“Go to your room,” he said before I could finish that sentence. “That’s an order.”
He ordered me to my room. And in the end, that’s what I did, too confused by what had just happened not to obey.
That night I dreamed of surfing, of wiping out on easy waves, again and again, no matter what tactics I tried.
And when I woke up, I found a gorgeous carry-on waiting just inside my door. It had DELSEY stamped into its supple leather handles. I didn’t know the brand, but I knew it was nicer than the set I’d brought from Sears just by looking at it.
Inside I found all my stuff. Every rash guard, every t-shirt, every surf suit and bikini he’d taken.
At first, I thought that meant that he was letting me go home. Since I’d showered again last night after our, ah…encounter, I got dressed quickly and started packing my things. I guess I could be a little late to camp if it meant getting out of here.
But halfway through packing, a knock sounded on the door. It was Chen.
“Hey, what’s going on,” he asked. “Got worried when you didn’t meet us downstairs.”
“Oh, I thought maybe I’d drive myself today because I was going home afterward. Han or somebody gave me a suitcase….”
Chen glanced at me, glanced over my shoulder at the open suitcase on my bed. Then he said, “No. That’s not happening.”
Chen then escorted me downstairs, where I discovered why he said “meet us” instead of “meet me” earlier.
Bui, the Vietnamese ST, sat in the front passenger seat where I usually did.
“You got two of us to hang out with from now on,” Chen joked, holding open the car’s back door for me.
So he was keeping me…and punishing me by doubling my guard. Maybe.
Actually, I wasn’t sure what any of this meant. Or last night.
But even more confusing than that…
For some reason—some reason I didn’t dare to name—I couldn’t get upset that this time, he didn’t send me away.
22
HAN
Han stayed away from her after that Fourth of July.
She was just a little surfer girl. No money, no influence, no power whatsoever. But she’d scared him, baited him until he lost control. And thus, won the game he had never admitted to playing with her—even to himself. Not until she forced the conversation.
He had 99% of the power in their relationship, but she held the portion that counted. Power over him. So he stayed away.
And as it turned out, she was correct about Kuang Jr. After the meeting with his half-brother, he waited and had not one, but two men watch over her. However, the 24K Dragon’s son never made a move.
He found out in late July why when Victor and Phantom called him yet again to suggest he come home.
Apparently, the 24K Dragon hadn’t taken Victor seriously when he ended the engagement. After letting a few months pass, he’d called another meeting and offered to let bygones be bygones… which had put Victor in the very awkward position of having to say no again.
Phantom shook his head on their three-way FaceTime call shortly after the second no. “Kuang was insulted back in April. Now he’s full-on pissed. No telling what that son of his will do. Now that the GC deal is done, you probably want to get back to make sure that DE package is ready for delivery.”
More code. Now that the Golden Circle deal was done, they wanted him to come home to handle the deal he’d set up when he’d spent December and January in Delaware.
But that deal wasn’t due until September. Plus, Han had several more inquiries from other organizations in countries where quality weed was hard to grow and illegal but still very much desired. And quite a few of the mahi’ai who’d said no to him before had changed their minds after hearing how seamlessly the Golden Circle deal went down. Chen had acquired a local boyfriend and had already volunteered to stay in Hawaii and snakehead for The Silent Triad, but he’d need training, so that would take a few more months….
Back in April, Han had gone along with Victor’s and Phantom’s suggestion to come home before abruptly changing his mind. This time he didn’t even pretend to consider it. “I still have got a few packages left to deliver before I go, and I’ve got a real chance to establish us here. So I need to stay for a couple more months.”
Victor and Phantom didn’t look that much alike for cousins. Victor had inherited his mother’s gorgeous looks, and it tempered out the hard slabs of his face. Phantom’s father, who was the brother of Victor’s father, had not married with beauty in mind, and therefore, in his words, “I get to keep all my pretty in my big dick and my even bigger wallet, like a real man.”
