She scanned it, and her heart fell. “Oh great. Another lab says they’re close to having a breakthrough in dolphin communication.” She tossed the paper aside. “And here I’m stuck with this navy detail when I could be working more with Nani and the others.”
“You think the paper is right?”
“There are a lot of groups working on the same thing.” She tried to treat it lightly, but in truth, it looked like all her dreams might come crashing down. She glanced at Mano. “Would you mind running me over to the base to get my truck?”
“Sure. No problem.” Mano drained his glass. His eyes grew wide, and he threw the glass across the yard.
“What is it?”
“A scorpion in the glass.”
Kaia shuddered. Scorpions were even worse than spiders, if that were possible.
“Was it still alive?” Bane walked to the glass and scooped it up. He began to grin. “This your big, bad scorpion?” He dug into the glass and came out holding a hideous-looking specimen.
“Don’t touch it!” Kaia said.
When her grandfather began to chuckle, she knew they’d all been had. “Tutu kane, is that rubber?” she scolded.
He laughed, a delighted sound that made him sound sixty years younger.
Mano flushed, then he began to laugh too. “You’d think I’d learn after all this time.”
“Life is meant for laughter,” Tutu kane said. “Not for dwelling on gloomy things.”
“What enjoyment do you get out of making us look like fools?” Bane asked. The amusement on his face softened his question.
Their grandfather shrugged. “A cheerful heart is good medicine,” he said, quoting Proverbs 17.
“If that’s the case, you’re never going to die,” Mano quipped.
They all laughed, and Kaia felt her spirits lifting. Her grandfather had always been able to do that to her. In the dark days after her mother left, he’d kept a cheerful banter going that soon made her forget her abandonment. Or at least she’d tried to.
Oke smiled at her. “How about I fix us all lunch tomorrow after you get off work and have a rest.”
“Sounds great.”
“There is something I want to talk to you about,” her grandfather said. “But it can wait until tomorrow.”
“What is it?”
He waved his hand. “No matter. We can discuss it tomorrow. I want all three of you to be here.”
She frowned. Tutu kane didn’t often call a family meeting. “I guess I have to wait then.”
“You are always so impatient, lei aloha. It will keep.”
She wasn’t going to get anything out of him today. He was still smiling inanely over the rubber scorpion.
She ducked inside and brushed her teeth with a spare brush she kept at her grandfather’s. She checked in the mirror for any spots she’d missed then put her toothbrush away and hobbled outside.
Mano’s truck was back from the garage, and he brought it around from the back. Shiny black, the big Dodge Ram truck was his pride and joy. She settled onto the plush seat and rolled down the window. The trade winds lifted the hair on the nape of her neck, and she breathed in the scent of plumeria. Her stomach rumbled.
“I heard that,” Mano said. “Let’s stop and get something to eat. I’ll run through Pacific Pizza and we can share. I’m hungry too.”
“Perfect.” She rubbed her ankle while she considered how to bring up the subject of Nahele.
“You’ve got something on your mind. I can see the wheels turning.” Mano pulled onto Highway 50.
“I was wondering if you’d seen Nahele lately.”
Mano’s eyebrows winged up, and he swerved across the center line. Mano gave a shamefaced grin. “Sorry. That would be more like something you’d do.”
“Hey, I’m not that bad a driver.” Was he trying to avoid her question? Her spirits sank.
He gave her a sidelong glance. “Nahele had me come by yesterday. Why?”
Rats. She had hoped Mano was completely out of it. “Do you mind telling me what he wanted?”
“It had to do with business stuff.” He shifted in his seat.
“This is important, Mano. I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”
“It’s nothing to do with you, Kaia,” he said.
“He was just outside naval property yesterday. And one of his goons manhandled me last night.”
Mano’s fingers tightened on the wheel. “Manhandled you?” He stopped at Pacific Pizza and killed the engine. “I think it’s about time you told me what really happened to your ankle.”
Kaia hadn’t seen him look so grim in a long time. Maybe never. Mano had always been her easy-going brother. The intensity he’d shown over this Pele Hawai′i thing had surprised her.
She sighed. “I think Nahele is trying to sabotage the missile tests.” Mano rolled his eyes. “Mano, if Pele Hawai′i had anything to do with Laban’s death—”
Mano shook his head. “You’re wrong.”
She told him what had happened the night before. His eyes grew flinty when she showed him the bruises on her arm where Kim had grabbed her and dragged her toward the boat.