Chapter Three #3
She suddenly blows smoke my way. No wonder the acrid smell feels comforting to me. I do prefer the smell from River’s menthol cigarettes, though.
“Now, the bloody Triad encounter. A trap?” She is too astute not to know their meeting request was fishy. So why did she send me? Did she hope they’d show their cards after I started cutting?
I snort. “Three against two is hardly a trap. Ling Wang wasn’t even there.”
“I see. I trust you handled the aftermath discreetly?” She looks at River, and after he nods at her, turns her dark eyes my way. The white strands peeking among the coal black hair are tied in a tight bun on her nape. She’s aged a bit, but doesn’t look in her fifties.
“I will off the guy sooner rather than later…discretion or not,” I let her know. I don’t care if he’s the grandchild of a Triad head. Any punishment from her will be worth it.
“One must not always think so much about what one should do. But rather what one should be,” she cryptically declares, and drops the butt of the cigarette in the ashtray before taking a new one from her little purse.
“Meaning?” My back stiffens as I try to decipher her words.
She lights her cig, and then starts tapping her fingernails on the sofa armrest. The mon, the family emblem of two snake heads inside a circle with their tails entwined, is on the ring around her pinky finger, and it’s exactly the same as the one I’m wearing.
Every member of the Hebikawa family has one—me and Ane-san are the only ones alive.
“Are you happy to be in the Big Apple?”
“Like a squealing birthday girl.” I glaze my words with sarcasm.
“I’ve been thinking for a while about your future. This is the right time for you to grow in the family. You need to fortify your position now more than ever.” She pauses before giving me her kumicho look. “You are going to get married within this year.”
“What?” I spring up from the sofa, shocked to my bones as I cry out, “Ane-san, you can’t be serious!”
“I. Am,” she states icily.
“Well, I am not!”
“Urusai!” Her tone is commanding. It makes me grit my teeth as I move my glare to the floor. I can feel every muscle tensing, as if not only my mind, but also my body is rejecting her words.
“It’s decided,” she states with a final tone. “You knew this day would come. The future kumicho needs to have a strong marriage.”
“What you mean is that I have to secure a strong connection with a powerful family so that other organizations will think twice before fucking with me.”
She sighs. I hear in it all the weight of her exasperation. “I don’t know why you are so against it. Is there something…someone I should know about?” Her eyes narrow.
I can’t stop my gaze from moving to River. Standing near the desk, looking unaffected by the news. Unfeeling, fucking unbothered like a damn statue. Saying nothing. Nothing.
“I’ll take your silence as a no. Just get rid of whomever you’re having fun with.
It’s never been hard for you in the past,” she continues, as I look at the white wall in front of me without actually seeing it.
“You will meet the first candidate tomorrow. There are five in total. You will pick one…by the end of this month, otherwise I’ll do it for you. ”
“No,” I growl. It’s too fucking fast.
“Yes.”
“Or, hear me out, no!” I sound like a bratty kid, but fuck, I don’t want a fucking wife. Not when I haven’t even started exploring whatever the fuck I feel for River.
“Kuso!” she mutters. “Marrying for convenience is archaic but necessary for the heir of the Hebikawa family. Your grandfather did it, and I as well.”
Yeah, she did, with the son of an import/export tycoon who lives his separate, bachelor-like life back in Japan. The marriage helped reinforce the legal side of the family business.
I never thought this day would come this fast. I’m too young to get fucking married. But do I have a choice?
I suddenly feel her hand touching mine. And when I look at her face, I see pain flashing inside her eyes. “Your father—” Her words are cut off by a knock on the door.
“Come in!” she clips, dropping her hand.
One of her men pushes the door open. He bows, and then tells Kumicho it’s time for her next appointment.
She nods and slowly stands up, grabbing her purse while dropping the cigarette in the ashtray.
“Let me take care of the Triad for now. You focus on the construction company. We need solid legal foundations to hide all the illegal businesses. And don’t ditch Masa again, or there will be consequences. ”
“What kind of consequences?” I’m not done fucking with that snitch.
She chuckles lightly, but I can hear the vicious intent behind it. “Why ruin the surprise?”
I give her a bow, not trusting myself to say something she’ll make me regret. I’m a devil-may-care hot-headed motherfucker, but I’ll never disrespect my kumicho, nor the woman who took me under her wing and gave me this life.
“Keep up the…good work, gaijin.” Her parting words are addressed at River.
As the doors close behind her, I drop on the sofa, head back on the headrest, eyes closed.
“Antagonizing her isn’t the best move.”
“Oh, he speaks!” I state sarcastically, glowering at the ceiling.
“Is your giri so strong as to keep your mouth shut when it should move?” I fill every word with contempt.
“Do you still feel like you owe her any kind of debt after all you’ve done and still do?
Is this personal sacrifice of yours going to stop anytime soon? ”
“Giri is not the word I’d choose.” His voice is emotionless.
“So what’s the right fucking word, River?” I push my head up to send him a blazing glare.
Those piercing, blue pools are staring back without even a shadow in them. “On,” he simply utters, taking my breath away.
The Japanese word on still expresses a feeling to be indebted to someone, but contrary to giri, it doesn’t involve a sense of obligation, but of gratitude and a heartening desire to return. And the way he looks at me is so genuine, unfeigned, that I know his on is toward me. Not her.
Fucking River. Is that all he feels for me? A desire to give back? He has done that over and over again during the past years. How many more times does he need?
There’s another sudden knock on the door just before Trevor’s blond-dyed and gelled head peeks inside the office. “Boss, you need to sign the contract with Agil Tech regarding the old factory in Brooklyn today.” He points at the file on top of my desk. He wears rings on every finger.
“Also, the zoning board manager accepted the…gift and gave you the approval over the land use in Queens. While the guy from the environmental agency needs, and I quote, ‘a more convincing one.’”
Greedy asshole. When did bribery become so hard? “Send a couple of men to his home. Let’s see how convincing he finds that.”
“I can go with Masa, tenderize him for you,” Trevor says, taking a step inside the office. “That fucker thinks he’s the shit. I’d be happy to give him a reality check.” He cracks his knuckles.
“Not during work hours.”
“Soma needs some action,” River says, still standing there so fucking delicious and dutiful. I want to scratch his face and lick off every drop of blood he sheds.
I keep looking at Trevor as I nod. I’m still so fucking annoyed at River.
He can take a knife for me, but he can’t express his disagreement with my aunt?
Always fucking following orders blindly.
If Kumicho orders him to suck my dick, will he do it?
Damn, but my dick likes that, even though there’s zero chance for it to happen.
“Also, we had a small problem with one of the warehouses.”
“What?” I ask.
“It was vandalized. Three men in ski masks. They threw rocks at the windows during the night and released mice inside. It will take pest control a day or two to take care of it,” Trevor explains. I feel River’s eyes making a hole in my head.
Mice…Fuckchill retaliated fast. Fucking hell, he has no imagination. “Fix the windows today. Yuna and Karin?” I ask Trevor before he leaves.
“They are in your…fortress of doom.”
Oh, I need some of that right about now.
I go to the desk, and after reading the paper inside the file, I sign it. Then I move to the door without glancing River’s way even once, and of course he just follows me.
All I hear is silence on his part. Crickets. The way he always has the capacity of scolding me while remaining quiet rubs me the wrong way. It’s like arguing with a damn wall.
I turn left into a dim corridor and pass two empty rooms before stopping on the threshold of the fortress of doom, the room filled with all my baneful thoughts.
Black walls, two bulbs hanging from the ceiling, one illuminating a cheap plastic table where my crew is playing shoji.
The other is on the opposite side over my red velvet and black leather throne of doom, which I use when I’m entertaining murderous intentions.
The room is stripped to the bare essentials, but the view of the East River and Long Island is why my crew hangs in here—and the mini fridge.
“Want my knife skewing your tiny balls, Masa?” Yuna emphasizes the threat by crashing the golden can of Yebisu beer in her hand.
“I’m not cheating.”
Soma snorts at his words.
“Just say you want me naked, and I’ll oblige you.
Karin can watch!” Masa winks at Karin, who’s on Yuna’s lap.
He is at it again. He’s one of my aunt’s men, that’s why I’ve been screwing with him.
I hate to know that Kumicho thinks I need oversight, but I have to confess, he’s growing on me.
He’s different from the rest of the men in black. For starters, he talks.
“In your dreams,” Yuna replies, tightening her arm around her girlfriend.
“My dreams are so vivid, sometimes it is you, others Karin—” Yuna interrupts him by spearing the shoji board with her hunting knife.
“You pervy fucker, I’ll show you vivid.”