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“A few times a year, for various reasons.”
“Yes, and I can hear from your tone what you’re not saying. You’re in the States for business or whatever. Not for me! I sense it in the way you chose your words.” Her hands move next to her head like she’s working the gears of her mind. “Just as you saidofficially, which means you aren’t allowing me to leave.”
“That is true.”
Her hands continue to move in the air, irate. “See! That right there makes youofficiallymanipulative, Ryoichi.”
“Not exactly.” I lean an elbow against the railing. I’m as calm as the river beneath us, whereas she’s this tiny ball of fury. “When we left Greece, I advised you that your place was at my side. Forever.”
She laughs. “Gotta keep telling myself that you aren’t a facade, and I should realize that. I keep letting myself drift into my dream. That you’re my Tatsun. I keep forgetting Greece.”
I let out a cleansing breath. “What are you inferring?”
“That you’re supposed to be an alluring simulation. Not the real bad guy. But everything about you screams that youarethe ultimate bad guy.”
I lift my brow. “What in my character has given you the—”
“The murdering and—and this.” She stops in her tracks, glancing around, arms wide. “I’ve been abducted and taken to a different country. You’ve allowed me to roam your opulent grounds. You’ve given me a grand tour, but I’m a friggen captive!”
I tell myself that Ryann’s passions speak for her. That I should give her a moment to calm down.
“First, I’ve never murdered anyone whose behavior did not warrant it.”
“Tatsun—whatever his name is, was—did not do anything!”
“Second, I defended you, Ryann! His conduct required punishment.” The boy who hadn’t saved his mother speaks up and asserts himself. It’s as if I have forgotten the years, my character, and my entire reputation.
“I didn’t ev—”
I take a deep, calming breath. “Third, shall we finish the tour?”
“Why?”
“Because.” I stop abruptly. I don’t usually speak without fully fleshing out my thoughts. If I say, “Because the life that is now ahead of you is better than anything you can imagine back home,” well, that’s callous. It’s arrogant, not like a man removing the threat from her life.
I, Ryoichi Ziatso, only meant to remove the threat from your life!
The threat is dead—that’s the rational part. The one who aligns with the House of Tatchan, the yakuza, we simply aren’t spiteful people. We prefer order and a sense of community.
“Ryoichi, you have betrayed my faith!” Her hand twines around the katana’s handle, tugging it from the bridge floor. “You don’t believe me. You don’t believeinme. What was it you said to me in that elevator, huh?”
I glare at the vicious tip of the blade a fraction away from the center of my chest. My tone never wavers, never ascends in anger. Nor do I lower my voice lethally. “I gave you my word, Ryann.”
“Sure did.” The tip slices linen from my flesh, leaving a thin trail of blood. “Ryoichi, you said I could take your life if you betrayed my faith. You promised never to hurt me.You did.”
My palms press over the flat of the katana. “Ryann, if I have caused you any harm—”
“You do not believe me. Youwon’tlisten.”
No, I don’t. You’re confused. Same as my mother was.
I feel the eyes of my people on us. They’re virtually invisible yet there. Some on rooftops. Others are just inside the doors, and more underlings are hidden behind the wooden posts of various bridges.
All await my response.
Because at any moment, Ryann may snuff out my life.
“I know it appears that way, Ryann. We have a lot of ground to cover.”
