Blood Orchids by Toby Neal Read Free Book Online Page B

newer black Toyota, Tundra or Tacoma model. He lives in this area since he was able to carry on a relationship with the girl for a while.”
    “Sounds like most of the younger guys in Hilo. Okay, I’ll get on it Monday.”
    “I got overtime authorized for you,” he said sheepishly. “I was hoping you’d want to get started tomorrow.”
    She stared at him, laughed.
    “Wow. What a turnaround. Okay, fine. Want to meet up?”
    They set a time, and he keyed it into his Blackberry. She walked him to the door.
    “See you tomorrow, Stevens.”
    “Call me Michael. Really.”
    “Doubtful,” she said, smiling.
    In the bath that evening, Lei leaned her head back against the cool porcelain, taking one of those deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth her therapist had recommended, hoping this time it would be different. This time she’d be able to reclaim one more thing he’d taken from her.
    It was getting to be more and more important that she manage the weird memory loss and blackout moments she’d struggled with since she was nine. She thought back over the conversation with Stevens, and decided the moment that had triggered her was when he said “she’d been a happy, normal kid.”
    She saw Kelly’s bloated, empty face again in her mind’s eye and felt her heart squeeze.
    At one time Lei had been a happy, normal kid too—but she’d already been messed up by her dad’s arrest and her mother’s lifestyle by the time Charlie Kwon got his hands on her.
    These thoughts weren’t helping her relax. She closed her eyes, but as soon as she did, she smelled the Stetson cologne Charlie always wore. She took another relaxation breath, blowing out the remembered scent. The next second Charlie was there, leaning over her, the soap in his hand.
    “Let me wash you,” he said. The pupils of his eyes were wide and black, swallowing her with their need.
    Lei reared up, the water sloshing. Keiki, who’d been napping on the bath mat, lunged to her feet. Dripping suds, Lei reached out a trembling arm to pet the dog’s wide chest.
    “My guardian. It’s okay, girl, I’m safe now.”
    Keiki subsided with a whuff, her ears still swiveling for possible danger. Lei’s heart was still thudding, and she dried a shaking hand on a towel and thumbed open her phone, speed dialing Aunty Rosario at her restaurant in California.
    “Baby girl!”
    “Hey Aunty. How’s the rat race treating you?’
    “Not bad. Been getting some new customers from the ads my busboy put in the mailboxes.”
    “Still serving the lilikoi pie?”
    “Of course. My regulars would mob me if I didn’t. ’Sides, how else can I say I serve Hawaiian food?”
    “What about those poi rolls you were doing?”
    “Turns off the truck drivers. They won’t eat anything purple. So what’s new in Hilo?”
    They chatted and when they hung up Lei was waterlogged and ready to get out, the flashback gone but not forgotten.
    She wondered if she’d ever be able to take a bath without his appearance. Charlie’d had a way of getting to her, twisting everything he did to her into something she’d wanted. Most of her childhood memories remained mercifully elusive but she knew the bath had been bad.
    The only thing she remembered for sure were his eyes.
    That night she hung her holster from the bedstead and fell asleep with the matte black, boxy shape of the Glock only inches away.

Chapter 9
    Lei took extra time in the mirror the next morning, whisking on a little mascara. She mashed in one last handful of CurlTamer, trying to get her hair to lie flat. It refused, as it usually did. When she realized what she was doing, she gave up and went to the station. She didn’t care what she looked like, she told herself, and felt the lie stick like a chicken bone in her throat.
    “Hey.” Stevens met her at the coffeepot in the break room, dark hair damp and spiky and cheeks red with razor burn. He smelled like soap. “Ready to get started?”
    “Of course.”