Hot-Blooded (17 page)

“Why the hell would I want to sell my magnum opus when I’m guaranteed to make a killing off it?”

Blake rolled out of bed, ambled over to the dresser, and sucked down a few swallows of water. “I never said he wanted to buy it.”

Keahilani flipped her hair out of her face and dropped her hands to her hips. “What, then? You planning to screw it out of me?”

He shrugged.

“Good luck with that, asshole.” Okay, Blake was cute and all, but clearly, it was time to cut ties and let Manō have him. A pity. She actually liked the guy when his dick was in her. “You’ll be hearing from my attorney.”

“Oh, you mean the one you sent to Honolulu to kill one of my distributors after you flipped him?” He
tsk, tsk, tsked
and waggled a shame-on-you finger at her. “Very naughty, Kea. You can’t do business that way and expect the Powers That Be not to notice.” He leaned into her personal space. “He noticed. That’s why I’m here.”

What? She did have a potential distributor from Honolulu who was considering a move to Maui as of last week, but she certainly hadn’t killed him. Another one to mark off her dwindling list of dream employees. Damn it.

“Why would I invite someone to join my payroll just to knock him down? I’d be shooting myself in the foot.”

“I don’t know. Maybe like Pele, you enjoy making trouble.”

She pushed past him and gathered her shoes. “That guy had a ton of connections, and he might’ve hooked me up with some of his friends. I’m not stupid.”

A staring contest ensued. Keahilani won.

“No, you’re not.” Sitting on the bed, Blake scrunched up his brow and ran a hand through his tousled locks. She refused to be swept away by the ridiculous allure of that perplexed look. “If not you, then who?”

When he met her eyes, his open expression laid all the cards on the table. He really thought she’d killed the distributor, but now he wasn’t so sure. Good. He deserved a dose of the uncertainty she waded through daily. It was nice not to navigate the sewers of Drug Drama Island alone for once.

“Not my concern. He’s useless to me now.” She stuffed the gun into her purse and hesitated as a light bulb flickered inside her head. Manō had been in Honolulu a week ago. Shit. “But tell your boss this. I’m not interested in selling, loaning, or giving away
anything
I worked for. If he wants Pāhoehoe, he’ll have to come and take it himself. I don’t suffer bullies. And I’m not afraid to defend what’s mine using any means necessary.”

She gave him her back, headed for the door, and paused as her hand hit the handle. “And by the way, only pussies send their
lackeys,
” she raked her harsh gaze over Blake’s naked body, “to cut deals. Your boss should learn some professional courtesy. He wants to talk to Pele, he can arrange a meeting like everyone else. I don’t want to see your face again—for business or pleasure.”

He arched a brow and unleashed a knowing smile. “See you for surf lessons tomorrow, Kea.” He reclined on the bed, braced his hands behind his neck and rested them against the headboard. His erection returned with a vengeance as if to taunt her. “Same bat time. Same bat channel.”

Chapter Fifteen

“Meet me at the beach in fifteen minutes,” Keahilani said into the phone. She sped as far away from Blake and his stupid hotel room as she could without risking police notice.

Unlike Kai, who questioned everything, Manō replied, “I’ll be there,” and hung up. That’s how their conversations usually went. Short, direct, done. One of the many things she loved about her brother.

Time was running out for her to secure distributors before the investors came sniffing around for their loan payments plus interest in a few weeks. She’d be damned if she agreed to Blake’s terms. She worked for herself, no one else. This boss of his could fuck himself. And Blake too, while he was at it.

Even if she wanted to turn over control to someone else, she still had major debts to pay off, so following Blake to his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow wasn’t an option anyway. She had a family to take care of. Commitments. Not to mention, she’d tasted a hint of success after years of hard work and found it very much to her liking.

Manō had friends who could dig up the contacts she needed. It might cost a little more money, but it would send a clear “fuck you” to Blake’s boss. And as soon as Pāhoehoe hit the mass market, she’d have enough to pay back her debts and maybe a decent chunk of cash left over to roll around in.

Five more days until the launch. And if she secured one or two more big distributors, in five more days, she and her brothers would be rich. She salivated at the thought.

Now, if she could just replace Blake with someone who fulfilled her desires the way he did, she’d be set. Though, after their illicit romp in the hotel, she might have to go celibate.
Nothing
would top putting a gun to his head during sex and then coaxing herself with it to climax while he was inside her. Why bother trying?

Sometimes she wished she didn’t have such … dark tastes.

She eased the Prius into an off-road parking spot with beach access along Honoapi‘ilani Highway. Tourists often stopped there in winter months to watch the breaching whales that visited Maui County on the southern end of their migration. The Alana ‘ohana used the semisecluded spot for private, impromptu meetings.

Her brother arrived shortly after she did. He joined her on the sand, and in silence they watched the sun slip over the horizon as they’d done many times in their youth with Mahina and the other two siblings. Those were the days. Sea breezes. Lots of laughter. Cloud gazing. Shared dreams of someday getting out of Section 8 housing and making it …

“What’s on your mind, Keahilani?” Manō’s quiet voice ruffled her musings like a ripple on the water, disrupting the calm with an unwanted dose of reality.

She turned to him. “What were you doing in Honolulu last week?”

“A job.” He didn’t back down or try to evade the question. He never did.

“For who?”

He shook his head. “You know better than to ask.”

She did. He’d told her countless times it was safer that she not be privy to his darker dealings—and it probably was—but not knowing what he was up to when he wasn’t working for her complicated things. “Did you kill the distributor I set up there?”

Manō stared at the sea.

She let out a heavy breath. Damn it. “You can’t keep taking these jobs,
kaikunāne
. Not only was this one counterproductive, but you’re gonna get caught.”

“I do what I have to.” His hard gaze bit into hers. Held it down. Drowned it. “For ‘ohana.”

Her heart crushed under the gravity of his loyalty. Like her, Manō loved his siblings more than anything. He’d made far greater sacrifices than she or Kai to support the family. The difference was, remorse didn’t figure into his choices. Like the shark he was named after, he killed because he had to. Emotion had nothing to do with it. Protective instinct did.

Black or white.

Live or die.

Kill or be killed.

For him, nothing thrived in the wasteland between the extremes.

After her run-in with Butch, Keahilani respected him even more. And having tasted blood firsthand, she now understood the allure. Though, for her, it was much more personal than it was for Manō. Hot-blooded rather than cold. The emotion made it much dodgier.

She envied him for his ability to shut off the pipeline to his emotional well. It surely existed somewhere inside him. He wouldn’t have stuck around if it didn’t.

Her brother might have been a cold-blooded murderer, but Keahilani admired him more than she could ever say. He stepped up and took out the trash when he had to. He’d walk through fire to ensure they were all provided for.

In some ways, they were more alike than she and her twin were.

“Don’t you think it’s strange that you were hired to knock off the guy we just did business with a week ago?” she said. “It can’t be a coincidence. Someone’s trying to stop us from acquiring distributors.”

“Maybe you should talk to your friend. The one who took surfing lessons from you.” Manō cracked his neck with a quick head jerk. A cruel smile twitched his lips as he turned to her. “And bought you a hotel room.”

Of course Manō knew about Blake. He knew everything.

God, she hoped to hell he didn’t see her pressed against the glass. Keahilani’s cheeks heated.
Please
let her blush blend in with the remains of red light from the sunken sun … “He’s not my friend. He’s a last resort. Blake claims to work for a kingpin on Oahu. The dealer who turned up dead also worked for this guy, so it’s doubtful they killed him. Care to share your contractor’s name?”

“He left that line blank on his application.”

She hitched her hands to her hips. “So, let me get this straight. You hit a dealer
we
almost had in line to distribute Pāhoehoe, who also happened to be employed by Blake’s boss, and you never asked for any details? Are you fucking kidding me, Manō?”

“He was worth more to us dead than alive. Check the bank account.”

She sighed. When shit got ugly, Manō seemed to enjoy summarily negating her arguments by throwing money in her face. Sad part was, he was right. The cash he claimed to have was always there in the joint account. No one could ever accuse Manō of not doing his part. Sometimes he pulled more weight than she and Kai combined.

“How much?”

“A hundred grand.”

Keahilani coughed. Somebody must’ve
really
wanted that dealer dead. But who viewed her ‘ohana as enough of a threat to knock off a potential employee? Their business, though growing, was still small. The guy Manō killed was pretty big on Oahu and had contacts on Maui, which was why she’d gone after him. He turned product around fast and efficiently with no mess. There was no way Blake’s boss would have killed his number-one seller. Unless the guy had fucked up something big. Or the Oahu kingpin intended to use the dealer’s death as a warning for her to back off.

Ballsy. Very ballsy.

Her skin tightened with paranoia and worry. She absently scratched her itchy palm. The air around her business reeked lately, and the stench seemed to grow stronger with each passing day. Every decision she made took her one step farther away from blissfully ignorant poverty and one step closer to life in prison with no chance of parole.

No going back, Keahilani. Too late for that.

She blew some hair out of her face with a quick puff and shoveled the rest of the unruly locks to the top of her head. “Blake says his boss wants to buy us out. Or maybe take us out. I’m not sure which.”

Under the fading wash of sunset, Manō’s eyes narrowed. “Who is he?” His cheek rippled almost imperceptibly.

She shrugged. “Didn’t say a name.” Why did she get the feeling Manō had lots more information about this Oahu drug ring than she did?

“I found out this morning the guy you killed was one of Scott Harris’s people. Harris owns a private resort on Oahu. Comes from old money. His family’s been around the island for ages. They manage ninety-five percent of the illegal pot on the island. Your boyfriend Blake must work for him too.”

Great. Blake’s connections were tighter than she thought. She pinched her bottom lip and wiggled it. “Blake tried to get me to join Harris’s cartel voluntarily before they put pressure on us to do it the other way. Sounds like we need a show of force to prove to this Harris guy we won’t be bullied.”

“I’m close to securing a meeting with Lui on Wednesday.”

She snapped her eyes to his. “Lui’s a cocaine distributor.” And a total nutjob who had a bad habit of leaving dead bodies in his wake.

“If we can convince him to join us, we’ll be set.”

It was one thing to work with petty criminals, but Lui was something else. Like Manō, except he didn’t need a reason for
anything
. He was just plain crazy. And that meant he was just plain dangerous.

But he was also rich as fuck and knew
everybody
. Including police, DEA, and some very high-ranking federal officials who could make annoying shit like incarcerations go away with nothing more than a wink and a smile.

“I’m not sure about this,” Keahilani said. Sweat blossomed across her brow. So much wrong, and so little right. But what other choice did they have?

“I’ll push for joining forces with Lui on a trial basis.” Manō stood directly in front of her and cupped her elbows. His dead-eyed stare didn’t convince her this was the right decision. It worried her. “If we’re not happy after a month, we bow out gracefully.”

God, they were getting desperate, and it showed. Manō wouldn’t have suggested such a risky venture otherwise.

“It’s just a month, Keahilani.” A spark of warmth flared in his eyes for a second and promptly snuffed out. “And if his people are as efficient as I think they are, we won’t need him after that anyway. Our supply will be sold, our pockets will be lined, and our debts will be paid.”

“Yeah, but what about all the factors we’re not considering? Namely that Lui is a trigger-happy sadist who’s been known to torture people for no good reason? What if he decides to make demands we don’t want to supply? What if he—” She shook her head. “This leaves a bad taste in my mouth, Manō. We have enough explosive personalities around here without him.”