Chapter 6
The sunlight that poured through the open window hit her eyes, slowly stirring her as she awoke. She felt the warmest sensation across her stomach as she looked to her right, seeing Chikaru's head resting on her inner shoulder and her arm around the blonde girl's waist.
She rested her head back on the pillow as she let out a big smile, almost ear to ear as she felt happy, probably happier then she's ever been in these past few years.
Putting the incident with Amy behind her would surely be difficult but she would try, she would never forget her memory, but she just had to move with her life as painful as it was.
She soon felt Chikaru moving slowly, her eyes began to flutter as she opened them and with a good stretched she looked around.
-"Ohayo Emi."- she said ever so softly as she took a deep breath then relaxed.
"Mornin Chikaru." She replied softly, "Sleep well?"
-"Definitely."- Chikaru snuggled closer, -"Even more so because I was next to you."-
"Same here." She then turned over to her side, held Chikaru and gave her a good morning kiss.
She sat up, and began to change into her usual jeans and black shirt, as for Chikaru she dressed herself in her black dress. The two walked back down the living room and towards the kitchen.
"Oh crap I forgot… I have no food." She groaned as she sat on the counter.
-"That's okay, we can always go out."-
Just before Emi could reply, her phone beeped letting her know she just received a message.
"Speak of the devil."
-"Who is it?"-
"Jim, he says to come on over cause he brought a lot of food."
Chikaru giggled, -"How fortunate."-
"No joke." She grabbed her white leather jacket and slipped it on, "Well lets go, I'm starving."
-"I can hear your stomach from here."- Chikaru giggled as the two walked to the garage and got into their car then drove off.
They drove for half an hour till they arrived at Jim's house and walked over to the door then rung the doorbell. It didn't take long till he finally answered the door.
"Heeey! Glad to see you finally make it kiddo!" He embraced her.
"Thanks for the invite." The two walked inside
"Nice to see you too Chikaru."
"Likewise." She replied.
"Come on, food is still hot."
The three sat down then began to eat while they talked and listened to the television just in case anything interesting was on.
After a moment Chikaru excused herself to go to the bathroom, giving Jim and the blonde haired girl to talk about what they had to do today.
"Hey don't forget we have to go check out the place."
She nodded, "I know, I didn't forget," she crossed her arms on the table, "Remember, anything fishy and we're out."
"Agreed. For this amount of money, its gotta be very bad people."
"Exactly."
Jim looked behind him then towards her, "Does she know?"
"About?"
"About what you do, and I don't mean racing, but the illegal races we do?"
"No of course not!"
Jim sighed, "Look its not my place, but you gotta tell her."
She was visibly confused by his comment, "Why?"
"You two are together aren't you?"
She silently gasped, "How do you know that?"
"Oh please," He chuckled, "It's all over your face, and her's." He noticed how his response made her smile and blush slightly, "So I'm right aren't I?" She nodded.
She then looked back at him, "But I cant tell her… what if… what if she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore?"
"I know kid, but you have to tell her. So she can be prepared in case things go south over there."
She groaned, "I know… although, I've been meaning to tell you."
He leaned in, "What?"
"One more race," She said, "One more race and I'm out."
"What? Why is that?."
She smiled slightly, "I want… I want to start a life with her and I want to be able to leave all this behind me and do something normal."
He nodded with a smile, "I feel ya kid, I've been meaning to get out myself just never knew when. Well if things go well then we both get out huh?"
"Yeah."
"Maybe we can go back to doing official races, being sponsored and everything."
"Televised events and whatnot."
He laughed, "Yeah exactly, man do I miss those."
"The pay was good too."
"Oh man da pay!" The two laughed, "More then we could've counted."
As they talked they all saw Chikaru come back and sat back with them, "I can hear you two laughing, something happen?"
"Just old memories." Emi replied with a smile as she reached over and held her hand.
"I see. What about?" She smiled in return.
"Nothing to special, just a few people we raced against." He covered for her, but before Chikaru could say something, Jim immediately said, "By the way, mind looking at my truck and see what's wrong?"
"Sure." She stood up, took off her jacket and laid it on the chair as she walked outside to look at the truck while Jim stayed with Chikaru.
He stood up and looked out the window seeing her looking it over, "I'm sorry kid." He walked back to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer then looked at Chikaru.
"Something wrong Jim?"
"No, nothing is wrong but," He said, "I want to tell you something about us, because I know she's not going to tell you."
"Tell me what?"
"What we do… we've told you we are racers, well she is and I'm her manager."
"Yes I remember."
He sighed, "That's half true, we race in underground races… illegal races for big money." He said, seeing Chikaru visibly disturbed, "And I'm telling you this because she really loves you and I can see that, so I wouldn't want something to happen to you two."
Chikaru stood up, "What do you mean illegal?"
"Exactly like you hear, we race against bad people, drug dealers and stuff like that." He began, "After Amy died, she shut down and practically threw all her money away. I lost all my money on a bad investment and we decided to do this instead since the official race league didn't accept us back because they didn't want to accept a burnout as they so nicely put it."
Chikaru didn't know what to make off all this, "I… I can't believe this!"
He raised his hands, "Look I know how this sounds, just try to keep calm. I know its wrong of us but I need to tell you this just in case something happens." Chikaru was silent, "I know this is a lot to take in."
"Why didn't she tell me?"
"Why would you think?" He said, "If you were in her shoes, would you tell the woman you love what you do and risk losing her forever?"
Chikaru glanced down, "She wouldn't lose me."
"Are you really okay with that Chikaru?"
"No, I'm not. This is wrong, you two shouldn't even gotten yourselves into this mess!"
"I know but we had no choice at the time." He replied, "It was either this or starve."
"Does… does she like doing this?"
He shook his head, "No, she never once liked doing these kinds of races and neither do I. But if it makes you feel better, this is her last race and she's done for good."
She glanced up to him, "really?"
"Yeah, she told me she wants to start a normal life with you. Something I've never heard her say in such a long time and you know what? She's actually serious about it." He said with a smile.
Chikaru held her arms, "I should be mad, mad at her, mad at you and truth is… I actually am, but knowing that she wants to leave this behind for me, fills me with hope that she'll be free from all the pain she's held in her heart."
"She's been through a lot, she deserves you." He said, "Just don't look at her any different, she loves you."
"I don't. she'll always be the girl I love."
"Good to hear that."
The door then opened up seeing the blonde girl walk in with oil smudged on her forearms and hands, "Done, Your truck was missing a spark plug."
"Oh man, don't I feel stupid."
"didn't look hard enough I see." She laughed softly.
"No, I guess not. Well I mean I was a little drunk."
She chuckled, then looked at Chikaru who had a small smile across her face, "You okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just… I just, I love you so much." She hugged her.
"I love you too." Though she didn't know where this was coming from but she loved it. After Emi washed up, slipped on her jacket the two bid farewell to jim and drove back home, mostly to drop off Chikaru there and then go with Jim to check out the race.
They safely made it back home, she sat down on the sofa and let out a long exhale then turned on the television to at least have some noise in the home instead of it being dead silent. Chikaru took a seat next to her, though the blonde haired girl couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something on her mind just by her expression.
"Something wrong?"
-"Is… is this really your last race?"- she asked as Emi sat up straight.
"What?"
Chikaru took a breath, -"Please don't be angry, but Jim told me everything about you. About your underground races, because he said you wouldn't tell me and that I deserved to know."-
She stood up, her expression was filled with anger and it worried Chikaru because she didn't know if that anger was placed on her or Jim.
"Did he really tell you everything?" Her voice was filled with rage, but she could tell that she was trying to keep it under control.
-"Yes he did, do you really take part in illegal racing?"-
Emi was quiet for the longest time, her hands were clenched tightly, "Yeah."
-"Why didn't you tell me?"-
"And what would you have said, huh!? To not do it anymore, to give it up!?"
-"Of course I would, I would worry so much for you."-
"You don't understand Chikaru, I didn't have much of a choice."
-"I know, Jim told me about how you lost everything after Amy… that you and him had to do this."- Chikaru said as calmly as she could to not anger Emi any further.
"Did he also tell you that I raced because I wanted to die!"
-"What!?"- Chikaru stood up.
"That's the only reason I ever took part in those races, every time I drove I always hoped that another car would ram into me and kill me! Every damn single day I wanted that to happen!" Emi's voice began to grow higher, "That's why I drove! I just wanted to die! What was the point of going on when the one person I ever loved was gone!"
Chikaru took a few steps closer, -"I didn't know, I didn't know how bad it was for you…"- Her heart ached knowing that and Chikaru approached her slowly.
"But I couldn't, every time I always came out okay even though I wanted to die..." She looked at Chikaru the gazed away as tears rolled down her eyes, "I was afraid to die... I don't want too, i'm afraid."
-"Emi..."- she placed her hand on her shoulder.
"...There's just certain things I want to keep to myself."
Chikaru looked at her, -"Did you not trust me enough to tell me this?"-
Emi was quiet, which was enough to tell Chikaru the answer.
-"So you didn't."-
"It's just…" her voice seemed to be calming down, "It's just…"
Chikaru reached out and held her hand, -"It's just what?"- she asked gently.
"It's just… I didn't want to lose you, if I told you everything and you left me…" Tears began to fall from her eyes, "I don't want to lose you! since I met you, you're worth living for Chikaru..." she closed her eyes as more tears trailed down her cheeks.
Chikaru stood in front of her, both hands on her face whisking away the tears, -"You wouldn't lose me."- she said so lovingly, -"I would still be here for you."-
"Chikaru I—"
Chikaru immediately interrupted her by slowly pressing her lips on hers, kissing her ever so lovingly as tears continued to fall from the blonde haired girl's eyes.
Shortly they found themselves in the guest bedroom, still holding each other and kissing passionately and Chikaru laid down on the bed as she pulled Emi towards her, getting her on top of her. There kissing continued and Chikaru removed Emi's white jacket, then her black shirt leaving her in her bra and ran her hands all over her back. She then reached up and slowly unhooked her bra then took it off, Chikaru looked at Emi's bare body in front of her for the first time and continued to roam her hands all over her bare chest and back.
Chikaru then grabbed Emi's hands and placed them by her dress and gestured for her to remove it which she did, leaving Chikaru in her bra and underwear, as they continued to kiss tenderly.
She reached up and began to undo Emi's belt buckle then unbuttoned her jeans then slowly unzipped them, before long the two found themselves in the most loving moment of their lives and made love to each other for the rest of the morning.
The two laid in bed together after making love, both happy and content as they held each other. Chikaru slowly ran her hand up and down Emi's arm and just enjoying the warmth.
"I did mean it." she finally said after a long bit of silence.
-"Hmm?"-
"That this is my last race."
-"I believe you."- Chikaru smiled at her.
"You want to know why?" She felt Chikaru nod her head, "Because I want to make a life with you, I want to spend every moment of my life with you and I don't want to do this kind of thing anymore."
-"Emi."- she smiled as lifted her herself up and kissed her lovingly.
"Chikaru, after what happened to Amy I did what I did because I had nothing to lose so I didn't care what would happen to me anymore," she said as she held Chikaru's hand, "But now… I have so much to lose… and for the first time in my life I'm afraid."
-"You'll never have to be afraid Emi because now I'm here with you and you can always talk to me about anything, I'll always be here if you need a shoulder to lean on."-
Chikaru felt Emi squeeze her hand slightly, "Thank you."
Before they could get any more comfortable, Emi's cellphone began to ring which slightly annoyed the blonde haired girl but she sat up and answered.
"Yeah?" she spoke into the phone, "Jim hey, yea I'll be right over." She hung up.
-"Is everything okay?"-
"Sort of." She said, she took a breath and was going to the truth to her, "We're going to check out that place where we'll have my last race, see if there's anything suspicious and if there is we're leaving."
-"Suspicious?"-
"Yeah, First place of the race gets over four hundred gran," She heard Chikaru gasp, "I know, its a lot, which is why it seems shady to us."
-"If you two feel it, why go?"
"Because if its legit then we'll want the money but if these people are worse then the ones we usually race against then we leave," She explained, "Which is something I also wanted to ask you."
Chikaru sat up, -"Ask me what?"-
"After all this… I want to live in Japan, with you… if that's okay."
Chikaru smiled, -"Of course its okay."
"I want to leave all this behind me and start new." She said.
-"I would love to be with you back home, forever."-
The blonde haired girl smiled, now she finally had something to look forward to at the end of all this, to finally start a new life and with the girl she loves.
She then began to get dressed and get this over with, she wore her usual outfit and after bidding farewell to Chikaru she left the home in her car, leaving her alone in her home for the moment.
Chikaru wandered around Emi's home, looking at the various things she kept in there. She must have had a lot of photos and other decorations because they were all gone, most of the tables were empty and even the living room table had nothing. She then walked upstairs and towards Emi's real room and not the guest room where the two slept together. She stepped inside and the air was different, she couldn't quite describe it but inside the room everything felt different, like she was intruding in a place she felt she wasn't supposed to be in. Yet as much as she wanted to leave the room, her curiosity got the better of her as she began to look around. She opened a couple of drawers seeing nothing of interest or at least till she opened one of them. There was a small photo album in one of them and she retrieved, wiped the dust from it and opened it.
-"Goodness… she looked so different."- Chikaru looked at a picture of Emi, her hair was longer and she looked happier, -"I've never actually seen her smile like this."- she traced her finger on the picture, Emi was smiling ear to ear… it was like looking at a different person, -"I hope I can make her feel that way too."- She thought, but at the very least she could see that Emi was happy with her.
She flipped over the pages, seeing pictures of Emi with another girl, red hair, freckles on her face… this was Amy.
-"She's so pretty."- Chikaru continued to flip the pages, seeing more pictures of Emi and Amy together which made her sad to see that Amy was gone, murdered and in front of Emi no less… how could someone do that to her.
She put the photo album away and left the room as it was then headed back downstairs, and as she sat down on the couch she promised that she would always be there for Emi and help pick her life back up.
"Took ya long enough." Jim got in the car as the blonde haired girl began to drive.
"Sorry, I was a little busy."
"I bet." He smirked but Emi didn't even react something he took notice, "You okay?"
"No, I'm not."
"Yeah I can see that, you got this whole nervous look in your eye." He said, as he looked over to her.
"I am."
"That's unusual." It truly was as he never saw her like this.
"Let's just get this over with."
"Yeah."
They drove to the place, it was a building that had loud booming music and were lots of people in it that were partying and spending money on beer or drugs.
"This is the place?"
Jim looked at the address, "Yup."
She felt really uneasy being here, "Lets go." The two walked inside, seeing many dancers all over the place while men were getting drunk and laughing.
Emi followed behind Jim as they worked their way through the crowd and towards the back.
Jim approached one of the guards to the door, "Lookin for Dominic, is he in?"
"Who's asking?" He replied.
"Jim and my driver." He answered as he pushed into his ear piece radio and informed whoever was on the other end.
"Go right in, he's expecting you." He stepped aside allowing Jim and the blonde driver inside. They walked along the stairs and towards the second floor, the whole place illuminated by neon green lights mixed with blue and red lights.
They opened the door, seeing six men in the room, five sitting on separate chairs with dancers near them while the sixth one was behind his desk.
He looked up at them, "Well if it isn't Jimbo." He stood up and walked up to them, then shook his hand, "You don't know me but I know you and your driver, pretty good from what I hear." He said then looked at the girl, "So this is her? the famous kid." He shook her hand, something about him was making her feel uneasy.
She looked around, seeing their eyes on her all except for one that was being blocked by a dancer in front of him and the lights were making it impossible to see if she knew them or not from previous races.
"I see…"
Dominic then lit up a cigar, "I'll get straight to the point, I have three drivers who are going to race against your girl plus a whole other people i don't care about and the cash is four hundred gran but if you lose well… you'll owe me a bit of change." He laughed, "So come on sit down, we'll talk business. We have a lot to talk about."
The blonde girl was truly bothered, "Jim, let's go." She whispered into his ear
"What's the matter girl? You lose your nerve?" she heard one of them say, she turned around seeing someone that looked familiar but she couldn't quite remember him.
"Well it looks like a good offer but we'll have to decline Mr. Dominic, We don't race for that much amount."
"Oh come on Jimmy, its just a friendly race." No sir, it was anything but friendly not with that kind of money on the line.
"Thank you but we'll get going now."
"Suit yourself, but if you change your mind there's still time."
"Come on blondie, I've been looking forward to racing you."
She stopped, the way he said 'blondie' no… she could never forget that voice or the way he said it. She dare not turn around she thought, it had to be him it just had to be.
The two quickly walked out back to their car and got inside.
"Jim lets get the fuck out of here!"
"Yeah lets go!"
She put the car in drive and rode like hell.
"So you got the same vibe I did?" He asked.
"More then that!" she said as she kept driving as fast as she could, "Jim lets get the fuck out of America and go back to Japan!"
"What? Why? We can just hide out."
"NO! you don't understand Jim! We gotta go! We pack our stuff and get the fuck out!"
Jim couldn't help but see how much she was freaking out, she never once did that and it was really concerning, "What do you mean? Did you recognize them or something?"
"No, but the way he said 'blondie' I'll never forget it!" She said as they made it to Jim's place, "It has to have been them! No fucking doubts!"
Jim didn't need to hear anymore to understand what she meant by them, "You think so?"
"Yeah!"
"Then lets tell the police."
She slammed her hands on the steering wheel, "With what proof?!" she shouted, "There's no fucking point! I doubt they would even do anything!"
"Alright alright, lets pack out stuff and go." He got out of the car and ran back to his home, while Emi drove back home to get her things and get Chikaru out of there.
Jim entered his home and ran to his room, grabbed his suitcase and began to pack a few things along with some of his favorite possessions. He ran from room to room, getting everything he treasured along with his money that he had hidden away. Once everything was done, he grabbed his rather large suitcase and began to walk down the steps and towards the front door.
When he opened the front door, he was greeted by two men in front of his door, "Dominic?" He looked behind him seeing the rest of his men in the car.
"Hello Jim." They walked inside.
"Going somewhere?" He asked noticing the suitcases, "I hope you don't plan on leaving tonight." He said as he pulled out a gun.
"Nah, I was just going to take my stuff cleaned."
"Sure you were." The other one walked inside the room, dressed in an all black suit, "Seems to me like you and blondie were going to skip town and I cant' have that now, can we?"
"Well then again, we really don't need you do we huh Jimbo?" Dominic asked him as he raised his gun at him, "All we really need, is your driver. After all, there's a lot of money riding on this and I'm going to collect every penny."
She pulled up to her home and ran inside, closing the door behind her, "Chikaru! Chikaru!"
She quickly came from the other room, -"Emi!? What's wrong!?"- she ran to her.
"Pack your things, lets go! We're leaving!"
-"Leaving? What do you—"-
"We have to go now!"
Chikaru didn't understand what was going on, something must have happened but she didn't argue as she began to pack all her things as did Emi.
They packed as quickly as they could, the two rushed to the door and as she opened it, she was met with the end of a gun pointing at her face.
She froze, Chikaru gasped as the two stared at the man with the gun, "Was I interrupting something?"
The two took a few steps back as Emi moved Chikaru behind her to protect her.
They all walked inside her home, all six men and circled around her as the man in the black suit kept his gun aimed at her.
"Hello there missy." Dominic spoke, "Hope we didn't catch you at a bad time." There was nothing but anger in her eyes.
"We would've called blondie but we don't know your number."
Those words, Emi turned to look at the man in the black suit and she was stunned… it was him she was sure of it, he shaved his beard and his head but she'd recognize that son of a bitch anywhere! He was the one that shot Amy and then shot her in the knee those years ago. It was the same face of the man that had offered her that same check to throw the race in the past.
"I'm surprised you can walk." He said again seeing an expression of pure rage on the blonde girl's face , "I see you remember me then." He smiled, "I'm flattered."
She wanted nothing more than to jump him and kill him but she knew she couldn't, she had five more guns aimed at her, "What the fuck do you want?" she demanded.
"Straight to the point, I like that," Dominic said, "Well look here missy, Richter here has been telling me all about you and what an amazing driver you are. Telling me that if you were to race you would surely win and we can't have that can we?" He said in the most calm voice, why wouldn't he be calm knowing that Emi cant do anything to him.
"I see you got yourself a new girlfriend, quite the cutie." Richter said as he looked at the both of them.
"You stay the fuck away from her!"
Richter however didn't like that response, not one bit as he moved in and hit Emi across the face with the butt of his pistol.
The pain surged through her face, but she glared daggers at him immediately as blood trailed down her lip. She spit the blood from her lip at his shoe, something he didn't take too kindly too and was going to move in to hit her again till Dominic intervened.
"Now now Richter," He took the gun from him, "We don't want to hurt our most prized driver do we?"
"Like hell I'd work for you!" She spat back.
Dominic only laughed, "I'd reconsider those words."
One man grabbed Chikaru and pulled her away from Emi as she screamed in terror.
"Chikaru!"
The man next to him however stepped in front of him with his gun raised at her.
"Now then, since I have your attention now."
"You let her go right now!" She turned back to him.
"Now now blondie, if you want nothing to happen to her then you'll listen to what our boss wants to say."
Emi clenched her fists tightly, enraged at them and everything they were doing.
"There's a few things I want you to do for me, do them for me then you and your girl can walk, free to do whatever you want. But if you don't then you'll end up with another dead girlfriend."
She stayed quiet as she waited for them to continue.
"Okay then, seeing as how I have your full attention here's what I want you to do. First you're going to assist a few of my men commit a robbery at a well known and well funded bank, they'll do the dirty work don't worry." He laughed, "You're their getaway driver, and you'd best make sure no one gets caught." He began, "Next, you WILL join the race only instead of winning, I want you to lose, I need people to see you beaten to look convincing because once everyone knows your there, they are all gonna bet on you so once you lose, alot and i mean ALOT of money for me. After then you'll give me all of your money and you two can walk, free to start your lives all over again." He extended his hand to the blonde haired girl, "Do we have a deal?" Not like she had much choice.
She shook his hand.
"Oh," Richter began, "And don't even think about skipping town or leaving the country, because if you do we'll find you. There's no place you can hide now you remember that. besides I have some of my boys watching the place." He shoved her aside as he stepped back outside, as did the rest of his men and even the other man released Chikaru and left.
"Pleasure doing business with you." Dominic said as he closed the door and heard them all leave on their car, leaving the blonde haired girl with boiling rage while Chikaru sat on the floor, horrified at what had just happened to the two of them.
End Chapter 6