North leans in, whispering, “He’s the chief, the leader of the gang who had a contract out on you. But I had no idea he had a sister.”
Oh, shit! Now, so much of what she told me makes sense as to how she found Daniel’s contact, why she was so pushy about Rebecca at the gaming store. She had this huge plan while none of us had a single clue she was playing us.
Malia stays quiet, staring at him, appearing almost frightened.
“We’re family, and you stole from my office, bribed two of my men.” The chief almost hisses the words. “And you fucking brought a mainland haole into my territory without my say. Woman, you put a gun against my policies.” He takes one slow step toward her. “All of this in my name, sister. Against a man I turned down a job from, and my word is fucking law! But you gone and betrayed me in front of my men.”
“Makoa. Please. If you hadn’t lied to me, none of this would have happened.”
“What the fuck did you say to me?” he growls.
We’re all standing there listening, watching, not saying a word.
She’s trembling. “This whole time, you knew Rebecca was alive, and you damn lied to my face, pretending she was kidnapped, leaving me to grieve. How could you do that to me?”
There’s a long pause until the chief releases a deep exhale. “Look, sister, it’s not that simple. If anyone in our family had known she was alive, she’d be dead. Do you understand me? Her mother didn’t stop talking about her because she stopped caring. I went and told her the truth to help her sleep at night, but I also explained that no one else is to know, or they could be tortured into saying it. So I didn’t tell you to protect you.”
“You didn’t trust me?” Her shoulders shoot back.
“The rest of the family doesn’t know either, but you clearly had to keep poking around. You’re lucky I got a call from North after his boys recognized my men in his house,” he says, not softening it for her. “That call is the only reason I arrived here before this turned into something I can’t fix.” His voice drops lower. “Do you understand me, sister? If these three hadn’t held the line when Daniel came through that door, you could have ended up dead on this floor tonight at his hands.”
Malia folds in on herself, both hands covering her face, and a broken little sob slips through her fingers. Worse than loud, it’s thin and wrecked and ashamed.
The chief stands there looking at her for a long second, all that size and silence pressing down on the room. For one strange second, I think he’s going to haul her out of here. Instead, he drags her into his arms.
One huge hand goes to the back of her head and holds her there, not gentle, but not cruel either, just firm. “Fuck, sister,” he says into her hair, voice low and rough. “You made a real mess of things.”
Malia breaks at that. She clutches at the front of his shirt and cries properly now, shoulders shaking, face turned into his chest. “Fuck,” she chokes out. “I know. I’m sorry.”
His hand stays on the back of her head for a long moment.
“You owe these three men your life,” he states. “After trying to tear theirs apart.”
Malia pulls back and wipes at her face with both hands, dragging in shaky breaths that don’t do much to steady her. Then she turns toward us, and before anyone can stop her, she drops to her knees, facing the men.
The whole basement stills.
“I was wrong,” she says, voice trembling. “I was wrong about all of it.” She swallows and stares at the men in front of her with swollen eyes and ruined mascara. “I thought I was fixing something, assuming if I brought Daniel here and forced everything into the open, I could find what happened to Rebecca. But I only made it worse.” Her gaze flicks to me for one second, then drops. “I know ‘sorry’ is worth nothing after this. I know that. But I am sorry.”
No one speaks.
Luca’s hand is still warm at my hip. North’s chest rises and falls once behind me. Ace just stares at her. My men fought for our lives today because of a woman’s grief.
“We leave,” the chief says, the words coming out like the end of a fight. Then he glances down at his sister and adds, “What a fucking day.”
That almost shouldn’t be funny, but Luca is laughing. “It needs to end now!”
His eyes shift to Daniel groaning on the floor at North’s feet. “He’s mine,” he states as if anyone might challenge him.
“He’s yours, chief,” North adds. “I want him out of my house.”
Luca’s hand tightens once at my hip. “Take him. We don’t want him.”
The chief nods slowly.
He bends, fists the back of Daniel’s collar, and hauls him half upright like he weighs nothing. Daniel groans and tries to lift his head. His face is bloodied and swollen, one eye already closingup. For one second, his gaze finds mine through all that damage, and I wait for the fear to come back.
It doesn’t.
