I touch his shoulder.
He flinches. “Bro?—”
“Am I going to miss Cadey’s belly growing? Am I going to miss feeling our baby kick? What if she has morning sickness and I’m not there?”
Zane suddenly kicks the door open.
I whip my head around. “Zane.”
“I’ll be home later,” he says, and for a moment, I think I see him brushing away a tear.
My chest is heavy and my head swims.
I want to fix this so badly for my brothers, for my family, for my nieces or nephews. But I feel a lot more optimistic about taking over the yakuza than I do about defeating a computer.
Dutch adjusts his hands on the steering wheel. “I’ll head home first.”
I speak in a calm, measured tone. “Bex Dane wants to talk about concert times. I’ll tell him now isn’t great and try to reschedule.”
He nods.
When I’m out of the car, Dutch speeds off. I stare at his car and then at Zane’s back as he jogs down the street. My brothersare falling apart. How the hell do I stop this train that’s already deep diving off a cliff?
At that moment, the hospital doors part and spit out a small blonde girl in a grey sweater and loose black pants. She glances furtively over her shoulder and then looks around the parking lot.
I pull back to keep out of sight.
J notices a taxi driving up, flags it down, and jumps inside. A few minutes later, the cab takes off.
I’ve got my phone to my ear, dialing Ren before they turn the corner. “Where are you?”
“I have her.”
“Don’t let her out of your sight,” I growl. “Tell Hayato to bring me a car.”
“Hai.”
Five minutes later, a sleek black car parks in front of me.
I raise an eyebrow when I get inside. The leather is plush and modern with lights in the door and on the center console. “This is new.”
“Oyabunsends his regards.”
That statement shocks me into silence. By now, Kurosaki is aware that I let three members of the Grave City Crew go without hurting them. I also expected Kurosaki to be pissed off about me skipping training for the past two days.
“When you have a moment, he would like to see you,” Hayato says.
Talk about an upgrade.
Normally, Kurosaki doesn’t ask me to come in. He just instructs me to drop everything and run to him.
I grunt. “Let’s go.”
Ren’s directions lead to an internet cafe.
As we park, Ren pulls his motorcycle helmet off and knocks on the window of the car. Hayato lowers the back window, and Ren peeks in, his eyes focused on me.
“She has been in there for fifteen minutes now.”
