Chapter 007

Illyra's POV

“Illyra, wake up! Wake up, please!”

A hand roughly shook me awake. Startled, I sat up with a gasp, blinking in the darkness. Were we under attack?

My younger sister, Lyra, was sitting on the edge of the bed. Tears sparkled on her pale cheeks in the moonlight, and I immediately knew something wrong had happened.

“What’s happened? Talk to me, Lyra. What happened?” I dropped my bare feet to the tile floor, ready to run, ready to fight anyone who had made my baby sister cry. “What’s wrong? Did anyone hurt you?”

Lyra took a deep breath and exhaled.

“I really messed up this time.” She wiped her eyes. “But before you freak out, I want you to know it will be fine. I know how to fix it.”

Rather than be comforted by this statement, I felt deepening fear. There was nothing scarier than the words she said to me.

My twenty-one-year-old sister, five years younger than me, had a knack for getting into trouble. Everything she did somehow always got her into a mess.

And she was wearing the short, sexy dress of a Hale Ka’nani cocktail waitress instead of our gray housekeeping smock. Whatever she did, I could tell it was really bad.

“Were you working at the bar?” I demanded. "Why would you do that?"

“Still worried about men hitting on me?” She let out a bitter laugh. “I wish that was the problem.” She said, lowering her head.

“What is it, then?”

Lyra ran a hand over her eyes. “I’m tired, Bree,” she whispered. “You gave up everything to take care of me. You have protected me from every harm and sacrificed your happiness to care for me. When I was twelve, I needed that, but now I am so tired of being your burden—”

“I’ve never thought of you that way,” I said, stung. I had never thought of her as a burden. She was the last family I had, and I would do anything to protect her. Although she was often stubborn and impulsive, I loved her from the depths of my heart.

Lyra looked at my clasped hands. “I thought this was my chance to pay off those debts so that we could go back to the Mainland. I thought I could win big and make our lives better. I’ve been practicing in secret. I thought I knew how to play. How to win.”

A chill went down my spine immediately. It was worse than I thought.

“You gambled?” I asked numbly, hoping it wasn't what I thought.

“It fell into my lap.” She exhaled, visibly shivering in the warm Hawaiian night. “I’d finished cleaning the wedding reception in the ballroom when I ran into Mr. Aldric. He offered to pay me overtime if I’d serve drinks at his private poker game at midnight. The offer was attractive, and I couldn't resist. I knew you’d say no, but I thought, just this once...”

“I told you not to trust him! I told you that I still have doubts about—"

“I’m sorry,” She cried. “When he invited me to join them at the table, I couldn’t say no! I saw it as a great opportunity."

I clawed back my long blond hair, ready to make a decision. “What happened? What happened at the poker game?"

“I won,” She said defiantly, and my eyes widened. Then she swallowed. “At least I did for a while. Then I started losing. First, I lost the chips I’d won, then our grocery money, and then...”

Cold understanding went through me. I finished dully, “Then Mr. Aldric kindly offered to loan you whatever you needed to continue playing.”

Lyra's mouth fell open. “How did you know? That's exactly what happened.”

Because I knew bullies like Aldric and how they tried to gain the upper hand, I knew money and power-hungry men whenever I saw them. I’d met his type before, long ago, in the life I’d given up ten years ago—before I’d fallen in love, and my life had fallen apart.

Before the man I loved had betrayed me, leaving me to the sheriff and the wolves—orphaned and penniless at eighteen, with a heartbroken twelve-year-old sister. It was still fresh in my mind, like it happened yesterday. I had lived a dangerous life and met men like him in every corner of my way.

But oh, yes. I knew Aldric's type, and I despised him. I closed my eyes, feeling sick, as I thought of his hard eyes above his cheery smile, of his cheerful Hawaiian shirt that barely covered his fat belly. I remembered the way he stared at me with lust in his eyes, and my stomach twisted. Thinking about him made me feel nauseous.

Aldric had slept with many of his female employees, particularly amongst the lower-paid housekeeping staff. At first, it came as a shock to me, but I quickly overcame it. As long as he didn't try to harass me, I was okay with working and avoiding him.

In the two months since we had arrived in Hawaii, I had wondered more than once why he’d gone to such trouble to hire us from Seattle and even paid for our flights. Never in my life had I seen a manager make sure effort to hire people.

He claimed our employment agency had recommended us, but that didn’t ring true. Surely many people were looking for jobs here in Honolulu. I always found it suspicious, but as far as we were getting paid, I didn't have anything to complain about.

Lyra had laughed at me when I told her about my suspicions, teasing me for being “gloomy and doomy." But as I scrubbed the bathrooms and floors of the lavish resort, I’d tried to solve the puzzle in my mind, and my bad feeling only grew.

I couldn't shake off the uneasiness about the job, especially when our boss made it clear over the past few weeks that he was interested in Lyra. And made it equally clear the one he really wanted was me.

Something was off about him, and I had been trying to figure it out. Either he wanted us, or someone wanted us through him. I knew it had to be one of the options.

But of course, my sister, with her innocent, trusting spirit, never noticed evil around her. She didn’t fully understand why I had given up gambling and insisted we worked only low-wage jobs for the ten years since our father died, keeping us under the radar of evil, dangerous men.

Lyra didn’t know how wicked the world could be. How hunted we were by several dangerous and ruthless men. She never saw the need to be vigilant and tough.

But I did.

“Gambling doesn’t pay.” I kept my voice calm. “You should know that by now. Why would you make such a decision without me?"

“You’re wrong. It does!” Lyra said angrily. “We had plenty of money ten years ago. We were not living like this when you used to gamble.” She turned and looked wistfully out the window toward the moonlit Hawaiian night. “And I thought if I could just be more like you and Dad—”

“You were using us as role models? Have you lost your mind?” I exploded. “I’ve spent the last decade trying to give you a different life! I have tried to keep you away from these things that damaged me! To make you better than me!”

“Don’t you think I know that?” She cried. “What you’ve sacrificed for me? Do you think I want you to continue to do that? To watch out for me every single second? I already know I can never be better than you!"

I took a deep breath. “It wasn’t just for you.” My throat ached as I rose to my feet. “How much money did you lose tonight?”

For a moment, my sister didn’t answer, and I hoped it wasn't a lot of money.

Outside, I heard the distant plaintive call of seabirds as Lyra stared mutinously at the floor, arms folded.

When she finally spoke, her voice was barely audible.

“A hundred.”

I felt relief so fierce that I almost cried. I’d been so afraid it would be worse. Reaching out, I squeezed my sister’s shoulder. “It’ll be all right.” I exhaled in relief. “Our budget will be tight, but we’ll just eat a little more rice and beans this month.” Wiping her eyes, I tried to smile. “Let this be a good lesson—”

But Lyra hadn’t moved from the end of the bed. She looked up, her face pale.

“A hundred thousand, Illyra,” she whispered. “I owe Mr. Aldric a hundred thousand dollars.”