Chapter 3 #2
I went down the line. I repeated the process, asking the next man who he worked for and getting no answer.
I took his eyes before using my dagger to etch 見猿 (Mizaru) into him.
He screamed and thrashed so much that the first grenade fell to floor, but by now, I didn’t give a fuck if they knew they were duds.
It was harder to nail his eyeballs to his forehead, but eventually I accomplished the task.
The third man’s ears came off next. He tried to talk to me around the grenade gagging him, but I couldn’t understand him so I ignored him.
聞か猿 (Kikazaru) was written into his chest and then both ears were nailed to his forehead.
I learned my lesson with the eyes and stacked the ears rather than doing them individually.
At the fourth man, I paused. The depiction of the last monkey was often portrayed crossing its arms over its chest or covering its genitals with its hands.
By now, he’d figured out that the grenade in his mouth did nothing beyond silencing him.
He was thrashing against his binds, but those manacles had been holding prisoners since 1778. The guy wasn’t going anywhere.
I turned to my man behind me who was holding the nail gun for me. “Remove his pants.”
I was feeling rather vindictive today. This break-in had interrupted teatime with Samantha, and that just wasn’t acceptable.
The peals of innocent laughter rang so loudly through the air that not even the crashing waves could drown them out. The smell of salt and sand warred with the tones of smoked salmon as the sun collided with the horizon.
The club’s property was changing as we grew.
After Aloiki’s house had been destroyed by the Bloody Scorpions, Bacon, our SAA, and Holly, his Ol’ Lady, had opened their home to us.
“Home” being a loose interpretation of the massive seaside mansion high up on a cliff.
The land itself had once belonged to Aloiki’s ancestors, but generation after generation had sold off portions.
The shed row barn beside where Aloiki’s house had stood had been under construction for months, with the intention of it serving as our clubhouse as well as the barn.
But after the attack on Aloiki’s house, members moved into Bacon’s home to help protect the women. Like me, they’d never moved out.
While Aloiki and I had lived together for years, I never considered the house mine. Maybe it was habit, or maybe I was still holding onto memories of a different home. Either way, I was as homeless as Lu and Aloiki when it had been destroyed.
The room I occupied in Bacon’s house was a large suite with a bedroom/living room combo.
It was one of the biggest after the master, but it didn’t have its own bathroom.
Aloiki and Lu’s bedroom across the hall was the only guest room with a private bath.
I’d been fine with that, until I moved two girls into my room.
The plane ride back to Hawai‘i had been trying. Neither Caroline nor Samantha had ever been on a plane before, and Samantha had clung to me like a koala bear. Her mother hadn’t been much better.
I’d eaten it up, cherished it as I held the two of them close and told them stories of home to distract them.
Maybe it was fucked up of me, but I made a deal with myself as I held them on the plane.
I would do whatever they needed to feel comfortable while we were in the air, because the moment we landed, I would become their father figure.
Both of them.
I could have done many things upon bringing them home with me.
Given them to Lu and Aloiki to raise, or sought out foster parents that I trusted.
Caroline wouldn’t give me her last name, so I still hadn’t hunted down her fucking parents who knew she’d been in that foul house.
Instead, I took on a fatherly role with Samantha and a mentor role with Caroline.
I tried—I really did—to call it a “fatherly role” with Caroline as I did with Samantha, but the word twisted something deep inside me that made me feel perverted.
Maybe it was right.
I did offer them a room of their own next to mine, but their fear of being left alone in such a new and unknown place had me moving them into my bedroom instead.
My queen bed had plenty of room for both of them to sleep comfortably, and while the couch wasn’t big enough to fit my tall frame, it was a sacrifice I was willing to make so they felt safe.
I would never have moved them into Bacon’s house if I did not trust my club brothers, but they still had a long way to go before they trusted my brothers as much as I did.
What was a little back pain anyway?
Everything was so new to them that they needed help with common things modern society took for granted.
Samantha had never seen bubbles before.
Caroline did not know phones were now wireless.
It wasn’t just introducing them to Hawai‘ian culture, but to life. Even after a month of being free of Weatherby Dalton-Jones IV, there were habits and customs that I was still trying to break them of.
Caroline thought she had to clean up after everyone, like she was the club’s servant.
Fuck that! After I saw her cleaning the kitchen while two Prospects were just on their phones in the living room, I fucked up that kitchen, tossing dishes, pans, and food everywhere.
Caroline likely thought I’d gone mad. I didn’t want to scare her, but I did want to make a point.
I made the Prospects clean up my mess while I took Caroline and Samantha out for ice cream.
Ice cream, just one more food neither of them had ever tried, or remembered in Caroline’s case.
After the various times Caroline had confided in me about what their life was like trapped in that basement, I had to leave them and go for a walk to cool off.
Aloiki had skinned Weatherby Dalton-Jones IV alive a week after we arrived back in Hawai‘i. I knew it was his right. Nishi had been Aloiki’s Ol’ Lady’s best friend.
But it pissed me off to no end that I hadn’t gotten my just desserts for my girls.
Because they were mine.
My feelings for Caroline had not changed, and in my darker thoughts when I was alone at night, I dreamed of doing things to her no father would ever think to do to their daughter.
But they were just dreams, fantasies. She might as well have kapu, forbidden or taboo, tattooed to her forehead.
I could not, and would not, ever touch her, and I made sure I was rarely alone with her.
But, fuck, she was beautiful.
Both she and Samantha had gotten a clean bill of health from the doctor I took them to when we arrived home.
I was extremely grateful for that. While neither one was underfed, the doctor did mention increasing their carbs and natural fat intake, as well as calcium for Samantha.
Both were also on a daily vitamin regiment, and we had a follow-up appointment in another month or so.
Each week I took Caroline and Samantha to see a therapist, both together and separately.
I did not go in with them, never wanting them to feel like I was invading their privacy or their trauma, but their therapist did give me information on signs to look for, like suicidal thoughts or how to help them through a panic attack.
I did not allow Caroline to cook. I hadn’t figured out yet if she wanted to cook because she liked cooking or if she felt she needed to do it.
Honestly, she wasn’t sure either. Which was why I kept her out of the kitchen as much as possible, or sat her and Samantha at the counter while I cooked for them.
Slowly, both were starting to fill out more.
And I was a dirty, disgusting, old bastard for even noticing.
It didn’t fucking matter that the age of consent in Hawai‘i was sixteen. I had no business thinking or even dreaming about touching her.
Aloiki and I hadn’t spoken much since we returned.
He’d spent the entire flight back to O‘ahu trying to figure out how to tell Lu about Nishi. After he’d used the term “murder” for what he’d done to help Nishi’s passing, I knew his guilt was worse than even I suspected.
I took matters into my own hands and called Bacon while we were on the plane, telling him everything that had happened.
Aloiki needed Lu as soon as possible, and he didn’t deserve to feel guilty over aiding Nishi to end her suffering.
But Aloiki being Aloiki saw what I’d done as a betrayal.
Not to him, but to Lu. She was pregnant, only three months along then, and Aloiki didn’t want anything to upset her.
His logic was failing him in his own grief, because her best friend had just died.
She was going to be upset regardless of when she found out, and he needed her.
It was my job as VP to look after him, so he could look after the club.
It also helped that Lu was on my side in the argument and got Aloiki to agree not to punish me. I would have taken it willingly even if he hadn’t, because I knew I’d done the right thing for my ex-brother-in-law.
He and Lu had been busy getting ready for their wedding in two months anyway, and I was busy getting Caroline and Samantha acclimated. Despite living across the hall from each other, we were both walking our own paths right now.