Leilanie felt an actual physical jolt, her heart skipping, then racing, when Michelle told her Samson was in Hawaii.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God” she kept muttering to herself as she threw the girl’s clothing into one bag. She pulled her own clothes off hangers; hangers snagging and clanging to the floor in her haste. She stuffed her clothes in her suitcase haphazardly. Running next into the bathroom, she gathered toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and personal items they would need.
She had to admit that she had always feared Samson, even while living with him and Omar in France. He had this strange, creepy, hungry look when he gazed at her. And it was obvious he was a bit mentally retarded. She remembered the police coming to her home in France, telling her about a peeping tom who peered into bedroom and bathroom windows at women undressing in their small French town.
She had known immediately it had to be Samson, even without the description they provided. Too bad she hadn’t pointed the finger then. He wouldn’t be here in Hawaii if she had accused him of perverted behavior.
Michelle said that Samson had attacked Rod and Mike with a knife earlier tonight. And he was probably the man who had tried to break into her house.
Samson knew where she lived! She had to get out of here fast!
The other thought that plagued her was that Samson wouldn’t be here if Omar didn’t command it. Samson was totally loyal to Omar and would do anything for him. Cruel beatings, rape, and murder were all in a day’s work for Samson.
Omar himself was much more deadly than Samson, though. No doubt he was furious with her. After all, she’d run away from him, taking his daughters. So she was in terrible danger. He was capable of hurting her badly as punishment. He probably had Samson here in Hawaii for that; to disable her so she couldn’t defend the girls. Then Samson could take her children.
Leilanie couldn’t abide the thought that Samson might steal away the girls and present them to Omar. The girls needed her. No one else, not even Michelle, their biological mother, could understand and care for them like she could. Even Michelle had realized that. If Omar got them back into his clutches, he might pervert their wonderful innocence. Especially if they developed psychic power. They were only four years old.
Leilanie sighed. She had guessed from the moment she saw the burnt-down candle in the girl’s bedroom in France that one of them, or maybe all the girls, had strange powers. She hadn’t wanted to admit it, but it was a fact. They turned lights on and off without touching an electrical switch; lit candles without any contact. Toys moved about the house without human touch. She had tried to ignore the signs because she desperately wanted them to be happy, normal kids, and live wonderful, joyful lives.
Leilanie gently woke each of the girls, trying not to panic because they were sleepy and slow, taking what seemed like forever to get dressed. Then she tucked them safely in their car seats and whipped out of her driveway, heading across the island to Waikiki.
She checked in her rearview mirror often, still feeling spooked. It took only a few minutes for the girls in the back seat to go to sleep. She’d told them they were taking a wonderful vacation in a grand, big hotel in Waikiki.
Now that she had the time, she recounted some of the things she’d noticed about the girls. She had mostly ignored the paranormal events, like lights turning off and on, and toys suddenly appearing in their arms, hoping they’d grow out of the psychic abilities as they got older.
But one thing that really scared her was when Ivory and Shelly played what they called the Suck-Suck-Suck game on Petal.
She’d walked into their bedroom and Ivory and Shelly were chanting, “Suck, suck, suck.” Their little fingers were spread out, pointing at Petal. And suddenly Petal fell down, flat on her back.
Leilanie ran to Petal. She was unconscious.
She turned to Ivory and Shelly, saying, “What did you do to your sister?”
The girls said they were just playing a game.
Leilanie tried to revive Petal, gently shaking the little girl and patting her cheeks. Nothing she did had any effect. Leilanie was becoming panicky, but she could feel the child was still breathing. She seemed to be comatose.
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Shelly said. “We’ll fix her. We play this game all the time.”
The two girls pointed at Petal and said, “Push, push, push.”
Petal woke up laughing and said, “That was fun! I had a great dream. Do it again.”
“No,” Leilanie yelled. “I don’t want you to do that ever again. One of you girls could get hurt. What if you hadn’t been able to wake Petal?”
The girls looked at Leilanie innocently, like she was going crazy over nothing, shaking their heads. “But we do it all the time.”
Leilanie made them promise they wouldn’t play Suck-Suck-Suck again. It really scared her. For a few seconds, which had seemed like hours, she thought she’d lost Petal forever.
Now, however, she wondered if they could play the Suck-Suck-Suck game against a giant of a man. A man like Samson.
What Leilanie didn’t know, as she drove into Waikiki that night, was that she left her home just in time. If she had been slower in leaving, she would have had a ruinous personal experience with Samson and Omar.
Samson was furious about his botched murder attempt earlier. He would have killed Rod for sure if that other guy, Mike, hadn’t been fighting like a lunatic.
Now he drove to the Honolulu International Airport to pick up Omar, who’d taken a red-eye from California. Omar had had a long trip from France to New York, then across the country to California, and finally on to Hawaii.
Even though Samson had been with him since he was a child, he was still afraid of Omar’s fury. He was sure to be in a bad mood with all the time-zone changes he’d gone through in the last couple of days. His mood would only get worse, because Samson failed on both of his missions. He hadn’t acquired Omar’s daughters, and he’d botched his last chance to kill Rod Nakamura this evening; his last possibility to do the deed before Omar arrived.
Samson parked in the arrivals garage at the airport parking structure and hurried to baggage claims. He was rushing now because he’d been paranoid about the police following him after he attacked Rod. He had dodged around the streets in Honolulu, eyes peeled on the rearview mirror, until he was sure hadn’t been sighted and he could go pick up Omar safely. It caused him to be late.
At least he had hurt Rod badly, Samson thought. He nursed that idea for a little comfort. Rod would probably be out of commission for quite a while. That would leave Michelle alone and vulnerable, like Omar intended her to be. All was not lost.
Samson looked around and spotted Omar waiting for his luggage. With his shaved head, beard and mustache, and padded clothing making him appear rotund, Omar was well disguised, but Samson picked him out easily at the baggage carousel. Samson sighed with relief, went over to Omar and tapped him on the shoulder, thankful he wasn’t too late.
They’d been together for so many years, they didn’t need words. Omar was used to Samson not being able to speak. He just turned around and looked at him with raised brows. Samson shook his head.
“Okay. Let’s get the car.” Omar sighed and glanced at his watch. “We’ll go get the girls right now. It’s late. They’ll all be asleep. We’ll have Chloe and Louise baby-sit the girls after we get them separated from Leilanie.”
Omar was a secretive person, but he was used to talking freely and openly to Samson. Samson couldn’t reply, and he lacked the ability to tell anyone what Omar said, anyway. It was like talking to a pet.
Omar muttered and swore all the way to Kaneohe. While doing so, he revealed his plans to Samson. Soon, Omar predicted, he would be back in France, in his home, but Michelle would replace Leilanie, and his girls would get the special training only he could provide.
He added that Leilanie would be suitably punished for her audacity in stealing away his children.
Samson nodded, agreeing in guttural and enthusiastic noise
s to everything Omar said. He pointed at himself when Omar said Leilanie needed to be disciplined. Omar looked away from the road at Samson, and nodded. He would let Samson punish Leilanie.
Samson threw a fist in the air. He would hurt her badly. Then rape her. He’d wanted to do that such for a long time, he was actually salivating at the thought. He closed his mouth to keep from dribbling.
When they arrived in Kaneohe, Samson pointed out the way to Leilanie’s house.
“It’s just a shack,” Omar exclaimed as he parked.
The two men walked silently, but quickly to the house. Only one dim light was on in the house. All the drapes were drawn shut.
Omar went up the steps and put his hand on the door, confident he could get through the inadequate and flimsy lock. He pulled his hand back, hissing. He’d been zapped by an electrical charge that stung like a hornet.
He shook his stinging hand, telling Samson, “Michelle put wards on Leilanie’s house for protection.”
Omar wondered how Michelle learned a protection spell. There was only one person who could have taught her. Alice Holcum, a very powerful witch. They’d had run-ins in the past, he and Alice. He threatened her so forcefully that now she just taught witchcraft, instead of practicing the art herself, knowing Omar would kill her if she didn’t cease using her powerful magical abilities.
Omar broke through the wards, now that he knew the hindrance was a puny magical spell, and the lock clicked open. The problem was, he could tell immediately that no one was there. No heat signatures of people on the premises.
If there was anyone inside, he would have felt the electromagnetic halo that surrounds each person. No one home in the middle of the night meant they must have been warned, Omar thought.
“They’re gone,” Omar commented savagely. He went inside anyway, with Samson following, and turned on the light in the living room.
He found the beautiful crystal rock on the window ledge in the dining room. There were grains of salt still around it. Another of Michelle’s protective idols. He smashed it. Samson, watching him, started trashing the house. The tiny chandelier in the dining room fell on the dining room table. He knocked all the hanging plants to the floor in the living room; knocked over the big banana plant in the corner and used his shoe to grind the dirt into the floor. He knocked over tables, chairs, and the bookshelves.
Omar watched Samson and finally said, “Enough. Leilanie will be terrified when she gets home.”
Chapter 21
Michelle made the phone call to Leilanie from Rod’s bedside, warning her that Samson was in Hawaii. She hated leaving Rod, but needed to go to the Outrigger Hotel to make reservations for Leilanie and the girls. She wanted to be there to make sure they arrived safely, too.
She had asked Leilanie to go to the Outrigger Hotel because that’s where the professor, Vincent Middleton, was staying. He said he really wanted to meet her daughters. She’d call him in the morning and let him know that Leilanie and the girls were at the same hotel. It was also where Heather’s parents and some of her relatives from the mainland were staying too, in anticipation of the wedding.
Rod was asleep again, so Michelle kissed him and quietly left.
It was now four o’clock in the morning. She made a quick stop at her condo to feed Lucifer. She had to stay for a while because he was acting needy, almost tripping her as she went into the kitchen. He started yowling loudly as she left. Clearly he’d wake all her neighbors, Michelle thought. She went back inside and opened her purse. He leaped inside.
It was comforting to have her cat with her after what happened to Rod. Lucifer was smart enough to duck down inside her purse when she went to the hotel, so no one would see him.
Michelle sat in the Outrigger lobby after reserving a suite with two queen sized beds. Leilanie arrived a few minutes later. The girls were really excited and hugged her legs, their cute little faces smiling up at her. They all went up to inspect the room.
“This is way too much,” Leilanie said as she looked around the luxurious room overlooking the ocean. “I’ll pay you back.
“Rod woke up after surgery and told me to,” Michelle said. “He wants you and the girls safe. You need to stay here ‘till Samson is caught.”
Lucifer poked his head out of her purse. The three girls were amazed and pleaded to see him. Michelle put the cat on one of the beds. As she did so she whispered to Lucifer, “These girls are my family. Be nice!”
Entranced, the girls took turns gently picking him up and petting him. Michelle was surprised that Lucifer didn’t yowl or squirm in the girls’ arms. He seemed to know they were practically babies and was gentle with them, much to Michelle’s relief. Normally, when Lucifer didn’t like someone, or sensed danger, he would viciously attack, clawing and biting.
“I have to go back to Rod,” Michelle said after each of the girls had petted Lucifer for a while. “Time for Lucifer to get back in my purse.”
Shelly carefully deposited Lucifer inside Michelle’s purse.
The girls were happily jumping on the beds when she left.
Leilanie was laughing at the children’s antics and whispered to Michelle, “They’ll never get back to sleep tonight. And tomorrow they’ll be begging me for a kitten.”
The wedding was now two day away.
Mike was nervous because he hadn’t met Heather’s parents. On the way to the airport to pick them up, Heather was really excited. “You’ll love them.”
“But will they like me? Will they approve?” Mike murmured.
“You’re worried about that? Really?”
“I’m half Hawaiian. Some haoles don’t like that.”
“My parents aren’t stupid white people. You’re Hawaiian royalty, related to King Kamehameha, even. My parents are not prejudiced, either,” Heather said with some vehemence, defending her parents. “They’ll love you for all the reasons I do. Not because you’re part Hawaiian, or because your family is Hawaiian royalty, but because you’re you.”
“Distantly related to the royal family. I just hope they like me. And all my relatives.”
Mike had experienced some prejudice when he’d gone to college at Oklahoma University to study meteorology. He was a stranger, an ‘other’ to the Midwesterners. A sensitive person, Mike felt it intensely, even when the people there tried to act like he wasn’t an outsider. He knew they considered him a little odd.
Heather looked at him sideways, deciding to change the subject. Mike was nervous; the same way she’d been when she met his family. She knew for sure her parents would like Mike. “Did all the grooms-men get their tuxes?”
“Yeah. I’m a little worried about Rod, though. He was so badly hurt. He left the hospital against doctor’s orders yesterday, just so he could be my best man.”
“I was worried too, but Michelle‘s working her magic. Healing him.”
Mike shook his head. “A few years ago, I never would have believed it.
“Michelle’s daughters have it too, the psychic abilities.”
“So Omar wants them back, and they might be in danger from Samson.”
“Samson has to lay low,” Heather said. “The police have his description and are searching for him. I think the girls will be safe. It would break their little hearts if they couldn’t be flower girls in our wedding.”
Mike looked sideways at Heather as he parked in the arrivals parking lot, remembering how he’d first met her.
Heather had been in the hospital, having been hit by a lightning bolt during a storm on the windward side of the island. Since Mike had a degree in meteorology and was a news weatherman, that was interesting to him. He wanted to interview the woman, and maybe do a TV news public interest story about any injuries this woman had sustained and how she was recovering.
For Mike, it came as close as he’d ever understood of love at first sight. When he looked through the hospital window, before even meeting Heather, he decided she was the cutest woman he’d ever seen. He forgot all about a possible loc
al TV news story, visiting her every day.
It took a long time for her to trust him enough to tell him that Omar was responsible for casting the lightning bolt, when she and Michelle sneaked on the beach to watch one of his Wiccan ceremonies.
“I can hardly wait to marry you,” Mike said, thinking back to the chance meeting that happened because of his scientific curiosity.
“Me too!”
They walked hand and hand into the terminal and checked the arrivals boards, then went to the gate. The plane was early and an enormous crowd was just exiting.
Heather was a beautiful woman, so Mike wasn’t surprised that her parents were both attractive people. Heather kept hold of Mike’s hand hurrying toward them as soon as they came through the tunnel, smiling and waving at Heather.
“My, aren’t you a stunning couple. We could hardly wait to meet you, Mike,” Heather’s mom, Margaret, said. She had blond hair and blue eyes, like Heather. She wrapped her arms around Heather. Next, she turned and hugged Mike, smiling up at him.
Joe, Heather’s father, was handsome, with salt and pepper hair and blue eyes, too. He hugged his daughter, then clapped Mike on the shoulder. “We’ve sure been looking forward to finally meeting you, Mike.”
Heather’s parents usually visited her a couple of times each year, but Joe, her father, had some serious heart issues, so they hadn’t been able to visit for a while.
Both of their smiles looked genuine to Mike. He mentally gave a relieved exhalation and said, “After you get settled in your hotel, we’ll take you to dinner, along with my parents. Then, later tonight, we have the wedding rehearsal.”
On the way to the Outrigger Hotel, where Heather’s parents would be staying, Heather told them about the bridal shower Michelle had secretly arranged for her.
Heather was so busy getting the final count for the wedding supper, and making sure all the bridesmaids were fitted for their dresses that day, she balked at taking time off. Michelle was insistent, so she reluctantly went to the beach with her.
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