Wheels of Steel Book 4 (23 page)

The polite demeanor he had worn when talking to her had disappeared. There was just coldness in the dark depths of his eyes. This man felt no remorse for his actions. Robin felt a cold fear settle into her very soul. And then she nodded her head in acknowledgement.

Riyu rose to his feet and that’s when the door to the warehouse bounded open and several men flowed into the room with weapons drawn and poised. Riyu’s men were shocked but didn’t dare go for their weapons as the heavily armed men outnumbered them two to one.

A man who was unarmed entered. He was older, handsome and carried himself with an air of importance. The man blanched at the sight of her and Yagano before he turned to regard Riyu with a look of pure rage.

The man barked out something in Japanese and Riyu pointed at Yagano, replying in rapid Japanese.

Robin didn’t know who the man was. All she could think is that if this was the cavalry, then they were a day late and a dollar short.

Yori Akhiro could only look on in disbelief at the carnage that was his nephew. He hurried to Yagano’s fallen body and grimaced at the sight of the beating he had received. And then Yori saw the raw wound on his wrist where the crest of their clan had once been etched by one of the finest artists known to the Yakuza.

He looked at Riyu in disgust. The man still held the offending weapon that had been used against Yagano as he stood there attempting to rationalize his actions.

“I told you to leave him alone!” Yori roared as he came to his feet.

Riyu lifted his broken arm. “I had every right! Look what he did to my arm! He broke into my-“

Yori snatched the poker from Riyu’s hand and he swung it hard against Riyu’s face burning him slightly with the tool, which was still very hot. Riyu grabbed his face in pained disbelief.

“You struck me … how dare yo-?”

Before he could complete the sentence Yori struck him again and this time Riyu hit the floor screeching in pain at the burns that now laced both of his cheeks along with the blunt trauma of the strikes.

“You disobeyed me!” Yori spoke. “You were a spoiled child and you grew into a terrible excuse for a man. You know nothing about what it means to be
nink
yō
dantai
and your father allowed you to get away with it!”

Riyu looked at Yori with almost the same expression of disbelief that Robin and Riyu’s henchmen wore.

“Old man,” Riyu said in anger, “you have sealed your fate. My father will-“

Yori pulled out a switchblade and Riyu stopped talking. “I am your father’s right hand. He sends you this. You know what to do with it.”

Riyu looked at the switchblade in horror. “My father wouldn’t …”

“Your father expressly forbade you to harm your brother. And I negotiated with you a means for you to leave him alone forever. I knew it would be a high price for Yagano to pay, but the alternative would have been worse.”

Yori knew his nephew’s kind heart. Riyu was to send Yagano to oversee the illegal host and hostess bars where the children of their clients were sent to work off the debts that their families had failed to repay. These fetish bars dealt in full prostitution and to variant taste. No one liked admitting that this side of their organization existed but prostitution brought in the most money for the gangs—even more than drugs. So although no one wanted to manage the hostess bars, they were a necessary evil.

When Daisuke refused to intervene between his two sons that left it up to Yori to make sure that Yagano would not be further crushed by his father’s neglect. It was Yori that had always protected Yagano, even when his own father allowed Riyu to put him in harms way. The man’s guilt that his first-born son hated him caused him to lose the love of the son who wanted nothing more than to be fully accepted.

As a man with no children of his own, Yori basked in the role of Yagano’s surrogate father. So it would be over his dead body if he allowed Riyu and Daisuke to destroy the person that he had spent so much time carefully honing into a man.

Riyu looked at the switchblade held out by his father’s right hand man. His father believed in the ways of the Yakuza and this would be the ultimate punishment for his disobedience. He hadn’t killed the little fuck … and yet he had harmed him despite his father’s long standing orders.

Riyu looked at the henchmen in the room and knew that what happened now would dictate how others would come to view him in the future. He accepted the switchblade. One of Yori’s men came forward with a pristine white handkerchief, which he handed to Riyu.

Riyu grit his teeth although he made sure his face remained passive. He placed the white handkerchief on the dirty cement floor and then he rested his left hand on top of it.

So what if he would no longer be able to type the letter ‘A’, he thought. And then he stabbed the tip of the blade into the first knuckle of his pinky, quickly separating the joint before he swiftly made two rapid slices severing the digit.

He was able to hold back his tormented cries since the pain didn’t actually reach its epoch until after the deed. He quickly folded the bloody handkerchief over his digit and then he wiped the blade clean on it. His hand was screaming with pain but he kept his face calm.

He offered the blade to Yori with a polite head bow and then he offered the handkerchief, which was now covered in the blood that was seeping from the wound in his hand.

“Please accept my offering in the hopes that this forgives my misdeeds,” Riyu muttered, the pain of severing his digit causing sweat to run down his body in rivulets.

It wasn’t Yori that accepted the finger, but his next in command. The man then offered Riyu a second handkerchief, which he promptly wrapped around his finger and pressed protectively to his chest.

Yori spoke in a cold voice. “This is not mine to accept. This will go to Yagano.”

“What?!” Riyu roared. “No! NOOOO!” He screamed. Yori’s men physically escorted him from the warehouse. And then Yori turned to attend to his nephew. The American had gone pale at what she’d witnessed but at least she didn’t faint and scream. He rather liked her because of it—and because even now she was still holding Yagano protectively in her arms.

“Thank you for watching over my nephew,” Yori said to Robin in English. “We’re going to take you to the hospital now.” He lifted Yagano’s unconscious body from her grasp and then headed out the door. Robin wasted no time following.

When Yagano opened his eyes, he jumped, ready to swing. But he was surprised to find himself in a clean, sterile environment.

Robin had been slumped in a nearby chair and she jumped, looking like she was ready to swing as well.

She hurried to his bed and Y realized that he was in a hospital room. The curtains around his bed were drawn, separating him from the beds of the other patients.

“You’re awake,” Robin said. She gripped his hand and when he looked down at their clutched hands he saw that his arm was bandaged nearly to his elbow. He also had an IV in the back of his other hand. He studied these things tiredly, feeling as if he was just swimming upward through a fog. And then he looked at her, his eyes scanning her form for injuries. She was a little dirty and her face was stained with tears but she didn’t appear any worse for wear.

“Robin.” He tried to sit up.

“No, lay down,” she said.

“Are you okay? They didn’t hurt you did they?” His eyes suddenly became alert. If Riyu had done anything to physically hurt Robin—he tried to sit up again but this time Robin placed a hand on his chest to settle him back down.

“I’m okay.”

“They didn’t hurt you?”

“No,” she said in a hollow voice. Y noted that her eyes were even more droopy then usual—she had what people would call, bedroom eyes. Normally they were alluring but right now they just looked tired.

“Robin, you’re exhausted,” he said.

She gave him a half smile. “They gave me something for my nerves.” She gave him a full smile then. “I’m just … you know ...”

“High?”

She shrugged and just continued to smile. Yagano frowned. The bed was small but he scooted over until he was pressed against the bars. “Come here and lay down.”

Robin chuckled but then saw the nice fluffy pillow and she kicked off her slippers—of course street shoes weren’t allowed inside—and then she climbed into the bed.

Yagano opened his arms and Robin lay down carefully against him and then Y closed his arms around her.

“I’ll just lay here for a minute until the others get here. I talked to Jason and they’re on their way here—but you know how long it takes to get to Tokyo.”

“I should call Amberly,” he said tiredly.

“Your phone is by the bed,” Robin yawned.

Y looked over at Robin snuggled in his arms. His brow drew together.

“I’m sorry that I put you in danger.”

Robin looked up at him, not seeming to be concerned with the close contact—in fact, craving it due to their shared near-death experience. Seeing Yagano alive and well solidified their connection, deepening the friendship that she already felt for him until it had now transcended into a bond that she could not quite understand. All she knew is that Yagano could have died and yet here he was worried about her.

“You didn’t do that, it was Riyu.”

Yagano was still frowning. “Did he bring us here?”

Robin shook her head, still looking up at him from where her head rested half on the pillow and half against his shoulder.

“No, your uncle came right after …” she glanced down at Y’s bandaged arm.

Y’s frown deepened. “My uncle? But how?”

Yagano’s uncle had talked to her during the car ride to the hospital. Robin recounted what Yori had told her. After Amberly had contacted him, he’d called the studio-“

“Wait! What happened to the people at the studio?!”

“They were robbed,” Robin explained. “Your uncle said it was in an attempt to camouflage the true purpose of the invasion. No one was hurt.”

Y closed his eyes in relief.

“Anyway, James explained that you and I had been taken. Well Jason knows I have locate my iPhone turned on to his computer. So he pulled it up. And your uncle knew where we were so he came and got us.”

Y shook his head in confusion. “Why would my uncle save me …?”

Robin’s brow lifted. “Why wouldn’t he? He picked you up and carried you out of that warehouse. And you should have seen what he did to your broth—to Riyu.”

Yagano met her eyes with interest. “What did he do?”

“He hit him across both cheeks with that hot poker. It messed up his face too. And then he—he,” Robin grimaced.

“What?”

Robin stared into his eyes, a haunted expression caught on her face. “He made Riyu cut off part of his pinky finger.”

Yagano seemed stunned. It didn’t make sense … could it be that he had misunderstood that his uncle and Riyu were not in league with each other.

“I need to speak to my uncle-“

Robin sighed. “He’s here at the hospital. He’s been on his cellphone since he brought us here. I’m sure he’ll be back up to check on you.”

“My uncle is here?”

“Why do you seem so surprised? That man obviously loves you. I don’t know all that he said to Riyu but he was furious.”

Yagano sighed, still confused but also too tired to work through it all right now.

“Did they give me a sedative too?” He yawned.

“You aren’t screaming in pain …” She looked down at his bandaged arm again. “What they did to your arm is pretty bad. The surgeon said that the burn was bad but could have been worse. They did a skin graft from your inner thigh. You should regain some sensation.”

Y reached beneath the covers and located a bandage on his inner thigh close to his testicles. He frowned with unease. Then he touched his face and found various bandages stuck to him. Robin watched him explore his injuries.

“You’ll still be handsome.” She suddenly covered her mouth. “Oh my God, I have no idea where that came from!”

Yagano just smiled. “Sleep, Robin. You’re tired.” He pulled her close again and she snuggled against him. He felt the lure of sleep begin to overtake him but before he went completely under he turned and regarded Robin in his arms and then he leaned over and pressed his lips to her forehead.

When Yori returned to the room a few moments later, he stopped at the curtain and gazed down at Yagano and Robin sleeping in each other’s arms. He wondered if this woman was his nephew’s mistress—and if not now how soon that would happen.

He knew that Yagano’s wife would soon arrive so he moved to the bed and gently lifted Robin from the bed. She was so tired that she barely stirred. He carried her to a spare bed and placed her there gently. The nurses had offered earlier but she had stubbornly declined the offer so that she could sit by Yagano’s side.

Yori had been grateful because it allowed him to make some calls and to handle some important business concerning Daisuke’s sons.

Yori returned to Yagano’s bedside and sat down in the chair next to the sleeping man. He reached out and brushed his hair from his face and then he examined the terrible damage that had been done. It would heal but it pained Yori to see it.

With a sigh he woke up his nephew. Yagano’s eyes flashed open and he looked alarmed until he met Yori’s eyes.

“Ojisan.” Yagano looked around. “Where is Robin?”

“She is sleeping in her own bed. It would not bode well for your wife to see you so intimately with another woman.”

Yagano’s mouth opened and then closed as he blushed. “It’s not that way. She-Robin is my friend-“

“I know,” Yori waved his hand dismissively. “Robin-san protected you even while Riyu stood over her threatening you. She is a good friend.”

Riyu stared at Yori. “Robin said that you rescued us. So you weren’t a part of orchestrating this?”

Hurt filled Yori’s eyes before he covered it. “You would ask me that after all that we have meant to each other?”

After a moment, Yagano lowered his eyes. “Forgive me Yori-oji-san. But …” he met his uncle’s eyes again. “I came to your house and heard you on the phone talking to Riyu. I heard you say that you would give him my position with the company.”

“You heard correctly.”

Yagano shook his head, a look of hurt and betrayal filled him. “But why would you do that? You know how important the studio is to me.”

“I did it to save you, Yagano. I did it because it was the one thing that Riyu would accept to forever leave you alone.”

Yagano shook his head angrily. “What? I don’t care about Riyu leaving me alone! I put my heart-“

“Listen,” Yori continued. “Riyu wanted to force you to work the illegal hostess dens. He has wanted that for years. And finally he wore your father down who said that he would not interfere in the matter between a gang leader and Yakuza work.

Yagano blinked, a deep frown settling across his face.

Yori continued. “To Daisuke-san no Yakuza business is beneath him or his sons. Just as he had Riyu do it, Riyu would now have you do it.”

Yagano looked at his uncle. His father had forced his own son into human trafficking?

“As you know my gangs have no dealings in forced prostitution. I abhor it, but it is an important part of the money that is made by our family. When I learned of Riyu’s plan I … I mistakenly offered him something that I should not have bartered. Your happiness and well-being is rooted deeply in Akita Tom Productions. And because of my actions you have not only lost it, but also your connection with the inagawa-kai.”

Yagano watched his uncle in thoughtful silence. “You bartered for my well-being when my father would not?”

Yori looked away. “Your father is a complex man. He is rooted in the old ways. He doesn’t do these things because he lacks affection for his sons, but because he thinks it will make you stronger men. But his attempts to try to appease Riyu has compromised his relationship with you.”

Y sighed. “I’m sorry, uncle. I’ve misunderstood everything and I’ve judged you unfairly.” He reached out and grasped his uncle’s forearm. “You are the only father I know.”

Yori swallowed back his emotion and grasped Yagano’s arm in return. “And you are my son in all ways but blood. I will always be your protector, even though my last breath.”

Yagano suddenly smiled. “But I didn’t lose the company.”

Yori frowned. “Did you not give up your shares of the company?”

“Yes,” Yagano stated. “But I placed them in a limited liability company along with the stock of the board members that attended the meeting that Riyu interrupted. Akita had left a million and a half American dollars to run the company and we used a portion of that to purchase enough stock so that the new LLC owns the majority of the label. FOAT LLC—Friends of Akita Tom LLC, now runs the company. The Yakuza will never see another dime from Akita Tom Productions, and we can now offer the best deal to our newly signed artist.”

Yori was scratching his chin but he couldn’t hide his smile. “I do not know how your father will accept this news but I am very pleased.”

Yagano’s smile faded. “You are the only father that I now care about.”

Amberly rushed into the room and Yagano looked up from his conversation with his uncle. She flung herself into his arms, and with a happy oomph he accepted her hug.

“Oh no Yagano! Oh my God, look at your face!” She cried while he hugged and caressed her.

“I’m okay honey. I look worse than I feel.” Although he was sure that was because of the heavy sedatives. When they wore off he realized that he would truly feel the effects of todays events.