Ti: BRIDGET
Ti: Why is your fucking location off?
“What?” I look at Ev’s confused at the question. She’s looking down at her phone.
“Is your phone acting weird?” I ask, looking at the connection, trying and failing again and again.
“Yup,” she says, her gaze meeting mine.
“Maybe we are in a dead zone.” Looking outside, I notice we are not in the theater district anymore. I’m sure Hisashi said the venue for the after-party wasn’t far. Definitely not this far.
“Excuse me,” I say, pressing the intercom. “I think you’re going in the wrong direction.”
Nothing.
“Hey.” Ev knocks on the glass partition. “Hey.” She keeps knocking repeatedly, then looks to me. “I don’t think he can hear me.” My sweet summer child of a friend says almost hopefully.
“Yes, he can, Ev. He’s just choosing to ignore us.” Looking at the back of the driver’s head, I realize belatedly why he had his hat pulled low and didn’t take it off when he helped us in —so he wouldn’t be recognized by the cameras around the theater district.
Scooting closer to my best friend, I clasp her hand. She grips mine back reassuringly. We are being taken. This time, against our wills. Somehow, I don’t think our husbands will care. They will think we chose to leave this time too. I have no doubt we will be fine, but the aftermath and their wrath is what’s driving my fear this time.
“It’s going to be okay.” Ev whispered words draw my look of incredulity.
“No, babe. No it won’t.”
“This way, ladies.”Hours later, a British butler leads us down the hall of a modern-day samurai mansion.
We follow him through the great expanse of the property, passing gardens, koi ponds, what looks like a cherry blossom grove, and an Olympic-size swimming pool.
Bowing, he waves us inside a beautifully appointed living area.
Inside there are two very handsome and rugged-looking Black men inside. One looks out onto the lit garden. Well past midnight, the garden looks as if it is lit by fireflies.
“We are happy you could join us, Ladies Takeda,” comes the deep baritone that would make lesser women melt. Well, not lesser, just ones who aren’t already ensnared with their husbands.
The men are a complete contrast, like there are in so many Black families — mine included; the one reeling on a sofa has a tawny almond complexioned with a mop of dense curls on hishead; while the other is dark as a thousand midnights with a tapered fade that spills down to a lush beard.
“It’s not like we had a choice, mister?” I ask, allowing the sarcasm to drip from my every word.
“Porter Shipmoore and this gentleman here is my elder brother, Lord Bishop Shipmoore, Duke of Saint Georges, at your service.” Both men nod in our direction — foregoing the Japanese custom for their European one.
Clasping our hands, we bow in traditional Japanese fashion. I don’t have to look at Ev to know our southern hugs in greeting would not be welcome from these men.
“Nice to meet you both,” Ev says once we are facing them again. I’m not so sure if I want to engage in pleasantries because nothing about these men suggests they want to be kind to us. They kidnapped us, for goodness’ sake.
“Have you seen our sister, Prosperity?” Bishop Shipmoore cuts in, getting right to the topic they wish to discuss — their sister, Prosper
“Not recently.” I say simply giving them the truth or as much as I dare without bringing hell down on our heads. The last time we saw Prosper, we were all aboard Akchiro’s super yacht, with her wearing a muzzle until the billionaire yakuza prince she’d been gifted to fed her morsels of food by hand. However, I really don’t think telling them the state of their sister would go over well right now. I love my life, and I can tell these men, much like our husbands, are stone-cold killers.
“Is that so?” Porter inquires, almost boredly, from the seat he’s retaken. I absently notice they hadn’t offered us a seat or refreshments. Rude. Not that I’d take one, but it shows how little regard they have for us.
“Now, if that’s all, we’d like to go home now.” I say miffed, though I completely understand deeply why they are acting this way.
Bishop turns facing the window again to look out into the garden.
“Oh no, darling, you’re both going to be our guests for a while.”
Chapter 15
