I'm Kona Love You Forever (Islands of Aloha Mystery Series Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

a smile, winked, and walked out.

     
    CHAPTER 6
     
    Kaili fingered a showy rhinestone headpiece Lili had left out on the top of my glass sample case. “Who’d wear something this ugly?” she said. She held it up to her throat like a dog collar.
    “That’s not a necklace,” I said. “It’s a headpiece. It goes like this.” I reached out to take the sparkly band from her so I could demonstrate how it should be worn, but she whipped it away, jabbing me with her elbow in the process. The jab triggered a reflexive response. My hand shot out and I grabbed her wrist and jerked her arm up behind her back. She dropped the headpiece to the floor and I released my grip.
    “Wow, you hurt me,” she said. She rubbed her wrist and scowled. But as we stood there, staring each other down, I saw something behind her smudged black Kohl-lined eyes. It didn’t come across as anger or pain; in fact, it looked a lot like respect.
    “You do martial arts with my uncle, don’t you?” she said.
    “Yeah. I started training in kung fu when I was a little kid. I think my auntie took us kids there to give her a few hours of peace and quiet. But I liked it. I kept practicing through college and I still go to the guan almost every day.”
    “ Yeah, that’s what Uncle Doug said. He said you have a black belt and everything.”
    “I do.”
    “What’s it take? You know, to get a black belt?” she said.
    “Why are you asking me this stuff? Your uncle’s the master. Ask him.”
    “He’s a dick.”
    My hand flew out and gripped her wrist again. This time I didn’t pull her arm up behind her back, but I squeezed hard enough to cause pain.
    “Okay, we need to get a few things straight here,” I said. “First of all, your uncle is my sifu , my teacher. The only reason you’re here today is because I respect him. That means I do what he asks me to do. I don’t argue, I don’t whine, and I sure as hell don’t call him names or give him lip. You said you wanted to come to my shop and work. That’s fine. But by extension, I am now your sifu . So, you’ll do what I say. You will not give me lip. And you will honor your uncle with the same respect I give him, or maybe even a bit more. You got it?”
    Her eyes remained downcast. “Let go of me.”
    “I asked you a question.”
    “I’m not going to talk until you let me go.”
    “Fine.” I yanked on her arm and began hauling her toward the door. “You’re leaving. Now.”
    “Okay,” she said, pulling back.
    “Okay, what?”
    “Okay , I won’t give you lip. But you need to quit hurting me.”
    “Oh, honey, you don’t know the first thing about hurt.” I pressed harder. I could feel her wrist bone yielding under the pressure.
    “Yow! Th is is child abuse. I’m gonna call the cops.”
    “Go right ahead.”
    I grabbed the door knob and was about to jerk the door open when she said, “Can you teach me to do that?”
    “Do what?”
    “Get somebody to back off like that. I really want to know how.”
    I let go of her wrist. “Why?”
    She started to cry. Fat tears, tinted gray by the black eye make-up, snaked down her cheeks. In a matter of moments, deep furrows had divided her chalk-white face into something resembling a Picasso painting.
    I leaned in and put my arms around her. She didn’t pull away.
    “I hate it here,” she said. By now she was sobbing. I could only imagine what her melting make-up was doing to the front of my shirt. “Everything sucks.”
    “ I know of at least four million people who would dispute that,” I said.
    “Four million?”
    “Yeah, at least four million people pay big money to come here on vacation every year. They’d say you’re one lucky girl—to be living in Hawaii full-time.”
    “Well, they don’t have to go to school with kids who hate them. Kids who call them a stupid haole and spit on them.”
    “ Somebody spit on you?”
    “ He spit on my backpack.”
    “Probably just a bad aim,” I said. “Surfers are big on