“I never saw you,” he said finally. “Here’s what I’m going to do. I go out the back. Your family came home but never saw me. Ever. Keep it together, will you? Just listen. Tell them to turn on a light or two right after I go. It looks natural.”

Mae nodded. “Of course.”

“I just saved your life.”

“No,” Mae said. “You just save theirs. Yes? My life mean nothing. Not now.”

“Forget it. One more thing. Once I’m gone, and they don’t know? You disappear like you say. Or else.”

Lett started for the kitchen. Miss Mae touched him by the elbow. “You came from there, didn’t you?”

“Where’s that?” Lett grunted.

She smiled now, and Lett saw her real smile, full of teeth and happy creases.

“Is Kanani there? She is! Ah, I see it on your face.” Mae clasped hands, held her chin high. Lett could see the mama-san now.

“Pipe down, will you . . . geez.”

But Mae’s eyes dimmed again. She glanced back at her family, then whispered to Lett. “Is Frankie there yet, Frankie Baptiste?”

“Yet?”

“You must watch Kanani. She gets in over her head, that one.”

“She can hold her own.”

“No. Not for long. Oh, oh. This is my fault. The Preserve, it’s not what I thought.”

“You ain’t the only one, Miss Mae.”

“Go,” Mae said, pushing at his back with both hands. “Go!”

“Okay, okay,” Lett mumbled and marched past the sofa without looking and went through that kitchen and he was gone, through the backyard and around the side, out onto the road.

Twenty minutes later, he was walking back down toward the harbor, keeping his eye on the light of that Aloha tower. It was dark now. The boat would be there as planned.

It occurred to him that he could’ve asked Miss Mae if he could flee with her. But he had no moves after that. There was also the looming proposition that his life could prove to be worth less to them than Miss Mae’s, and at any moment. As he walked, the anger boiled in him so hot and his arms cocked and his hands clawed so tight, that it felt as if he could reach out and grab and crush one of the city buildings down below like some giant lizard unleashed from the depths of the ocean.

He had tried walking away before. It would all catch up with him wherever he ran, hid, fled, landed.

For now, he was better off on The Preserve. At least there he had Kanani. At least there he had his dose.

Maybe he would pass through Hotel Street on the way to the boat, drink himself into a stupor before he boarded. It would certainly fit the lie.

Down around another curve, headlights found him from behind. A cab passed and pulled over in front of him. The same cab. Lett dropped into the back.