Non-Stop Till Tokyo (21 page)

“God, you scared me.” My voice was shaking so much it didn’t sound at all like mine. I pressed my face into his chest, feeling like I might cry. “
God
. I nearly had a heart attack. What were you doing there?”

“What were you doing in there?” he retorted. “You said max fifteen minutes.”

“How long was it?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Well, that’s hardly—were you going to come in after me or something? You were, weren’t you?”

He shrugged, gently bumping me up and down.

“What did you plan to do exactly? There’s at least three yakuza in there. And a shedload of mice,” I added, with an involuntary giggle pulling at the corners of my mouth.

Chanko sat me carefully on the bike, scowling at my foot, and draped my coat round my shoulders.

“Mice worked, huh?”

“Oh, yes. Where did he get them?”

“Place they breed ’em for labs and pet shops. Backup plan was snakes. Got your gizmo?”

I clutched the flash drive, hanging securely round my neck. “Yes.”

He gunned the engine and we slid off into the night.

The drive back felt a lot longer than the one there, with the hot throbbing in my foot and the freezing air. Neither of us had a helmet, and I prayed we wouldn’t get pulled over, but mostly I wrapped my arms around Chanko’s thick waist and rested my face against his back, and let the adrenaline ebb away.

It felt like Round Two had gone to us.

Yoshi was standing in the corridor as the door opened and Chanko carried me into the house. He stared at me as though I’d grown an extra head. And he looked at Chanko with something very like hatred.

“What the hell is this?” he demanded.

“I trod on glass,” I told him, suddenly acutely embarrassed. “My foot’s killing me.”

Yoshi started to say something, but Taka was already demanding, “Did you get it? Where’s the stick?”

I handed over the necklace before he garrotted me with the chain in his enthusiasm to get at the data.

Yoshi looked shocking, grey and lost. Taka’s eyes had a febrile glitter, and he kept wiping his nose on the back of his hand. It didn’t seem like either of them was in a fit state to do anything. Taka sprinted up the stairs anyway, and Yoshi frowned at my foot, then followed more slowly as Taka yelled for him.

Chanko dumped me on a cushion in the LDK with my foot up on the table while he went to check the bathroom for antiseptic and tweezers, then gave up and went to the twenty-four-hour
combini
down the road. I leaned against the wall and shut my eyes, just breathing, not even opening them when I felt his strong, warm hands unexpectedly gentle around my ankle.

“Your feet are freezing,” he muttered. “Lemme get this shit out first, then you need a bath or something.”

“Is there much—ow!”

“Not much. Don’t wriggle,” he added as I attempted to jerk my foot out of his grip. I might as well have tried to squirm out of a mantrap. “Stay still, damn it.” He flexed my foot, angled a lamp to check the wound, swabbed it with cotton wool soaked in antiseptic.

“
Ow
.”

“Stop moaning. Lucky it’s not worse. Look where you’re going next time.”

“What next time?” I snapped. “Ow, God, that
hurts
. Do you know what you’re doing? When were you a doctor anyway?”

“You pick up bits and pieces,” he said, managing to make it sound like an answer. “Talk me through what happened in there.”

With breaks for wincing, swearing and begging, it took me most of the next fifteen minutes of tweezers and probing to tell him the story. At least it took my mind off things, and he seemed to be listening.

“Your girls did good,” he commented as he washed the wound out with battery acid or something, and I gripped the cushion and bit my lip. “Didn’t think it was a great idea at first, calling them, but man, they’re scary ladies. Just putting on a dressing now and we’re done. You hostesses all like that?”

“We’re the crème de la crème. The girls are okay, incidentally. I got a text while you were at the shop, saying the bar’s closed down for the night and there wasn’t any trouble. Not for them, anyway.”

“Bitch for your mama-san, though.”

“Yeah, well, tough.” He released my foot and I flexed it experimentally. “That feels much better. Thanks. No, Mama-san can go to hell. She’d have shopped me if she’d seen me. God, when she went for the bottle—I really thought that was it.” I’d meant to laugh about it, but the words didn’t come out like that, and suddenly I was shaking. “I thought—I thought—”

“Hey.”

He moved next to me, seating himself cross-legged. I thought he might put his arm round my shoulders but instead, and with no leverage, he picked me up as easily as though he were reaching for a beer and sat me on his lap like a child, although not quite.

“You’re okay,” he said calmly. “You did good. It’s okay.”

He was big and warm and strong. He wrapped his arms around me and just held, and I let myself lean back against him, curling into him, and his warm breath was tickling the hairs on my neck, and right then, I was safe. Right then, it was comfort. In a little while I might wriggle a bit, just to see, but for the moment I would enjoy the feeling of him holding me, relax into his silent strength, let him stand between me and everything that was out there in the dark.

So I shut my eyes and breathed deeply…and then I only went and fell asleep.

Talk about a wasted opportunity.

Chapter Nine

I woke up on a futon in my underwear, and alone.

Hmph.

I was in Taka’s spare bedroom, not the little study, and it was a double futon, and I was right over to one side. My clothes, including the wig, were draped over the back of a chair, and someone had slung my bag into a corner of the room. But nobody was to be seen.

I got up, testing my foot gently. It was pretty sore. I borrowed a dressing gown that hung on the back of the door and hobbled out with the intention of getting a shower, since I hadn’t bathed last night, but the door to the little study was open and I could hear tapping. I detoured in to find Yoshi, face grim and eyes fixed on a monitor.

“
Ohayō
. How’s it looking?”

“Oh, fine,” said Yoshi savagely, not looking at me.

“Something wrong? Is the film okay?”

“Quality isn’t fantastic, but I ran a filter to enhance the images. We’ve got it all worked out. I’ll show you when Taka’s up.”

“You worked it out? Wow! That’s fantastic!” He just stared at the screen, tapped the keyboard. I blinked at him. “It is good, isn’t it? Yoshi, what’s wrong? Were you up all night?”

He looked round finally, frowning. “Where did you sleep?”

“In the other spare room. You guys were in here, I guess.”

“Are you having sex with him?”

“I
beg
your pardon?” I stared at him. He glared back. “No, I’m not, as it happens. I fell asleep downstairs. I suppose he put me to bed. Not that it’s any business of yours.”

“Put you— You know he slept in there? Did he
touch
you?”

“That’s a horrible thing to say, and if this is about a completely unintentional remark—”

He shook his head angrily. “Do you know why he’s helping you?”

“He promised Taka he’d look after me.”

“Kechan, I wish you’d think. Promised Taka, indeed. Look after you—oh, sure!”

“Well, he did,” I insisted, aware as I spoke that it didn’t sound very convincing. “What are you suggesting?”

“He’s got his own reasons,” said Yoshi darkly. “For a start, if he was looking after you, if he actually gave a damn, he wouldn’t be letting you do this. He’d have put you on a plane days ago—”

“Listen, it’s not up to you or him or anyone to
let
me do things or
put
me on planes. And I’m getting a bit tired of you ordering me about. If you’ve got anything to say, why don’t you say it, instead of being such a bitch?”

“Okay, fine!” he shouted, slapping his hand on the desk, making me jump. “Why don’t you ask Mr. Wonderful what he knows about the Mitsuyoshi-kai, then? Why don’t you ask him why he isn’t a
rikishi
any more, huh? Why don’t you ask why he’s really so keen on being back here?”

Something lurched internally, and I covered it with anger. “Well, why don’t
you
tell me, if you know anything worth saying?”

“Because you wouldn’t believe me. That thug’s got you wrapped around his little finger. You, of all people.”

“He does not, and he isn’t a thug.”

Yoshi’s face was scarlet. “What would you call him then? An overgrown side of beef with a hair-trigger temper who hits people, what would you call him, Buddha?”

“Just fuck off, Yoshi!” I heard myself shriek. “Who are you jealous of, him or me?”

He stared at me in shock, his expression raw with hurt. I put a hand over my mouth, appalled. The words hung in the air.

“I didn’t mean that. I’m sorry. That was an awful thing to say. I’m really sorry.”

His eyes flinched away, and he turned back to the screen. “Yeah, well.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I just—I’ve had to trust him, don’t you see? I can’t just stop.”

“You mean you don’t want to stop. Oh, do what you want. You will anyway.”

He didn’t look around again, and after a moment’s waiting, I left.

I had my shower, a long one, and got dressed, and found Chanko in the LDK, sitting with his back straight and his eyes shut, cross-legged and silent.

“Hey, Butterfly.” He didn’t open his eyes.

“Hey. I’m going to make coffee or whatever Taka’s got. You want some?”

“Thanks. You all right?”

“No, not really,” I said, my voice hitching with residual anger. “I just had a screaming row with Yoshi, actually.”

“Yeah. I heard.”

“You did?” I asked, heart sinking.

“Sure. When you start shouting, you know, what with all the doors open, it’s kind of hard to miss.”

I glanced nervously at him. Eyes shut, face monolithically calm, but a burn of savage red along those bronze cheekbones.

“Yeah, well,” I muttered. “Sorry about the noise.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“So, what are you going to say? Anything you plan to ask?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. Do you take sugar?”

“Nope,” he said, voice very controlled. “Anything else?”

“Milk?”

“Come on, Butterfly, you can do better than that.”

I sighed theatrically, opening the fridge. “You know, if I’d figured you for a conversationalist in the morning, I wouldn’t have let you take me to bed last night.”

That finally got his eyes open. “Let, my ass. You fell asleep all over me, you’d have slept through an earthquake.”

“I know, I do that. Thanks for getting me upstairs. Did you have to carry me?”

“You’re not much of a weight.”

“For you, perhaps.” I handed him a mug of coffee and curled up on a cushion at the table, facing him. “It’s instant. Sorry.”

He gave me a long look. I gave it back. “I’m not going to ask anything,” I said, picking my words carefully. “If there’s something you want me to know, or something I need to know, I guess you’ll tell me. But I’m not going to ask.”

“Why not?”

Because I didn’t want to know, of course.

“Because Taka trusts you,” I said very seriously. “And his judgement is
infallible
.”

Chanko snorted, his face relaxing for the first time, and I went on before he could say anything else. “They’ve got the files sorted. We’ll look at them when Taka’s up, Yoshi said. I need to go shopping today as well. Clothes, contact lenses, that sort of thing. Change my appearance.”

He gave me a glance, but accepted the change of subject. “Need an escort?”

I certainly wanted one, but that was dumb thinking. They could look out for me if they knew exactly where I was—the Ueno Shinkansen platform or a small town. There was no way they could stake out Tokyo looking for me, or even spot me in a crowd.

Chanko, on the other hand…

“Better not. I’ll keep an eye out.”

“You do that. Take my number.” He tipped his head back, shutting his eyes again. “Butterfly, I probably need to talk to you about…stuff, and you need to listen, but not now, okay? Soon, but not now.”

“Okay. Sure.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Are you on drugs or something? Don’t go getting agreeable on me, babe.”

“I’m not being agreeable,” I protested. “Look, do you think I’m going to like whatever you’re not telling me?”

He looked away. “Nope. No, I don’t guess you are.”

Me either. “Well, then. I’m not in a big hurry to hear it.”

“Avoidance ain’t a great long-term strategy,” he remarked.

“You might have noticed, I don’t really think long term.”

“I noticed.”