“Damn woman, I’m so glad you’re such a good shot.”
He chuckled, expecting to hear her return his laughter, or at the very least, rip him a new one for being so careless. But, she didn't respond.
Masaki sat up as he awkwardly attempted to get them both in an upright position. When he finally did, he called Oshun’s name, but she didn’t answer.
He cradled her head in his arms, and pulled her closer to him. When he pulled them apart again, he saw blood on the front of their shirts. He looked down at his chest to see where the blood was coming from. He didn’t feel any pain. When he returned his gaze to Oshun’s torso, the crimson stain was darker, and worse, it was spreading.
“No…no,” he whispered as panic grew inside him. When his searching fingers found the oozing hole on the side of her chest, his panic turned to agonizing pain. Watching her life seep away through the bullet wound felt like a vise had been placed around his heart, squeezing and tightening until it ruptured like a damaged pipe. He’d come to this restaurant to control and destroy his enemy if necessary. He’d never conceived the idea that his enemy would save his life by sacrificing hers.
7
M asaki paced the inside of the interrogation room. Pacing was the only thing keeping him calm enough not to go on a murderous rampage. He needed out of this room in the worst way. Oshun was hurt.
How badly, he didn’t know. That fact alone was making him come unhinged. She needed him. She’d sacrificed herself to save him. Masaki wouldn’t rest until he knew she was all right.
He heard the creak of the door and watched as a silver-haired Caucasian man, tall, with a slim build, dressed in an expensive dark suit, walk into the room.
“Mr. Yamaguchi,” he uttered. Masaki held up his hand interrupting him before he could continue. Seth Stein was his lawyer. His legal skills had helped Masaki, and his father before him, stretch the boundaries of the law without consequence. Usually Mas would take the time to carefully listen to whatever the man advised. However, tonight’s events made it impossible for Masaki to do anything but focus on Oshun.
“It’s been three hours. Did you get me out of here? I need to leave.”
The older man took a breath, dropped his arms to his sides, and nodded his head.
“I suppose it would be foolish of me to expect you to go home and lay low until this blows over?”
“I’ve never known you to be foolish, Seth.”
Exasperation shone on the older man’s face as he shook his head. Seth knew Masaki well enough to know when to push and when to fall back. Tonight, pushing would yield him nothing but frustration. Masaki had no intention of running and hiding. Not when Oshun needed him.
“My car is waiting outside. Where can I drop you?”
“To County General Hospital,” Masaki answered. “I need to get there now.”
Seth escorted Masaki out of the precinct and into his waiting car. Masaki expected a lecture, but the elder man remained quiet, leaving Masaki to his own thoughts as they traveled the short distance to the hospital.
Masaki was grateful for the silence in the car. He needed it to pull his thoughts together. He was a strategist, often thinking ten steps ahead of where he needed to be. It was how he’d expanded his father’s empire so quickly. His moves were always calculated to outmaneuver his competitors. But tonight, he could barely think beyond the next second.
His thoughts were a jumble of sporadic flashes of memory. There was a glimpse of Oshun walking into that private dining room, then they were in darkness. The next frame in his mind’s slideshow was the two of them running for their lives in that dark parking lot, and then Oshun slumped in his arms with a bleeding bullet wound in her chest.
Masaki snapped his eyes closed, bracing against that memory. She was limp, almost lifeless in his arms, and he’d been helpless to do anything about it except scream for help and wait for an ambulance to arrive.
He’d wanted to ride with her to the hospital, but the paramedics wouldn’t let him. Instead, the cops had taken him into custody to verify his story, his gun registration, and license to carry.
Thank God he really was licensed to carry a weapon. If he weren’t, he’d be behind bars right now instead of pulling up to the hospital. Fancy lawyer or not, an illegal gun charge wouldn’t have been so easy to escape, even if he’d only fired it to protect himself.
When the car slowed in front of the hospital’s main entrance, Masaki half turned his head toward Seth and said, “Don’t tell anyone about what happened tonight. I don’t know who I can trust.”
Masaki swallowed the hard knowledge that someone who was supposed to be his family had betrayed him. It wasn’t lost on him either that the person who was designated as his enemy, was the person who’d saved his life tonight.
The older man nodded his head in response. “The guard on duty knows you’re coming in. He’ll conveniently be patrolling when you walk through. The nurse will buzz you through as soon as you get to the SICU.”
Masaki let out a brief sigh of relief. Having someone like Seth manipulate the system for him was a godsend. Otherwise, he’d never be able to get to Oshun.
“Her people haven’t been notified of her shooting,” Seth continued. “But once they have been, I don’t advise you to be here. As far as they will know, your people tried to kill her. Until she can set the record straight, it might not be a good idea for you to be around when they arrive.”
Seth wasn’t wrong. If the Brownsville Council found him at her bedside, he was a dead man. He had no idea what, if anything, Aesop had told the rest of her crew. Hell, for all Masaki knew, Oshun’s entire organization was in on it with Aesop.
This situation was dangerous for all of them. But, he couldn’t leave Oshun to brave this alone. More than that, he needed to be there for himself. If she didn’t make it through this… Unwilling and unable to entertain the idea of Oshun losing this battle, he winced in reaction to the thought.
