“But, you still moved in with me,” he responded. His voice was peppered with a hint of betrayal as he locked gazes with her.
“I did a thorough background check and I couldn't connect you definitively to the group. I tried to end things, Mas. I tried to stay away, but you insisted.”
She stood up, meeting him at the island, touching her hand to his. “I moved in because I wanted to prove you weren't my enemy. I wanted something that would let me keep you in my life. It was dangerous and foolish. But, I wasn't thinking about my position in the Council. I only cared about being able to be with you.”
It was the truth. The moment she realized Masaki had some sort of connection to her rivals, she should've walked away. The cut should've been clean and precise. Instead, her decisions had left them both messy and vulnerable to attack.
He pulled her into arms, weaving his fingers through her locs as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “You weren't the only one who made poor decisions, Oshun. I knew my desire for you would put you in danger. I lied to myself thinking I could protect you. But, deep down I knew someone would try to use you to get to me.”
She understood the need he felt. It was infectious. It made you go against every natural instinct you had just to get a taste of what you wanted.
“Okay,” she spoke softly, her voice cautiously leading them out of this emotional muck they'd found themselves stuck in. “Whoever’s behind this was able to use our secrets to hurt us.”
He nodded his head as a solemnness descended on his face. “Let's say we don't give them any more ammunition? Instead of stockpiling secrets, let's try this sharing thing I hear couples are supposed to do.”
A couple? They’d been intertwined for nearly five months now. They’d done couple-like things, but never had she given herself the luxury of thinking of them as a unit.
The warmth of the idea filled her with a hope she wasn’t certain was warranted in their current situation. With so much chaos in their lives, how could they even dare to hope for anything right now?
One glance at him answered that question for her. She might not know where things were headed, but wherever the events led, she knew she wanted Masaki by her side.
She smiled briefly as she nodded in agreement. “No more secrets, Mas. We do it together from here on out.”
The matching smile he offered made a tingling sensation spiral down her spine, and spread out to all her nerve endings. Realizing she shouldn’t let herself be distracted by Masaki’s charm, she gave herself a mental shake and got back to business.
“If we’re entertaining the idea that Izzy and Aesop either had help, or were put up to attempting to kill us, there must be something this anonymous person stands to gain. Have you come any closer to figuring out who would want to take you out of the game on your side? Who stands to win if you die, Masaki?”
She wrapped her arms around him when she posed that question, squeezing him to her as she let the words fall from her lips. The thought of what could've happened if Izzy and Aesop had succeeded made embracing him so much more than a desire. She needed the tangible reminder that Masaki was here, alive, and in her arms.
He pulled out of her embrace and walked them back to the table. While she sat down, he pulled his place setting across the table and sat in the chair next to hers. Apparently, she wasn't the only one using proximity as a stress reliever.
“Your people snuck us into this sleepy little town in the Pocono Mountains six weeks ago,” he answered. “While taking care of you, I haven't thought of anything else but who could be behind this. No one under my command would dare something like this unless a big boss gave the okay. None of my contemporaries from other families would have that kind of power. This order had to have come from the top.”
She raised a brow, not sure of where the glazed look in his dark eyes was taking him. “You have someone in mind?”
“Yes,” he nodded slowly. “If I'm the high man on the totem pole here in this area, and someone in the organization is trying to kill me, that order had to come for the head of all families. The leader of the Yakuza in Japan, the Oyabun, has dominion over our tribes worldwide. If I'm marked for death, he's the only one who could've slapped his stamp of approval on it.”
She watched him drift to that far-off place in his head again. Whatever he was pulling out of the recesses of his mind had to be significant, because he stood up again, pacing back and forth as his mind wandered.
“So, you think this head of all families—.”
“The Oyabun,” he interrupted.
“The Oyabun,” she repeated. “You think the Oyabun put a hit out on you? Do you know why?”
He stopped pacing, locking his gaze with hers. “If he is after me, I have no idea why. Is it possible? Yeah. But if I'd fucked up enough to end up on the Oyabun’s bad side, I'd know it.”
He snaked a hand around his neck as he turned his head from side to side, stretching the muscles there before he continued. “Maybe we’re thinking of this the wrong way. Maybe it's not about my enemy or your enemy. Maybe it's about our enemy. We're not the only organizations in the area. Between East New York, Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, and Howard Beach, there are plenty of syndicates who would benefit from Brownsville and Canarsie going to war.”
Oshun turned Masaki’s suggestion over in her head. She had no proof of it, but everything he'd surmised seemed wholly possible. She didn't know if it was because her head would rather conjure up some outside force versus believing someone in her very own Council would try to kill her. Or, if it just seemed more practical that they shared a common enemy. Either way, she and Masaki were still faced with the task of answering these unknowns.
“If you're right, Mas,” she continued. “This possible scenario makes our situation worse.”
“How?”
“Because, if you're anything like me, you've got more enemies than you know what to do with.”
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