued to scroll through the pictures said that my best friend knew exactly what was going through my mind. If I hadn’t gone straight, if I hadn’t tried tobe better, the Bloody Scorpions would have never gotten a foothold on my island—because I wouldn’t have let them.
“What do the Bloody Scorpions want?” I asked them. “What are they into? Drugs, flesh, black market dealings…?”
