16
The cigar smoke curled languidly near the ceiling the crowded restaurant. Random, well-dressed people were sitting in booths, by the bar, or just standing off to the side in clumps. I was in the furthest booth from the door with my back towards the entrance. To make my situation even more uncomfortable, I was crammed between Kamata and his advisor.
I had been sitting there listening to them ramble in Japanese over the best route to get everything from point A to point B through the crowded city streets. I had been fighting to keep the sighs of frustration. There was no point in me being there; Kamata was just trying to keep me away from the races tonight.
"Do you agree, Ms. Gonzalez?" Kamata's gravelly voice switched to English. It had an edge that made my stomach drop a little. He still set me on edge and had an intimidating persona, but I had gotten over my outright fear of him.
"Yes." I said quickly. I glanced at the map to see what we were actually talking about. The tiny Japanese scribble on the maze of streets wasn't exactly enlightening.
There was a long pause before he decided that was a satisfactory answer and continued in Japanese. I really didn't want to be there. I wanted to be at the races watching Sean. It was his first race and it was against Morimoto. After the work he had put into learning how to drift, I knew he would win, but Morimoto wasn't exactly trustworthy. I was afraid of him wrecking Sean or something.
"Are you listening at all?" Kamata finally snapped. Of, course not.
"I'm trying to keep up with the Japanese. I'm still not perfectly fluent." I said flatly in an attempt to be polite. I had a nasty habit of sounding sarcastic when I was being serious. That wouldn't go over well right about now.
"Perhaps you should stay with Takashi. You would pick it up a lot faster than with his American partner." His tone changed. It sounded like a command and a warning rolled into one.
"Probably." I answered back. That apparently wasn't what he was looking for. "DK and I haven't been on the same schedule lately, though." I threw in a lame attempt to explain why.
He ran his fingers over the map and motioned for his second in command to continue what he was saying about the drug trade. I could feel his mind working. I had a sinking feeling that my time being free to be around Han was about to be cut short very quickly.
I was so scared I almost started shaking. I was either about to be forced back into DK's crew or he was about to turn me over to one of his sex clubs like he had been threatening for months. I wasn't any good to him as a drug mule if I was with distracted and out of his control. He wasn't going to stand for me getting too independent.
"You are familiar with working on stolen cars, correct?" He asked when the conversation hit a lull. His statement was perfectly smooth, but I spotted the undertone to it immediately. Things were going to get bad fast.
"Yes." I answered slowly.
"I asked Takeshi to make an import look official, but I think it would be easier if you took a look at it." His words were completely smooth.
"I can do that." I said falteringly.
"Good. Start this weekend." He said with finality.
Z
The tone of Kamata's words was still ringing in my head as I stepped out of my Z into the freezing cold night air outside Han's club. I wrapped my arms around myself and wished I had chosen a warmer dress. I was wearing one I borrowed from Neela, which meant it was a lot tinier than I wanted.
As I walked through the door to the overflowing VIP room I knew immediately Sean had won his race. I felt the corners of my lips tug up with pride. There were way too many people for me to see Sean, but I knew he would be in the garage anyway.
"Our boy got some skills." Twinkie said quietly. I hadn't heard him come up and almost jumped.
"Don't tell me. I want to let him do it." I said with a smile.
"He's out back." He gave me a quick hug and went back to trying to pick up drunk models.
I found Sean right where he always was: under the hood of his Evo. I felt my smile grow bigger when I saw the excitement on his face as he busily worked. I was glad he was finally happy.
"Can't take a break, can you?" I asked. His smile got even bigger when he saw me. He grabbed me by the waist and spun me around cackling like we were little.
"I won, Elle! Can you believe it?"
"Yes, I believe it; now put me down! You're not twelve, Sean." I shrieked at him. I smacked him on the head when he set me down before breaking down and giggling with him.
"I was so far ahead when I went up that ramp-" He excitedly babbled out every detail of the practice that afternoon, the changes to the car, the race. I stood and listened with a smile. When he was almost done I saw Han start to walk our way. He gave me a quick peck on the lips and listened to the rest of Sean's story. We kept sharing smirks when he'd look away at his obvious excitement; he was like a little kid at Christmas.
"Sean, sorry but I'm going to steal her for a second." Han cut in after he started to repeat himself. He deflated a little but agreed.
"Congratulations, Sean." I hugged him before walking up the stairs with Han.
"Glad to see things have changed since Mona." Han joked.
"It was his first big race." I defended. Han shook his head. "I wish I was there."
"Kyoto? Osaka?" Han asked.
"Kamata's right elbow." The worry I was trying to force down came out in my voice. Han gave me a concerned look. "He made me sit between him and his advisor all night while they argued in Japanese over a map. And I think he's about to get rid of me."
Han shooed a few people off the couch. He sat down and leaned against the back of the couch. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I was so cold I usually would have moved closer to him, but I was so freaked out after Kamata's meeting I just sat there.
"What is it with you and possessiveness in public lately?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood. I leaned my head all the way back so I could look at him.
"You're wearing another one of Neela's dresses." He let me change the subject, but I knew it was coming back up later. I rolled my eyes. "I can't have guys all over you in my garage distracting my driver. They seem to have a problem with respecting what's mine lately." His dark eyes locked on mine and a blushed creeped up on my face. This was a perfect moment for a kiss, but it happened to be the moment a few of the models popped up.
"Han, I'm so glad I finally found you. I leave for Milan tomorrow, and was afraid I wasn't going to see you." A brunette with an Italian accent and fake lips sat down on his left and tried to lay all over him like they used to before the rumors about us started. A dirty blonde Ukrainian girl with sharp facial features I remembered from his birthday party sat beside me. She was fairly soft spoken and just shot me a smile and rolled her eyes at her Italian friend.
"Did you have fun in London?" I asked my Ukrainian friend. Han didn't respond to the Italian and she got annoyed, She wormed her way up against and tried to put her hand on his thigh.
"It was wonderful! I think you'd love it, Eliana." the Ukrainian replied with a slight accent.
"I've always wanted to go. I used to follow a few of the football teams there. I would love to go to a game." I shifted to where I was sitting upright again and not under Han's arm. Han wasn't happy with the loss of contact and pulled me into his lap. I glared up at him and he just shrugged.
"I didn't have time to do anything like that. I did ride around on a double decker bus to see some of the scenery." She answered.
"That would be a lot of fun. Where are you headed now, Ceme- you're going to have to help me pronounce your name." I said. Han chuckled slightly.
"Cemehoba." She corrected gently.
"One day, I'm going to get that right."
"And I'm Cristina." The Italian broke into the conversation abruptly.
"Good for you." I remarked. Han chuckled quietly.
"But you already knew that didn't you, Han?" She purred at him, completely ignoring my jab.
"I'm actually heading back home for a week. I'm so happy to go back and see my family." Cemehoba attempted to diffuse the tension by answering my question.
"When did you two meet?" Han asked.
"Your birthday party." I answered. I glanced up at him and saw the Italian getting angry on his other side.
"I was, of course, there too." Cristina spat. "You remember right, Han?"
"I don't remember you." He finally said. His eyebrows were starting to scrunch together; a sign he was getting angry. He rarely ever did get annoyed over anything, but if he did something really rubbed him the wrong way. It was obvious this girl had slept with him in the past and didn't realize it wasn't going to happen again tonight. After a tense moment of silence I finally thought of a way out. I grabbed at his watch for the time. I noted with satisfaction it was the one I gave him.
"It's already three-thirty! There went my drifting plans tonight." I almost sighed. I had meant to use the excuse of dancing with Twink before he went to bed for school and then slipping off for a drive to get rid of some stress. Twinkie was probably already snoring away despite the people and noise.
"Were we going to go tonight? There's still time if we leave now." Han knocked the Italian off of him with a shrug of his shoulder. I stood up so he could get off the couch. I said bye to Cemehoba and Han acknowledged her with a nod. Cristina was completely ignored.
He wrapped a long arm around my shoulders and pulled me toward the exit, ignoring all of the people that tried to stop to talk. I happened to turn and catch a glance of Shi in the corner of the garage with a champagne glass. He toasted me when I made eye contact and I felt like I had just sealed my own fate.
By the time we were walking through the empty night club section of the garage, I was nauseated and felt like I was about to faint.
"What is going on?" Han asked bluntly. He pulled a chair off of a table top where it had been put up for the night and sat me in it.
"He's going to kill me." I blurted. I could feel the blood draining out of my face. "I have to get out now. I can tell things are changing."
Han sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Are you sure?"
"Something's wrong. And Shi's here. Something's not right about him being here."
"He's Yakuza." Han stated.
"Yeah." I put my head in my hands as I thought about what I needed to do. "Go back inside and go to bed."
He looked at me like I had lost my mind.
"If he thinks you're helping me, he'll kill me sooner." Han opened him mouth to talk, but I cut him off. "They've done if before. A lot of times before."
I'd seen more with the Yakuza then I'd ever tell Han. The worst thing I had ever done with them was get rid of a body. A stripper was talking to either a journalist or a police investigator and Kamata had her beaten to death. I was still trying to get her blood out of my trunk.
"Pick me up by the overpass." He finally said before he gave me a peck on the lips. He disappeared back through the doors towards the full VIP room. I sat in the dark for about 10 minutes before I put my chair up and went to my car. I managed to time it just right and got to our meeting spot down the back road from Han's garage right as he got there.
By the time four rolled around we were shooting up the side of the mountain. We didn't speak until we got to the very top of the mountain. Han told me to turn down a narrow road I had never noticed before. It was covered on either side by a thick, old forest. It ended at a very old house that had long since fallen in.
"What exactly has been happening with Kamata?" He finally broke the silence as I turned the car off.
"Um, he made me pick up the weeks take from all of his businesses." I shuddered thinking about some." When I delivered the money, he spent hours arguing with his number two about the best way to get drugs to this distributor and money to that guy through town. At the very end after I made a comment about keeping up with the Japanese and he suggested I stay with D more. Then when I didn't outright agree, he told me to work on a car at D's garage this weekend."
I wasn't sure I could describe why I thought Kamata was planning to off me, so I didn't even bother trying. Han was smart enough to know the Yakuza was no joke and he knew a lot more of my situation than anyone else did.
"Has he done that to you before?" I glanced at Han's serious expression. The light was low except for a little bit of moonlight, but even if it had been daylight his expression would have still been completely unreadable. The hesitation in his words bothered me the same way Kamata's attempts to get me in D's garage did.
"Before the run I started crying over, when you took me up this mountain, he wouldn't let me talk to anyone outside of D, Morimoto, and Neela. The apartment building I live in, belonged to a dead Yakuza. Kamata took it over when he died. He has ways of keeping tabs on me. I don't understand why; I'm not that important"
"I've heard of your dad." He glanced at me for the first time since he started talking. "He had quite a reputation. He was involved in some things you probably don't need to find out about. His crew is not the people you mess with. If they heard from you they could probably throw a wrench in his little operation. The other side of that coin is that you had been trained by these people. You're young, but you're very talented and smart. He can start using you for bigger and bigger things."
I put my head in my hand for a minute and let everything sink in. Dad's crew might have been causing problems in their glory days, but they got in too deep with someone and it had devastating effects to most of them and the families they set up in their retirement. That started their whole no mafia rule. The few emails I had sneakily sent had not exactly sent them running.
Then there was the issue of Shi. He couldn't be part of the team anymore. I knew he wasn't on my side. I wondered if he had told Kamata about my attempts to contact the family. Or if he had told them they were going to do nothing and that I was not a threat. He was so slimy. He was always a liar and a creep. If I remembered right, he went to jail for manslaughter after hacking some person's email, sending an email to someone he hated asking them to meet, and shooting them in the back of the head while they waited for whoever's email address he hacked to show. It was downright cruel.
"Han, do you have your phone?" I asked urgently. I pulled my head out of my hands and felt my breathing pick up. He was giving me concerned look as reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out his small black cell phone. It wasn't his usual phone and I had a feeling he had been expecting me to ask for it.
"How opposed are you to international calls?" I asked as I fiddled with the buttons.
"Just call, kid. That phone's just for international calls."
I punched the familiar number into the phone. I waited impatiently as it started ringing. I felt a cold sweat start breaking out.
"Whoever this is, it better be good." An ornery voice barked over the line. Typical Miles.
"Miles? It's Ellie." There was a pause on the other end. My breath caught in my throat.
"Ellie?" His hoarse whisper was barely hearable. "Oh my God. Where are you? Are you hurt? I can be on a plane in two hours; just tell me where you are." I felt my eyes fill with tears and start to overflow. I could hear him throwing blankets off and opening drawers to pull on clothes.
"You didn't get the email telling you where I am?" I asked in disbelief.
"No! We thought you were dead! There was blood and everything in the shop was broken and scattered all over the garage. We didn't know anything besides that."
"I need help, but you can't come here. Shi's working with the people that have me. I don't think he told them that I tried to contact you, but things are different now. If he knows I talked to you or sees you here, he'll get me killed."
"We'll figure it out. Just stay safe." He hung up immediately. I snorted as I looked at the phone.
"Doesn't he know I'm smart enough not to call him on my own phone where they can track it?"
"What's going on, Ellie?" Han's look of concern was very obvious now. I must be really bothering him if he let that show.
"I sent a few emails to Dad's old crewmembers. I got a response from everyone telling me to deal with it and they'd help me when I got out of Japan. The only one I actually called was Sean."
"So someone hacked their account."
"Shi's a decent computer hacker and he's obviously not on my side. What exactly is hedoing with the Yakuza?" I asked bluntly.
"I don't know exactly." His eyebrows scrunched; whether it was from thought, concern, or anger I couldn't tell.
"He was running a chop shop for the Triads with cars he stole. He figured out what a good liar he was and took them for all they were worth. He's playing us just like he played them. What the fuck could be in this for him?" The tears flowed freely now. I was panicking so bad I didn't even care that Han was watching.
"You're never going to find out." He said firmly. "I don't give a damn what Kamata does, I'm putting you on a plane out of here as soon as I can."