One from my editor.
My stomach tightened.
Charleston was thirteen hours behind Tokyo. That meant it was barely past dinnertime.
I called grandma first and lifted the phone to my ear.
She answered on the second ring. "Baby girl! Are you calling from Japan?"
"Hey, Grandma." Relief flooded me from just hearing her voice. "Yeah, I'm still here. I saw your missed calls and—"
"Lord, child, I've been worried sick. All that mess on the news about bombs in Tokyo, and I'm thinking my grandbaby is over there in the middle of some terrorist attack zone—"
"I'm safe, Grandma. I promise. I'm not even in Tokyo right now. I'm on a private Japanese island far away from the destruction and completely fine."
"Private island?" Her voice pitched up. "What kind of journalism work are you doing on a private island?"
“Umm. . .” I bit my lip. "Actually. . .I met someone."
Silence.
"Someone? Like a man someone?"
"Yes." My cheeks heated.
"Now Nyomi. . ." Her voice took on that tone—the one that meant she was about to deliver wisdom whether I wanted it or not. "Don't you get tangled up with some strange man until I meet him. You know the rules. You hear me?”
“Yes, Grandma.”
“If I don't like him, he's got to go. I don’t care what you think of him.”
“I know.”
“You're my only grandbaby. Ain't nothing worse than when a no-good man puts his hooks into a good woman and drains her of all her blessed good energy. Not my grandbaby. I’ll kill him first."
Oh God, Grandma threatening to murder the Dragon. That's. . .actually terrifying for him, not her.
I smirked. “I know.”
“And Grandma don’t have no bail money at the moment—”
“I’ve got bail money for you, Grandma.”
“Talking about you’re on an island and in love.”
I widened my eyes. “Grandma, I didn’t say anything about being in love—”
“I can hear it in your voice. Smiling and upbeat. I have never heard you sound like that. Last time you called you sounded exhausted and bored.”
That's because the last time we talked, I wasn't sleeping with Tokyo's most dangerous and sexiest crime lord.
“Don’t you get too close to this man until I’ve met him.”
“Yes, Grandma.”
"I mean it. I don't care how handsome he is or how much money he got. If he treats you wrong, he's done."
"I know, Grandma. I promise."
