Option Three

*****

When we got back to Funafuti, we got things going. We moved her personal things and the furniture she had that she wanted and would fit into my place. It was now "our" place, and I loved the sound of it every time either of us mentioned it. I had considered it "home" ever since I bought it, but that took on a new meaning. "Home," was now the place Alola was.

I realized I could really be happy anywhere, as long as Alola was there. My numb spot in my heart had become soft, gooey and out there for her to touch.

I had never really felt that way before, and it was new, exciting, scary and comfortable, all at the same time. We walked to work together, ate lunch together, did everything together, and that was the way I wanted it.

Thomas was much cooler with us being together than either of us imagined. He helped us move Alola in, and as she started to unpack some things into the closet and dresser in our bedroom, he arched one eyebrow at me. "So, it's like that, huh?" he asked.

"Does that surprise you, Thomas?" I asked.

"Yeah, a little. I mean, you're obviously gorgeous, Kai, and everyone loves Alola, but I just... I didn't know."

She came out into the kitchen where he was helping me put away some nice crystal glasses she had. "Didn't know what?"

He looked uncomfortable. "That you were... gay, or whatever," he stammered.

She went over and hugged him. "Does it freak you out?"

He held her and stroked her hair. "No. You're my baby sister, Alola. I'm always going to love you. I better drop a word in Sarah's ear, though."

"Do you think she'll be upset?" I asked.

"No, but Dad and Mom would," he said. "They'll never ask, or even be curious. It won't ever occur to them that you're anything but best friends. I'd just as soon you not tell them. If you feel like you have to, I've got your back, but do they need to know?"

"We've kind of decided we don't care who knows, but we aren't going out of our way to advertise," Alola said.

"Smart girls," he said. "See, I knew there was a reason you went to college, Alola."

We laughed together, and he never mentioned it again. Sarah did, but only to tell us she loved us both, and her tiny girls spent plenty of time with us. It was easy to see they didn't think we were weird.

The only thing marring our perfect lives was the stupid Americans who kept harassing me. Someone from the embassy came to our house on a Friday. I had just arrived home from school, and someone rang the doorbell.

I wasn't expecting visitors, and I checked to see whom it might be. She was white, about 40, maybe, and attractive. Something made me ask before I opened the door, "May I help you?"

"I'm looking for Kai Blake," she said. "I'm from the American Embassy."

I pulled open the door. "What the fuck is wrong with you people?" I snarled at her. "Have I ever responded to your emails, phone calls or texts? How could I make it any plainer that I have nothing to say to you?"

She seemed a little taken aback. "I'm sorry, but I'm just doing my job," she said.

"Well, your job sucks donkey dick," I told her. "You took a job harassing people?"

"Ms. Blake, the DEA just wants you to cooperate with their investigation," she said. "Don't you want to help your government investigate a serious crime?"

"First of all," I told her, "it isn't 'my government.' I am a citizen of Tuvalu. It's YOUR government. Second, I give zero fucks about helping YOUR government, and especially not the DEA. You've made addiction a crime. I happen to believe it's a fucked-up policy. Addiction is a mental and physical health problem. You made it a crime so you can put minorities and people YOUR government doesn't like in prison. Don't come to MY house and lecture me about your morally bankrupt policies."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," she said. "I don't make the policies."

"Yeah, but you work for the motherfuckers who do," I spat at her. "Go away, and don't come here again. You're trespassing. Don't send anyone else here. If you do, I'm going to beat the fuck out them for trespassing. Don't call, don't email, don't send a telegram. You have no authority here. You can bully the poor people back where you have authority, not me."

Alola came walking up the sidewalk just then. "What's going on, Kai?" she asked.

"Nothing, I said. "This... person was just leaving. Kick rocks, bitch."

I grabbed Alola's arm and pulled her inside, closing the door in the bitch's face.

She looked a little shocked. "Who was that, Kai?"

"Some hoe," I told her.

She laughed. "Does she have a name?"

It was my turn to laugh. "Sorry, Bae, she pissed me off. She prolly does have a name: bitch, I think."

We both broke up and held each other as we laughed. "Who was she, really?"

"She was from the embassy in Fiji," I said. "She was here to intimidate or persuade me into "cooperating" with the DEA's investigation. I wasn't very intimidated and her persuasive powers were... lacking."

"I see," she said. "I don't think they know you, Kai. You aren't very... intimidatable, and I think I'm the only one who can persuade you to do anything you don't want to do."

I kissed her. "Right? What was it that you wanted to persuade me to do?"

"Cook dinner," she said. "No, fuck me, first, then cook dinner."

Dinner turned out to be leftover Fettucine Alfredo, warmed up in the microwave. I was too worn to cook.

*****

That night I got an email. It was from Agent Brown.

"Ms. Blake,

I did warn you that our intelligence is sometimes penetrated by the cartels. I'm afraid someone has accessed your file. If you would like for us to provide protection, we will provide you transportation to the US, put you in a safe location and give you a new identity in exchange for your cooperation."

I immediately got to work. My five years in IT security consulting had given me a rather more intimate acquaintance than I preferred with some very sketchy people. They were shadow figures on the fringe of the internet community who, for the right price, were willing to provide services. I reached out to three of them and two were willing to work for me in exchange for my not dropping a dime on them when I caught them trying to penetrate secure networks back when I was in the field.

I put them to work on Agent Brown. It's amazing what information people leave lying around. Shockingly, his name wasn't "Brown," at all. What a lame alias. The only thing more obvious would have been "Smith." Many people don't know it, but the names Johnson, Williams and Brown are nearly as common as Smith. His name was actually Devlin.

In addition to being a DEA agent, he was an import/export dealer in high-end furniture and home décor. Apparently, he found this an excellent cover for drug trafficking, and the Cartel found his legitimate business an excellent money-laundering front. It looked like their money was the foundation of his business.

My guys collected his information, and I sent him an email.

"Mr. Devlin,

It has come to my attention that certain Cartel members are about to gain access to information that ties you to the murder of several of their members, as well as the theft of a large sum of money that the DEA never recovered. It looks bad for you. It's almost certain they will tie you to the disappearance of the money.

Since they are already aware of who you are, where you live and the nature of your business, I expect you to have a bad accident in the near future. I am willing to provide my services to you in order to prevent this from happening, in exchange for your cooperation. I will protect you, Mr. Devlin, but only if any investigation that involves me and all information concerning me is forgotten by the DEA and the Cartel. Please advise, Ms. Blake."

That got me a text message and some instructions. I got a phone delivered to me, and I was supposed to message him when I got it. The phone was encrypted, and I let him know I had it. It buzzed with a call, almost immediately.

"I don't know what..." he began.

"Shut the fuck up," I told him. "I know all about you. Don't fuck with me. You're going to end that investigation, "Agent Brown," and you're going to let me know what the thugs are planning or you're a dead man, understand? I'll dime you out to the Cartel in a heartbeat, just because you're scum. My only incentive for keeping you alive is information, got it?"

He blustered around for a while, but in the end, when I let him know how much I knew, he caved. He really had no other choice.

We spoke several times over the next three months, and he was keeping up his end of the deal with the DEA. I hadn't heard from anyone in the DEA or the embassy. He didn't know much about what the drug assholes were planning, but I was expecting that shoe to drop.

Alola was pretty freaked out about the whole thing. "Kai, what do you think they're going to do?" she kept asking.

"I have no idea," I kept telling her. "Think about this, Bae: they have no organization here. They'll have to send people. Those people will have no support. They can't bring in guns; they're illegal here. They won't be able to buy guns or get them once they get here."

"Well, they could get knives, clubs, rocks or shit like that," she said.

I laughed. "Yes, I suppose they could. Remember, Babes, I do have guns. I smuggled them in my shipping container. There's a shotgun behind out bedroom door. You know that."

She frowned at me. "Yes, and I don't like it there. I've told you that. I know you're comfortable with that, but that just isn't how we are here."

"I feel you," I told her. "I understand. You're so sweet, so gentle, so loving, but if gangsters are trying to break into our house, I have the feeling you might change your mind about me being able to defend us."

She just looked miserable. "You might be right, but I just hate all this, Kai. Why do you think they won't be able to get guns? You brought yours here."

"Yes, I did. Let me explain. I legally owned my weapons in the US. I leased a shipping container and packed it full of furniture, household shit and my stuff. In the middle of all that other stuff, I packed the money and the weapons. You with me?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Okay, a truck picked up the container and took it to a ship. It got put with who knows how many other identical shipping containers and put on a ship bound for here. Again, it was a whole ship with nothing but containers. It was labeled "furniture." No one looked twice at it. They don't have the time or manpower to open every container and search it. It took almost two months for me to get it."

"Why can't they do that?" she asked.

"I guess they could if they had a container, bought stuff to put in it, had a destination and were willing to wait two months for it to get here, then have a place to conceal the weapons after they got them."

"I see," she said. "They don't seem like they're all that patient or organized."

"They're not. They'll have to fly here. The only way they could bring weapons is by boat, and the nearest place they could get weapons is thousands of miles away. They're going to be limited to knives, sticks and rocks, like you said."

I could see her tearing up, and I went over and held her tightly. "I know, lovey, and I hate that I brought this into your life. I'd give anything to make it go away. I'm telling you, though, I'm not a bit sorry any of this happened. If it hadn't, I wouldn't have you."

"I know," she said. "I'm not sorry about that, either. I just hate violence."

"Everybody hates violence," I said. "Well, normal people do, anyway. If only thugs and assholes are willing to be violent, though, they win, every time. I would never be violent to anyone who wasn't being violent toward me or someone I love. I hope this will all be over soon."

My hope wasn't in vain. Five months after I coerced Agent Brown into working for me, he sent me the details. The drug lords had decided they were giving it one last effort to recover their money. They were sending four men. They were going to hold Alola hostage and force me to get their money, or what was left of it, anyway.

I was planning to fuck up their shit. All the disadvantages I'd mentioned to Alola came into play. On an island with a population of 6,000, even though it was a tourist destination, it's easy to notice comings and goings. Brown told me they were flying in, they would secure a boat, they were going to land on the beach near our house in the middle of the night and try to take us by surprise. We weren't going to be the ones who were surprised.

I tried to get Alola to leave and stay with Thomas that night, but she was having no part of that plan. "There's no way I'm leaving you here by yourself, Kai. I don't know anything about fighting, but I can help you some way."

I hugged her. "You can help me," I told her. "You can be my spotter."

She had no idea what that meant, so I explained it to her and we got her acquainted with using the set of night vision binoculars I had.

I had been a competitive shooter, at one time, and I had an Accuracy International AXMC 338 LM set up with suppression and a night vision scope. I felt pretty confident.

As dusk, we went out to the beach and set up behind a little grassy dune that had formed. We even took snacks and drinks. It was a good thing, because it was 1 AM when we heard the sound of a boat, idling along, trying to be stealthy.

"There are four of them, just like he said," Alola whispered. "Are you going to kill them, Kai?"

"No," I whispered. "If they come back I will. I don't think they'll be coming back."

The boat was an outboard, looking like a rental from a marina up in the village, and I knew those rentals. I knew where the fuel tank was, and I took a breath and put three rounds into it. I put two more into the hull, about six inches below the water line. My sixth and seventh rounds were tracer rounds, and I shot them into the tank, again.

Enough fuel had leaked out that a fire started, and the people in the boat got very active. The engine opened up and they headed out to sea. The three not driving were trying to put out the fire, and not having much success. One of them was on fire and the other two turned their attention to trying to put out the human torch.

The dude at the helm started to make a turn and go back up the beach, so I put two more rounds into the front of the boat. He quickly spun back out to sea and we watched as the fiery vessel put distance between us and them.

Alola leaped up and did a little dance, squealing in excitement all the while.

"Fuck, Kai! Did you see that? Those bastards... they... you are a bad, bad bitch!"

She threw herself down on top of me and we made out like high school girls on our first date.

When we cleaned up and went back inside, she could hardly contain herself. "We did it! You did it! Do you think that's the end of it, Kai?"

"I expect they'll see the wisdom of chalking this one up as a loss," I said. "They are really in a no-win situation."

"What do you think will happen to those guys?" she asked.

"I doubt they'll be okay," I told her. "Their boat is going to sink. Maybe they're good swimmers."

We only found out about one of them, when his body washed up on another atoll, three days later. Brown told us that at least one made it back to report, and the thugs were done with the whole situation. The price was too high, and they were in the business to make money, after all.

*****

We were on the deck and it was evening. We had just finished a blunt, I was standing at the rail and she was on a lounge. I turned to face her. "Alola," I said. "I love your parents. You love your parents. They love you, and they seem to love me."

"Okay... Is there a point here, Kai, or are you just making a statement?"

"No, I have a point," I said. "I don't know quite how to say this. You know how we were all worried that Thomas would freak when he found out about us?"

"Yes, but... oh... oh. Kai, but what if they..."

"Yeah, what if..." I said. "Alola, I never had parents. You don't know what it's like. You have this warm wonderful family; they all absolutely adore you. Everyone does, of course, but they've kinda adopted me, too. I love it, and I kinda want them to know that we're together, I mean, like for good."

"Noo, Kai. I'm afraid." Her voice was a little panicked squeak.

I went over and snuggled her. "What if we could get Thomas or Sarah to kind of feel them out?" I asked.

She giggled. "I don't think it should be Thomas. I love my brother, but 'feeling them out' is not something he's good at. It would be more like beating them over the head with a sledge hammer."

"What about Sarah?"

"I don't know... I'm afraid..." she kind of moaned.

"I get it, and we won't do a damn thing you don't want to do and you aren't completely comfortable with," I said. I kissed her and just held her.

"I do want them to accept me, accept us," she said. "But it would kill me if they couldn't, or they were mean to you."

I laughed. "Well, they might surprise me, but I don't think they are capable of 'mean,' Let's just think about it, okay? They might surprise you and just want you to be happy. If I make you happy, that just might make them happy."

"You do make me happy," she said. "I've never been happier."

She wasn't an impulsive person, I knew that. It had taken her months to let me know how she felt about me, about us. I didn't push her, but she had little introspective moments when there would be a faraway look in those gorgeous big brown eyes, and I would wonder what she was thinking. I bit my tongue and didn't say anything.

It took her almost two months to talk to me about it again. We'd polished off a nice bottle of wine, with and after dinner, and were snuggled up together on the sofa, watching a movie. She pulled the blanket over us and snuggled up even closer.

"Kai, I want to talk to Sarah about us. You know, about talking to Mom and Dad."

I squeezed her. "I think that's a good call, Bae. She's smart, she loves us, they love her. Hell, they practically worship her for being the mother of their grandkids."

"Right?" she said. "She's also got a lot of tact. Let's talk to her."

We took her shopping and out to lunch on the next Saturday, then brought her back to our place. Alola just jumped into it.

"Sarah, you and Thomas have been everything we could have hoped for with Kai and me. You support us and you're happy for us. We both love you and think you're awesome. We need your advice, and if you think it's a good idea, we need a favor."

Sarah dimpled up the way she always did when she was embarrassed. "That's so sweet," she said. "I'm so glad you trust us like you do and you think of me that way."

"We do," I assured her. "The thing is, we want your opinion on what Mom and Dad would think if they knew we are in love."

She thought for a minute. "I really don't know for sure," she said. "They seem pretty relaxed and open, but it's hard to say. Alola is their baby. They love her like crazy. I know they love you, too, Kai, because they tell me how great you are, all the time."

If that didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. "Do you know any lesbian or same sex couples?" I asked. "Do they?"

"I only know one, besides you two," she said. "They know the ones I'm talking about, too."

She turned to Alola. "Sweetheart, you know about the pinapinaaine, right?"

"Oh, yes, I kinda do. I don't know anyone, though."

"I don't know about... what you said," I told them. "Mind letting the white girl in on it?"

They laughed. "The pinapinaaine are transgender," Sarah said. "They're part of traditional culture here and on Kiribati. There used to be a lot of bad vibes coming from the church about them practicing dark magic, shit like that, but that's pretty much faded since I was a little girl."