AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Is this him?” Katsuo sneers down at the bleeding man.
“Yes. I have plans for him and need him alive.” I return my attention to my wife and husband. We wrap the sheet around her body and help her from the bed.
“We had a deal,” Paul repeats his earlier complaint.
“The deal was when you delivered my family to me. You failed on your end before I took the initiative.” My cousin eyes Lakeshia then Tomasso, dismissing the one responsible for my wife’s trauma. “Who’s responsible for him?”
“Lakeshia,” Shinji says, a mixture of pride and worry coloring his voice.
Katsuo nods and peers around the room. Something snags his attention and I follow his stare to the camera. “Burn everything to the ground,” he tells his men.
While Shinji and I usher Lakeshia out of the building, two people drag Paul by his arms. We pass by countless dead bodiesKatsuo must have dealt with while we rushed to Lakeshia’s rescue.
Shinji settles our wife in the back of a Kimura ride and I join on her other side. I take her hand, squeezing it while whispering reassuring nonsense in her ear.
The door opens, and Katsuo enters. “Was she?—”
“From Tomasso’s state, I doubt it.” I stop my cousin in case he sparks a memory that drives Lakeshia further inward.
Tomasso wasn’t fully exposed when I flipped him over, which is probably the only reason I’m holding myself together and not taking my rage out on Paul. Lakeshia comes first, and I can’t bear to let her out of my sight.
“I underestimated your wife. If there’s anything I can do to help her, I won’t hesitate.”
“Thanks, cousin.” I resume my positive reinforcement while offering a silent prayer that she hasn’t exhausted her resilience. “Chiisai senshi no megami, I can’t scold you for trying to leave us if you don’t return to your senses. So do us a favor and come back, okay?”
“Takeshi?” she whispers. “You aren’t a dream?” She raises her hand and I bring it to my cheek.
“Only the kind of dream reality is made of.”
Shinji brushes her hair from her face. He peers into her eyes until a small spark of recognition returns.
“Shinji…” she exhales. In the breath is relief and joy. “You’re alive. The plan worked.” She smiles, then her body slackens and she loses consciousness.
“It’s been a week. When are you going to let me out of bed?” Lakeshia’s complaint lacks heat as she cuddles into Shinji’s arms, her fingers stroking his bald pate.
Although he avoids calling attention to how Tomasso butchered his hair, the loss bothers him. He avoided looking at me while I did my best to repair the damage before we decided the shave everything. He clung to me afterward. The hair will regrow, but he didn’t choose what Tomasso’s man did to him. In the meantime, as if by tacit agreement, Lakeshia and I lavish him with praise, reminding him how beautiful, desired, and loved he is.
I shake my head from the brief distraction and remind myself of the long-overdue discussion I need to have with Lakeshia.
“Oh? Are you ready to discuss the shit you tried to pull on us?” I fold my arms and stand over her side of the bed.
She glares at me and pushes away from Shinji. “How about we go in chronological order? The two of you not only plotted behind my back, you were ready to leave the state without a word to me.”
“Katsuo has a big fucking mouth,” Shinji grumbles and pulls at her to resume her previous position, but she waves him off.
“Irrelevant,” I say. “We didn’t drug you and leave you with last words like your death would ever be something we could get over.”
“Or like we could replace your position in our family with some other woman. As if anyone would compare.” Shinji catches her waving hand and pulls her into his arms to nuzzle under her ear until she stops struggling against the affection he needs to give.
Hell, I haven’t gotten over the scare she put us through, and need to dish out some affection, too. I jump into bed and twist her head until she can only see my face. Light flickers in herwarm sable eyes, and I’m almost appeased by the progress she’s made since our recent confrontation with her rapist.
Although she complains about us not letting her out of bed, she fails to include the one exception we allow, her intense therapy sessions. She goes every day, and Shinji and I have even joined her in one to learn ways we can support her.
Even so…
I brush her cheek, marveling at how close I came to not being able to do such a simple gesture.
“I was being pragmatic,” she whispers, her eyes tearing up. “I needed to say what I did. You faking being unconscious and eavesdropping on my confession wouldn’t change what I thought I had to do.” She tenderly strokes my beard, and I allow her to soothe me. “Despite what I said, I kept fighting. I had to because I’d vowed to return with you and start the family that put us on this path.”
