“Not long,” Suro answered, his own eyes proving him a true Nakamura. They gave away nothing.
Kazuo regarded his oldest son with an equally unreadable expression. “Perhaps you will tell me the story while Ruby-chan drinks her tea.”
In silent horror, No watched their father pour a cup of tea for Ruby in the Japanese way. Always serve your drinking partner first, before allowing them to pour your tea in return.
However, when Ruby hesitantly went to pour his tea, he raised a hand to stop her. “That is quite all right, my dear. This particular tea is not to my liking. Now where was I…?”
Pretending not to see the way two of the three men in front of the table refused to move their eyes from the cup of tea Kazuo had just poured for the girl, he said, “Oh yes, my son’s weakness. Did Norio mention to you that he and his brother, Hayato, were planning a coup? Attempting to take my company from me? They did not? I suppose they thought it too much information for a girl of your age and background. Well, this was their plan, and now they are here in the hopes I will not kill you in retaliation for their disloyalty.”
Kazuo, glanced at the tea, as if giving great thought to the situation they now all found themselves in. “This move really does proves how weak they are, does it not? You see, if I were they, I would not have bothered to come here on your behalf. If I were Norio, I wouldn’t have stopped until the company was mine. I wouldn’t have cared who died, especially if that person was of no blood relation to me. But alas, Norio and Hayato do not have my strength. Drink your tea, Ruby-chan.”
“Do not drink that tea, Ruby!” No said, starting forward. Only to stop when his father suddenly pulled out a tanto, a Japanese short blade knife, that a man with Kazuo’s skill set could quickly and easily use to stab or slit the throat of the girl sitting across from him.
No immediately froze in his tracks, and his father quietly chuckled as he said, “You see, Ruby, he is weak. If he’d ignored my meeting request, he’d be at the emergency board meeting he arranged. Taking my spot as the director of the company. But he does not deserve such a title, and that is why he will never get it. Ever.”
“If it is the company you want, it is yours. Leave her out of this,” No gritted through his teeth.
His father actually seemed to think about the offer before coming back with, “I do not think I will accept your offer. You have rather inconvenienced me, and I find myself preferring to teach you a lesson. You see, Nakamuras are strong. As my father used to say, if you so much as chip my face, I will shatter yours.”
“This was not about you,” No said. “It was never about you. If you had simply left me alone. Let me live the life I wanted with the woman I chose.”
This statement, of all things, was the one that made his father finally lose his cool. Made him come to his feet with his fists clenched in rage.
“Nakamuras do not get what they want. Ask this one about that.” He indicated Suro with a swipe of his blade. “I, like you, attempted to marry for love. I was so struck by Tetsuro’s mother that I showed her my tattoo within our first week of knowing each other. I, like you, thought I could have what I wanted. And for a while I did. But then my brother died. And it was charged to me to run my family’s company. I did not wish this life for myself, but I did my best. And then my father found me a wife who would be more suitable. Not the mother of my only hafu son, but a good Japanese woman. Nearly half my age. I refused. Of course, I refused. That was when I thought I still had a choice. When I still thought I could get what I wanted. But then my father explained how it was for the sons of Nakamuras. He explained this with the death of my Chinese wife, made to look like a suicide. Told me there would be more death to come, perhaps to my hafu son, if I did not agree to the life and the wife he wanted for me.”
Kazuo regarded No with a bitter smile. “So forgive me if I have very little respect for what you want. Especially when I discovered only a few years ago that the woman my father had arranged for me had not been nearly as circumspect as my first wife with her affections. Apparently she’d been having an affair with our Korean servant. Had given him, not me, two barely tolerable sons. I taught her and her lover the same lesson about ‘wanting’ that came to me….”
For a moment, No went completely still, in that old way of his. His apparently conditioned—not hereditary response to his confusion. But then the horror of his father’s words began to mushroom cloud in his head, blowing up his every notion of what had happened in this garden the day of his mother’s day. The kind Korean servant who’d left treats of fruit outside his and Hayato’s doors and never had an unkind word to say was their father. Their true father. And the man now threatening Ruby with a tanto …he had killed their mother when he found out the truth.
As if sensing the truth had sunk in, Kazuo continued on with his retelling of their past. “In order to save face, I was forced to pretend you and Hayato were actual Nakamuras. Not the weak hafu sons of a slut bride and the help. For years I abided you. But then you tried to take this company from me. You, who are not even my blood. That is why today I will have my revenge. I will shatter your face with the death of this girl. You will learn once and for all that even fake Nakamuras get what their fathers decide they get. Not what they want.”
It was not Hiroshima. Nothing in Japanese history was Hiroshima. But to No, in that moment, it felt very close. His father was not his father. He and his brother were not Nakamuras. The name that had meant everything to them for their entire lives did not, in fact, truly belong to them. The tattoos their father’s had compelled them to get at the age of twenty-one were only half-right, because in truth, they had nothing of the Nakamura hawk inside them. In fact, the only man in this garden who possessed true Nakamura blood beside Kazuo was Suro, the son he’d long ago disavowed.
“Now, my dear, it is time to decide,” Kazuo announced into the shocked silence that followed his big reveal. “How would you like to die? By my blade or by my tea?”
“I will not let this happen—” No started to answer Kazuo in Ruby’s stead, only to get cut off by the slicing ring of metal being unsheathed.
And when he looked away from the scene at the table, he found that a five-man guard had arced around their weaponless group. And each man held a long sword in his hand.
“Because of your age, I made this tea much more gentle than the one given to Norio’s mother,” Kazuo continued to Ruby as if No had said nothing at all. “I assure you the tea will be the better option. The less painful option.”
“Ruby, before you make your choice, you should know…” This was when No informed her with a heavy heart. “This is the man who ordered the death of not only my mother, but also Montana-san. You have now seen how my fake father operates. You know his dark spirit. I think you may now understand what really happened on the night of your accident, the thing I already knew, but could not bring myself to tell you.”
“You killed my father,” Ruby whispered, her expression pained with the memory as she looked across the table at Kazuo.
“Ah, yes, the black baseball player,” Kazuo answered, as if just now remembering that pesky little detail. “Well, your aunt did not fulfill her duties and I no longer wished to honor his contract. It seemed the simplest way to solve the problem.”
Ruby shook her head, her face a study of horrific realization. Look at me, Ruby-chan, look at me. No silently drew her gaze, and then he tried to mentally convey a piece of advice he given her during their first week of lessons: If you see an opportunity to get what you want, Ruby-chan, you must take it. Ignore your fear and take it.
But of course she couldn’t hear him. After a few tortured moments, she dropped her head. “I will take the tea,” she whispered, her voice full of tears.
And Kazuo smiled in the way only a man mad with bitterness could. “That is the best choice.”
And that was when No suddenly said, “I too!”
“What did you say?” his father asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I
will take a cup of that tea, too.” No lowered his eyes in the same manner as Ruby. “You are right, I am not a Nakamura. If she dies, Ana will never forgive me. And I do not wish to live without her.” This declaration was actually true, as was the next. “She is my weakness, but without her I am even weaker. I have no will. So you will serve me the tea, too.”
“And me,” Hayato chimed in. “I stand with my brother in all things. Even death.”
Their father’s eyes remained stony, but his red face gave away how enraged he was by their stance.
Yet in the end, he said, “Fine. I am sixty. And there are things I can do about this now. It will still be possible for me to have children. Real children. Not weak hafu. I will pour you both cups of tea, and you will die your mother’s death.”
He turned his hateful gaze to Suro. “And you will, my true son, inherit my company unless you, too, wish to commit suicide.”
Suro raised his hands. “I do not,” he answered, succinct and to the point. “I have a family who would miss me.”
“Yes,” his father answered with a grimace. “We will discuss this family and what you might need to do to become the scion Nakamura Worldwide deserves—”
Ruby suddenly threw her tea in Kazuo’s face, interrupting whatever pompous, cruel thing he’d been about to say. And then, just as she’d been taught, took quick advantage of her enemy’s weakness. Grabbing the tanto blade he’d dropped, as Kazuo fell out of the chair, clawing at his face. The older man screamed as the poison reached his bloodstream via his eyes, nostrils, and open mouth. Blinding him if not actually sending him to a certain death.
No moved quickly in the melee that followed, divesting the guard closest to him of his sword in record time. Well, at least he thought it was in record time. A glance across the way showed that while Hayato lagged a few seconds behind him, Suro had not only disarmed his guard, but was also using that guard’s sword to remove the head from another guard.
In less than a minute, they’d gone from a group of ten to a group of five. One of which was now writhing on the ground.
“Tetsuro! Tetsuro!” Kazuo called out, coming to a stand on his knees, desperate and blind. “Defend your father and I will give you anything you want.”
Proving he truly was his father’s son, Suro actually seemed to give Kazuo’s words thought…but then handed No his sword. “This one is much sharper than yours. A better brand, too. Much more worthy of a revenge killing.”
“Iie! Iie!” his father screamed in frustrated agony.
Ignoring him, No took the sword from Suro with a solemn bow. Only to offer it to the girl in front of him with another bow.
“Really?” she said, her eyes going wide with truly touched surprise, even as Kazuo screamed in the background. “But this revenge. It was your thing.”
No answered her protest with one sharp shake of his head.“If I take my revenge now, I will merely be satisfied. If you take it, everything he has ever done will be avenged.”
She hesitated, looking to the side. And for a moment, he thought of Lilli. How very little she would approve of him making this offer to her niece. “But I know your aunt is a gentle woman. If you’d rather—”
He was interrupted by Ruby hefting the sword over her head and bringing it down across his father’s neck. Slicing Kazuo’s head clean off with a blood splatter that would have made Shinya Tsukamoto, the Japanese pre-cursor to Quentin Tarantino, flinch.
“I wasn’t sure I had enough balance to make a clean cut. That’s why I was hesitating,” Ruby admitted, breathing hard. “But I guess all those samurai lessons you gave me really did come in handy.”
“Hai, I guess so,” he agreed, looking down at the headless body of the man who’d ruined so many lives. Laid low by a child—the exact opposite of how he would have wanted to die. “We are now avenged.”
And as it turned out, this was an even better revenge than the one No had planned, simply because it had been such a dishonorable death. But most importantly, Ruby, Lilli, and his unborn son would finally be safe from Kazuo Nakamura’s machinations.
They’d won. And against all odds, they now finally had the chance to live out in the open, without fear of the Nakamura Hawk. He and Ruby smiled at each other over Kazuo’s dead body. Knowing now not only in their hearts, but to their very bones that they had finally earned what they both needed the most: a happy family.
Chapter Forty-Six
The first thing Lilli tried to do when No walked into her now heavily guarded room with Ruby and Suro? Try to kill him. With an outraged scream, she flew out of her bed, punching No hard across the face, then upper-cutting him before he even had the chance to recover.
No had little doubt she would have gone in for a fierce clawing strangle next, if not for Ruby getting in between them and yelling, “Aunt Ana, please! You’ll hurt yourself or the baby.”
As if suddenly realizing she’d also entered the room, Lilli pulled Ruby to her, as tight as she could given the size of her belly.
“Oh my God, why did you run off like that? Do you know how scared I’ve been? The only reason I’m hugging you is to keep myself from choking you. I can’t believe you did that!.”
“It’s okay, Aunt Ana. I’m okay. But I’m really sorry for scaring you.” To her credit, Ruby read the room and didn’t try to explain the rules of house samurai to Lilli. Instead she apologized over and over again, letting Lilli hug her for as long as she liked.
Strange but true, Norio would discover over the next few months, Ruby’s first and hopefully only revenge killing would actually make the girl softer as the years went by. Less prone to arguing and more sensitive to the feelings of others. Eventually, even No would have a hard time remembering the angry teenager he’d originally met. Because in the coming years, he’d only know this Ruby, the girl hugging her aunt as tight as she could while reassuring them all that everything was okay now.
But as he watched the two together now, he gazed at Ruby with the pride of a father. Pitying Kazuo for not realizing what a gift a child can be, even if she didn’t share your blood.
“Okay, okay…” Ana said. And it was a beautiful moment until she said to Ruby. “Go pack your bags, honey. We’re leaving.”
“Iie, Aunt Ana! We can’t leave. This is our home. I am the house samurai.”
Ana hit him with a look curdled through with anger and judgement. “And that’s exactly why we need to leave.”
“You cannot leave this house.”
Lilli gently set Ruby aside, and turned to confront No, only to stop short.
There was something different about him. Same suit and hoodie, same hairstyle—even if it was currently pulled back into a short ponytail. But this wasn’t the same No. He seemed…she couldn’t explain it. Less hawkish now. Less removed.
And his eyes burned dragon bright and intense as he added, “You cannot leave me.”
“Yes, I can,” she answered nonetheless. Now feeling like the cold one in their relationship as she pointed out, “We aren’t married and you’ve already signed over your parental rights. I can do whatever I want. And right now, all I want is to get my niece and this baby out of this house and far away from you.”
“The baby,” No started.
“Is fine for the moment. If watching my niece get kidnapped while I was trapped in a panic room didn’t send me back into labor, I’m pretty sure I’m in the safe zone.”
“Pretty sure is not enough for me,” No answered, his voice rough with anger. “Not when it comes to you.”
“Also, you are already married,” another voice said.
Lilli looked up to see…she couldn’t believe it. The man from the car. “You!” she whispered, not quite knowing how to handle his presence here.
He stepped forward and to Lilli’s shock, gave her the most respectful of bows. “I am sorry for not properly introducing myself when we first met. I am Tetsuro Nakamura, the hafu son of Kazuo Nakamura, so perhaps it is best that I explain the tradition I was not allowed to ta
ke part in. You see, it is true my father’s family is descended from samurais, as it says in all the company literature, but what the company literature makes no mention of is many of those noble samurai formed yakuza clans after the age of the samurai ended.
“This makes our family…complicated. But we have one tradition that is still upheld. At what we consider the age of manhood, we submit to back tattoos. It’s a very painful process, more so because the tattoo is made in only one session. However, this tattoo is a secret, and can only be shown to the woman we wish to be connected to by the red string of marriage.”
Lilli’s mouth dropped open, because she realized that morning in the samurai mansion…
“Hai, Ana, you have seen my tattoo,” No said, stepping forward. “This was my way of connecting us in a way I could not in public. Not without the man I thought was my father interfering. But he is no longer a threat to us.”
“The man you thought was your father?” she repeated, not remotely understanding. “And how is he no longer a threat to us—?”
All of her questions were cut off when No suddenly pulled her into his arms and, in front of Ruby, Tetsuro, and the two guards in the doorway, kissed her. Kissed her like he’d only ever kissed her behind closed doors. Kissed her and said, “Hai, I am not one to express my feelings, but obviously they run very deep for you. You are my weakness. The softest part of my heart. And now I am free to humbly beg for you to stay here with me, even after all that has happened. I humbly beg for your heart to keep in my chest, as you already possess mine. And Lilliana Tucker…”
Her eyes widened when he suddenly dropped to one knee before her, “I humbly beg for your hand in marriage, to be connected by more than the red thread. I would also like for you to wear my ring.”
Lilli could only stand there in complete shock, unable to process what had just happened, what she’d just been told.
His Revenge Baby: 50 Loving States, Washington Page 27