Sins of the Flesh (Half-Breed Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

seen many rainforest plants.
    “Like the Iao Valley the limo guy mentioned?”
    “Yeah, although there are some amazing places along Hana Highway and in Haleakala National Park. Red ginger, African tulips, rose apple trees, tropical almonds. There are some pretty sights in Upcountry too. The Jacaranda trees are beginning to bloom this time of year. Nothing but purple flowers all over. It’s gorgeous.”
    None of those plants were familiar to me. I caught my breath, thinking I might have another best friend in Kai. “I thought you didn’t know anything about this botany stuff,” I teased.
    She shot me a shy smile, a pink tone to her cheeks. “Yeah, well, I’ll bet non-botanists know oaks and maples back on the mainland. These are our oaks and maples.”
    It made sense. Still, I felt Kai was holding out on me. “So, besides Haleakai National Park and the road to Hana, are there other spots I should see?”
    Nyalla had highlighted all the top tourist locales in the metric ton of brochures she’d given me, but I wanted to see what a resident, besides the tour-pushing limo guy, would say. The truly breathtaking places were often off the beaten path.
    “Well there’s Haleakai crater. That’s kind of cool if you’re into volcanoes and geology. Everyone goes up for sunrise, but it’s freezing up there, and with the traffic, it’ll take you an hour and a half to get there only to shiver in the cold with thousands of other tourists packed in beside you.”
    No thanks. “The crater sounds cool. There’s no chance of eruption, is there? I mean, the volcano is dormant?” The limo guy had said so, but I trusted Kai more than him.
    “Since before the sixteenth century, although don’t tell my grandfather that. He swears his ancestors saw it erupt in the late seventeen hundreds. Haleakai is considered dormant. Maunaloa, Kilauea, and Loihi, which is underwater, are the only truly active volcanoes on the islands.” She shot me a mischievous glance. “Pele keeps to Kilauea. Thankfully she’s not extended her affections to the other islands in many centuries.”
    That damned Pele woman again. She seemed to be the hot topic of every conversation. Hopefully she’d remain in Kilauea for the next thousand years or so.
    “If you really want a spectacular sight, head to La Perouse Bay to watch the sunset. It’s on the west side of Maui, down south. Make sure you stay a few hours after dark. The stars from there are brilliant, since there’s no light pollution. A couple chairs, a bottle of wine, and you’ve got yourself the perfect romantic date.”
    I should have thought about Irix, but instead her words, the tone of her voice, had me envisioning Kai in a chair beside me, sharing wine and snuggling under a blanket as we watched the stars. I glanced at her, feeling a jolt of electricity surge through me. Beautiful, strong, funny. The no-women thing was only a preference, and I was beginning to think Kai might be the exception to my most flexible of rules. There was a moment of silence where the possibility of things to come lingered in the air between us. Then Kai broke the silence with a running commentary on the scenery.
    “See those smokestacks in the distance?”
    I looked and nodded.
    “That’s Maui Sugar’s factory. It was built in the late 1800s and turns all the cane produced here into raw sugar and molasses. Anything that needs to be refined further is shipped off to California, then back for fine, white sugar.”
    “So, cane is a major industry here?”
    Kai shook her head, taking a left at a streetlight. “Tourism is the major industry, followed closely by agriculture in general, then the military. Don’t forget, we’re a giant rock of lava in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There’s only so much we can grow. We need to import a lot of stuff.”
    I looked out the window. The strip malls, parking areas, and patchy desert grass had been replaced with tall, closely planted stalks — some bent under the