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I would have preferred using it to end the motherfucker, Paul. Frustration, accumulated over weeks of planning with no satisfying outlet, pounds behind my tightly held control. But if I see Lakeshia in the same state she left in, I’ll lose my cool. However, a building has no feelings, and blowing shit up right now will have to do.
CHAPTER 31
Takeshi
An hour has passed and we’re halfway through the second, yet Lakeshia remains in her semi-catatonic state. She’s sitting on the couch in a robe after I bathed her while I lean on the wall across from her, noting every minute change in her expression. She’s shown some sign of returning, but not enough nor soon enough to assure me I’m the right person to pull her back to reality.
But Shinji’s counting on me.
I rack my brain for anything that will bring life back to the dark sable eyes I love so much.
A knock at the door interrupts my musing.
“They’re alive and fed.” The guard hands me two rambunctious kittens, his face relaxing now that he’s offloaded his task.
The tiny felines head butt me, giving me an idea. Although Lakeshia won’t admit she’s grown attached to them—we haven’t decided on their names—maybe their demanding meows will pull her from the thoughts holding her prisoner.
I wrap them in her favorite sleep blanket and lay them on her lap. They twist and contort their bodies, freeing themselves from their constraints to climb over Lakeshia. The bicolor cat pats her face while the orange tabby finds a gap in Lakeshia’s neckline and pokes his body through the opening until all but the tip of his tiny tail disappears.
If left unaddressed, Shinji and I will find ourselves jockeying for position, and that won’t do. But now’s not the time to worry about the liberties a four-legged creature is taking with my wife.
More awareness sparks behind her brown eyes and she turns to the bicolor cat, seeking her attention. A soft sigh escapes and her body relaxes into the couch.
“It happened again, didn’t it?” Lakeshia takes the kitten in her hands and lays it on its back to rub its stomach.
The kitten twists and curls itself around her fingers. Their antics twist Lakeshia’s blanket around the agile feline. As if sensing its sibling’s enjoyment, the orange tabby rummages his way out of Lakeshia’s shirt to pounce on his sister.
“We need to reevaluate how we go about getting you the revenge you’ve been chasing. I don’t want to go back on my word, but circumstances?—”
“Don’t you dare suggest I walk away. I won’t sit at home like a meek housewife while you and Shinji play hero. There will be other ways and other opportunities for you to save me, but not this time.Ineed to be the hero of my story.Ineed to face my father at the end of this, and tell him how I made them pay.”
“Lakeshia, be reasonable.” I kneel at her feet and cup her knees, looking imploringly into her eyes. “You froze in the middle of a gunfight. One stray bullet would have ended everything.”
She shakily exhales. “I admit today wasn’t my best showing.”
“Lakeshia—”
“Takeshi, I’ve lived with a broken heart most of my life. Revenge was the glue that forged my organ into a formidable muscle. Granted, you and Shinji wormed your way in when there shouldn’t have been a means, but I’m the same person you met in Hawaii. And if you do this, take away the only thing that’s given me purpose, there won’t be any humpty dumptying my heart together again. You’ll have shattered my heart, my very being, beyond repair.”
“At least you’ll be alive. I’ll worry about piecing you back together after, but I can’t do shit if you’re dead.”
Lakeshia glares at me.
Are we at a stalemate? I can’t afford to back down from this. She’s too important to me and Shinji.
“How about we give this topic a rest until Shinji arrives? He gets a vote, too.” She avoids eye contact with me, instead, using her blanket to tease the kittens and dislodging my hands.
“You think he’ll side with you.”
Lakeshia shrugs. “Shinji gets what he wants, right? Who’s to say he won’t want me to get what I want?” Her words hit me like a sledgehammer.
There’s an underlying accusation in her response I won’t ignore, even after our heated exchange. I scoop up the kittens to remove them as a distraction and place them in the play corner Lakeshia set up when we first arrived. When I return, she’s in the same spot, hugging herself.
I sit beside her and drag her over my body until she straddles me. She puts up a half-hearted struggle, but I persist until she settles where I want her. “Look at me, chiisai senshi no megami.”
When she refuses, I cup her face and draw her head until our foreheads touch.
“I need to clarify something.”
