“Not another fucking word. Liar.” He grits through clenched teeth.
Scooping me up, he strides back to his house.
Now…
After such an auspicious beginning,no wonder we ended up here. Me running away from him forever.
Walking over to the other side of the butterfly pavilion, I see the key as soon as I reach the door. It’s dangling on a butterfly chime, twinkling like it’s saying, “Take me.” No worries, I am.
Grabbing it, I open the door and slip out onto the empty street. It’s a private drive.
Speed walking over to the economy EV, I get inside. The key, I notice, is not for the car — maybe a flat far away, I guess.
I press the button, seeing the ‘go bag” Flower’s packed for me.
Anxious because I don’t trust that he’ll fully succumb to the drug, I don’t waste time reading the note with my name scrawled on it.
I don’t look back. Scared that if I do, I’ll never leave.
Chapter 3
Found ????
Ryu
“I need to speak to your wives.” I say to my cousins and brother. Especially my fucking brother. Traitors all of them.
“Iie,” Akchiro says with cold finally.
I can feel Takashi bristling beside me.
“They will tell us where our fucking wives are.” Takashi grits.
Closing my eyes I sigh. All subtlety is lost on that one.
“Or what?” Kiyoshi finally turns from looking out into the garden where his wife Krie, Flower and Hishashi’s wife, Taylor are all seated having a picnic, like they didn’t just help our wives poison us and escape.
“Calling them “fucking wives” may be the reason they left. It’s happened to us all. Though mine only did so under duress, isn’t that right, brother?” He cuts a look over to Kiyoshi with no malice for his older brother.
“Motherfucker, you almost killed her.” Kiyoshi deadpans with no heat. I can tell they have obviously worked this out between themselves.
“And like all of you, we would like them back.” I say with a calm I don’t feel.
“Then I guess you’d better get started. You have every available Takeda resource at your disposal.” Akchiro informs us with the cool authority ofThe Takeda.We all hold power, but he is the head of the family by right and blood.
“Though not our wives. Flower is due to give birth soon and I will not have her upset.” He continues as if she wasn’t healthy enough to orchestrate this entire coup.
“This is fucked-up,” Takashi hisses. My twin’s face mirrors mine identically. Only the high flush on his jaw gives away his agitation, whereas I’m maintaining a tenuous stranglehold on mine.
“Sympathies,” Kiyoshi says, “However, our wives’ — delicate conditions notwithstanding — are our concerns. If they share with us the whereabouts of Bridget and Ev, we will of course share them with you.”
“Now, what would be the fun in that?” The Guardian chimes in out of nowhere, mischief laced in every word. This motherfucker, I swear. I wished Hisashi could lobotomize his ass into thin air. “Hunt them. If you can’t find them perhaps better men who are not so weak as to not be able to keep their wives.”
Takashi nearly lunges towards him, but I grab him.
“Arigato, cousins, brother.” Barely bowing as a fuck you too, I wait for Takashi to follow before dragging him out of the room.
“What now?” he demands, as I start towards the guest room I had been given.
