Owned by the Yakuza: A Japanese Mafia Bad Boy Romance

by London, Ariel

  “I know you’re in here somewhere,” He sang. “Come out and play.”

  There were sounds of footsteps as some of the men circled the floor, going into the kitchen and checking every room. Someone else rounded up all the girls and had them in the lobby. I could hear someone crying.

  “Shut those girls up! We need to search every room and find her!” The leader shouted. The floor shook as he stomped off.

  “Hurry, man, if the Himuras get here, we’re gonna be fucked.” Someone else whined.

  You’d better be scared, I thought. Tadao was already on his way. He’d be here any minute. I wished that I had my purse with me so I could have texted him and warned him about their weapons. I breathed in deeply, ignoring the stench of sticky old liquor. He would be fine. I just had to stay put.

  I felt around again looking for a trapdoor. It had to be here somewhere.

  Footsteps approached again as the team of men converged at the bar. I held my breath.

  “She’s not upstairs.”

  “Did you check all the offices?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “The kitchen is empty. We have posted guards at every exit. She won’t get out.”

  The leader growled and slammed his fist down on the counter. The hollowness echoed in my ears.

  “Where’s Sora?”

  There was a pause and then a murmur rose up from the room. I heard stiletto heels clicking on the tile floor. “I told you not to say my name,” Sora hissed.

  Sora? She was in on this. Even with the surging adrenaline in my body, I wasn’t surprised. That bitch. I knew she hated me, but to send some yakuza hitmen after me? This was insane. Who were these guys anyways?

  “Shut up,” The man said. “This is between McMillian and the Shimazu-kai. Don’t make me mad, or you’ll be joining her.”

  Shimazu-kai? I sucked in a gasp. That was the gang that Tadao’s group was fighting with. The gang that had been taking my picture here. What the hell would they want with me?

  Sora mutter something, too quiet for me to catch.

  I continued to grope around. My hands brushed a cold metal handle. Jackpot! I pulled gently, but the door didn’t give. I pulled a little harder.

  The leader let out a growl and slammed his fist down on the bar. The sound echoed inside the metal hideaway. “What was that?” He asked.

  Shit. I grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled with all my might. The metal was rusted and stiff, but it gave way with a resounding bang. The trapdoor opened to reveal a black gaping hole, just big enough for a full grown man to pass through. It smelled like mildew and dirt. I gagged.

  Suddenly, the cabinet door swung open.

  I froze, coming face to face with the man who was leading the attack.

  A typical yakuza gangster, dressed in a black suit, his hair cut short and wielding a gun like a maniac. He grinned. “There you are.”

  I screamed and scrambled for the passageway.

  The man grabbed my ankle, ripping me out of the cabinet. The zipper on my dress snagged the edge and popped off with a high-pitched ping. Black and silver sequins were torn off in lines.

  The man threw me down onto the ground, standing over me with a gleeful shine in his eyes. “Now the fun can begin.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Tadao

  忠夫

  “Just follow my lead,” Tatsuya said. He was standing with his back pressed to the door. It was a heavy metal door, and we would have no warning if there were more guards set up inside the kitchen or the store room.

  The plan was simple. Let Tatsuya do the shooting and I would find Oriana. Our best shatei had arrived and they were planning an attack on the front to save all the other hostesses that were holed up in the club. I could only pray that none had been killed so far.

  Tatsuya pushed his shoulder against the metal door and peeked in. “Clear, so far,” He whispered.

  I nodded.

  Tatsuya slipped through the door, his gun pointed straight ahead of him. I followed.

  The kitchen was empty and eerily quiet. There were pots and pans all over the floor and the industrial refrigerator door was wide open, spilling cold air into the room. I shut off a range as I walked, and pushed the pot of boiling soup off to the side. We didn’t need a fire on top of everything else. There was blood smeared across the tiled floor. The kitchen staff had put up quite a fight.

  Tatsuya glanced at me over his shoulder, nodding to the pantry.

  I threw open the door. I found nothing but more upended tools and ripped open packages of food. Whoever was in here was looking for something. Or someone. Oriana. I swallowed hard.

  We ducked down at the swinging doors that led out to the bar area. There was a man posted on the other side of the doors. Our guns would be too loud to use, it would give away our position. I motioned to Tatsuya.

  “You distract him,” I whispered. “And I’ll hit him over the head.” I grabbed a cast iron pan from the floor.

  Tatsuya smirked. “Fun! I like it.” He moved to the opposite side of the kitchen and chucked a pan across the room. It collided with a rack of dinnerware, sending hundreds of pounds of porcelain and glass crashing to the floor.

  I winced. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it worked.

  The guard burst through the doors, seeing the colossal mess. He took a few wary steps forward with his gun pointed in front of him.

  I slipped out from under the counter, sneaking up behind him and bringing the pan down on the back of his head.

  The man let out a groan and tumbled to the floor.

  “Good going,” Tatsuya laughed. “You know, if it were me, I would have slit his throat.” He helped me drag the man into the pantry and lock the door.

  I waved the pan in my hand before setting it down. “This is just as effective. Besides, a giant puddle of blood might look suspicious, right?”

  Tatsuya grinned. “I guess.” He patted my back. “Ok, step two: get into the lobby.” He quietly opened the swinging door and we slipped out, hiding behind the bar.

  The bar was riddled with bullet holes. Shattered glass and dripping liquor covered the floor. My eyes traveled from the puddles of sake and paused where the alcohol mixed with blood. The bartender, Hide, was lying on his back with his dead eyes staring upward.

  “Shit,” Tatsuya breathed. He looked away.

  These bastards were going to pay. Whenever I got my hands on who was responsible for this, they were going to get a lot more than a blunt object to the head. My hand tightened around my Glock.

  Tatsuya blew out a breath. “There're eight guys in the lobby,” He said. “All the staff is rounded up there.” He took another quick glance over the bar. “And the manager’s been shot, too.”

  I paused to think. I stared at the open cabinet in front of me. There was old sticky wine spilled inside and a damp basement-like smell coming from inside. I peered inside. In the darkness, I could make out the gaping hole of a trapdoor. One of the escape routes that had been planned when the building was made.

  My father had purchased the club from an old-time yakuza boss, who had built it in the seventies. Every single detail had been thought of. I leaned in, staring down into the hole, but it was too dark to see anything. Based on the smell, I guessed it led to the basement.

  My hand brushed something. I picked up a tiny circle of plastic that glittered in the flickering light above the bar. It was a sequin. There were a bunch of them stuck in the sticky wine mess that covered the bottom of the cabinet. I knew that glittering silver disc belonged to a dress. I had spent enough time with these women to know a thing or two about eveningwear. Oriana. She must have been hiding in this cabinet. I clutched the sequin in my hand.

  “Tatsuya,” I whispered.

  “What, got a plan?” He whispered back.

  I nodded. “You stay here and wait for the shatei to break into the front. Stop anyone who tries to escape through the back.” I eyed the assault weapon in his hands. “I’m sure you know w
hat to do.”

  Tatsuya grinned. “Sir, yes sir!” His expression sobered. “Wait, what about you?”

  I looked at the gun in my hand. “I’m going to kill the bastard that took Oriana.”

  #

  The basement wasn’t used anymore. There was nothing down here except empty shelves and musty storage boxes. I paused at the foot of the stairs, listening for any sound of life. The trapdoor let out here in the basement, but it didn’t seem like there was anyone around.

  I clicked on the light, holding my gun straight ahead and surveying the tiny basement. There were boxes and a few empty kegs in the corner. Aside from that, it was bare. I lowered the gun a fraction.

  “Shit,” I breathed. If Oriana hadn’t escaped through the trapdoor, that meant she had been captured. I looked up. There was only one place she could be.

  I ran up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Sounds of gunfire could be heard coming from the lobby, but I didn’t take a moment to check on them. I continued up the stairs to the second floor. I stopped inside the stairwell, leaning against the wall to catch my breath.

  Someone coughed in their sleeve.

  I smirked. Great, so there was a guard at the office door. Now I knew exactly which room to search. Thanks for saving me time, nameless goon, I thought. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, flipped on the front-facing camera and angled it down the hall. I got a clean shot of the large, bald man who was standing guard.

  Perfect. I pocketed my iPhone and took a deep breath. This guy needed to be taken care of silently, as to not raise any alarms. However, he did not deserve the honour of being my first kill, so I would have to think of something else.

  I grinned. My brains were such a blessing in situations like this. Especially when the average foot soldier had below average intelligence. I twisted the silencer on my Glock and took aim at a mirror down the hall. I shot one round and the floor length mirror shattered.

  “What the fuck?” The goon muttered. I could practically hear the rusty gears in his head turning. With heavy feet, he stomped down the hall. I pulled myself tight against the wall inside the stairwell, waiting for him to pass me.

  Then, I stepped out, firing the gun twice, hitting him in the back of each leg.

  The man cried out, stumbling and falling to the ground. He clutched his wounds, whimpering like a baby. I walked up, standing over him. “Is there a hostage in here?” I asked.

  The man stared up at the barrel of my gun. He nodded, muttering something through his gritted teeth. A sweat had broken out over his skin.

  “Good man,” I hauled him over to the stairwell and shut the door. He wouldn’t be bothering us now.

  I had to get Oriana out fast. We were running out of time. The sounds of gunfire from downstairs had ceased. That meant that we had either won, or the Shimazu-kai had.

  I wasn’t about to lose her. Oriana was the first woman I had ever met that made me feel alive. Fate had brought us together through tragedy and I was not going to let her down now.

  I grabbed the office door handle. It was locked. Fixing that would be easy enough. I reached into my back pocket and found the right key for the lock.

  I breathed in. Alright. This was it. I was going to save her from whoever dared to threaten her life. After tonight I wouldn’t be the meek finance guy anymore. I was part of the Himura-gumi and tonight I would prove my worth.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Oriana

  オリアナ

  The office was a place that I related only with carnal pleasures and Tadao. Now I was a prisoner here. I had been tied to the office chair, my wrists secured to the armrests with black rope. I was running out of offensive words to fire at the man who had captured me.

  “Oh, please shut up. Unless you want to die quicker.” He jeered.

  I growled and kicked off one of my shoes in his direction. It missed.

  “As fiery as your hair I see,” He chuckled.

  The man who was standing guard at the door also laughed.

  “Don’t worry, we can take care of that soon enough.” The man said. He waved his hand at the large man standing by the door. “Go keep watch!”

  Once we were alone, my captor leaned forward. “First, introductions.” He laughed. He was so close that I could make out the thin white rings of the contact lenses in his eyes. His chin was covered in stubble.

  “Who are you?” I asked through gritted teeth.

  “You may call me Ugaki-san. Or sama if you prefer.” The man grinned.

  “Fuck you!” I spat.

  Ugaki chuckled. There was a brief pause and then he struck me across the face.

  I reeled, seeing stars, and my head was pushed against the back of the chair.

  Somewhere on the ground floor gunfire was going off. I heard muffled shouting and screaming through the walls.

  Ugaki held my forehead, speaking very slowly and softly. “Don’t test me, fire girl.” He released me and took a step back. “Do you know why I’m here?”

  “Should I?”

  “I work for the Shimazu-kai,” He paused with a wicked smile, studying me. “And based on the reaction that you just tried to hide, you know who we are. So then, do you know why I’m here?”

  “Of course not!” I shouted. The Shimazu-kai were the Himura-gumi’s rivals. Had I gotten caught up in the middle of a feud, just for sleeping with Tadao?

  Ugaki continued. He drawled on and on like a Bond villain revealing his plot. How unoriginal. “I guess your father was better at covering his tracks than we thought then. He’s owed us money for years, you see. Fifty million yen, including interest.”

  I sucked in a breath. Strange to think that only a week ago I was complaining about a million yen. “Well, sorry to tell you, but he died last month.”

  “I know that,” Ugaki snickered. “Because I was the one who killed him.”

  The man’s confession hit me like a tonne of bricks. The air was pushed out of my lungs. My skin prickled with dread, my heart stopping mid-beat. “What?” I gasped. My eyes were burning, threatening to spill over with hot tears.

  “Chased them right off the road,” He snickered. “No one would think twice, two people losing control on a rainy night and shooting off the side of a cliff.”

  I felt frozen. My parents had been murdered. Over a debt. The yakuza had killed them, just because my father owed them money. Were their lives that worthless? A fifty-million-yen price tag on their souls. I gritted my teeth. I could not cry in front of this monster.

  “Made it look like an accident, of course, that is my specialty.” Ugaki went on. He leaned in close, running a finger along my cheek. “Just like I’ll do with you.”

  I winced, the pressure from his finger was making my cheek ache where he had slapped me.

  “I think I’ll make it look like a suicide. Those are always fun.” He patted his side where his gun was strapped. “But first,” His hand moved down to my thigh. “I think we should have a little fun.”

  “Touch her again, and I’ll blow your brains out.”

  Ugaki jerked away from my face.

  “Tadao!” I cried. My heart burst with emotion when I saw him standing there in the doorway. My tears flowed freely.

  “Ah, I see the Himuras are already here.” Ugaki frowned and stood straight. He shook his head and let out a loud, disappointed sigh. “Sorry Kitten, I guess we won’t have time to play after all.” In a flash, he pulled his revolver from its holster and pointed it at my forehead. “Say goodnight.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Tadao

  忠夫

  I wasn’t sure if it was the bruise blossoming on her cheek or the sight of his hand on her thigh, but I knew that I would be the one to kill that man.

  “Touch her again, and I’ll blow your brains out.” I held the Glock up, aiming it at him.

  The man pushed away from Oriana. I knew his face from somewhere before. His name was Ugaki and he was one of the Shimazu-kai’s most notorious hitmen. He was thin, sh
ifty, and as slick as an eel.

  “Tadao!” Oriana cried.

  Oriana looked exhausted and miserable. Her skin was pale and shiny with sweat. Her hair had fallen down from the updo and her dress was dirty and ripped. Whatever he had put her through, he was going to pay.

  “Ah, I see the Himuras are already here.” Ugaki frowned and stood straight. He shook his head and let out a loud, disappointed sigh. “Sorry Kitten, I guess we won’t have time to play after all.” In a flash, he pulled his revolver from its holster and pointed it at Oriana’s forehead. “Say goodnight.”

  I squeezed off a round, striking him in the shoulder.

  Ugaki shouted and dropped his gun, clutching the wound. He whirled around at me. “Not a smart move, boy. Do you know who I am?”

  “Yes,” I said as I took a step towards him. “You’re Ugaki, the Shimazu-kai’s best hitman. And let me tell you, if that’s the best they have to offer, I’m not impressed.”

  “You little jerk,” Ugaki spat. He pulled a knife from his sleeve.

  I kept the Glock trained on him. “I wasn’t finished,” I kept my voice calm and even. I wouldn’t let his petty insults get under my skin. There was nothing he could do now that would make me madder. He had already threatened the woman that I loved. There was nothing worse. “You’re the Shimazu-kai’s best hitman,” I repeated. “You’re the man who led this attack on innocent women working in my club. You killed our bartender. You killed our manager. You ransacked every room looking for Oriana. You brought her up here, threatening her life in front of me.” I took a deep breath. “I know who you are, Ugaki. You are the first man I killed.”

  I didn’t let him respond. I shot three rounds from the Glock hitting him in the chest, throat and head.

  Ugaki didn’t make a sound, dead before his body crumpled into the carpet.

  I stepped over his body, throwing the gun down to the desk and untying Oriana.

  Oriana was crying uncontrollably. I wrapped my arms around her and held her tight to me. I breathed in her scent, kissing her lips and wiping the wet streams of tears from her cheeks. “It’s ok,” I whispered.