Chapter 13 #2
The name surfaced in my mind with the pain that came along with it, dragged up from a place I kept buried for the years I had been running.
Kaito was always Jayce’s shadow, so when he got a hold of me, his dearly departed brother’s wife, he tortured me.
He was the kind of man who smiled while others bled.
Jayce was brutal in the way he ravaged my body, but at least he was predictable in his cruelty. Kaito…
He reveled in the true torture. He got off on making me anticipate the worst, slowly breaking me bit by bit for years. It wasn’t until that night that I was brave enough to escape, for how badly I feared Kaito alone.
My heart stuttered in my chest when he spoke again.
“Come now. Speak, woman. You had to know you were never free. We’ve known exactly where you’ve been.
Every second you thought you were free from us, and what you did.
We’ve known. Run-down hotel after run-down hotel, you didn’t shit without us knowing the time and the seconds.
And don’t worry. We’ve taken good care of your little pen pal. ”
No. If they hurt him…I…
“I said. Speak, Sayuri. This silent act is gonna cost him, not you. He’s not great at listening either, so please go ahead and give me a fucking reason to teach him a lesson.”
“I don’t know what you want, Kaito,” I said.
He smiled wider, the reflection and the red hue lighting making him look every bit the demon he was. “Sure you do. You are our queen after all. Did you really think you could disappear into the sunset with our property? We own you, Sayuri. Signed and sealed.”
Fuck my father for making them a part of my life. I could never sell my child to the devil.
Two men moved behind him, blocking the alley’s mouth and my means of escape, when he dropped my hair, my body went with it to the cold ground. One grabbed my arm, hard, and I recognized his ugly scarred face.
“Let me go, Darius,” I said, and the men laughed.
Pain shot up to my shoulder as he squeezed harder, dragging me toward a large black van.
“Stop. I am not going back,” I said, the words too thin.
Kaito motioned for the brutes to pause, and he stepped closer to me, kneeling to study my face. “You look different,” he said, his hand lightly caressing my jaw. “Jayce always said you had fire. Guess I can finally see it when you’re not choking on my cock.”
I twisted, but the grip tightened on my face to a painful angle. I lost my shoe as the men continued to drag me toward the van.
No. No. No. If they take me back, I will not get out again unless I’m in a body bag. I can’t do that to him. I can’t leave him with Kaito. I have to fight. I have to. Whatever it takes to get us both free. Truly free.
“You disappeared,” Kaito went on. “After you killed my dear brother, that is.”
My stomach dropped. “You and your disgusting posse tortured me for eight years. And I didn’t kill your stupid fucking brother. I told you that then, and I will tell you again now. I am not a murderer.”
I left the unsaid hang until I had the chance to kill them. All of them. And fucking Jedidiah Franklin along with them. Let their white skin blend with the lights above us.
“Still holdin’ on to that lie? Really? After all this time? Man, I am disappointed. Right right. Of course, you are innocent. It was the dark shadow of the night that rescued poor you and slayed the mighty dragon.”
The men’s combined laughter hurt my ears and brought so many painful memories to the forefront of my mind.
“I didn’t,” I said, but the words came out raw. “ I know who did. It wasn’t me.”
He tilted his head. “Is that so?”
His hand came up fast, slapping me across the face, knocking me down, before gripping my chin in a soft hold again to pick me up.
It wasn’t sexual or tender. It was what I saw from that husband to the annoying blonde woman at the church—nothing but ownership.
My split lip dripped blood onto his thumb, and he practically vibrated when he saw the droplet, forcing my face up to look at him.
“Because I really miss the way you deny it,” he said, “The way you screamed your innocence was really pretty while we broke your ribs and used the branding knife on you.”
The alley felt smaller as he gripped my wrist in his hand and laughed. “Looks like you can’t run from the high we gave you, huh? These pretty marks are a reminder to keep from us?”
The bass from inside the club thudded through my senses yet seemed to quiet altogether.
I was running out of air, out of time. I had to get free.
Or we’d both drown.
He would die because of me, or worse, become exactly like these men.
“I know who did it. I know who killed Jayce. I didn’t back then. But I do now. I have seen him.” I said.
Kaito paused his pawing at my breasts and shirt long enough to snicker at me.
“I know where he is. Right now.”
There was a longer pause before a sharper laugh followed.
They didn’t believe me.
“Try again, Sayuri. Your tactics are just pathetic at this point. Get in the fucking van.”
I fumbled with my bag still strapped to my chest, my fingers numb from the cold rain and the fear. Darius, holding my arm, shoved me against the van door, and my breath knocked from my lungs.
I pulled the newspaper free and shoved it toward Kaito.
“No! Look.”
His smile faded as he took it, thumbing through the contents to the red circle marked around Jed’s face.
The photo was grainy and didn’t show his features or his golden hair color as I knew. It had the old texture newspapers used to carry. But the words under his name were unmistakable.
Jedidiah Franklin. A priest who showed up ten years ago.
“A priest?” Kaito scoffed. “You’re telling me the man who stabbed my brother is a fucking p—”
“He ran that night,” I said. “He was part of the Onyx gang. I’d researched him. He’s been a ghost since he hid in Monticello. The church he works at protects him. Even the Bishop of the town. There is something off about this whole place.”
Kaito stared at the photo longer, now in silence.
“He killed my husband,” I said. “He stabbed him that night and ran away to leave me to blame. And now I have a plan to ruin him. Afterward, I’ll leave him at your doorstep. You can have true revenge for Jayce’s death.”
That got his attention.
“Please…Please. Please. Believe me. Give me a chance to do this. I need to do this.”
“How?” he said finally, and I sighed a breath of relief I couldn’t help but free.
“I am going to seduce him. I can make him confess his sins,” I said. “Publicly. Strip the collar he hides behind. Take away his shield.”
I swallowed, continuing to speak as I jerked my arms out of Kaito’s meathead crew’s arms. “Then he’s yours. You can torture him for eternity for all I care. I just want what’s mine.”
The alley felt like it was holding its breath with me as I waited for his answer.
“You mean what belongs to Jayce and The Crimson Carrion?”
“Please. Kaito can’t help you. He doesn’t understand he isn’t part of this. Just say he died and claim what you always wanted.”
Kaito folded the paper slowly, carefully studying my face as he did so. He looked at me like I was something new. And maybe dangerous.
“Guess I was wrong, Yakuza Queen. You have changed,” he said. “You sure this is your shadow?”
Not a question.
I nodded once, and he stepped back, his posse following suit.
The grip on my arm loosened until I was finally free from their hold.
“This better not be another lie,” he said. “Because if it is, the blood I will spill won’t matter if it matches my fucking own. I will kill him while you watch, and—”
“I know,” I said, my throat tight with the very real threat. Kaito didn’t care. The reason he kept him alive all this time was to keep me obedient and to maintain the lineage.
He smiled again. But this time, it wasn’t amusement. It was a knowing.
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, righting my clothing and walking me back toward the alley. “We’ll be watching you in that little hovel you chose for a hotel. Don’t worry, it’s on the house.”
The other men melted back into the dark, leaving the alley empty and stinking of garbage and rain while Kaito stayed beside me, silent and toying.
“Now, let’s seal the deal the old-fashioned way, baby.”
I slid down the wall, my knees shaking so badly they gave out. I’d come looking for a job and left having sold a holy man’s soul to hell.
And the worst part was…I wasn’t sure if all this was nothing.
Kaito wasn’t going to keep his word. He would kill my son and me the minute he had Jed in his grip. That meant one thing.
I had to burn the devil before he burned my entire life to the ground.
Jedidiah Franklin would be my martyr to the pyre.