Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
T akeshi
I hang up from the call with Lakeshia and Shinji and speed to Evan’s strip mall location. My fists curl around the steering wheel. My tight grip is a substitution for what I truly want, Evan’s neck beneath my palms as I wring the last breath from his lungs.
Evan isn’t a yakuza, but he knows the rules. What he did was forbidden. Although he supplies many clients, it’s with the understanding he remains neutral. Setting my husband and lover up is not neutral, and neither will I be when I get my hands on him.
Part of my anger stems from the fact the first time Lakeshia called me wasn’t because I was on her mind.
I glance at my phone. With the progress we’ve made in our relationship, maybe I can drop hints to her and she’ll call, preferably with video so I’ll see her mouth soften in amusement. Or my favorite pastime, watching as different emotions flick across her face, lightening and darkening her eyes. Shinji’s frowning face pops up in my head. Maybe I’ll hold off a little longer. I don’t need another lecture from him about pushing Lakeshia too hard. My imaginary husband grins his approval.
“Konoyarou,” I mumble.
My phone dings. Before my heart runs away in anticipation, I lock the hope down. A message from Lakeshia won’t be on the other end. I have the phone voice assistant relay the message. It’s from Ichiro, and he’s found Evan’s home address from the files he’s curated of our associates over the years. His place will not be easy to infiltrate.
I call a few men and tell them to meet me close by. Katsuo prefers we keep our business out of headlines, but given Evan has allied himself with Tomasso, there’s no need for a stealth operation.
The GPS leads me to an unincorporated community neighboring Serenidad. Miles of paved roads lined with dense trees seem to lead nowhere except through the town. On alert, I almost drive beyond the turning point. A small gap between the trees reveals a trail. Instead of driving onto the property, I find a spot off the road two miles beyond to wait for my men.
They arrive within thirty minutes. Strapped up, we camouflage the cars and head to Evan’s secret hideout. On the way, we dispatch his lookouts.
I don’t know whether the asshole’s lack of security is an insult or an embarrassment. I shrug off the emotion and proceed until we enter the clearing facing his estate.
“Never read Evan as a man with a complex like this,” one man says while staring at the monstrosity before us.
The structure sits on fifty acres of land. The building, because it in no way resembles a home, is a horrendous mix of every architectural period from Romanesque to Queen Anne, and it will take an experienced navigator to not lose themselves inside.
“There must be a security hub. Be on the lookout and try not to alert them we’re here.” I peel away from my men and head to the hideous building of mismatched styles.
Along the roof, menacing winged gargoyles meant to ward off evil overlook the estate. I can’t laugh at the irony of a man who supplies deadly weapons to criminals using apotropaic devices to protect himself from evil when I haven’t outgrown my belief in onis, tengus, and tanuki yokais who offer various protections with offerings.
I creep toward the house, keeping myself low while looking out for more of Evan’s security. Ignoring the front entrance, I search for a side door or back entry. As I turn the corner, I bump into a sturdy body.
“What the fuck! Who the hell are you?” An angry white man standing two inches taller than me demands.
Before he can draw another breath, I flatten my hand and chop him in his neck, collapsing his airways to silence him. He bowls over and clutches his throat as he grabs at me. I spin around to his back while he’s in distress, grab his neck, and twist until I hear a satisfying snap of his bone and feel his body collapsing. From the ensuing silence, his outburst didn’t attract attention.
I drag his body toward a thicket, the only appealing addition to Evan’s horrible estate. I bet his landscaper charged him a ransom for making his monstrosity of a house semi-appealing.
Closer to the first southern wing of the home, I find an unlocked arched entryway. I shake my head at his security lapse, but with all the doors in and out of this place to manage, maybe he doesn’t bother locking anything. The room I enter is a small mudroom for changing shoes and hooks for outerwear.
I bypass everything to enter the house, going room by room in search of the man who dared to endanger my loves. Time ticks on as I seek Evan, but every doorway leads to gaudily decorated interiors with no one in them. Frustration builds, but I temper my impatience by visualizing my satisfaction when I get my prey under my control.
I barely clear the wing when I get my phone vibrates. “You found him?” I ask my man the only question that matters.
“No. I’m in the security room. There are tons of cameras everywhere. He even has them in the bathrooms.” My man drones on and I grit my teeth.
He’s a fellow brother. As such, he’s earned my respect. I don’t make it a habit of upbraiding my men, but the urge to do so now is almost physical.
“Get this, I’ve looked at every monitor. You’re the only one in the house.”
I rein in the compulsion to smash everything and yell. Those behaviors are unlike me, they represent someone who doesn’t have a methodical mindset. Someone who lets their emotions override logic. Though Shinji has opened me up to the beauty of spontaneity, this isn’t one of those times.
“Do you see anything that hints at where he would go to hide out?” I ask, not willing to give up on this place yet.
This place is perfect. It’s remote and not widely known because Evan is a secretive son of a bitch. Good news for me because he has no nosy neighbors.
“I’ll check, but he doesn’t seem to have a lot of personal things lying around. No way!” A note of enthusiasm enters his voice. “Our man just pulled onto the road off the main street and he’s heading our way. If you want to catch him as soon as he walks through the door, head to the entrance now.”
“Stay on the line. If he looks like he’s going anywhere else, I want to know the second you know.”
I bring up an image of the house I recall from being outside to get my bearings before deciding which direction I need. Getting lost in a maze that will make horror fans question their love for the genre isn’t my idea of a good time.
“He’s pulling up to the front door now. Are you in place?”
I haul ass toward where I think the main entryway is. The corridor opens to a grand hall. A massive chandelier hangs from the ceiling and winding staircases line each wall before joining in the middle to overlook the entrance. Enormous statues depicting Greek gods bracket the stairs. His decorative tastes are tacky but offer insight into the man’s ego.
I position myself behind a statue of Zeus in time to catch Evan entering the house. He strolls past me as if the most complicated thought to occupy his mind is how to relax after a long day of betraying me.
Lucky for him, I have the perfect plan in mind. I remove my shoes and follow him. My socks dampen my footsteps on his marble floors. He disappears into a room and I stealthily follow. When he’s in view again, I clench my jaw at the sight of him draining a bottle of beer while a sandwich with a piece bitten out of it lies on the counter. Like the rest of the house, I wonder if Evan drove the vision for the decor or if he hired shitty people, and with his lack of taste he couldn’t distinguish the difference.
“Betrayal sure does work up an appetite, doesn’t it, Evan?” I round the doorway with a gun aimed at him.
The bottle in his hand crashes to the floor, breaking on contact and spewing its foamy content over the expensive tiles. Evan gasps, coughs, and sputters, his hand held up to ward me off.
I circle the mess on the floor and grab him by the back of his shirt at his nape. “Follow me. We need to talk.”
We pass by a door that matches the rest of the kitchen. Without knowing what’s behind it, I pull it open. “You have a walk-in freezer?”
Dry-aged beef, chicken, exotic birds, and other meats fill up half the interior. Some are on shelves, while others are on hooks suspended from the ceiling. The amount of meat on hand is excessive even if he feeds his security crew every meal every day. Something tells me Evan isn’t so generous.
“How else am I going to store my whale and tiger meat?” He balks as I try to push him inside. “Hey, we can make a deal. I have about twenty G’s worth of black market meat. How about you take that and I give you a lifetime discount for any weapons you need in the future? We’re talking about a multi-million dollar relationship. What do you say?”
“Does this door have a safety feature so it doesn’t automatically lock when you’re inside?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s right here.” He guides me to the side of the fridge and slides a panel free exposing a screen with various options. On the display is the auto-lock function.
With my plan in mind, I shove Evan inside, shut the door, and lock the freezer. I have more preparations to make. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the beginning of his descent into the psychological mind fuck I’m about to enact on him.
Evan bangs on the door from the inside. His muffled voice is a sweet chorus of his growing desperation.
I walk away and call my men to join me. I also ransack his kitchen for every blade I can find. My men enter the kitchen to find me sharpening the knives I’ve confiscated. “They’re dull, and he isn’t worthy of my katana,” I explain.
They nod and find seats around the kitchen. Their laughs and jokes at each other’s expense add to the scrape of the blades against Evan’s shitty sharpener. What I wouldn’t give for a proper whetstone. Honing a blade is almost ritualistic for me, the practice puts me in a meditative state where my senses ascend to another realm of understanding. In this instance, I can visualize every move and countermove Evan will try.
Once I have a sharpened deboning, fillet, and chef’s knife, I return to the freezer. To my men, I say, “Stay close. In case this malfunctions and locks me inside, be available to open the door when I give the order.”
They nod and mumble their agreement as I disengage the auto lock and re-enter the freezer.
“Man, I thought you intended to leave me in here.” Evan approaches me in righteous indignation.
His lips have a light blue tinge to them and cold puffs fog the air with his every breath.
“Looks like I came too soon. Lucky for you, I’m working on a timeline.” I pass him to free two of the meat hooks.
While I wrestle with the weight, he tries the door again. “Fuck! Why did you lock us in?” He charges me and I side step his attack.
I spin around and catch him by surprise when I haul him on the hooks, hanging him by his clothes. After the initial piercing and ripping of his shirt, the hook holds Evan’s weight.
“Takeshi, let’s talk things out. I get you need to get your pound of flesh, but you’re on the verge of taking things too far. You don’t want to do that. My network won’t let you get away if you go beyond the point of no return. What do you say?” Evan’s face is a mixture of cajoling and pleading, a combination that only makes my blood rage spike.
“You want to talk things out? Okay, let’s talk.”
Evan enthusiastically nods. “Glad we can agree. Now, why don’t we start with you taking me down and having a civilized conversation in a more comfortable setting?”
“Comfortable? I’m perfectly fine where we are. So, let’s begin with a story.” I circle Evan while keeping my tone neutral. “One day my husband asks me for a baby. Now, something to know about me is fatherhood fucking terrifies me. I think I’ll be a shitty father. Too rigid and set in my ways. But I agreed. Do you know why?”
“Uh… Because you love your husband?”
“You guessed right. Good Job, Evan. Now, my husband was over the moon. However, after getting me on board, he didn’t make a move to make his dreams a reality. Can you guess what the problem was?”
Evan shakes his head and licks his lips before stammering, “W-what was the i-issue?”
“My husband had a specific woman in mind to make his dream a reality. She’s a little unconventional, and I wasn’t too happy with her at first, but she won me over rather quickly.” I shake my head and a deprecating laugh escapes me at how I understated her impact on me before she tunneled herself into my heart. “I shouldn’t have to tell you. You’ve met her.”
“I-I did?”
“Earlier today.” I glare at him without adding more context.
“Takeshi, my man, I didn’t know.” Evan nervously licks his lips but because of the chill, he’s unable to moisturize them. “How could I? She… Well, she doesn’t seem like your type.”
I take a step back to calm the rage rampaging below the surface. “What was your impression of her?”
“What? Are you seriously asking?—”
“Was I unclear?”
“No, uh, I guess I thought she was out of place.” At my arched brow, he stammers, “She’s very feminine. You should know, she has a pretty face and a body?—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” I inhale and exhale to keep myself from launching at him. “Okay, you saw her, admired her, then what?”
“Takeshi, you’ve got to understand. She was in my establishment. Her presence meant she wasn’t immune from anything that goes down.”
“That’s how it was? She came to you as a customer and because you broke our code, you green-lit an assassination attempt that would rob me of the future mother of my child. Do you see why I would have a problem with that?”
“But y-you said you didn’t want to be a father.”
“I did say that, didn’t I? The thing is, she opened my eyes to the possibility. When she recently told me she wasn’t pregnant, I thought I would have been relieved, but I wasn’t. Disappointed doesn’t begin to describe the loss I felt. For the first time in my life, I didn’t fear fatherhood, I damn well started to crave it.”
The moment I pictured myself fulfilling the same role Katsuo does for his kids but for my own was the night Lakeshia sacrificed her pride for my help. For years, Shinji tried convincing me I had the potential to loosen and adapt, traits a good father has. Traits I thought I was too rigid to ever compromise, even for a child who would depend on me for everything. Now I’m certain my flexibility isn’t isolated to Shinji. Lakeshia reinforced and added new conviction to the possibilities, implanting me with dreams of a family with little boys and girls who have the perfect blend of the three of us. And this mother fucker threatened to take it all away from me.
I lower my voice, although I don’t hide the underlying ferocity. “All the self-doubt, lack of confidence, every negative whisper in my ear disappeared. Then you tried to snatch any hope of me ever becoming a father before I got my chance.”
“You can still make that happen. You don’t need her, specifically.” Evan thrashes his body and swings his limbs. A rending sound penetrates the cold freezer and his body slides lower on the hooks.
“Evan, Evan, Evan. You still don’t get it. She is irreplaceable. My husband is irreplaceable.” My last word rings in the silence.
A beat passes, then Evan falls to the ground, his weight no longer supported by the hooks. He recovers quickly but before he gets too far; I grab him. This time when I dump him on the hooks, I ensure the sharp points pierce the flesh under his shoulders.
His scream rends the air, but his pain doesn’t appease me in the least.
“Takeshi, I thought we were talking things out.”
“We are.” I retrieve the deboning knife and caress the handle. “Oh, did you think you were walking away? Oh, Evan. You colluded in an assassination attempt on the lives of my husband and lover. Even you can’t be that dumb to think your life is more valuable than theirs.” I sink the knife into his side and drag the blade past his hip. “I do have to thank you for one thing. I’ve never shared my fears with Shinji or Lakeshia, so getting this off my chest is a relief. Now I can start my family with no regrets.”
With the first cut spurting blood over me, the dam holding my frustration at bay collapses and I work everything out on his body to the soundtrack of his pained screams. When I walk out of the freezer, my men peer inside. Some gag. Some curse. Some run out. Because hanging from the hook is Evan’s face frozen in a scream. Below his head is his bloody skeleton while his flesh lies in clumps on the floor.
“Leave a message for anyone who thinks to come after us. Let them know if they touch my husband or Lakeshia, their fate will be worse.”
With my clothes saturated with Evan’s blood, I leave his estate, unsympathetic to the mess I make in the car. One need drives me as I reach for my phone.
“Everything okay?” Shinji asks. His voice is the sweet balm I need to calm the adrenaline rushing through my blood.
“I’m fine. How about you?”
A pregnant pause follows my question.
Shinji exhales, raising my hackles. “We’re finishing up now. We’ll see you at home.”
Before I can question him further, he disconnects the call. I increase my speed, uncaring if I pass a ticket-happy cop. Something big happened, and I need to be home to help Shinji and Lakeshia through whatever it is.