His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington (34 page)

He’d fallen asleep during the day only to have his most familiar nightmare before waking up to an even bigger horror.

On his laptop screen, No watched Ruby lead Lilli to the panic room, just as No had

instructed her to do should an enemy ever invade their house. But before he could breathe a sigh of relief, Ruby pushed the panic room button, letting the doors close on Lilli before darting back up the stairs and out of the house.

Which was how he and Lilli both ended up watching the same horrific show on opposite sides of the ocean.

Ruby raising her sword against the enemy who’d invaded the security cottage. Ruby getting only a few steps into her charge before one of the house invaders tazed her from behind.

“Stupid girl,” he yelled at the screen. Even though this—not the way he wished—

would have been how a true house samurai would have handled things. Suspecting correctly that Lilli wouldn’t be safe until she neutralized whoever had hacked through the house’s security system.
Brave, stupid girl
, he thought as the intruders consulted over her prone body.

“Let me out of here! No! No! If you can hear me, please let me out of here! I have to try to save her!”

It was Ana. Calling to him from the panic room, her voice shaking but brave. “I can’t stay in here while they—” She didn’t seem capable of finishing her sentence because it was too much to bear. “Please, please, No!”

But he knew she had to stay put. Losing Ruby to these invaders was difficult enough.

But if they took Ana and their unborn baby…

He had to turn his mind from those panicked thoughts.
Where were the police?
he wondered. The alarm had been tripped. They should be here by now—

The intruders all looked up as one—like lethal meerkats having heard the distinct wail of the same predator. A quick conversation ensued. Then they picked up Ruby’s body and carried her out the front door where a Honda Odyssey—the most recognizably American thing to ever come out of Japan—idled. And it wasn’t the one he’d bought for Ana, but a vehicle they’d chosen on their own. Nothing to see here. A car by way of Japan, but somehow as American as apple pie.

Even before it sped away, No cursed them for making the right choice. A white conversion van, the police might find easily. A dark grey Honda Odyssey? It would disappear into Seattle traffic faster than you could say soccer mom.

Helpless on his side of the ocean and computer screen, he watched them drive away with the girl who’d more than proven herself a worthy house samurai.

“No!” Ana was screaming in the panic room. His name or a plea to the universe, No couldn’t be sure.

But he linked to the panic room’s feed to tell her, “Ana, please stay calm. The police will arrive soon to take you to the hospital.”

“Fuck calm! Forget about me! Those fuckers killed Dallas, and they took Ruby!” Ana screamed at the camera. “They took her!”

The sound of her wretched, frantic tears tore at No’s heart, and this time it was both a vow and a reassurance when he replied, “I will avenge Montana-san’s death, and I will get her back. I promise you, Ana. I will get Ruby back.”

After that came technicalities. Sharing the panic room code with the police, making sure they knew to take Ana straight to the hospital. And then he called his brother.

Not Hayato. The other brother. The half-brother his family barely acknowledged,

even though he’d been their hitman for years before hanging his own shingle.

The one who answered No’s call

and then said, “I am coming now,” as soon as No explained what had happened.

Chapter Forty-Five

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS LATER, No walked up to the door of their rural factory home for the first time since his mother died. On either side of him were his brothers—
both
his brothers.

Two intimidating but perfectly polite guards looked the three of them up and down.

And then with the instincts of bloodhounds, patted Suro down. Neither guard acted surprised when they came away with two guns, sleek and lethal.

However, Suro didn’t seem all that perturbed by the loss of his firearms. He simply eyed the guards, as if memorizing their faces, before dropping his arms back down to his sides. Weaponless, the three brothers followed another two guards toward the back of the property.

Their father would be waiting for them in the garden veranda. No somehow knew this before they’d even reached their destination. This is what made his father “good in the conference room” if “terrible behind the desk.” While his business instincts left much to be desired in No’s opinion, he did have a way of reading his enemies. Of waging his battles on both physical and psychological fronts.

So of course he’d invite his sons to meet with him in the same place the mother to two of them had died horrifically. What other place would better suit his father’s mind?

And there Kazuo was at the square white table. One that looked almost identical to the old one but not the same, as the original table had to be replaced because of the blood stains.

However, that grisly scene seemed very far away from the garden now, and his father looked the picture of an older Japanese gentleman. Chatting in Japanese with his guest. A small, biracial girl with dark circles under her eyes—dark circles that were the result of getting knocked unconscious before being transported to her country of origin to be used as a bargaining chip in a high stakes negotiation with his son.

“Norio,” his father called out as they approached the table. “I was just telling the young lady about you!”

He extended a patently false smile to the girl as one of the guards suddenly appeared with a pot of tea. “You see, Ruby-chan, I knew these boys were truly weak when they refused to come back here after their mother’s death. Such a beautiful house, but neither of her sons would so much as visit. What do you make of that?” he

asked the girl with a shake of his head.

“Perhaps I should have killed them then. Put them down like dogs, and started yet another family with a third wife. A better wife. In the hopes that she would finally give me the family I deserve.”

Ruby’s gaze slid toward No, questioning. Obviously wondering what she should do next.

Nothing, he answered her mentally, before saying, “Hello, Father,” and bowing deep at the waist.

His father did not return the bow or even stand. Merely said, “Or perhaps I should have had girls. You, Ruby, despite being
hafu,
are not weak. You are much stronger than my sons. I hope they make the right decision now with regards to you.”

“Father, we are here to negotiate,” No said, keeping his voice level. “Exactly as you asked. Tell us what you want, so we may leave the girl out of this.”

“What I want…”

His father finally looked up, only to stop when he saw Suro. The original son, the oldest son he had not set eyes on in nearly twenty years.

“Ah, I see what is happening now,” he said, eyeing his estranged son. “I now understand why you chose such an unsuitable mate to carry on my family name. How long have you two been in contact?”

“Not long,” Suro answered, his own eyes proving him a true Nakamura. They gave away nothing.

Kazuo regarded his oldest son with an equally unreadable expression. “Perhaps you will tell me the story while Ruby-chan drinks her tea.”

In silent horror, No watched their father pour a cup of tea for Ruby in the Japanese way. Always serve your drinking partner first, before allowing them to pour your tea in return.

However, when Ruby hesitantly went to pour his tea, he raised a hand to stop her.

“That is quite all right, my dear. This particular tea is not to my liking. Now where was I…?”

Pretending not to see the way two of the three men in front of the table refused to move their eyes from the cup of tea Kazuo had just poured for the girl, he said, “Oh yes, my son’s weakness. Did Norio mention to you that he and his brother, Hayato, were planning a coup? Attempting to take my company from me? They did not? I suppose they thought it too much information for a girl of your age and background. Well, this was their plan, and now they are here in the hopes I will not kill you in retaliation for their disloyalty.”

Kazuo, glanced at the tea, as if giving great thought to the situation they now all found themselves in. “This move really does proves how weak they are, does it not?

You see, if I were they, I would not have bothered to come here on your behalf. If I were Norio, I wouldn’t have stopped until the company was mine. I wouldn’t have cared who died, especially if that person was of no blood relation to me. But alas, Norio and Hayato do not have my strength. Drink your tea, Ruby-chan.”

“Do not drink that tea, Ruby!” No said, starting forward. Only to stop when his father suddenly pulled out a
tanto
, a Japanese short blade knife, that a man with Kazuo’s skill set could quickly and easily use to stab or slit the throat of the girl sitting across from

him.

No immediately froze in his tracks, and his father quietly chuckled as he said, “You see, Ruby, he is weak. If he’d ignored my meeting request, he’d be at the emergency board meeting he arranged. Taking my spot as the director of the company. But he does not deserve such a title, and that is why he will never get it. Ever.”

“If it is the company you want, it is yours. Leave her out of this,” No gritted through his teeth.

His father actually seemed to think about the offer before coming back with, “I do not think I will accept your offer. You have rather inconvenienced me, and I find myself preferring to teach you a lesson. You see, Nakamuras are strong. As my father used to say, if you so much as chip my face, I will shatter yours.”

“This was not about you,” No said. “It was never about you. If you had simply left me alone. Let me live the life I wanted with the woman I chose.”

This statement, of all things, was the one that made his father finally lose his cool.

Made him come to his feet with his fists clenched in rage.

“
Nakamuras do not get what they want
. Ask this one about that.” He indicated Suro with a swipe of his blade. “I, like you, attempted to marry for love. I was so struck by Tetsuro’s mother that I showed her my tattoo within our first week of knowing each other. I, like you, thought I could have what I wanted. And for a while I did. But then my brother died. And it was charged to me to run my family’s company. I did not wish this life for myself, but I did my best. And then my father found me a wife who would be more suitable. Not the mother of my only
hafu
son, but a good Japanese woman.

Nearly half my age. I refused. Of course, I refused. That was when I thought I still had a choice. When I still thought I could get what I wanted. But then my father explained how it was for the sons of Nakamuras. He explained this with the death of my Chinese wife, made to look like a suicide. Told me there would be more death to come, perhaps to my
hafu
son, if I did not agree to the life and the wife he wanted for me.”

Kazuo regarded No with a bitter smile. “So forgive me if I have very little respect for what
you
want. Especially when I discovered only a few years ago that the woman my father had arranged for me had not been nearly as circumspect as my first wife with her affections. Apparently she’d been having an affair with our Korean servant. Had given
him
, not me, two barely tolerable sons. I taught her and her lover the same lesson about ‘wanting’ that came to me….”

For a moment, No went completely still, in that old way of his. His apparently conditioned—not hereditary response to his confusion. But then the horror of his father’s words began to mushroom cloud in his head, blowing up his every notion of what had happened in this garden the day of his mother’s day. The kind Korean servant who’d left treats of fruit outside his and Hayato’s doors and never had an unkind word to say was their father. Their true father. And the man now threatening Ruby with a
tanto
…he had killed their mother when he found out the truth.

As if sensing the truth had sunk in, Kazuo continued on with his retelling of their past. “In order to save face, I was forced to pretend you and Hayato were actual Nakamuras. Not the weak
hafu
sons of a slut bride and the help. For years I abided you.

But then you tried to take this company from me. You, who are not even my blood.

That is why today I will have my revenge. I will shatter your face with the death of this

girl. You will learn once and for all that even fake Nakamuras get what their fathers decide they get.
Not
what they want.”

It was not Hiroshima. Nothing in Japanese history was Hiroshima. But to No, in that moment, it felt very close. His father was not his father. He and his brother were not Nakamuras. The name that had meant everything to them for their entire lives did not, in fact, truly belong to them. The tattoos their father’s had compelled them to get at the age of twenty-one were only half-right, because in truth, they had nothing of the Nakamura hawk inside them. In fact, the only man in this garden who possessed true Nakamura blood beside Kazuo was Suro, the son he’d long ago disavowed.

“Now, my dear, it is time to decide,” Kazuo announced into the shocked silence that followed his big reveal. “How would you like to die? By my blade or by my tea?”

“I will not let this happen—” No started to answer Kazuo in Ruby’s stead, only to get cut off by the slicing ring of metal being unsheathed.

And when he looked away from the scene at the table, he found that a five-man guard had arced around their weaponless group. And each man held a long sword in his hand.

“Because of your age, I made this tea much more gentle than the one given to Norio’s mother,” Kazuo continued to Ruby as if No had said nothing at all. “I assure you the tea will be the better option. The less painful option.”

“Ruby, before you make your choice, you should know…” This was when No informed her with a heavy heart. “This is the man who ordered the death of not only my mother, but also Montana-san. You have now seen how my fake father operates.