Page 43 of Rescuing Air

“Lala, I get why you’re upset but, girl, you’re yelling at the wrong person. Take it up with Beth and others on the council. They decide who gets funding and how much,” Cami said defensively.

Letting out a calming breath, I relaxed. “I’m sorry, Cami, that was unfair. With all that’s been going on, I’m just finding that I have extremely low patience with things like this.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, babe,” Blessing commented. “I’ve been trying to tell them that we’re missing things but they don’t want to hear it. Kept saying that the feedback from other sources told them this area was a dead zone for demon activity.”

My teeth ground as I clenched my jaw. “Let me guess, Makoto made that judgment call.”

“Funny how he seems to keep coming up and fucking us over, isn’t it?” Cami muttered.

Jay stepped forward and extended his hand to Blessing. “Thank you for being here and not giving up, even if they didn’t listen.” She took his hand, shaking it. “If you could do without two computers, we’ll manage just fine. If there is a printer available as well, then we don’t have to worry about using a tablet or anything to share information.”

“I can work with that,” Blessing answered, giving him a slight grin in response. “You are nothing like your father, you know that.”

Jay bowed his head to her. “I take that as the highest compliment.”

“You should. He’s a prick.” Blessing huffed as she turned to leave the room. “I’ll send someone by with drinks and snacks for you. Brain's gotta have food to work their best.”

Now that we had the room to ourselves, none of us seemed to know where to start. So in true Jay fashion, he took the lead and gestured for us all to sit down as he guided his mother to sit beside him.

“Okasan, will you please share with us what you know?” Jay asked in English.

Up until this moment, he had only ever spoken to her in Japanese, so I assumed that was all she spoke. I shouldn’t have been so simpleminded. I’d also found out that her name was Hina, not that I ever planned on calling her that. It seemed so informal even if she was practically my mother-in-law. Hina gently placed her hands in her lap and looked over the rest of us before she settled on me. Her eyes, so much like her son’s, seemed to be able to see into my soul but I wasn’t scared, just unsettled to be so vulnerable. Thankfully after a moment or two, she broke her hold on me and turned to face Jay before she spoke.

“It all started before I was pregnant with you,” she started, her voice soft as if it was floating on a breeze. “Your father woke up one night, claiming that he had been visited by an angel who promised him that his child would save the world. Now, all of us knew the rumors that Synergy could possibly be a person and that’s what your father believed that angel meant. From the moment you were born, he pushed you to be the best on the promise that you would fulfill this great destiny. When you came into your power and we discovered you were not Synergy but the element of air, he was crushed. He disappeared for a month, claiming it was for work and I believed him since he hardly ever spoke to me about such things. It was always made clear to me that I was his wife, but that didn’t mean I deserved more from him than a life where I was looked after.”

My heart clenched, knowing it must have hurt so much to be brushed off like that when it was clear she loved Makoto in her own way. Jay had told me he never planned on being married or loving anyone so he didn’t end up like his father, but the Heavens decided otherwise.

“When he returned one day out of the blue, he told me that he secured our son’s fate and would give him the power he was promised. That’s when he took you from me,” Hina said as her voice cracked. “The only part of Makoto that ever loved me was what he gave me through you, my son. I knew if I tried to stop him it would only make things harder on you, so I let you go, hoping one day he would give you back to me.”

Jay took his mother’s hand and pressed it to his cheek before kissing the back of it in the largest show of affection I’d ever seen him give to someone other than me. “There was no way I was going to abandon you, Okasan. I will see that you are forever free from him and able to live your life once this is all over.”

Hina gave Jay a sad smile but didn’t say anything before returning to her story. “It was just after Christmas that I heard about you, Lailah. Jalen told me he wasn’t going to make it home because you needed him.” The guilt I felt hearing that made me frown. When she saw my expression she reached a hand out to me, clasping my hand in hers, giving it a squeeze before pulling back. “No, please, don’t feel bad. I was so happy he found someone to love enough to drop everything to save her. It’s something I’ve never gotten the chance to have. Word spread through the family of what happened at the Christmas Eve party and the whole mess of the serum getting taken from the labs. I was surprised that Makoto hadn’t come back to question what I knew or what my family might know.”

“Forgive me, but why would he come to you about that?” I asked, not understanding the connection.

Her eyes flicked to Jay, a little surprised. “That would be because my family runs the largest port in Japan, controlling all the import and export of goods. If anyone was smuggling things, we would hear about it through our connections. It’s one of the reasons I was selected to be Makoto’s bride, along with the money I inherited when my father passed away twenty years ago.”

“So why did Makoto work with Pride, instead of with your family, since you own it?” Hudson asked. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to have things like the serum smuggled with a company you have control over?”

“I suppose it would if he had any control over it,” Hina answered. “My father made sure in his will that it was left to me and me alone. He hated how Makoto treated me after we were married, completely changing into a different person. My father would have supported me in leaving Makoto, and by leaving the company to me, he insured I could do so whenever I wanted and be fully supported. You see, I’d just graduated from college with an MBA in the hopes of working alongside my father. Once I was married, Makoto forbade me from doing so, which led my father to blackball him from many companies he partnered with. This forced Makoto to find suppliers elsewhere in the world, and most of them were not reputable.”

Parker leaned back in his seat and let out a whistle, expressing how we were all feeling.

“Okay, so that clears up that question, but why did he kidnap you?” Brayden pressed. “If he couldn’t use the ports and Jay was already bonded, then why curse you?”

“He wanted me to sign over the company to him. The longer I refused, the stronger the curse would be and eventually kill me. But I knew what he was up to so I refused to help in any way,” Hina explained. “While he had been gone for that month, he’d made a deal with the devil and they promised that Jay would have an important part in their new world, along with him. All the power the angels led him to believe he would have could be his if he was their man on the ground helping them. If he was going to get the serum distributed how they needed it to be, having access to my company would change everything.”

“What a bastard!” Cami fumed, kicking at one of the empty chairs next to her, sending it shooting across the room to bounce off the glass window.

“Easy on the furniture, it’s hell to get replacements,” Blessing remarked as she entered the room with two laptops in her arms. “I’ve got computers for you. I made sure they were our most updated and secure but you might want to do a check on it before doing anything too illegal.”

Another man followed on her heels with a box that he set on the table. It contained a printer and other supplies we would need. He glanced around the room at us but when he saw me, he paused and broke into a wide smile.

“Well, they didn’t tell me there was a babe who came in with the Elemental Warriors. Are you their mascot or something, because you’re all I would need to be cheered on,” he said, making me almost want to gag at how cheesy that line was.

All the guys tensed and I could feel the murderous thoughts they had toward this man. Cami, on the other hand, burst into a fit of laughter, almost sliding out of her chair onto the floor. “Bro, you better run before you have five men with magical powers coming after you for hitting on their wife.”

The man looked from me to the guys and back again, his face losing all its color. “Their wife... she’s married to all of them?”