A Hero For Ku'uipo (Delta Force Hawaii Book 2)

by Reina Torres

  Mace handed Ku‘uipo a bottle of the lilikoi cider. “You’re going to make them rich when we get back to Oʻahu. I think Shado’s going to broker a deal for them to sell us whole shipments.”

  Ku‘uipo took a sip and set the bottle down. “I can’t help if you guys have good taste.”

  Shado shrugged and took a long drink from his own bottle. “Good is good.” He looked around the group and nodded. “You’ve got some good people here working for you. The guys we worked with earlier are eager and intelligent.”

  Train saw her smile beaming with pride.

  “Good is good.”

  Mace almost choked on his cider. “Careful, Train. Shado just might charm your girl.”

  Ku‘uipo touched Train’s arm and trailed her fingers down to his hand before she folded their fingers together. “He can charm me all he likes, but I’m happy where I am. And happy with who I’m with.”

  Shado held up his hands in surrender when he looked back at Train. “Hey now. Mace is just trying to get me in trouble.”

  “I know,” Train shrugged, “besides Baron’s the only one I’d worry about.”

  Ku‘uipo turned to look at him. “Why?”

  “He thinks you’re breaking up the band.” Mace drew her attention with his answer. “Ajax, Baron, and Train are housemates.”

  She nodded. “Hi‘ilani was telling me that they’re looking for a place for after the wedding.”

  Shado shuddered. “Can you imagine? A married couple living in a house with Baron and Train?”

  Ku‘uipo laughed softly. “As long as the house was designed as a multi-family house? Sure. I take it you’ve got one of those old bungalows from the pre-war era?”

  Shado nodded. “It’s nice. I’ve been thinking of moving in when they have that empty room.” He elbowed Mace. “I called dibs.”

  Train sighed. “No one is calling dibs. Jackals.”

  “No,” Mace laughed, “I’m Mace. And he is Shado.”

  Ku‘uipo looked at Shado. “You’re not local.”

  “Ouch!” He covered his heart with a hand. “Is it that easy to tell?

  She shrugged. “You’ve got that California feel to you.”

  “Got me.” Shado grimaced. “Buena Park. My mom and dad moved to San Gabriel a few years ago.”

  Ku‘uipo giggled. “My aunt married an AJA. Moved to Gardena. She swears they have the best Japanese markets there.”

  Shado shook his head. “San Gabriel does, but I’d drive to Gardena for mochi.”

  The two continued for a bit with Mace and Train looking on.

  “Sorry,” Ku‘uipo turned to place a kiss on his cheek, “it must sound like we’re speaking in code, but it’s not. Really. AJA is just short of Americans of Japanese Ancestry. I’m not one, but AJA connections are strong between Hawai‘i and California, mostly from World War II.”

  Shado’s smile dipped a little. “My folks are from California, but my great uncle and his family live on the Big Island. In Kona. Still, it’s a little different to be here in Hawai‘i. Even slang that my family uses in California is different from the kind that Hawai‘i folks use.”

  Train gave his friend a shrug. “Well, count me clueless.”

  Ku‘uipo gave Shado a wink. “We can talk later so their heads don’t explode, but do I really have to call you Shado?”

  Laughing, he reached across the picnic table. “Daniel Shimizu.”

  Ku‘uipo shook his hand. “I can deal with Daniel.”

  Mace laughed. “Danno if he’s being a pain.”

  Shado glared at him. “You’re going to pay for that.” He stood and stepped away from the picnic table. “Come on, Mace. It’s our turn to walk around with the security guys.”

  As the two walked away, Train pulled Ku‘uipo into his arms and smoothed her hair back from her face as some of Uluwehi’s friends practiced their music for the opening of the hotel.

  He looked up at them and caught the eye of the guitar player. “Play a love song?”

  The man laughed. “They’re all love songs.”

  Ku‘uipo leaned her head back on his arm. “You’re a silly man, Efrain Figueroa.”

  “And you’re too damn beautiful for my peace of mind, Ku‘uipo. My sweetheart.”

  “Ah, we get it.” The musicians talked for a moment or two before one of the men holding an ʻukulele gave them a wink and started to play.

  A soft round of enthusiastic applause woke Baron up in time to hear the opening lines of the song.

  Train frowned at the lyrics, this wasn’t the song he thought they’d play, and he felt Ku‘uipo shift in his arms before she reached up her hand to pull him down until his lips were by her ear. “What are they playing?”

  “The song kind of speaks for itself. Listen.”

  And he did. The words talked about love under a waterfall, the midnight call of an owl and the whispers not just from the ocean but from one lover to another.

  The singer looked at them as he sang the chorus.

  “And you, Ku‘uipo bring these moments to my mind…”

  Train pulled her closer, protecting her just as much as he drew a warm reassurance that she was… for these next few days… his.

  And maybe longer than that.

  Thirteen

  The lock wasn’t all that hard to pick. He’d done his share of petty crimes when he was a young man in Tokyo. Some skills, like being able to read people, didn’t go away. They might become rusty with misuse, but even then, it was its own accomplishment to prove to oneself that they could be polished and buffed back into their original shape.

  And new skills could always be learned.

  Like finding a young man, determined to wallow in his own self-pity, but lacking the funds to wipe out the memory of his failure.

  Such a man was sitting on the floor before a wall-sized wide screen television, staring into the blank screen. An open bottle of cheap liquor just a quick reach away.

  Sato stood behind the young man waiting for him to know that he wasn’t alone, but he hardly stirred, even when Sato pulled out a chair from the formal dining set and sat down.

  “Have you given up?”

  To his credit, Miles made an effort to back away and put some distance between them. “Who are you?”

  “That’s what you’re worried about?” Sato leaned an elbow on the table and reached into his pocket.

  Miles reached out and grabbed the neck of the bottle and made a half-hearted attempt to hold it like a weapon. All he managed to do was spill what was left of the alcohol on the floor. “Look, whoever you are. I don’t have any money to steal. This isn’t even my house.”

  Withdrawing his money clip from his pocket, Sato let his hand rest on his thigh as he sized Miles up. “It’s not your house. I know that.

  “But while I know that you are desperate enough to break into this house, you’re also smart enough to choose this one because it belongs to friends of your mothers.

  “And while you are resourceful enough to find out that they are away for an extended vacation in Europe, you are not smart enough to hide your tracks well enough that I could find you easily with a few calls. Your dealer is money hungry enough to sell out your location for a few hundred dollars.”

  Miles’ complexion was more grey than anything else. “Are you here to kill me?”

  Sato held out his hands to his sides. “Do I have a gun?”

  Miles shook his head, but he didn’t take his gaze off Sato.

  The boy still had some survival instincts after all.

  “I have a job offer for you.”

  Miles wiped at his nose with the back of his hand and the gesture tilted his head back enough that Sato could see the red-rimmed eyes and the dry lips. He could also see the narrowed lines of his face.

  “Although at this point, perhaps just the offer of food would be enough to entice you to do the job.”

  “I don’t need charity.”

  “You need a bath.” Sato’s nose wrinkled. “I can smel
l you from here.”

  Wrinkling his upper lip, Miles gave him a glare. “They turned off the water.”

  Sato fought to calm his anger. The boy didn’t know when to keep quiet, but he could still be useful. “I know what Jenkins asked you to do, but he is as ineffectual as you have apparently been.

  “However, I am wondering if Jenkins was lying to me.”

  He saw the uptick in Mile’s eyebrows. Saw the bald-faced interest and the way he licked at his lips. Miles saw opportunity.

  “Are you the problem? Or is he?”

  Turning slightly on the hardwood floor, Miles folded his legs and narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “What if I said he was? What are you going to do?”

  “I am going to offer you a chance to prove yourself.”

  Miles shook his head. He was likely having trouble believing that an opportunity had fallen into his lap. “What do you want?”

  “What I want,” Sato met his eyes with a stoic look, “is what I have wanted from the beginning. I want you to stop them from opening that hotel. When they fail, you will have succeeded.”

  Miles rubbed at his eyes, weary and in pain. “They’ll never let me work for them again. Not since they think I helped to start the fire.”

  Sato ground his back teeth together. “You do not have to work there to cause trouble. You should know that with your experience.”

  Miles looked caught. He didn’t expect for someone to know about his past troubles, but to a man like Sato, a man with more than enough money to open doors, and files, the past was never left in the past.

  Lifting his hand, Sato pulled the money clip from the wad of bills he’d withdrawn from his pocket and counted out nearly a dozen bills.

  From the wide-eyed look on Miles’ face, he knew exactly how much money he was going to give him.

  “This is only a taste of what you will earn if you finish the job.”

  “How much?” Miles’ tone was bright, his eyes pin-pointed and shrewd. “How much more?”

  Sato looked around the room and waited for Miles to notice his displeasure.

  “This money is for you to clean up. You look like you should be in a halfway house instead of a nice hotel. You will eat, you will drink… water. You will not use anything pharmaceutical in nature until you are done with the job. The money I will pay you after will keep you drunk and high for the near future.

  “And then, I might hire you. Give you the chance to lead that you have always wanted. That your mother has denied you.”

  Distrust. He saw it in Miles’ face.

  But he also saw hunger.

  “I want it done before the opening. I want it to be big. Big enough that no one will let this farce of a training hotel to continue.”

  “You don’t know Ku‘uipo,” Miles shook his head. “To do that,” he laughed, a brittle and coarse sound, “I’d have to get rid of her. She doesn’t understand quitting.”

  “Then,” Sato hated how long it was taking him to lead Miles in the right direction, “do what needs to be done.”

  He could tell by the dark look in the boy’s eyes that he understood the meaning of his words.

  “Now, clean up your mess and figure out what you are prepared to do. You don’t have much time.”

  The world around her was wild with color and energy and Ku‘uipo had never been more excited to mark off the days on her calendar. Even the countdown to Christmas break during school had never been this exciting.

  Miles had been replaced by a young woman with an excellent recommendation from one of the boutique hotels in Waikiki. She had promise but lacked the experience necessary to make her a truly exceptional manager. Now, at the Kailani Palms she would have the chance to get a strong foundation and when she returned to the hotel in about a year, Ku‘uipo knew she was going to make herself and her hotel proud.

  “Kim!”

  As Ku‘uipo walked up to Kim’s group, the young woman from Nuʻuanu turned around and smiled. “Hey, I wanted to introduce you to our newest group!” Kim introduced each of the college students to her, giving a few interesting facts about each. The students were all at ease and looked ready for anything.

  Congratulating Kim on her group, Ku‘uipo gave them all a heartfelt welcome and promised to meet with each and every one of them before the opening.

  “Until then,” she assured them, “if you have any questions or concerns, please bring them to Kim or me and we’ll make sure you get your answers.”

  The students all waved and smiled as she moved on, heading off in search of the housekeeping meeting, she let out a sigh of relief. Kim was certainly a good choice after all of the drama they’d had over Miles.

  Ku‘uipo had been waiting for Miles’ mother to call and demand an accounting of why she’d let him go from the program, but Olivia Kirkendahl hadn’t called or even written.

  For the moment, it was something she would let go until the opening. Ku‘uipo just didn’t have the energy to deal with an angry mom, let alone one who was a high-powered hotel executive.

  As she crossed over toward the construction area where two crews were working on rebuilding the pavilion, she stopped to shake hands with the students from the carpentry program from Honolulu Community College. A generous real estate developer had paid for their airfare and boarding for a handful of days in hopes of having the pavilion rebuilt in time for the opening festivities of Kailani Palms.

  It was crazy how genuine aloha inspired others to exercise the same kind of spirit. Truly inspiring.

  “Hey!”

  She recognized Daniel’s voice easily. It was still taking a lot of effort to consider him Shado, but she was trying since he really did seem to like the name better than the one he was given at birth.

  “What’s going on in your part of the world?”

  Shado smiled and gestured to the two security guards standing beside him. “We were just going over the grounds and looking for the areas that might cause the most issues with unwelcome visitors.”

  That took her aback. Looking at one training guard and then the other she gave them a smile. “And what have you learned?”

  The guy was quiet, but Ku‘uipo didn’t believe he was any less interested or any less intelligent than his female counterpart who easily spoke in a clear and concise manner. “Well first, we learned that Mister Shimizu isn’t one to ‘tell’ us much of anything. He’s one of those teachers that makes us think. And he’s tough too, but he’s not mean.”

  Shado shook his head. “And Miss Au doesn’t believe in calling her teachers by their first names.”

  Ku‘uipo chuckled at the two.

  “And you, Mister Foster?”

  Both of the guards looked at her with curious expressions. They hadn’t expected her to know their names.

  “I don’t mind first names,” he smiled, “but I like the way he teaches. He makes us think, but he also makes his own perspective known and why he thinks that way. He’s got loads of experience in patrolling a property. I’m pretty sure he could teach my cousin a thing or two and he works for HPD on Oʻahu.”

  “The first thing to learn about that,” Ku‘uipo leaned in and lowered her voice but everyone in the small group could hear it easily, “is not to antagonize your cousin.”

  Foster nodded. “My grandmother would kick my a- Sorry.”

  Ku‘uipo waved it off. “Just not in front of the guests, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Waving at their group, she continued on across the grass, headed for the main storage area. As she went, she took a quick look at her cottage deep in the shadows of the palm trees. Even with all of this excitement, what she was looking forward to was some peace and quiet.

  Maybe even a long soak in her tub with some company.

  That would be the best end to her day, because in a little less than a week Efrain would be headed back to Oʻahu.

  There were no guarantees past that, so she just kept her mind on what she had.

  This time. With this man.

/>   Train was pressure washing the sign at the front of the hotel when Detective Santos pulled into the driveway. Turning off the washer, Train dried his hands on a towel he’d set nearby and walked up to the car.

  Palani greeted him with a handshake, but not a smile. “Is Ku‘uipo around?”

  Silence fell between them and Train held back his answer.

  The detective shook his head and then lifted his chin to look into Train’s eyes. “I know you think you’re protecting her right now. I get it. You care.

  “But so do I. I’ve been working on this island as a police officer for a little over ten years. I’ve got a fairly good ‘gut’ for these kinds of things and I also know that she’s going to want this information.”

  Train put a hand on the open window frame of the car. “She’ll have it. I’m not trying to stop you from giving it to her, but I want to get a little head start. If you can tell me what you’re going to tell her, maybe I can come up with a plan ahead of time. Make this easier to hear.”

  Palani moved away from his car and looked Train over from head to toe, and back again.

  “Just what are you?”

  Train felt himself tense up. On alert not just because of the question, but the look in the officer’s eyes.

  “Don’t get all macho on me, man. You’re Army. Sure. I get that, but you’re not run of the mill Army. You’ve got skills.”

  Leaning against the side of the unmarked vehicle, Train let his body relax. Let a smile curl up at the corners of his mouth. “Don’t we all?”

  “Look,” Palani sighed, “go ahead, play this like it’s nothing, but I know it’s not true. Just like I know you’re not just sleeping with her because she’s got you hot and bothered.”

  Train advanced before the detective could even try and mount a defense. “Are you watching us?”

  Palani didn’t move. He didn’t try to pull away. Or fight back.

  “I have eyes and the way she looks when she talks about you speaks volumes. I don’t have to put a camera in her place to know that’s where you spend your nights.