Page 235 of Lau Ahi
James’ head was lolling back and forth and I watched blood trickle out of his mouth.
“Ori, that was rude.” Asha was censuring me and I immediately remembered that James’ ass couldn’t talk.
“My fault. I forgot Auntie Yolo snatched your shit. My fault; that was inconsiderate. Ablest even. I’ll make sure I do better. But now you both have to suffer for fucking with my mother,me and ending the life of my father. For trying to put the FEDs inConsortiumbusiness all cause you couldn’t get your way and then putting everyone at even greater risk by backing out of the deal. Thank God you were just as inept with this as everything else or else we all would’ve been in serious shit. Oh, and for even thinking you could covet my wife, burn in hell.”
I hit the button allowing the kiln to drizzle out the molten rock. The first drops, glowing bright neon red before they hit the ground causing steam to rise from the ground.
“What the hell?” Theo made the mistake of looking up as more lava spilled from the kiln hitting him squarely in the face. He didn’t get the chance to scream as the lava burned up all the liquid in his skin and mouth before sliding down and continuing to burn its way down his body setting his clothes on fire. James was crying as he watched his son burn. I allowed him the chance to live long enough to torture him with the sight of his failure before releasing more of the lava from the vat and pouring down over his head like a sheet of raining fire. The amount of lava that I released caused the floor to destabilize beneath their chairs and I knew they would be stuck in the concrete. It wouldn’t matter. These bodies would be incinerated before the end of the night and the kiln would be in storage until it was time to use it again.
Hopefully, I would have a little while before that was necessary.
My wife and I stood there silently as the flames continued to consume them. All that was left at the end of it were their skeletons covered in the still smoldering but hardening lava. Their deaths completed the business that needed to be done to make my takeover official.
Asha squeezed my hand and I knew she felt just as relieved as I did that it was all over.
“You know what? Maybe I was wrong. It might be a minute before I want barbecue again.”
The windows from the balcony off the bedroom were open the noise from the city filtering in. After we’d gotten home, I wasted no time washing the blood off my body and my wife, my mistress, the one who ruled every part of me, rewarded me beautifully with unfettered access to her body. Like the man starved I was, I licked every inch of her skin my lips kissing away the scars on her thighs with more reverence since I knew where they’d come from. We’d gotten dressed and of course were late to our coronation dinner. It lasted until the wee hours of the morning and no one thought of the bodies that had been encased in rock and buried never to be found again. To the world my uncle and cousin were thieves who were on the lam with active warrants issued but no one would put forth the effort to find them. They had no assets or loved ones to give for them so they would fade into the background.
The same couldn’t be said for the woman who had harmed my wife. That Margo’s ass was going to serve the rest of her life in prison was a small consolation for the way she’d tortured my wife and then befriended her. I’d always vowed that I would never hit a woman but I thought about losing all my honor to choke the life out of that weird bitch the way she deserved.
Instead, I channeled my anger into passion and the joy that simply having my wife with me brought me. Asha was the strongest ray of sunshine on a frigid day bringing a warmth withher that I knew was reserved solely for me. And the way she melted beneath me and with me so trusting was an intentional act I would never take for granted. I’d given my wife peace from the troubles that usually plagued her mind and in return she’d give me a lover and a partner that I knew I could always count on.
More than a fair trade.
“Is this seat taken?”
I was pulled out of my revelry by the sweetest voice I could always hear no matter how loud my thoughts or the sounds around me. I smiled down at the woman in red who was waiting for me to give her the okay to take the seat next to me.
“By all means.”
Her grin broadened beneath the mask she wore, which concealed features I had already mapped out by heart. She slid into the leather of the seat and my arm went directly behind her to balance on the back of the chair. Her hair was hanging down her back in big curls barely concealing the way her back was bared in this dress.
She glanced at me coyly beneath her mask smiling slyly. “You see something you like?”
“Love is more like it. Just trying to figure out who let you out of the house in this dress.”
When her head went back and she gave that throaty laugh I was ready to get out of here. “I let me out of the house like this. Besides, my husband knows that it’s going to end up on the floor sooner rather than later so why put much of an obstacle in his way?” She winked at me before holding up her hand to catch the bartender’s attention.
“He sounds like a lucky man.” My hand was making the smallest of circles on her exposed flesh before I pulled on one of her curls and watched it bounce back into place.
“I almost beat his ass when he said he wanted a room in here.” Hakeem was standing in front of us with eyes locked on me as Asha giggled at his words.
“Almost doesn’t count. The next time he asks you something like that you need to shoot his ass.” It was Hakeem’s turn to crack up and I was staring at the side of Asha’s head like she’d forgotten herself. Hakeem sat a glass down on the counter before moving it toward Asha. Her preferences were on file so they knew what to bring her when she requested a bartender.
“Damn, it’s like that?”
She shrugged and took a sip from her drink before nodding her approval. “You shoot or I do. And I’ll be aiming at both of you.”
“What did I do?”
“You lied for him. I still owe you for every tear I cried but I’m letting it slide because a miracle was performed in my eyes.”
“Lazarus and Hawaiian Jesus rolled in one.”
“Lazarus? Ah, ‘cause he rose from the dead. That’s brilliant, actually. But why Jesus?”
Hakeem gave her a do you know who you are look. “He has to be the son of God if he’s out here getting your easy forgiveness.”
