Chapter 6 #3
“You didn’t specify,” they said, sticking their chin up in the air.
Tangaloa had to bite his lips together to keep from laughing.
The rest of the meeting went well, all things considered. The twins were named Road Captain and Tail Runner. I had no idea which said they’d do which job, and frankly wouldn’t be able to tell if they swapped or lied later on. So the jobs were theirs.
Lonnie Elwood agreed to be our Chaplain. He told us about the youth center where he helped kids after school and on the weekends. Anything to keep them from turning to the streets. I made it known that we were at his disposal, especially if there was a kid in danger.
I named Virgil as Enforcer. With his military training, he was the best candidate. Plus, I thought that he and Mal would get on well due to their similar personalities.
That left Rafe as the Treasurer, which was also the position Virgil had in mind for him when he brought the man.
Rafe was a former accountant turned money launderer.
After an incident where he was accused of stealing money from a client, he was nearly killed.
Rafe clearly wasn’t a fighter, and I understood his need for protection.
Apparently, he’d been living on Virgil’s boat.
I asked him flat out if he’d taken the money, and he swore he hadn’t.
I had pretty good instincts when it came to someone lying to me, and my gut told me that he was telling me the truth.
I looked to Virgil. “You vouched for him. Do you believe him?”
Virgil nodded without hesitation. “I’ve known Rafe for years. He might manipulate the system, but he’s no thief.”
That was good enough for me. “That’s settled then. I’ll talk to Kanoa about being our Tracker. With his background, it’s the best position for him. Now,” I squared my shoulders. “Onto nastier business. Who here has never heard of the Bloody Scorpions?”
Several men said they hadn’t.
I looked to Red and Aftermath in the back corner of my living room. “You two want to take this one? You have more of a history with the Bloody Scorpions than I do.”
They agreed, stepping forward. They must have had their cuts in their luggage, because they were wearing them now. After last night, there wasn’t a point in hiding that the Royal Bastards knew the Bloody Scorpions were on my island.
Aftermath nodded to me once. “I’m Aftermath, this is Red. We’re from the LA Chapter in California. As Kiki was saying—”
“Aloiki,” I snapped.
“Right. As Annie Oakley was saying—”
“Al-o-e-ki,” I pronounced slower.
“Gesundheit,” Aftermath said like I’d sneezed.
“As your illustrious leader was saying, the Bloody Scorpions have a history with the Royal Bastards.
When our National President got word that they were in O‘ahu, he called our President, who sent us down here to investigate. That brings us to last night…”
I scowled when Lu opened her own door. Kanoa was standing by the kitchen counter eating a bowl of cereal. The only thing that saved his life in that moment was the fact that he had his gun on the counter and a clear line of sight to me at the door.
Still… “Why the fuck is she answering her own door?” I demanded, stepping inside the small apartment. Why was Lu living in an apartment in Ewa Beach anyway? Her family was on the other side of the island. I was on the other side of the island.
“She is standing right the fuck here,” Lu snapped, but I ignored her.
“In case you haven’t realized,” Kanoa said around the cereal in his mouth, “your girl’s really stubborn.”
My jaw ticked. I had noticed. My gravestone was going to say Here Lies Aloiki Ka’ana’ana and this is Lu’s fault.
“Get out,” I ordered Kanoa. The man put his bowl down, still chewing. I stepped aside so he could step behind me rather than between Lu and me. As he went to shut the door behind him, I said, “Head to my house. Tangaloa’s waiting to fill you in.”
He nodded once before waving goodbye to Lu.
She waved back. As soon as the door was closed, she rounded on me with a glare, hands on her hips. “That was rude!”
I didn’t see a need to argue that fact. My slippahs were outside her door and I wasn’t wearing a shirt. I pushed my thumbs into the waistband of my cargo shorts before pushing them down my long legs. My boxer briefs followed.
Lu’s eyes landed on my half-hard dick. “What are you doing?”
“You wanted to talk,” I reminded her, stepping right up to her. “And I warned you how we were going to do it.”
While she didn’t back away from me, she also didn’t start to get undressed. “I’m not having sex with you.”
“You’ve already had sex with me.” I reached up to touch her flushed face. “You’re about to have sex with me again.” Her eyes dilated when my fingers made contact with her skin. “You want me,” I told her with confidence. “It’s written all over your face.”
A sad expression replaced her desire. “Just because I want you, doesn’t mean I should have you. If that was the case, my entire freezer would be packed with Rocky Road ice cream.”
“Life’s too short to fight having what you want,” I argued. “And why the fuck isn’t your freezer packed with Rocky Road ice cream?”
“Because then I’ll eat it,” she snapped, like that was the most obvious answer and I was a fucking idiot for asking.
“Good,” I tell her. “You’re too skinny. Why haven’t you been eating right?”
Her cheeks heated under my fingers. “I am not too skinny. I really should lose some weight—”
“Why the fuck would you do something as fucking ridiculous as that?” My annoyance at her notion made my question sound angry. “You’re fucking perfect just as you are.”
She turned her face away from me, shrugging.
I leaned down, pressing a kiss to her temple. “How long have you been back?” I asked, my lips against her skin.
I felt her shift uncomfortably. “About a year.”
Fuck, that hurt. When I was fifteen, I stepped on a sea urchin, and I’d rather suffer through that a hundred times over again than live with the knowledge that Lu had been back home for nearly a year and hadn’t come to see me, hadn’t even let me know.
As if sensing my pain, she placed a hand to my belly. Her light touch making my abs quiver as she traced the hard lines of my six-pack. “I’m sorry…”
I wrapped my arms around her shoulders, needing her close. The irony was that she was the balm that soothed my soul, and also the cause of its greatest wounds. “Why didn’t you come find me?”
Her arms wound around my waist and she turned her cheek into my chest. “Why do you think?” Her voice was practically a whisper. “I knew we’d end up just like this.”
I couldn’t help chuckling, even though the pain in my chest did not lessen. “You say that like it’s a bad thing?”
“Isn’t it?” she countered. Her fingers seemed to trace almost absentmindedly against the dip at the small of my back. “You obviously haven’t changed, and neither have I. Doesn’t that mean we’re just going to end up right back where we were?”
The pain and worry in her voice slayed me. I could take it. Pain was nothing new to me, but I fucking hated knowing she was suffering too.
I reached my hands down to the hem of her shirt. Lu did not fight me when I lifted it up and over her head. I removed her bra next, letting it fall to the floor. My hands cupped her tits, my thumbs rubbing over the tight peaks of her nipples that my tongue longed to worship.
“Things will be different this time,” I vowed.
“How?” Despite the sadness in her eyes, her voice was strong, determined. She wanted this as much as I did, and it was only fear holding her back. “We’re still the same people, Aloiki.”
“We are,” I acknowledged, my hands dropping to the button of her pants. “But I’ve learned a valuable lesson since the day you walked out on me.”
I squatted before her, and Lu stepped out of her pants. I kissed her bare labia, a vow and a promise, as I rose. We were both gloriously naked once again, just as we were meant to be.
“What lesson’s that?” she asked. Lu wrapped her arms around my neck before leaping up, wrapping her legs around my waist. I caught her easily. “To not make promises you don’t intend to keep? Or that your life isn’t worth risking when you have someone at home who loves you and worries about you?”
I shook my head, one hand under her ass to steady her.
I could feel her wet heat against my navel, and it made my cock harder.
I needed inside this woman. I wrapped my free hand in her hair to use it to manipulate her head as I wanted.
“To never let you walk away from me again, Hōkūpa?a. You’re mine.
In laughter and in tears, in sickness and in health, in conflict and serenity, you will never walk alone again, Lu. ”
Her chin started to tremble, but I saw her resolve start to crack. “Aloiki…”
I kissed her, none too gently. “You love me, Lu. Stop fighting this and come back to me. Because I’m done living without you.”
Her apartment was so small that the entire space could have fit in my bedroom back home. It took three steps to turn us so my back was to the couch. I had every intention of sitting, of settling her hot opening over my cock and slowly lowering her down onto my lap.
But a white box with green and blue writing caught my attention on her kitchen counter next to where Kanoa’s cereal bowl now rested.
I froze. “What the fuck is that?”
Lu made a face, one that I knew all too well. It was her shit, I messed up face. “Um, that’s an empty morning-after pill box.”
“I can see that,” I growled. “Why do you have it?”
Lu’s look turned to astonishment. “Because I don’t want to have a baby. Last I checked, neither did you.”
That wasn’t what I meant! “Why aren’t you on birth control?” She had been before. She’d had the thing that goes up her pussy and looks like the Tesla logo.
She scowled. “That’s really none of your business—”
I acted without warning. Still standing, I notched my cock at her wet entrance, and thrust inside her in one swift motion.
Lu’s cry was that of shock, not pain. I was entirely certain of that.
Her nails dug into my back, scraping deeply without drawing blood.
I needed to visit my tattoo artist before they healed.
I wanted those exact marks permanently inked into my skin.
I used her hair to force her chin up to look at me.
“Everything about you is my business,” I growled into her face.
“And even if it wasn’t, I had sex with you last night and I’m having sex with you now.
That makes that,” I nodded over her shoulder to the kitchen counter, “automatically my business too. Or do you not practice safe sex anymore, Luana?”