Chapter 51
Chapter fifty-one
Yosh
There are a few reasons I agreed to join Tom in visiting his family.
One of them is to see exactly who I’m up against. Because now, more than ever, I mean it: I’m the threat Jay never saw coming.
Even if that means facing him on his own turf, where I’m already at a disadvantage after yesterday’s Christmas dinner.
More snow fell last night. A thicker blanket greeted me when I struggled to open the front door a few minutes ago. Yesterday’s path has almost vanished, so I try to make sense of the trail leading to the wolf’s den.
As I approach the North House, I spot Jay on the weathered oakwood porch swing. There’s a steaming pot of tea in his hands.
Our eyes lock.
It’s just him and me, alone in this snowy landscape in the middle of nowhere.
Sergei isn’t with him, and Tom was still fast asleep when I sneaked out for a morning walk.
No other family members in sight either.
The smug grin he offers tells he’s been expecting me.
He rises to his feet and steps down the creaking stairs, with no sign of a friendly greeting.
“I think you and I should take a walk.”
“As you wish, Jay.”
We head away from the lodge. A glance over my shoulder reveals two faces between the curtains, Joan and Alex. I grin, then smooth my expression before turning back to Jay.
“You don’t like me, Jay?” I ask.
Right now, offence is the best defense. He doesn’t seem the type to tolerate bullshit, so maybe he’ll respect directness. Still, being this straightforward isn’t exactly my comfort zone.
“You seem like a decent man, Yoshiro. Just not for my little brother.”
There it is.
Dodging the question, trying to plant a seed of insecurity, classic move from someone who thinks he’s the one calling the shots. I was wrong. Jay does bullshit, just selectively, when it suits him.
“That's not for you to decide, Jay.”
“Maybe not, but Tom only listens to me. He always has. I'm the most important person in his life.”
“Things change, maybe that takes some getting used to.”
He lets out a cynical laugh as we continue walking along the lake, following the waterline.
“You underestimate the power of blood,” Jay says, giving me a sidelong glance.
“But I wonder... Do you even know how deep family runs?”
He stops, turns fully to me with his arms folded. “Or were you never that close to yours?”
I feel him looking right through me.
How does he know? Or is he just guessing?
“I think you could benefit from some therapy yourself, Jay. A little self-reflection would be helpful.”
“Helpful, huh? You know what would be helpful, Yoshiro? Boundaries. Professional ones.”
He tilts his head. I swear, his stare is like a scalpel he wants to slice into my Achilles heel.
“A therapist who gets to know his client too well doesn't seem very ethical to me. So I'm just wondering, is it really Tom you're trying to help, or mainly yourself?”
Jay leads us to a shed behind the East House.
I want to scream pineapple cookie so loud it echoes across the lake.
If Tom manages to fall out of bed fast, we could be out of here in ten minutes. No, five. Five minutes tops, not a second longer.
I need to do something because my head is about to explode. Let me end this bullshit right here.
“Your problem with me isn’t about ethics. And it’s not that you think I’m not good enough for Tom. None of this is personal.”
There’s steel in my voice now.
“Have you ever heard the story of the serpent among the wolves, Jay?”
I take a slow step closer.
“While the wolves are tearing each other apart, the serpent coils around one of them and slips out of the den. And by the time the pack realizes what happened, they’re gone for good.”
Jay snorts. It turns into a short laugh as he shakes his head.
Oh, boy. Did I just deliver a direct threat to Jay McKenna’s face?
That hadn’t exactly been part of the plan. Or maybe it was.
Yes, in my heroic little daydreams I definitely rehearsed that line. Saying it out loud, however, was a fucking reckless move.
I expect him to go full-on furious now, but he doesn’t look anywhere close to breathing fire. Actually, he looks kind of amused.
“Well, slippery slitherer, at least you’re not boring.”
His words are barely cold before the shed door slams open and Sergei steps out, a shotgun in each hand.
What the actual fuck—!? My heart skips a beat, then another.
Shit. This is bad. This is so damn bad.
I'm not a man of God, but when he hands one of the shotguns to Jay, I make an imaginary sign of the cross.
Is this the end for me? Are they going to hunt me through the woods? Not exactly my first time.
During my cowboy phase, a rancher dad had caught me topping his son in the haystack. I had bullets flying over my head within seconds.
Sometimes I think fate likes to remind me who’s in charge. It’s almost impressive, if it weren’t just another Greek tragedy in my life
“Didn’t know snakes had so many words, and so little of them now.”
Jay smirks as Sergei passes me the other gun. “Let’s see if you can do more than hiss.”
“What is this, Jay?”
“We’re going to have a little clay target game. McKenna tradition. Ever shot before?”
Wait, what?
I have to fight the urge to smile. This means Jay hasn’t run a background check. If he had, he’d know I served as a field medic, and that I’m very comfortable around a trigger.
I used to sneak out of the field hospital to join Paul on overwatch in the hills. Between the adrenaline, the flirting, and him fucking me in the dirt while teaching me breath control, I became a very good shot. Safe to say I rarely miss.
Something heavy burns inside my chest. Neither did he.
The over-under, which I’m fairly sure is illegal here, feels familiar the moment it hits my hands. I make sure none of that shows. Instead, I turn it over awkwardly, like I’m not quite sure what to do with it.
“Careful with the weapon, Aoki. We wouldn’t want any accidents, would we?”
Sergei’s thick Russian accent comes with a wide grin. He and Jay burst out laughing.
Let them laugh, I know it won’t last. I give it about thirty seconds.
“Thank you,” I whisper to the sky.