Chapter 18 #2
His words were cut off when Kaito flashed him the knife that still had my blood shining on the tip. The cuts burned under the haphazard wraps Kaito put on them back at the hotel.
“I—I mean, yeah. Yo-Your girl is, uh…hired.”
Kaito smiled and pulled his shirt back over the glinting silver. “Greaaat. That’s more like it. She starts now. Train her up well. I’ll be back to get her later after I’m done tending to less agreeable folks. I expect there will be no problems.”
The bartender gulped loudly and nodded. “Yeah! She will be a pro by the end of the night! You have my word, man.”
Kaito clapped his meaty hand on both our shoulders, throwing me toward the man and ducking under the latch.
“Be a good girl, and behave, Sayuri.”
I grimaced but didn’t respond.
When Kaito disappeared into the shadows as he exited the club, so too did the smile of the man. I wiped my hands on the towel, trying to steady them. My heart hammered with fear, still coiled with anger.
“Well, looks like you got your wish, china doll. Your mafia boyfriend ain’t worth my neck. Go take their order.”
A small ember of defiance sparked in me at his barked order.
“My name is Sayuri, and that ogre is not my boyfriend.”
The guy chuckled. “ Oh, right…you were diggin’ the blond drunkey. Listen, whatever men you juggle, I don’t give a fuck as long as they keep away from my neck with their shiny toys, got it? You do you.”
I sighed and shook my head. It was pointless, and this idiot wouldn’t understand my life anyway.
“Yo! Billy, who’s the new kid?”
I turned to look at the man coming up to the bar.
“Hey, Robbie. This is uh…”
“Sayuri. Nice to meet you. What beverage would you like tonight?”
The man, Robbie, looked at my asshole of a boss and raised a brow. Billy scratched his head and shrugged. “Gin and tonic on the rocks comin’ up, old friend.”
I smiled at him. I knew the precise recipe for that. I knew all of them. I studied each before I came here the first time. Now was the time to show these rednecks how a Japanese girl could school them.
After making the drink to perfection, I didn’t stick around for the oos and awes. Instead, I started with the glasses in the basin, following the familiar routine of stacking, polishing, and cataloging.
Patrons came and went, and with each second, the numbness finally took hold of my body, and the burn felt bearable. My legs were still sore and very shaky, but I managed by leaning on the counters and using objects to guide myself.
“Do you need a tampon or somethin’? You are walkin’ funny.”
I sighed as Billy waved over the same bitchy dancer from before. She gave him a look, but he ignored it and pointed to me instead. “Listen, she needs a blood plug thingy. Go take her to the ladies, will ya?”
The dancer eyed me and Billy, but then huffed and pulled my arm toward the bathrooms.
I tried to keep myself from wincing.
Inside, she smacked the dispenser repeatedly with her hand and yelled at it. I started to tell her not to worry, but then a small pad popped out, and she handed it to me, as if she hadn’t just been screaming at an inanimate object.
“Here. I don’t know how you managed to get one over on Billy, but don’t even think about taking my tips. I will have your ass deported so fast you won’t be able to blink, got it?”
Please. Send me home. Do me the favor.
No. Not before I get Jujiro. I need to have a passport made for him to travel. Then I’ll be gone. I will never step foot in America again.
“Not to worry,” I said, and accepted the pad.
It did help with the blood, even though it wasn’t as heavy as a period. The pressure helped the ache. When I got back to the bar, Billy pointed to a patron down the line while he handled the guy he was chortling with, pocketing twenties because the man was so drunk.
“Hey, bartender!” a slurred voice called as I got closer. “You new?”
“Yes,” I said softly, my tone clipped.
Every patron became a shadow to me, every movement a potential danger in my heightened senses.
I wasn’t free to leave. I couldn’t keep any of the money I made.
This was prolonging how long it would take to get Jujiro back in my arms. And now Kaito knew my hotel.
I had to get away from the gang. But if I did, they would take Jed, and he would never see them coming.
Why do you care? It’s him or you.
Another drunk man at the end of the bar laughed at me, leaning heavily on his stool. “You scared or something?”
I swallowed. “Just…focused.”
He smirked, unconvinced. “Focus, huh? You’ll learn, little girl.”
I didn’t bother informing him I wasn’t a little girl. I was a grown adult, nearing my thirties.
He was right, though, I did learn some things that night. Every pour, every order, and every question from a drunk patron, I memorized them all.
Every patron, each smell, and all the shadows. Each was marked as I cataloged them in my mind, filing them all away for later. Fear sharpened my mind as the time ticked by and closing time was getting closer. I forced my senses to work, not to focus on a plan I didn’t have.
I listened to a couple at the bar while Billy was busy. The couple was kissing and consumed in one another.
“Don’t you even think about it, Jerry Cross.”
There was so much love in their eyes. The woman was scolding, but you couldn’t fake the warmth in her tone.
“Hey, come on, Dawn, you wearing a chastity belt or somethin’?”
Chastity…
That was it! I can have Gloria get me a chastity belt. It will prevent Kaito from using me. Though it would also prevent Jedidiah…
No. I had to heal. I was not seducing anything in my condition. I had to rethink my tactic. The only way to do that was by reclaiming my body.
“I am worried he won’t find this mystery girl. If she even exists,” the man, Jerry said.
“I am less than impressed with his behavior toward Ramona, but I must admit I am worried about him lately, too. He doesn’t seem like himself.”
I focused harder on the glass in front of me, interested in their woes rather than my own.
“It’s this damn girl,” the man said with an exasperated laugh. “I haven’t seen him so backward in a long time. He likes her. Hell, that’s why I told him to fuck Ramona, but instead he has to go have an imaginary blow job by someone else.”
The woman gasped and swatted the man, stifling a laugh.
“Jerod Christian Cross, mind your manners. This whole situation is just a mess for all involved. I thought he gave up all this nonsense when he escaped from that awful gang. I do wonder what she thinks, though, don’t you?
How does she feel about him? It can’t be one-sided.
He wouldn’t get so attached to just anyone. ”
Gang? There were gangs in this small town?
Jerry rubbed his chest with a laugh, pulling the female’s hand up to his lips and kissing a very pretty wedding ring.
Ah. They are married and speaking of a friend of theirs.
Gossip is something I should be above, but I couldn’t help but hang on every word.
“I know. He had lost his way a little bit, but he’s a good boy. He’ll get back on track. And thinks what? Ramona? ” Jerry snorted. “The gallons of tears soaked into our couch are a good indication of her thoughts, my love.”
Dawn sighed. “No, you deaf old man. Not Ramona. The acolyte Jedidiah has been pining over since she entered his church.”
Crash.
The glass slipped out of my hands and shattered on the ground. My brain couldn't process what I had just heard. Jed…this couple knew Jed.
“Miss? Are you alright?”
Jed’s friend reached for me, along with his worried wife by his side.
I blinked and shook my head. “No, I…I am fine.”
Jerry smiled sympathetically and gestured toward my hand. “But you’re bleedin’.”
Damn…
Billy came out from the back room and cursed when he assessed the situation.
“Ah fucking hell! What are you doin’, china doll?”
I grabbed a cloth to push onto the wound, but it was barely a scratch. My mouth opened to explain, but then I heard the tone I couldn’t misplace. And it was coming from the man with a full head of blond hair, the color of a darkened halo.
Jed was here. No. no. no.
“I—yeah, sorry!” I called and ducked into the back room before Jed got to the counter.
I hid there like a moron while distant conversations were too muted to eavesdrop any further.
I thought I found my way out when a small door behind a box of liquor was visible.
It took me some time to rearrange the heavy boxes and create a path to reach it.
The small passage led outside, and I breathed a sigh of relief when the cold air hit me. Maybe I could use this as an escape.
That relief was short-lived when I turned the corner and ran smack dab into none other than Kaito himself.
“Going somewhere, bar wench?”
I shook off the bristling feeling he left on my skin and cleared my throat, but he cut me off.
“Oh yeah, I know. I saw your little boyfriend. Funny thing, Sayuri. He’s been stumbling around asking who he was with last night, and a little digging with his idiot friends with him, and I know you did the old gluck gluck 5000, but no sex. Why?”
Jedidiah thought I gave him a blow job? Or was there someone else after I left?
“I…that wasn’t me, Kaito.”
My tormentor laughed and smacked his fat hand on my back, nearly knocking me over.
“Aw, poor Sayuri. You got some competition.”
I felt like cold water had been thrown onto me.
I couldn’t get his face out of my mind. His pleading eyes and soft words asking if he could touch himself. Men were all alike. I didn’t give him what he wanted, so he found someone who would.
Kaito grabbed my face and glared at me. I didn’t realize I was crying until he wiped a tear from my face angrily.
“You’d better seduce that fuck stick before someone beats you to it. If you don’t ruin his reputation and have his sorry ass crawling to us to repent, well…you can guess who you’ll be crying for then.”
I wiped the tears off my face, swiping my skin a bit too hard in my anger.
“I will,” I said, definitely. “I will destroy Jedidiah Franklin.”
Jedidiah had fooled me. I was the one creating an illusion, yet I had fallen for the ruse. Why had I been so careless? Men used you. Jedidiah was a beautiful lie. One I had to destroy before he could ruin me.
I would survive. I had to. I would adapt and endure.
When the time came, Kaito, his gang, Jed, and all of those who thought they could erase me would see that even a broken shadow could strike back.