“Where does your cousin live, anyway? Nyx asked.
“Santa Monica.”
“So, he’s not going to see it anytime soon,” Nyx hedged.
“We video chat twice a week.”
Nyx stared across the table at him, one hand pressed to the side of his face as he shook his head. “Is that seriously why you’ve left it that way?”
They sighed. “Pretty much.”
Why didn’t I believe them?
“At this point give it up,” Nyx said, “or wear a hoodie during your video chats if you don’t want to concede defeat. But if you seriously don’t like it the way you’re wearing it, what’s the point?”
“None, I guess.”
They sounded defeated. Frustrated too, which just elevated my belief that they hadn’t been telling the truth about his cousin being the reason they’d maintained a hairstyle they disliked.
“Thank you.”
“Not that wearing it in typical jellyfish fashion has ever stopped anyone from being stupid or getting in my space.”
“Seriously?” Nyx asked.
Groaning, they nodded their head. “Seriously.”
Chapter 9
Nyx
“So, is that the last of it?” Lani asked.
“Yup,” Kekoa replied as they straightened up from where they’d been peering under the motel bed once we’d been cleared to go collect anything they could salvage.
In their hands they held half a book. The other half was already in the box of things we’d gathered. Some of the clothes might be salvageable; they’d just been piled in the shower stall with toothpaste smeared all over them and the water turned on. But the outfit they’d been wearing the night at the bar had been hacked and ripped to bits.
“You guys get in the Jeep; I’ll toss the bag in the dumpster, and then we can head up to the office so Kekoa can officially check out,” I said.
My mates just looked tired as they trudged out of the room. Pausing in the doorway, I looked around just to assure myselfthat we hadn’t forgotten anything. The way the room had looked when we stepped inside would be burned on my brain for a while. It was like a beast had rampaged through it, not a person. I was just glad my mate hadn’t been there when Nuno had come calling.
At least he was behind bars now, and Mom had been able to confirm her suspicions about how Nuno had learned where Kekoa was staying and which room was theirs. It had been in their employee records at the company office when Nuno had trashed it. The page had still been in his possession when he’d attempted to board his boat only to find himself in cuffs.
Within moments we were all in the Jeep and headed home, wind and the sound of road construction making conversation impossible. Maybe that was a good thing. We were all irritable, exhausted, and under caffeinated despite the cups we’d guzzled at the police station. The shitty part was that it was so late in the day that when we finally did crash, it would be tomorrow before we finally woke up again, and there were still so many things that had been left unsaid.
At the house, Kekoa headed straight for the laundry room with their bag of clothes, then to the kitchen for their container of lumpia, removing the lid, before studying the Ninja with a perplexed look on their face.
“Here, let’s spread them out in the middle of the tray and put the ribs and snapper on the other racks,” Lani said.
“Add the wontons too; I think they’re the crab-stuffed ones,” I said, passing them over too. “And we can warm up some red rice to go with it. Let me grab the deviled eggs too, then we can set the table.”
“Why don’t you let me get the eggs and rice, and you set the table since I still don’t know where anything is yet, and I’m still not up for the official tour,” Kekoa replied as he headed for thefridge, so I switched directions and started pulling plates and glasses out.
Napkins, silverware, I waited until the food was almost ready before I filled our glasses with ice and punch that I hoped wasn’t spiked because my liver still hadn’t recovered, or forgiven me, for last night.
Had we won a jug? I’d tried for the pineapple punch and again for the Fiji apple, and both times I’d lost by a hair’s breadth. It wasn’t green though, so my liver should be safe, though the uncles had offered up more booze than just the gallon jugs of spiked echo punch during tipsy lawn darts. Several other flavors had been introduced, and of course, they’d brought double. One for sampling purposes and one as a prize.
Lani hadn’t won one, had he? No, he’d won a case of that new ramen flavor everyone was raving about, a new shaving kit with several aftershave samples, and a gift certificate for seventy-five dollars at the Cineplex. I already knew which upcoming movie he’d choose. I just wondered if Kekoa would like it.
