Chapter Twelve
Jacie
After seeing the responses from Trident, Taz and Keys, I was feeling pretty confident I wouldn’t be stuck here for long. I’d just finished brushing out my damp hair when my uncle came banging on my door before unlocking it and coming in.
“You better be ready, Grace. I will drag you out there if I need to.” I set the brush down just as he appeared in the bathroom’s doorway, “Dammit, why is your hair still wet? You really don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with Kenjiro, Grace.”
I glared fire his way. “You do realize that half an hour is not much time to get ready? Especially if you want someone with my amount of hair to wash and dry it.”
He shook his head, dismissing the conversation. “At least you’re wearing the dress left for you. C’mon, he’s waiting.”
Taking a deep breath, I straightened my shoulders and followed my uncle out of my room and down the hallway and out into the living room. Two men stood in front of the open doorway, looking out of the pool to the coastline beyond, with their hands clasped behind their backs.
“Kenjiro, as promised, I deliver Grace Milani to you.”
As my uncle spoke, the two men turned to face us. One wore a suit and looked like the rich arsehole he no doubt was. It wasn’t like nice folks went around buying people, right? The other wore suit pants but no jacket, he also had his sleeves rolled up over his arms, and a gun and knife attached to his belt. Clearly the muscle out of the pair, and most likely Kenjiro’s personal bodyguard.
“And only eight years past due. You couldn’t have possibly fulfilled your side of our agreement. Therefore, I don’t need to fill mine.”
Uncle Terrence stepped away from me and closer to Kenjiro, shaking his head. “No, no, no. I have done all you asked. As soon as I discovered she was alive, I went to great trouble and expense to find her and bring her here to your home. I made sure she cleaned up and dressed in the outfit you dictated she should wear. What haven’t I done?”
Tilting his head to the side, Kenjiro ran his gaze over me from head to foot, the coldness in him had a shiver run down my spine and without thought I rubbed my palms over my arms before crossing them across my chest. He returned his stare to my uncle, as if I’d somehow just proved his point.
“You were meant to see to her training and protection as she matured. Clearly, she hasn’t been taught anything I need her to know. I paid you for a virginal wife, trained in how to be the wife of a Yakuza leader, instead you abandoned her to become what you gift me with today. She can be nothing more than a mekake now.”
Maybe being able to speak Japanese wasn’t going to be as helpful as I’d first thought. Call me a concubine, will he. My temper flared fast and hot, and forgetting that I was meant to be playing the demure little woman, I stormed past my uncle, dodging his attempts to grab me and went right up to the prick, yelling at him in his native tongue as I came to a stop.
“How dare you say I’m good for nothing but being your concubine! I’m an educated, independent woman; with a solid job where I earn a good wage. I have my own apartment and provide everything myself with everything I need with my own bloody money. I sure as fuck don’t need a man’s permission to be more than a sex toy! I will never be owned by any man. Uncle Terrence had no right to sell me to you in the first place. I’m a human being and I won’t ever be anyone’s property.”
He didn’t move through my entire tirade until I’d finished, then he simply smirked at me before he responded in English.
“You can speak Japanese, a boon I hadn’t expected.” He glanced up to my uncle, “A skill I’m sure she learned with no thanks to you.”
That had me growling. “Of course it was no thanks to him! I taught myself. And you can’t buy Grace Milani because she doesn’t exist anymore. I’m Jacie Lewis, not the same girl.”
That got me a raised eyebrow. “The name witness protection gave you makes no difference. You are still Grace Milani, the daughter of a gambling addict who sold his wife and child into slavery to be able to clear his debts so he could live another day to make another bet.”
My hand moved lightning fast and cracked across his face before I could stop myself. I grinned at how his head had snapped to the side, before he raised his own palm to cover the red imprint of mine I’d left on his face. My joy was short-lived however, because before I could take a breath, his body guard was on me. Pulling my hands behind my back to hold them in one of his large palms while he wrapped the other around the front of my neck, squeezing enough I knew I was at his mercy.
Dropping his hand down, Kenjiro looked me in the eye, his gaze cold as ice. “You’ll pay for that. But not until after I mark you as mine. It is important, after all, to label your belongings, is it not?”
“For the love of all that is holy, Grace, shut the hell up!”
Uncle Terrence’s voice was strained, as though I was a great embarrassment to him. The goon holding me loosened his hold when I turned my head to glare over my shoulder at him. “If you’d wanted a mouse, you should have left me where you found me. I’ll never be that woman.”
Kenjiro sighed. “Like I said. You did not hold up your end of our bargain, Milani. You need to pay for that.”
Before I could work out his intent, he’d pulled a small throwing knife from inside his suit jacket and threw it into my uncle.
“What the fuck?”
I would have jumped back but was being held too tightly to move. My gaze stayed on my uncle as he reached for the knife embedded in his chest but stumbled and fell to the floor before he could do more than touch it. He coughed a few times then wheezed. Great, the moron missed his heart so now we’d have to listen to him die slowly. I tried to force away the compassion that rose up inside me for how he was suffering. He was evil and didn’t deserve any pity.
“You should be happy, no? Surely you can agree that the world is a better place without a man who would buy and sell his own niece in it?”
I turned my glare to him. “You fucking hypocrite. You’re the arsehole who bought me! What does that make you?”
He moved to stand closer and without hesitation, backhanded me across the face hard enough my head knocked back into the goon’s chest since he’d removed his hand from my throat a split second before Kenjiro hit me.
“That makes me your master; your owner. The one who controls every moment of your day, every choice you make. Including how you speak. No more swearing or you’ll feel the bit of my whip, not just my hand.” He focused on his goon then. “Get her tied down and find something to gag her with. Let’s get this part over with.”
Glaring as he moved toward the front door, I wasn’t ready when the goon started to move and I stumbled.
“Just do as he says. It’s easier on everyone.”
“What exactly did he mean by tie me down?”
He laughed as he forced me closer to the coffee table I’d admired earlier for how solid and strong it was. “I think you’re smart enough to work that one out all by yourself, girl.”
Tugging at my hands, I ignored him calling me girl, instead putting my effort into trying to get free. But nothing worked. Landing a kick to his shins just earned me a growl and shake, then he was in the wrong position for me to headbutt him or try to kick him again.
Dammit. Where the hell was Trident?
***
Trident
Checking my grip on my throwing knife, and that the ones in my belt were all ready to grab quickly, I rolled my shoulders then getting back low, continued to move forward toward the doorway. After checking my crew were ready to follow me in, I stepped into the open with my arm raised, the knife leaving my fingers before the men inside could even register they’d been infiltrated. I’d aimed at the bastard who was standing over Jacie, tattoo machine in his hand. My woman was tied to a fucking coffee table and gagged. Fuck, she could be a handful, and I’d thought about tying her up a time or two, but never like this. Never so she could be branded like she was fucking cattle.
My aim was true and the Japanese bastard had turned toward me so my blade sunk straight into his chest, hitting his heart. He stumbled back a step before he crashed to the ground. Two other guards came running up from the basement but I didn’t need to worry, they’d barely made it into the room before one had an arrow through an eye. Mene was out there taking our backs like the legend he was. The other ended up with a hatchet embedded between his eyes. I was gonna have to talk to Toa later to ask where he’d picked up the ability to throw a damn axe that fucking far with enough force to do that sort of damage. But I wasn’t gonna waste time on it now. Maverick had gone for the man sitting on the couch beside the coffee table. He’d stood up when we’d stormed in and had tried to pull a knife but Maverick had been on him, knocking it out of his hand before he could throw it. Then knocking him to the ground and with his hands pinned against his lower back, sat on him. Clearly intending on letting me deal with him.
Grinder had gone over to Jacie and removed the gag from her mouth. There were tears streaming down her face, but I wasn’t sure if they were from the pain of being forcibly tattooed, relief we’d come to rescue her, or fury that she’d been kidnapped then branded. I went toward them, scanning the room as I moved. Looked like her uncle had met his end before we’d gotten here. The knife in his lung was not one of ours. I paused beside Maverick and Kenjiro.
“Get him on his feet, brother.”
In seconds, I was staring into the eyes of a monster. Even now he was calm, too fucking calm. We’d just killed all his crew, and he had to know he was next.
“I have plenty more guards who will be here any moment.”
A heavy thump near the rear entrance had us both glancing that way. Mene stood there, having just dropped the body of one of his men, who naturally had an arrow through his fucking eye. I was gonna be having nightmares about that for a while.
“You mean these guys? Afraid they’re all dead. Guess you’re alone. But no worries, you’ll be joining ‘em real soon. Right, Trident?”
I shook my head with a huff. Damn crazy bastard. Then focused back on Kenjiro, who was finally starting to look scared.
“You took my woman from me.” He opened his mouth to speak but I didn’t give him the chance to say anything. “Yeah, I know it was your buddy over there that took her, but it was on your fucking orders. And it was you sitting here watching my woman be tattooed against her fucking will just now.”
“She’s mine, she’s been mine since she was a child, long before you even knew she existed. My claim trumps yours. And I was simply labeling my property just now.”
Okay, put like that, I could understand Jacie’s issue with being called property.
“Just kill the fucker, Trident, so we can get outta here already.”
I gave Maverick a nod, then pulled out my Pàhoa and swiped it across the fucker’s throat, Maverick spun him to the side before he released him so the blood that was spurting from the wound hit the floor not us.
Dropping the Pàhoa, I rushed over to the table, where Grinder had just finished cutting her free from all the ropes. Lifting her into my arms, I sat on the couch that Kenjiro hadn’t been sitting on, and settled her sideways on my lap, holding her close against me. With a broken sob, she wrapped her arms tightly around my neck and buried her face against my chest.
Closing my eyes, I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“I got you, Ula'ula M?'ī. You’re safe now.”
Closing my eyes, I pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“Fuck, babe. We can’t do this again. You are my heart, I can’t live without you. Fucking love you, Jacie. I don’t care it’s only been a damn week. Us being together was written in the fucking stars. Meant to be.”
Her arms tightened on me a moment before she shifted, lifting her face away from my chest to look up at me. It killed me to see the tears slipping down her cheeks. Shifting my hands to cup her face, I ran my thumbs over the tracks, wiping them away, hating the redness on her right cheek that I was pretty sure came from her being fucking hit.
With tears stinging my own damn eyes, I lowered and pressed my lips to hers, kissing her softly, with care before, with my eyes still closed I rested my forehead against hers and just breathed her in. Taking her scent deep into my lungs.
“I love you too, Trident. So much. And you’re right, time doesn’t matter, our age difference doesn’t matter. Labels are irrelevant. As long as we’re together, nothing else is important.”
Pressing my lips to hers again, a tear slipped down my own cheek, soaking into my beard. This woman was my home, and now I had her back in my arms, with her accepting my claim on her. My heart was whole.