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He sneers and turns his attention to his cousin. “I did what you asked, now what the hell is going on?”
Katsuo steeples his fingers and rests his chin on them while studying Masanori.
“Sorry, oyassan.” Masanori closes his eyes and inhales and exhales three times. Once the angry lines smooth from his face, he opens his eyes again. “What’s the situation and how can I help?”
Katsuo relays everything we’ve discussed. During the summary of our plans, Riu returns with a bag and sets it on Katsuo’s desk.
All eyes turn to Kori.
“Can you play your part?” Katsuo asks her, the warmest he’s been all night.
“I’ll do my best, anything to help Takeshi and Shinji.” She approaches the desk, clutching the throw tight to her chest.
Kori unzips the bag and unpacks the weapons inside, hefting each and discarding them one by one after some mental calculations. “Razors would be the easiest to hide. These,” she points at the kunai blades, “Are too heavy. It will be challenging enough to bake a cake that looks like the bottom of a cake box without raising suspicions. The weight will be another issue.”
“Can you do it in three days?” Katsuo asks.
“Three?” I leap from the chair. “We need to move like yesterday. We don’t know what horrors Takeshi and Shinji are suffering at Paul’s and Tomasso’s hands.”
“They’ll be fine as long as our agreement is in place,” Katsuo says. An unexpected note of compassion in his voice catches me off guard.
We spend all night discussing and fine tuning a plan with more risks than holes in a sieve. But we don’t have many options, and we’re exhausting the ones we have.
Once we agree on our next steps, everyone files out, leaving me alone with Katsuo.
“Takeshi mentioned you have an adverse reaction to Paul whenever he shows up. Can you overcome it?”
“I have to,” I whisper. “I have no other choice.”
He studies me for long moments before sighing. “Why do I sense you’re willing… no expecting to enter enemy territory and not walk out again?”
He’s right, but I’ll never admit it to him.
“When you see your husbands, if they see what I see written all over you, your plan will be dead on arrival. They won’t let you leave the room they’re held in and will make a last stand to protect you.”
Again, he’s right. Katsuo’s on a roll tonight, spitting facts and taking no hostages. Even so…
“Something you should know about me is I’ve spent half my life nurturing my vendetta against Tomasso. If you add up all those years of loathing and planning, they still wouldn’t come close to what I’m willing to do for my husbands. And what my husbands want, my husbands get. And they want me. So, even if I have to make the wildest gamble of my life and face off with the devil himself, I’ll return home with my men.”
CHAPTER 35
Shinji
“Wake up!”
Cold water splashes across my face following the unfamiliar man’s demand. My eyes are heavy, my head pounds, and my shoulders are strained. Despite my discomfort, my instincts shout at me to wake the hell up because I’m in danger.
I have no idea where I am or how I got here. I blink until the room comes into focus. Faded writing and an icon of a smiling mattress embellish an otherwise dirty wall of windows. Broken signs emblazoned with the name of a defunct local mattress retailer are in a pile in the corner, adding to the rundown quality of the space.
Are we still in Serenidad? Does anyone know?
Don Tomasso, the first person I see, sits with his legs crossed and looks bored.
Takeshi…
I swing around, realizing the pain in my shoulders is because I’m hanging from the ceiling. Takeshi is similarly bound and wetfrom being splashed, but he hasn’t woken yet. He groans beside me both reassuring and alarming me.
He’s alive, and with life, there’s always hope. We’re in the same situation: in enemy territory with no reinforcements.
