29. Pressure
Chapter twenty-nine
Pressure
Kenji
This space had been all heat and noise hours ago; now it was mostly shadows, broken by the glow of the model’s city lights.
I knew by morning all the Scales’ wives, girlfriends, and lovers would have heard about my Tiger and how the Dragon had taken an ear for her.
Some would call it devotion, others weakness; all of them would agree it was the kind of love that no one was prepared to witness.
The younger ones would probably exaggerate until it sounded like my Tiger had ordered the execution and I’d been glad to obey. But most of all. . .every retelling would make the ear bigger, the blood redder, the screams louder, my knife more brutal, and my Tiger fiercer.
Wives would pass it like tea—the Dragon bled the floor for his Heart. Even the quiet, older men would talk because fear loosened tongues faster than whiskey.
Word would travel fast on this island; by tomorrow, every porch would know the Dragon took an ear for his Heart.
Respect would meet her at every doorway—eyes down, voices soft, no one daring to pry.
Wives and mothers would bow lower, aunties would pour the first cup for her, and cousins would swallow their questions before they reached their teeth.
And when many spoke to her, they would have to struggle with not guarding their ears.
I grinned at the thought of my Tiger walking around this island tomorrow with every doorway bowing to her.
But then the smile faded as my mind shifted to the war ahead.
Are we ready?
My father, the Fox was good at war. He had stacked victories the way other men stacked coins, careful and cold. And he never cared about the price of winning, just that he did.
This would be my first true war. It would mean everything—my country, my brother, my future with my Tiger.
I could not lose.
I thought of the same men that would be gossiping this evening and fear began to creep under my ribs.
Many might die.
Not just Scales.
It could be Fangs.
It could be Claws.
It could even be my Roar.
A band cinched across my chest, quiet and mean, one notch tighter with every name I might have to bury. My breaths came out short. I rolled my shoulders like I could shrug the pressure off my lungs. It stayed.
Today the war room had been packed. In the days to come, there might be tons of empty chairs and villas full of mourning families.
I swallowed hard.
It can’t be too many casualties on my side. It can’t. . .I just have to figure out where he and my brother, Akiro are hiding. If I can kill them. . .there may not need to be a huge battle.
Once I got to the exit, the pressure within my chest was now this unmovable thing. This dark passenger that would never leave me.
Reo appeared to my left. Silent, as always. His expression unreadable but eyes alert.
I thought of how my Tiger had whispered to him before departing, and how whatever she had said, triggered him to put Scales in action.
We left the room.
I looked at him. “What did my Tiger whisper to you?”
“Two things.”
I eyed him.
Reo’s expression barely shifted. “She thinks one of the new guards at the door is suspicious.”
I stopped and fully turned to him. “Who?”
“Oguri.”
The name hit me like a quiet bullet.
Two hours before the bombs went off, two different people had attempted to message the Fox from burner phones. One had been made in this hallway. Another was on the eastern side of the island.
Thankfully, my hackers had intercepted both and cut the lines before the messages went through.
And then the signals were gone.
Phones powered down.
Both vanished like they had never existed.
Phantom signals from ghost hands.
We’d been trying to trace the Fox’s remaining two spies ever since.
That was why I hadn’t gone to sleep last night. I was too anxious to close my eyes.
I studied my Roar. “Could Oguri be the one that made the phone call from this hallway?”
Reo gave a single nod. “For me, he was in the top three on the list. Had the time to make the call. He even took a quick smoke break. Afterwards, he slowly walked back to his post at the door. But for his journey. . .the last time. . .he did something different. . .he had walked within the shadows of the hallways hitting some of the cameras’ blind spots. ”
I will fucking kill him.
“Why does my Tiger think he’s suspicious?” I narrowed my eyes. “Did he say something to her?”
“No. He looked at her. Twice.”
“That’s it?”
“She said it was the way he did it.” Reo shrugged. “She believed he was hiding something so. . .I had some Scales grab him.”
“Just based off of that?”
“I trust your Tiger a lot more than most, and the fact that we both found him suspicious was enough for me to put him in your special torture cell below the house.”
I nodded and headed off. “Good. We’ll deal with him tomorrow. Do you think he’ll talk?”
“I’m hoping he will. I left a few bodies from your and Hiro’s work in the bamboo room to keep him company.”
“You put the other traitors’ corpses in the cell with him?”
“I believe the decor will give him a lot to think about.”
“It may.”
“Also. . .speaking of bodies. . .I have narrowed down the serial killer in Tokyo to two people.”
Along with the pressure in my chest, I could feel a headache coming. “I keep forgetting about Mr. Slice-off-women’s-feet-man.”
“Yeah. Well. . .Ali and I have not forgotten. I’m actually sending Ali back to Tokyo later this evening to get a closer look at the two suspects.”
“Have him take Scales.”
“I will, and none will be from the eastern side of the island. It will only be the most trusted that fly back with him.”
“They can’t get caught by my father’s men.”
“They won’t. Besides. . .Ali has been instructed to kill our Scales if they are caught.” Reo appeared tense as he said it. “And. . .Ali said he would kill himself.”
That couldn’t happen. While I didn’t care much for Ali, Reo loved him a lot and saw him as a brother.
“No.” I shook my head. “Send triple the men. The only people that die if the Fox’s men come around, is them. Not our side. No sacrifices.”
“I didn’t want to use up too many Scales for this mission—”
“You need Ali by your side in this war, which means I need Ali alive. Send triple the men.”
Reo let out a relieved breath and then slowly nodded. “Okay.”
I considered Nyomi and that whisper to Reo.
Tora. . .how did you figure out the guard was suspicious? Was it really just a look?
The pressure band around my chest yanked another hole tighter at the thought of her name within the context of a dangerous traitor.
You keep surprising me, Tora.
She didn’t grow up in this world, knew nothing of our rules. However, she’d been able to help me catch Watari and now Oguri.
We continued toward the stairs.
Reo cleared his throat. “If you don’t mind, I was going to chat with her about the second spy, let her know all of the information, the location of signal, and all the people that lived there.”
I stopped in front of the stairs and scowled at him. “My Tiger is a journalist. It would be like giving a dog a bone. She would want to go out there and start fucking sleuthing. So no. She found two spies. She’s done.”
“I can give her the Claws to go to the eastern side of the island. There’s a nice beach there. Many of the families relax over there during the day. I would just want her to look around a little bit. She could talk with some of the people on the beach and hang out. It would be fun in the sun.”
“Fun in the sun?” I pointed at him. “The only way I would allow that is if I was with her—”
“This won’t work if you go with her. The spy will be on guard.”
“I don’t want the fucking spy anywhere near her while I’m not there.” Somehow even more pressure filled my chest. I kept breathing like nothing was wrong—short, shallow lies dressed as composure.
Reo’s tone remained maddingly calm. “She’s good, Kenji. She could find the other spy. That would give us a big leg up in this war. And Hiro would never let anything happen to her. He knows how much you love her, and. . .after Nura. . .he’s going to be even more protective than you.”
“That’s not the point.” I gripped the banister hard enough to make the wood groan. “You don’t put a crown jewel in the middle of a minefield just because you’ve got killer guards with her.”
“She’s not just a jewel. She also could be a weapon in this war. . .not in our way of course, but in her way. A big mistake on your part would be, if you kept her locked in a box on this island like she’s breakable.”
“She is breakable,” I snapped. “And unlike you, I’m not interested in seeing how far she can bend before she snaps.”
Reo didn’t blink. “Kenji, she’s your Heart.”
“And I need my Heart to live.”
“You will also need your Heart to win, and that means letting her be helpful.”
“Reo. . .what you’re not understanding is that I’ve changed since she’s entered my life.
” I stepped closer and lowered my voice so no passing guards or staff could hear me.
“If she dies, the war is over for me. Everything is over for me. There would be no more Dragon. Do you understand? I would be. . .nothing. . .”
Reo pursed his lips.
I stepped back. “You think winning this war matters more than her life? It doesn’t.”
“I think winning this war is the only way to keep her alive, and if we want to beat the Fox we must use every advantage. One spy could ruin everything.”
“My Tiger is not an advantage , she’s one of the reasons why I’m fighting this war in the first place.”
“And she’s the reason you could lose it, because you’re playing defense when you should be striking.”
I could feel the muscle ticking in my jaw. I was halfway ready to fucking fight him, but at this point my lungs felt like barbed wire was wrapping around them. I struggled to breathe through it.
Reo watched me. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” I cleared my throat. “You want me to dangle her like bait?”