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My heart squeezes, so my hand in his does, too.
Bambi bursts through the elevator doors, not a stitch out of place but clearly breathless. “Where is he?”
“In surgery,” we both reply at the same time.
She blinks, a bit startled. Then quickly shakes her head. “Good. If he pulls through, they better keep him in there, because I… I…”
Demyen slides off the couch to give her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “He’ll pull through, okay? He’s tough. Way too tough to let anyone get the drop on him in a schoolyard.”
“Which issofucked up!” Bambi hisses. She quickly glances around, covering her mouth. After a moment, she clears her throat and straightens. “Sorry. I’m just… Whodoesthat?! Who wakes up and thinks, ‘Hey, today’s a great day to mow down a preschool’?”
“Kindergarten,” Demyen and I say in unison. Again.
“I don’t care if it’s fucking Harvard. People are fu—uh, messed up in the head.” She pulls out her cell phone and taps the screen a few times. “So far, the reports are coming in with no casualties on the school’s side. A few administrators were either grazed or hit, but nothing lethal. All children accounted for and unharmed. All of the dead belong to the Yakuza.”
I glance at Willow. Is this sort of talk too much for her?
But she just stares at the floor, kicking her feet back and forth.
“What’s LVPD have to say about all this?” Demyen asks.
She snorts. “Very little that doesn’t have to do with covering their own asses. Parents and the general public are demanding to know why it took them so long to respond.”
“And?”
Bambi shrugs and tucks her phone away. “Who knows? All I know is that there’s no way you should have been able to beat them to the punch. But you did. That’s enough to keep their PR department busy for a few days.”
“And clean house,” I mutter.
Both of them turn to me. I didn’t realize I said that as loud as I apparently did, so I awkwardly shrug my shoulder. “I mean, look at who we know on the force. One guy,one, who’s actually decent. Two who are dirty as hell, and one of those two has been on the take for literally decades without reprobation or notice. Either they’re blind, or they’ve been turning a blind eye. It doesn’t surprise me that people who ignore corruption drag their feet to save the innocent.”
Whew.Have I been bottling that up inside me all this time? Honestly—probably. That same blind eye looked right past my bruises on the witness stand. Right past my mother’s black-and-blue face day in and day out.
Bambi’s phone buzzes in her pocket. After a quick glance, she holds up a finger. “I left a message with the school admin that I’ll happily represent any disgruntled parents and teachers in a civil suit against the surviving shooters. Looks like they’ll take me up on the offer.”
Demyen frowns. “A civil suit?”
Her face suddenly breaks into the most wickedly delighted grin I’ve ever seen on a human being. “Oh, yeah. Wanna know the best part? They used a cover to scope out the premises and get on site past the first layer of security. A shell company… owned by Raitan Industries.”
Demyen’s eyes widen, and he takes a step back. “No. You’re not serious.”
“I am!” Bambi cackles. “Biggest mistake that man has made inyears.”
I am so confused. “What does that mean?”
Demyen turns to smile at me. “Raitan Industries is owned and operated by Raizo Watanabe. It’s his public, completely legal, front.”
Bambi nods. “Which means that while he can’t be charged with anything criminal, I can bleed him dry through this little side business via negligence and liability. Know who you hire, verify background checks, all that sort of thing.”
Fucking brilliant.
She notices Willow and walks over to her, kneeling by her side. “Hey, sugarplum,” she coos softly, “I heard you had a rough day at school.”
Willow doesn’t look at her. Only nods.
“Wanna talk about it?”
Willow shakes her head.
