Chapter 48
Chapter Forty-Eight
FINN
The door creaks loudly, like a ghost searching for souls to drag straight to hell. Everything is dark except for the faintest rays of moonlight coming from a small, barred window.
I barely make out three men standing near the window. They’re huddled together, whispering, but when I walk in, they scatter across the room.
The first thing I check is whether anyone is bleeding. I ordered Ren and Hayato not to lay a finger on them. It’s hard to say for sure since the room is dark, but from what I can see, Ren and Hayato didn’t go rogue.
The next thing I notice is the way Ace and his friends are moving. Ace has his hands tied in front of his body, but the other two have their hands tied behind their backs. Why would Ren and Hayato tie their hands in different positions?
“Who’s there?” Ace calls, sensing my presence. “I know someone came in.”
I slip my earbud in and call J.
The line connects.
“I’m here,” J says. “But I’m not finding anything.” Frustration snaps through her tone when she adds, “These guys could have done me a favor and saved a ‘Use in Case of Kidnapping’ thread in their notes app.”
She’ll find it. I’d offer her encouragement, but I’m not ready to reveal myself yet.
I breathe out slowly and let the door shut behind me, sealing me in with Ace and the other two.
My shoes are silent on the dirty floor. The shed is much bigger inside than it seemed on the outside. Unlike the basement in the abandoned glass factory, there are no blood stains on the wall.
This isn’t one of Kurosaki’s usual torture chambers.
“Hello?” Ace calls.
I remain silent, observing them. Ace’s two friends are creeping around the room. At this point, they’re stationary, but it’s clear that they’ve come up with a plan and are carefully following the steps to overpower me.
“Look, you’ve kept us here long enough,” Ace croaks. His voice is scratchy from not drinking water for so many hours.
The man to my left takes a step forward while the other one remains still.
“What do you want, man?”
The second man starts moving in stealth mode.
“If you wanted to kill us, you would have done that already.”
Ace is their designated spokesperson, and these two must be the enforcement. Interesting. I’d appreciate the strategy more if it wasn’t so obvious.
I fall back, and his two friends pause, searching the darkness for me. Ace notices their hesitation, and he juts his chin forward. His friends start moving again, spurred by his encouragement.
“The Grave City Crew won’t leave us here to die. If we don’t show up by sunrise, our leader’s going to make some noise. You don’t want that kind of heat. I promise you.”
He’s bluffing.
“Let us go and we might let you off easy,” Ace croaks.
“I know you, Ace,” I say quietly.
Ace shifts his head toward me. I can tell that he’s trying to make out my face, but it’s impossible. I’m sticking to the shadows near the door.
“How do you know me?” Ace calls. “Who the hell are you?”
“I know you’re not high enough on the food chain to be talking this way. No one from the Grave City Crew will care if you disappear.”
His posture straightens, but the way he’s moving his head back and forth betrays his confusion. “I’m Big Robin’s righthand man.”
I scoff. “Big Robin sent his righthand man on a recon mission to Redwood Prep.” I pace slightly to the left as his friends get closer. “But he didn’t bother telling you who I am.”
“Wait… you’re that Asian guy.”
I notice someone creeping to my left. He steps into the moonlight. Our gazes connect, and he lunges at me. I take advantage of his momentum and step back, letting him stumble over himself and crash into the door.
“You okay in there?” J’s voice pours through the earbuds.
My brothers and Sol start shaking the door, trying to get in.
I knock on the door three times sharply, and they stop.
“Okay, okay. This is getting real.” J’s words rush together, making her hard to understand. “I have a few nudes here? Mr. Rico—he’s the owner of this phone—he’s cheating on his girlfriend.” J snorts. “Of course he is. Why can’t men just break it off if they’re no longer interested?”
“That won’t work,” I growl.
The words are for J, but Ace’s buddy takes it personally.
He tries to attack me too. I grab his wrist and curl it backward.
He bawls out.
I shove him away, and he stumbles forward, arms flailing.
“I’m ditching Rico’s phone. It doesn’t have anything I can work with.”
I prowl away from the door, keeping myself hidden as much as I can.
“Where the hell are you?” Ace roars. “Show yourself, you prick!”
The first guy who attacked me spots me as I shift through the shadows. He makes a running leap, eyes wide and desperate. I sidestep him easily, grab his ankle and give it a good twist. He screams and I let go, watching him hop on one leg to the opposite side of the shed.
The second guy comes at me next. He throws a surprisingly solid punch for someone who hasn’t eaten all day. I dodge the punch and kick him straight into Ace who stumbles down in a rage of expletives.
“Oooh. Finn, this other guy—Rasheed… he’s got a secure folder with all the goodies,” J announces in my earbuds.
Ace’s eyes bulge. Curses fly out of his mouth as he races to me and tries to headbutt me. His hands are still tied up, so I don’t understand what he’s hoping to accomplish. As Ace draws closer, I note the way his nostrils flare and a vein pops in his forehead.
Ah. Rage.
Unfortunately for Ace, he didn’t have a sensei who taught him to control his anger. He’s making emotional decisions. Which makes him stupid.
If I wasn’t stalling for time, I could knock him out in a second.
I dance close enough to taunt Ace but continue dodging his attempts to stomp and headbutt me. He’s tiring himself out with every attempt. I hope J finds something soon. These guys are exhausted and food deprived. They’ll drop like flies before I can make a move of my own.
“Okay, okay,” J mumbles. “I see something I can work with. ATM receipts. Let me calculate something…”
Ace stumbles backward. He’s moving at a sluggish pace. Sweat beads on his neck and drops down his face.
“… There’s a master spreadsheet here, but they don’t match the receipts. Hold on…”
“Is that the best you can do?” I taunt.
He comes at me again, moving like a drunk elephant. His flying kicks don’t land and that seems to upset him more, but the more emotional he becomes, the less accurate his aim becomes. It’s a cruel cycle.
“… okay. I found the connection. Rasheed has text-message screenshots here. They’re between him and a contact saved as Numbers. The receipts don’t match though. I’m about eighty percent sure they are under-reporting the money they collect, Finn.”
Eighty percent is good enough.
Ace is gasping for breath at this point. “Come here and fight!” he yells.
I step out of the shadows.
The three crew members shuffle back as if I’m a monster.
I speak calmly, both hands raised. “Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, let’s talk. I want to make a deal.”
Ace breathes hard. “Think again, punk. We’ll never work with you.”
I study each of them. “Which one of you is Rasheed?”
The first guy who attacked me looks away.
“I have access to each of your accounts,” I say conversationally. “And I found something really interesting on his phone.” I point to Rasheed.
Rasheed visibly swallows.
“How long have you been stealing from the Crew?” I ask.
“Shut up!” Ace snarls. “Don’t listen to him!”
“Rasheed has been doing business on behalf of your crew, but he’s been scraping off the top.”
“Is that true?” Rico, the one on Ace’s right, glares at Rasheed.
“I… I…”
“Damn, bro,” Rico spits. “Are you crazy? You know how Robin gets about stealing from our own.”
The whites of Rasheed’s eyes are clearly visible. “H-how do you know about that?”
“Don’t keep receipts on your phone, you dodo bird,” J mumbles in my ears.
“That’s not the right question, Rasheed. The right question is… who else knows?” I prowl toward him, and they all shuffle backward on cue. “What happens if your boss finds out?”
“He’s bluffing.” Ace moves his head back and forth. “Don’t listen to him.”
J pipes up. “Ask Ace how that worked out for Pen.”
I have no idea who Pen is, but I slip a hand into my pocket and recite, “Not listening to reason is why things ended badly for Pen.”
Like puppets pulled on a string, all three of them jerk back.
“That’s crazy,” Rico hisses.
“How do you know about Pen?” Ace demands. “Who the hell are you?”
“Again. Not an important question.” I check the clock symbol on my phone.
It’s time to wrap this up. J hasn’t slept for over twelve hours, and Dr. Kenji was firm about her needing to recover.
“In the next two minutes, my people are going to send your leader all the screenshots documenting your embezzlement.”
“You can’t use big words around Ace,” J advises.
“Ace, embezzlement is just a big word for stealing,” I explain.
Ace’s nostrils flare, and his eyes bulge to the point of exploding out of their sockets. He hates me with his every breath. I don’t need to read through my expressions handbook to see the signs. However, he can’t do anything.
I have him cornered.
“Don’t.” Rasheed drops to his knees. “Please. He’ll kill me.”
“No, he won’t,” I tell him calmly.
Rasheed looks up with a hopeful expression.
I stab a finger at Ace and then at Rico. “He’ll kill all of you. Because this text will include your names.”
“I didn’t do nothing!” Rico protests.
“Robin won’t believe you,” Ace grunts.
I shrug. “Maybe. Maybe not. Do you want to take that chance?”
“What do you want?” Rasheed begs. “I’ll do it. Whatever you say.”
The knots in my chest loosen. “One person isn’t enough. The three of you have to agree. I’ll give you some time to think about it.”
I walk to the door and whisper an instruction to Zane. A few minutes later, my brother knocks on the door. I open it and receive the cellphones he thrusts into my hands.
“Well?” I ask the crew.
Rico nods. “We won’t tell anybody about tonight. And we won’t go after you or your girl. We swear.” When Ace remains silent, Rico slaps his arm. “Tell him.”
A vein protrudes in the center of Ace’s forehead. His face is reddening. “You think he did all that just for us to stay away from him?”
Ace is finally showing some sense.
I toss the phones at them.
Ace, Rico, and Rasheed rush to pick up the devices, although Ace takes a little more maneuvering since his hands are still tied.
Rico is the first to notice the burner phone. “There’s a fourth phone. It isn’t ours.”
“I want to know what Robin is planning. I want to know who he’s meeting and who his allies are.”
“Nice move,” J whispers in my ear.
Ace’s eyebrows fly to the top of his head. “Why would we do that?”
Rico shakes his head. “If Robin finds out we’re rats, we’re dead.”
“And if he finds out what your friend Rasheed’s been doing?” I tilt my head, letting them stew in the silence.
Rasheed hangs his head.
Rico darts forward and takes the phone. “Okay. Deal.”
“Same,” Rasheed whispers.
Ace looks away, his jaw tightening. “Fine.”
I approach Ace and untie his wrists. As the rope falls free, he watches me with a dark look as if he’s deciding whether it’s worth it to fight me.
I extend a hand to him. “We’ll be in touch?”
He snaps the phone from Rico and stuffs it into his pocket, glaring at me the entire time. “Get the hell out of my face.”
“He doesn’t sound happy,” J notes.
I wouldn’t be either if I was just threatened and then turned into a double spy.
Ace shoves the door open and screams to a stop when he meets a human blockade. Dutch, Zane, and Sol stare him down, arms loose at their sides, ready to swing.
“Let them go.” My voice carries to the door.
Dutch flicks a quick look at me, sees that I’m unharmed and steps away. Sol and Zane fall back too.
I linger in the shed and put a hand to my earbud, pressing it deeper into my ear. “You did good.”
“Of course. It’s me.”
I smile and hang up.
Ace and his crew scramble into the night, disappearing down the street.
“Where’s Ren and Hayato?” I ask, walking outside. The air is much cooler than in the shed, and I pull my shirt away from my body, realizing that I’m sweating profusely.
I guess I was more nervous than I thought.
“They left a few minutes ago. Don’t ask. They didn’t tell us anything. They pretty much treat us like we don’t exist.” Sol rolls his eyes.
“It’s done?” Zane asks.
I dip my chin.
“Well, that was easy.” Sol flicks his lighter. The tiny flame chases away the darkness around the shed. “And here I thought I’d be able to set a little fire or two.”
Zane pats me on the back.
Dutch nods. “You good?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure about letting them go without the money? What if they go straight to their gang leader and tell him the truth?”
“They won’t.”
I think about Kurosaki walking me around his company. His people bowed to him out of respect or fear. The reasons didn’t matter to him, as long as they obeyed.
“Organizations like the yakuza and the Grave City Crew are built on fear and revenge. You take the darkest parts of people, and you use it to control them.” I look up at the inky black sky.
“But to control people with darkness, you have to be much darker, more cruel, more suspicious. The moment their leader finds out about tonight, the paranoia will eat at him.”
“Those three either have to act alone against you or confess they got a deal from you. And the moment they say those words, they fall from grace.” Zane snaps his fingers. “Like that.”
“So… it sounds like we won.” Sol grins.
“The immediate threat is gone, but the Grave City Crew still has a target on my back,” I mutter.
“Yeah, but tonight, we’re safe.” Sol hooks an arm around my neck.
Zane winks at me. “You’re kind of a gangster, Finn. I like it.”
“Your plan was better than mine,” Dutch admits. “But what are we going to do about accepting Bex Dane’s money? We signed a contract to tour with him.”
“That’s a problem for another day,” Sol says, covering his mouth with a yawn.
“Let’s go home,” Zane agrees, blinking sleepily.
I let my brothers and my best friend nudge me back to the van. Sol hoots and hollers as he drives, and J boasts about her part in tonight’s achievement.
And while their laughter explodes around me, a slow warning sensation burns through my chest, telling me that it’s too early to celebrate.