SIXTEEN
"I'll kill you in a few minutes. It'll be good for you."
—Frederick Weisel
LISA
"Are we staying in the castle?" Victoria asked, grinning out the plane window. "I haven't been back there since we got married."
I turned to stare at my brother, who smiled so widely I was surprised his teeth didn't fall out as he watched Victoria in her own personal wonderland.
Apparently they were doing well.
"I'm not sure. Boss?" He turned to me.
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head, knowing they would not be happy with where we were going to be staying.
There was silence throughout our large cabin. We were only three hours into an eight-hour flight to Bangkok, and I knew I was going to lose my mind.
I should have gotten a larger plane.
After Myoi was president, I was taking Air Force One, damn it.
"Lisa," my mother said slowly, breaking away from her private conversation with my father to address me.
"Don't tell me…" Marco trailed off, straightening his tie as he glared into the side of my skull. I could feel the rage he was trying to bottle up.
"Don't tell him what?" Victoria glanced between us, as if she was seeing two very different outcomes of my answer.
Nickhun glared, his eyes narrowing, body stiffening, but he nodded.
"Lisa…"
"We're staying at Shamus' house in the village," I snapped, pinching the bridge of my nose. For the love of Christ, why couldn't they shut up?
"Shamus' house?" Victoria repeated softly. "As in, Shamus, who's everyone believes was murdered in our house, the man who lives in the hills with his men…his very loyal men."
I glared at her. "No, Victoria. I mean Shamus, the ghost of mafia past. What the fuck?"
She frowned, leaning back into her seat, causing Nickhun's eyebrow to twitch as he stared at me.
However, there was a small snicker from the woman in front of me. Glancing at her, I noticed she hadn't been sleeping like I thought.
"I didn't know you were awake." I sat up, grabbing her hand.
She rolled her eyes at me. "Who could sleep with all the noise you people are making."
"My pregnant wife could." I replied, causing her to pinch my wrist. Taking her other hand, I kissed them before sitting back.
"So, Shamus' house…" She smiled, leaning back as well. "A bit morbid, don't you think?"
I couldn't help but groan, hearing a few 'thank-yous' from the peanut gallery that was my family.
"Not you too, wife."
"Morbid, but not bad. After all, the Romans killed and made it their own home—"
"Yes and the Roman Empire fell," my father cut her off sharply, causing the smiles on both of our faces to drop as we turned to him.
My mother shook her head at him, flipping through her magazine as if there wasn't a possibility that I would take a dagger to the side of my own father's face.
"Yes," Jen stated, her eyes cold. "The Roman Empire did fall, and yet we still have all the glory. The very suits you wear, the shoes on your feet, are made from where?" she trailed off. "You are not powerful unless you have something."
I rolled my eyes. "Your ego right now—"
"What was the name of that car you were trying to buy?"
"Ferrari En…" Nickhun trailed off when my father smacked him in the back of his head for me before returning to his book, not saying a word.
"It's not ego when you state the truth."
Jen smiled as she lay back in her chair. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes once more. The headaches were becoming more and more frequent with each passing day.
It had taken us another week after Harvey's death to finally get everything ready to leave. It would have taken only three days had I not forced my wife to see a doctor. I was damn near ready to give her a CAT scan myself. I needed to know she was okay. That this was just a phase. It was only after I had brought the doctor to our house that she finally agreed.
She and the baby were fine, he had said. I shouldn't worry according to him. But how could I not when the woman I barely ever saw grimace couldn't even hold her head up after a few hours?
"Stop looking at me like that. I'm fine, I saw your damn doctor. Your kid is just fucking with my mind before it's born," she said with her eyes closed.
I snorted. "How did he become mine all of a sudden?"
Her eyes snapped open. "He? I'm sorry, did you and God have a private conversation without me?"
"There was no need. God knows there is no way in hell I could mentally handle a girl right now. Nor does he want to watch the chaos that would unfold when I'm unable to tell a small girl no," I replied as my father and brother laughed.
"You're a narcissistic asshole," she snapped at me.
"You knew that when you married me." I winked at her.
"Well, aren't you both cute?" Nickhun snickered under his breath, causing both Jen and myself to freeze, however, for two completely different reasons.
She stared at me and I could feel her blood boiling.
"Your cousin just called me 'cute."
Here we go.
Grabbing her water bottle, she threw it across the aisle at his face.
"I'm going to go lie down before I kill you and drop you somewhere over the Pacific Ocean." She barked in his face, trying to stand quickly only to stumble forward.
Both my father and I stood at the same time, reaching to grab hold of her. But she pushed us both of away.
"URGH! This kid is trying to kill me! I can't walk straight. I can't think straight. I have no control of my own damn body! And now I have people calling me cute. Like I'm a fucking puppy!" she sneered at me, pushing me aside in order to continue on her way. "I am Jennie Kim Manoban, cute is not the adjective used to describe me!"
And with that, she slammed the door to the room. Leaving everyone else but my mother and I a little confused.
"This is why we can't fly commercial," my mother whispered, shaking her head at us.
"What did I say?" Nickhun asked, making me want to smack the fucking shit out of him.
"You called one of the leaders of the mob cute," my mother informed the stupid fucking idiot that was supposed to be my older cousin. "While she's pregnant. Jen doesn't want to be treated differently, nor does she want to lose the respect just because she's sharing her body. She's going to torture you for this."
Not only him.
Part of me was enjoying my soft wife. Jennie seemed relaxed and the fact that she was almost always in the mood for sex, which wasn't really different from when she was cold, was a plus. We even cuddled. She told me she loved me before going to sleep. She was being sweet to me, and the family. To the rest of the men, Jen was kind of a raging hormonal bitch though. They never knew if she was smiling because she was happy or because she was planning to cut off a man's thumb.
"Should I check on her since Adriana isn't here?" Victoria asked, looking at the door.
"Yes, because my wife would love to be 'checked up' on." She liked Victoria, but she may shoot her one day.
Shaking my head at her, I looked towards the man who stood slightly in the corner in front of the mini bar. He didn't seem shocked at the insanity that was our family. Jen had told me his name, but I kept forgetting he was even around…I didn't trust that.
"Your name," I demanded, drawing everyone's attention to the small server. Apparently I wasn't the only one who forgot he was on board.
He took a step forward. "Nelson Reed."
"You're on my plane because…?"
He tried to remain calm, but I could see the nervousness building. "I've flown with Mrs. Manoban before, and Ms. Angelia…"
Before he could finish, Jen stomped out, not bothering to look at any of us. Instead, she turned to Reed, who quickly turned and prepared her tea within seconds. Handing it to her, he spoke, "I'm scared shitless of you, ma'am."
She nodded, glaring at me. "Leave my people alone, yours tick me off."
I'm not going to make it. Throw me out of the plane now.
I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose as I stood. Then, I followed her into the room.
Before entering, I stopped in front of the worm. "Kiss up to my wife again, and I will rip your lips from your face."
His eyes widened and he nodded quickly as I stepped in.
There, sitting in middle of the bed with her pinky sticking out as she drank her tea like the damn queen of England, was my wife. The room was small of course. It was only meant for short naps; the bed took up the whole fucking room. However, as she sat there, she glanced at me while sipping away, and I wasn't sure what to do with her. She was driving me insane! If I argued with her, I would lose and only piss her off. I wasn't sure if she was rational enough not to shoot me thirty thousand feet in the air. I couldn't calmly speak to her without her thinking I was speaking down to her.
"Jen…"
"I'm going to be a horrible mother," she said out of nowhere. "I feel it. I'm angry and annoyed with it all the time. I keep wishing I wasn't pregnant because then I could think straight, and my head wouldn't hurt. My skin itches, and the nosebleeds…"
"Itchy skin and nosebleeds? What the fuck, when did this happen?" I asked, taking a seat at the side of the bed.
She rolled her eyes, put her cup on the side table. "It's not uncommon, I talked to the doctor about it. He said it should ease in a few weeks. And I quote, 'your body is adjusting. The baby is fine.' I'm not. What if I'm like her? What if I did this to her and that's why…"
"Stop," I snapped. "Women long before you or your mother have had difficult pregnancies. None of them turned out like your mother. She is…"
"She is my mother and we share DNA. I could be—"
"You are NOT like her!" I yelled, causing her to pull away from me to roll onto her side and stare at the wall.
God, this is Lisa Manoban. I've sinned but do not punish me like this, I prayed.
Flipping onto the bed, I grabbed hold of her, pulling her towards me. She, being my wife, fought of course, but I would not let up.
"Lisa let—"
"I did not chain you up to a bed. You do not have a lover I'm amputating body parts from in the basement…but if you ever did…"
"Lisa," she smiled.
I continued. "We both chose this. We are probably the most truthful couple on the face of the planet. Whatever caused your mother to be what she is has nothing to do with your fate. You love me."
"Narcissistic asshole," she muttered.
Smirking again, I kissed her shoulder. "And I love you…our kid is going to be happy because despite it all, we're happy."
"Your sappiness is killing me slowly," she replied, as she rubbed her stomach and placed her head on my chest.
She's back.
"It's part of my charm, and I will need you to find your charm when we land," I reminded her. The bed creaked and rocked as though we were on a ship and not in the sky. Propping her head up, she sighed.
"Figured," she said. "How many of those loyal men did Shamus have?"
Too many.
"The Manobans are from the hillside, and for decades our family has taken care of all the people within our town. From my great grandfather, to Shamus…"
"But not Marco."
"Not Marco." I nodded. "The people there are loyal to our family, but they feel as though he betrayed them by leaving and never coming back. I sent a few of the men ahead of us, but if we want to find out anything, we cannot go as aggressors. They most likely hate us for the death of Shamus, but can't do anything because we are still Manobans. We find out what we need to know, we don't kill anyone, and we leave."
"Says the one with anger management issues."
"I do not have—" I stopped when she grinned. "If people didn't always make me angry, there would be no reason for management."
"Anyway," she said as she rolled her eyes, "we go to your homeland, be nice to the locals and what, they just hand over the McDonie's?"
"Yes."
"That is going to last about ten minutes before one of us snaps."
JENNIE
The moment we stepped out of the plane I felt Lisa's body stiffen at the sight of not one, but five beat up old mystery-machine buses parked in front of our Range Rovers. We had taken a smaller plane from Bangkok to the hills in order to cut our time on the road and keep our location a secret until we arrived. The private pasture we landed in wasn't so private.
Jiwook, Antonio, Chanyeol and Hanbin looked like they were standing on coils and trying to pretend as though they weren't.
Somebody was going to get killed if they stayed this tense.
Why did that only make me want to smile? We didn't want to start a war, but shooting them was what we did…or at least what the Kims did. Dong-suk used to say it was like putting down a wild dog.
"Old Man Doyle," Lisa called out as we approached the hairy man who stood leaned against the bus smoking his pipe.
Old Man Doyle didn't look much older than Marco. He was so young in fact, that he looked like he had just now started to get grey hairs, which were entwined with the reddish brown ones. His beard was thick though, and I wanted nothing more than to hold him down and shave it off his face.
He didn't reply, he just smoked, blowing it out as though we had all the time in the world for his foolishness. One of his men—I guessed—stepped forward, blocking my view of the chain-smoking idiot.
He glared at me before turning to Lisa. "Welcome, you cocktrough bellgeg caffler." He spat at our feet. "Now take your foucking cunt, and your foucking family, and get the fouck out of our country."
I just broke out in laughter, startling all of them. Turning to Lisa, who had to be biting her tongue, I shook my head.
"When I said 'that's going to last ten minutes', I apparently meant five," I said, as I turned to face the dead man walking.
I always wore heels because it made it easier to threaten people when you didn't have to look up, however, seeing as how I could no longer walk, I was going to have to look up this man's nose hairs.
"Call me a cunt again, I dare you. And I will pull your tongue from your ass…or is it arse? So take your foucking face and bad breath and bugger off, because we both know you can't do shit," I told him.
"Looks like the Korean cunt…"
Before Doyle's man could finish, a bullet went through his foot and Lisa took a step forward, pulling me to her side as the man screamed. Guns went up, and out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Nickhun and Marco put Evelyn and Victoria in the car.
"She warned you." Lisa sighed. I knew she didn't want this, but we sure as hell couldn't allow this to fly either. It was better to put a stop to it now.
"Enough," Old Man Doyle said, pushing off the bus. "Aren't you tired of putting bullets in your own kind, Manoban?"
"Shamus killed himself like a coward." I said.
An amused Nickhun added, "It was a bullet though."
None of them found it funny. Old Man Doyle blew the smoke through his nose as his jaw tensed.
"Is that the lie you're all telling? Shamus offed himself? You must think us the king of fools. Shamus was kin," he sneered at Lisa, who shrugged.
"My kin. Not yours. The affairs amongst my family do not concern you," Lisa said. "As my wife said, as my father said weeks ago; Shamus took his own life. I want to know why, and we think the McDonie's holds the key to that. That is all. Point me in the right direction, keep your dogs on their leashes, and the Manoban fortune will still flow through the town as it always has. Your wives don't want to bury their husbands and children, so step down and be the lesser but alive man."
He spit at the ground in front of us before turning back to his beat-up old bus, which Mr. Foucking was using for support.
"You have a week, Manoban, and then we want you gone. Or else." They got into their cars, leaving us standing there among blood stained grass.
"Have you lost your fucking mind Jennie? What happened to charm?" Lisa roared.
"Foucking Lisa. Foucking we're in Thailand, try to fit in." I smiled before walking to the car.
Damn my feet hurt.
LISA
I could feel my eyebrow twitching as I watched her walk away from me.
"I enjoy her when she's pregnant. She's absolutely hilarious." My father laughed, stepping up right beside me.
"Would you like a bullet through your foot as well?" I yelled, waving my gun at him. "It's like she's fucking high."
"Foucking, sister," Nickhun said, watching the men as they finished loading all our things. "You have to admit, she was charming. They may not have shown it, but they were all surprised by her, some lusted—"
"Finish that sentence and I will actually have to kill my kinsmen," I hissed, leaving them both laughing. I could see them both drunk off their asses for the rest of this trip.
Ripping the door open, Jen's brown eyes snapped up to me. She stared at me as if she were shocked I came into the car. Noticing the stream of text messages that were buzzing in, I sat down.
"What?"
"The President was just assassinated, and not by us."
Foucking Christ, can't I get a break.