I hated how scared she looked. Hated even more that her guesses about my current relationship with Han weren’t that far off.
“No. He’s just…a client, I swear,” I lied, nonetheless.
I did it for her sake, but guilt just about ate me alive as I added, “And I’m supposed to be giving him a lesson right now. So please let me go. You’re making me look bad, and like I said, I really need the money to pay back that loan.”
Mika looked at me, then back to my “client.”
We might not get to see each other as often as either of us wanted, but she was still my big sister. I could tell she didn’t completely believe me and was struggling with her instinct not to let me anywhere near the dangerous-looking guy standing in her boss’s carport.
But in the end, she handed me back the surfboard she’d carried up for me and said, “Promise to call after you’re done with your lesson.”
Her tone made your lesson sound like your obvious lie.
“I promise. Bye, love you,” I answered. And for her sake, I pasted on a light, breezy smile.
But that smile immediately disappeared when I shifted to face Han.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I whisper-hissed as soon as I reached him.
Han’s eyes stayed glued over my shoulder. And instead of answering my question, he asked, “Who is that woman you were with?”
HAN
The hot anger drained from Jasmine’s expression when Han asked her about the woman, she just hugged goodbye.
“No one,” she answered. Too quickly.
Then she busied herself with getting the surfboards she carried attached to the rack on top of her car.
A gentleman would have offered to help.
Han simply waited for her to complete the task with more patience than he felt.
And, as soon as she finished, he let her know, “I don’t tolerate lies from anyone I employ. You belong to me for the next two years, so I most certainly won’t tolerate them from you. Try again.”
Jasmine rubbed at her brow. “Okay, why are you asking?”
He held her gaze and answered, “I like threesomes.”
Right answer. Relief flashed across Jasmine’s face even as she answered, “Well, she’s my sister, so—eww, no. Absolutely not.”
Han’s stomach turned into wet concrete. Her sister.
Mika Hayes was her sister.
Jasmine, the woman he planned to spend his last week in Hawaii with, was the sister of his last target.
Several extremely foul Cantonese expletives fired off in his head.
“So, this is a private beach, but we could drive over to Makapuu. They’ve got great waves going today, according to this morning’s surf report.”
Jasmine’s words interrupted the expletive fest in his head.
He glanced at Mika Hayes. He knew for a fact that Hayes was her maiden name, so why didn’t she have the same last name as her sister?
A possible answer occurred to him in a flash.
“Matapang. Is that your maiden name?” he asked.
“I mean, it’s my mom’s maiden name that I used to surf under,” Jasmine started to answer. But then she narrowed her eyes at him, “Wait, were you google stalking me?”
“Yes,” he confessed, too knocked off-kilter to be self-conscious.
If anything, he was furious with himself for stopping when he did. He’d been afraid of falling into obsession as his chosen brother, Victor, had with his high school girlfriend. But just a few more articles and in-depth portraits might have revealed her connection to his target.
It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. You have a job to do.
He glanced again at Mika Hayes. She still stood at the top of the steps leading down to the beach. And she glared back at him as if she knew exactly what he was. But if she truly had access to that information, she’d do more than scowl. She’d grab her little sister and run.
“I’ll drive,” he said before Jasmine could ask him any follow-up questions about his snooping.
“It’s my Jeep,” Jasmine started to protest.
“Two years of doing what I say. Whatever I say,” Han reminded her, his voice hard and unrelenting.
She gritted her jaw but handed over the keys.
And a few moments later, they drove away with Mika Hayes staring after them as if a devil had claimed her sister.
“So, your sister lives here on the island?” he asked a few minutes later as they sped down the Kalaniana?ole Highway.
“She used to,” Jasmine answered with a sigh. “But then her husband died, and she moved to Connecticut. She’s only here for the summer, working for this super-rich guy from the Middle East.”
“That sounds like a cushy job,” Han said, careful to keep his tone casual. “You couldn’t ask her to help you out with your father’s debt?”
Jazz shook her head. “No, absolutely not. The money he used to gamble was pretty much her entire pay for the summer. She gave almost all of it to our dad, and she’s giving him her last check too. I couldn’t ask her for more. She’s a single mom, and she’s got this tragic backstory—basically, her husband turned out to be working for this sex trafficking ring. He tried to kill her when she found out, but then, he got shot up before he could. It was just awful, and her in-laws are still harassing her about it—so no, I’m not going to tell her I owe money to the Chinese mafia.”
