“Fucking hell,” I groaned as I tilted my head back.
There are two of them.
“Or don’t warn a bitch,” she said. “I don’t care.”
“Cooter’s not dead,” Coochie said.
“Right.” Birdie turned to Biscuit and smiled. “You’re Polly’s boy.” Then she stepped forward and thumped his forehead. “Your momma told me to do that. You used to kick the shit out of her.”
Biscuit rubbed his forehead and laughed.Laughed. “Fucking hell. How many people did she tell?”
“And who’s this?”
“That’s Sugar,” Coochie said.
“Oh.” Birdie looked me up and down. “If you don’t kill her, you’ll keep her.”
What. The. Fuck.
“Let’s move this to church,” Whisker said.
Once everyone was seated and the doors were closed, Whisker looked at Birdie and asked, “Do you know what happened?”
“Yes. Coochie filled me in,” she said and reached into her purse. “Is this the part where I trade Cooter’s patch for her life? Sorry, I don’t know how this works. Never mind. I’m just going to give it to you now. It’s burning a hole in this bag as it sits.” She leaned forward and slapped the patch onto the table before she sat back with an audible huff.
The corner of Whisker’s lip twitched as he reached for his father’s patch. Fuck. He was trying not to smile.
Witches. These women were witches.
Coochie reached over and gently patted Birdie’s arm. “I’m right here, Bird.”
“Right,” she said and inhaled deeply. “I’m sure you’re aware of Kalani’s past, but I would like to tell you the story from my point of view. Oh, fuck. Wait. I meant to ask that. Sorry. Can I tell you about Kalani? May I? Fuck. I need weed.”
I nearly laughed when three joints rolled across the table from different directions.
Coochie grabbed the closest one, lit it, and handed it to Birdie. She took a couple of hits and grinned. “You fuckers have the good shit.”
Whisker nodded. “We do. All right, tell us your story.”
“It really starts with me, or my ex-husband, I guess. See, I married a piece of shit who turned our sons into pieces of shit,” she said and held up her hand to stop anyone from commenting. “I know that sounds harsh for a mother to say, but it’s thetruth. Carl and I got divorced when Chet and Chad were eight and nine years old. They lived with me until they were twelve and thirteen. After they moved in with him, they were never the same,” she said and shook her head. “So, my sons were assholes—to everyone but themselves. How Chad managed to get a woman like Kalani’s mother to marry him was beyond me, but I was thrilled. Anyway, I don’t know when things soured between them, but they did. When Hokulani told Chad she wanted a divorce, he told her he would agree to it if she signed over the house and Kalani.” Birdie paused and exhaled heavily. “He knew Hokulani would never give up Kalani. He also knew she couldn’t have given him the house even if she’d wanted to. The house was owned by a trust in Hokulani’s family. It still is.”
Birdie closed her eyes and looked down at the table. “This next part is important, but I don’t know if Kalani knows. I didn’t know until last night. And it shocked me to my core. So please, if she doesn’t know, may I be the one to tell her?”
Whisker nodded and gestured for her to continue.
“Chad hired Chet to kill Hokulani so he could get the house,” she said and visibly swallowed. “He was supposed to kill Kalani too, but Hokulani told him she wasn’t home.” Birdie held up the joint. “Thanks for this. Otherwise, I’d be a sobbing mess right now.”
“That’d be okay too,” Coochie said.
“For who?” Birdie asked, clearly offended. “I took a bullet for this club. I’ll be damned if I come in here crying.”
Holy shit.
“She what?” I asked.
Whisker sighed. “We’ll get to that in a minute, after Birdie finishes.”
“Right,” she said. “Okay, so, I discovered all that last night when I was looking for the patch. Prior to that, we thought Chet confessed his love for Hokulani, and he killed her becauseshe rejected him. Kalani was home and overheard some of their argument. She heard a thud and went to check on her mom. She saw her mother’s dead body, got a knife, and drove to her uncle’s house to kill him. When she got arrested, Chad didn’t do anything to help her. I called Hokulani’s parents and asked if they would help me pay for a lawyer for Kalani. They said they would, but they would have to borrow against the trust for the house. When Chad found out the trust would take their cut before paying out Hokulani’s life insurance, he got off his ass and pretended to care about Kalani. What he really cared about was keeping the lawyer’s hours down. Anyway, to make a long story short, she was found guilty of manslaughter based upon extreme mental or emotional disturbance and spent seven years in Hawaii State Hospital. I moved to California before she was released and got everything set up so she could come home with me. We lived there for seven years. Then we moved back here six months ago after Chad died.”
