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My heart skips a beat.

Aran?

Luke?

No! Please not Luke!

We deliberately met in Manhattan, not in Astoria. We’re in a nice bar in SoHo, far from Luke’s usual spots.

When a hand lands on my shoulder, my whole body tenses and I hold my breath.

“Look who it is.” Levi appears beside me, grinning. “Small world! Hey, Nahla!”

He gives her a quick hug and some genuine compliments. Meanwhile, I try to slow my pulse with steady breathing.

“You scared Koh to death.” She laughs, shooting me a worried look.

“What are you doing here?” I ask, peering up at Levi.

His light blue eyes sparkle like two aquamarines as he turns back to me. “Meeting some Japs.”

I make a face. “You could say that nicer.”

“Yeah, I know, but they think they’re the new yakuza in town.”

One thing I’ll give Levi: even in a black suit, he appears intimidating when he wants to. A bit like Fox when he picks up Aran, except Levi wears his shirt unbuttoned low enough to show the tattoos on his chest.

“And what scared you so much, Aniki?”

I shake my head, annoyed. “Thought you were someone else for a second.”

“Luke,” Nahla says dryly, earning a poisonous glare from me.

“I ran into that asshole two days ago,” Levi says, sliding a hand behind his neck while scanning the bar like a predator. “He asked about you.”

My blood turns to ice. “And… uh… what did you tell him?” My voice cracks on the last word and I clear my throat.

“That he has no fucking business with you anymore and should fuck off.”

I down the rest of my wine in one go.

“Just greenlight the hit on that piece of shit, Koh. Then we can end this sad story once and for all.”

“You know I chose the non-violent path.”

“I pray to the devil that one day you finally realize playing Gandhi gets you nowhere.”

“I’m not Gandhi,” I say humorlessly.

“Yeah, yeah… Anyway, I don’t want to keep you two lovebirds. Nahla! Great seeing you again. Koh! Stay ready. I might need you as a translator soon. These Japanese guys are tough.”

Levi strolls across the road, flips off a honking driver, and disappears around the corner with Anton, one of Dad’s bodyguards.

“I’m not a big fan of your brother,” Nahla says thoughtfully. “But about one thing, he’s unfortunately right. You need to let go of the past and take control of your life again.”

“Then you’ll be happy to hear I viewed three apartments this week.”

“Really? You’re moving out?” Nahla’s joy instantly turns to suspicion. “Where?”