He dropped his arms and she immediately spun away from him.
“What the fuck, women?” he snarled, reaching for his bloodied neck and staring at her angrily.
She shrugged and asked innocently, “I thought you like your foreplay rough. Wasn't that why you were slapping me around?”
Thunder gathered on his face and he gave her a look like the foreplay was about to go nuclear. “You’re going to pay for that, little bitch.”
Oh dear, what happened to ‘little bird’? Laney held up a hand when he started for her and captured his attention by reaching down to tear the slit in her skirt open nearly to her waist. He stopped moving and stared at the swath of skin and flash of silver panty she exposed. Lust replaced anger and his plan to beat obedience into her quickly changed. This man was extremely easy to read. And distract.
“You like my earrings?” Laney purred, tilting one small ear toward him, indicating the teardrop diamond adorning her ear.
“Don’t give a fuck about jewelry,” he grunted. “Strip now, or I’ll do it for you.”
She sighed in regret and slid her hand between her thighs. His eyes followed the erotic move. “That is really too bad, because I negotiated with Boris over these earrings. I don’t usually care for jewelry, but it seemed really important to him that I have them tonight.”
“Don’t fucking care,” Dimitri snapped. “Take your fucking dress off woman.”
“I think you’ll care,” Laney said with a smile and pulled the gun from between her thighs. She flipped the safety off and pointed it steadily at Dimitri. “Say goodbye, big bird.”
He was so startled he didn’t move. Then he started babbling. “I can give you whatever you want. Money, property, safe passage back to Japan. I will make sure you are reunited with Jin immedia…”
She didn’t give him the chance to finish, she shot him between the eyes and watched dispassionately as his big body fell backwards. It landed half on the bed and then slid to the floor. She stood over him and watched as he died.
“Say her name again, asshole.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“It’s done,” Laney said into the phone she’d pulled from Dimitri’s pocket. “I will send the pictures, but I was brought into Russia and I need a way out.”
She listened for a moment, amazed that the Master wasn’t asking more questions. He didn’t seem to care that Boris had made it home alive, only that he was dead now and Laney could prove it. Thank goodness for identical twins. She would use Dimitri’s extreme deadness to prove that she killed Boris and then run home and collect Jin. Once the Master found out she’d killed the wrong brother, she and Jin would be in hiding.
Laney texted the pictures of Dimitri to the Master and then waited for him to send her coordinates. He would guide her off the property and away from Moscow. Somehow, she had to get out of Russia and back to Japan without her passport. Not easy, but not entirely impossible with their connections.
She desperately wanted to go back to the mansion and see how Boris had fared and if he needed her help, but her first loyalty needed to lay with Jin now. It was time for Laney to enact her retirement plan. She’d been working on it for years. Since the moment the Master had parted Yuki’s head from his body.
She had enough money and connections to escape the Master’s influence and go into hiding. Always in the past her biggest worry was Jin. The Master kept them mostly separated so Laney wouldn't have the chance to take her and run. It was as though the Master sensed Jin was the only thing keeping Laney on a leash and under his control. But he’d promised to let Laney see Jin. One meeting was enough. Laney was ninja assassin. She would whisk them away into the night and no one would see them leave.
***
Boris stared down at the body of his twin. Rage flowed through his veins, consuming him to the point that he could barely see. He wanted to punch something, to murder and tear apart anyone that dared to come near. He had spent years protecting and covering for this man and this was how it ended. On the dusty floor of their fathers old hunting lodge.
It was the buttons surrounding Dimitri that caused the pounding mayhem in Boris. The buttons that he knew came from her dress. That she would not have parted with willingly.
“What the fuck did you do to her, you sick fuck!” he snarled, unleashing his anger and kicking the body of his dead brother. He wished Dimitri was alive so he could let loose his rage in the worst possible way and show the man why his name was so feared on the streets back home in America.
He swung away before he could do worse, knowing it wouldn’t make him feel better. Dimitri was dead. Thank god Boris had given Laney a gun. He’d felt the tension in the mansion from the start. Suspected his brother of foul play before he’d even set foot back in Russia and decided to take steps to ensure certain loyalties. One of the men Dimitri had placed in the dining room actually belonged to Boris.
It had been unfortunate that Boris had unintentionally placed Laney in such danger. He hadn’t thought his brother so unstable as to make a move this quickly. Boris was damn fucking proud his woman could hold her own. He just wished like hell he knew where she was now.
Hell, who was he kidding. He knew exactly where she was. Running back to her mysterious Jin. Though he knew Jin was not a fiancé, he was still jealous. Apparently this Jin held her first loyalty, no matter what she felt for Boris. And she loved him, of that he was certain. So, who was Jin?
He was going to find out. He would spend the next twenty-four hours securing his holdings and then he was going to find his woman and bring her home. He just prayed she stayed safe until he found her, and her Jin.
CHAPTER TWENTY
It hadn’t been an easy trip home, but she’d finally made it. She had a new appreciation for her passport and clean travel records. Her least favourite part had been bribing a dirty transport official into letting her cross the border between Russia and China in a smelly chicken truck.
Getting into Japan, though, had been the hardest part. Crime was extremely low and finding a dirty cop or official nearly impossible. She’d had to rely on an old retired assassin friend to hide her on a fishing boat and sneak her through customs. The Master had sent a car for her once she was on Japanese soil, so at least she had been able to travel in luxury to the compound outside of Osaka.
Now she was home and anxious to see her beloved Jin. The gates of the compound opened easily to her, welcoming her into the only home she had ever known besides her apartment in King Tower. The Master walked toward her, his back straight, face giving away no emotion. He looked ageless, the same as he did the day he found her on the bottom of the closet hiding with her mother.
“Daughter,” he said gravely, looking her over, taking in her exhausted form.
She nodded at him and replied, “Master.”
The day Dana had committed suicide by jumping off the Eastern wall of the compound had been the last day Laney had called the Master father. She didn’t know if her lack of familial feeling toward him bothered him. He rarely showed emotion, except for that day, when he’d held Dana’s broken body and raged. That was the only time she had seen her father cry. It had also been the day after he had sent Laney on her first assignment. Her first kill. Laney had been twelve. She supposed they both now lived with the guilt of what that had done to Dana. In their own way.
He reached out and touched her arm for the barest of seconds before stepping away from her. He turned on his heel and headed toward the housing section of the compound. “Come, you will want to change before meeting.”
Laney ran to catch up with him. “I want to see Jin,” she said quickly, trying to make her voice sound less demanding.
He sighed impatiently. “In time, you will see her. For now, you will wash yourself and then come to me in the great hall where you will explain how you ended up in Russia.”
Laney opened her mouth to argue, but remembered where she was and with whom. One did not argue with the Master. Years of beatings instilled that much obe
dience into her. She nodded swiftly and entered the women’s dorm. He turned away and left her alone. Laney sighed and opened the sliding door to her old room. It was untouched and austere as always.
There were few-to-no women in the clan compound. Married Yakuza tended to live elsewhere. Laney’s existence there had been a tough, lonely one until Jin. Of course, she had not been allowed to see Jin often, but when they had been allowed together it had been like rainbows and sunshine. Like what life on the outside could really be life. Like the glimpse of life she had gotten in America. If she got a chance she would take her Jin to America and introduce her to all of her friends, especially Addison. Addison would love Jin and treat her like the special person she was. Maybe not Anya though, Jin did not need to learn things from Anya.
Laney showered under the cold spray of her old shower stall and dressed quickly in grey yoga pants and a white T-shirt. She knew when the Master said he was expecting her that he didn’t mean for her to be long. She pulled her straight hair back into a ponytail and hurried out the door. Perhaps once the meeting was over he would allow her to see Jin.
As she hurried across the compound toward the great hall, she felt the first splashes of raindrops touch her. She smiled a little to herself and inhaled, enjoying the scent of rain. It smelled like freedom. It always had. She could smell the ocean far below where the buildings sat strategically on a cliff.
She entered the great hall and found her father sitting on a mat. She bowed to him, sat opposite him and prepared for a lengthy interview. It was exhausting to keep the lies straight. She did her best to tell the truth at all times and only lie when she had to. She described how Boris had drugged her, leaving out the part where she had been unable to bring herself to kill him. The Master grunted and seemed willing to accept her story.
When she described the events in Russia, she simply reversed Boris and Dimitri’s roles, making it sounds as though Boris had dragged her out to the hunting lodge where she had finally shot him. She described the entire incident in detail, which seemed to satisfy the Master.
“You have done well, child,” he announced. “I will get in touch with our employer and have him transfer the rest of the money.”
Laney held her breath, heart hammering. That was going to be a problem. She would have to find a way to get away from the compound with Jin before he discovered it was actually their employer that she murdered and not the mark.
“May I… may I see Jin now?” she asked hopefully.
He eyed her and then nodded. “Of course. I am a man of my word.”
Laney held a snort of derision in and nodded gratefully instead. She stood eagerly and waited as the Master sent one of his men to fetch Jin. Her heart raced as she heard Jin approach, chatting excitedly with her nanny. Her little head popped around the corner first and then her eyes lit up in excitement when she caught sight of Laney.
“Mama!” she yelled and launched herself at Laney.
Tears sparkled in Laney’s eyes as she swept her five-year-old daughter up and held her tightly against her chest. The girl squirmed in her arms, trying to get closer to the mother she hadn’t seen in seven months except for quick FaceTime calls when the Master allowed. She chattered excitedly until the Master snapped at them to leave his presence.
Laney placed a gentle hand over Jin’s lips and asked pleadingly, “May she spend this one night with me?”
Her heart ached as she waited for his answer. She could count on two hands the amount of times the Master had allowed Laney to keep her daughter overnight. It nearly killed her each time to have to let the little girl go, but she did it for Jin’s safety, knowing what would happen to both of them if she disobeyed.
After a long pause, he finally nodded. “You may,” he said. “The bounty on Grekov was worth millions. You did well for your family, daughter.”
Lowering her eyes, Laney nodded and turned away. She carried her daughter out of the great hall with the nanny walking silently beside them. This nanny was a new one that Laney hadn’t met before. The Master replaced them often so Jin wouldn’t get attached and form a bond. He also didn’t want Laney conspiring with Jin’s caretakers. This one was silent, but seemed competent enough. She was quick to gather anything Jin might need for an overnight visit.
Laney took the small, pink backpack with a tight smile and bade the nanny goodnight before taking Jin by the hand and leading her back to the women’s quarters. Jin chattered nonstop. It made Laney’s heart feel good to hear her daughter speak in a free and happy manner. It meant the Master stayed out of Jin’s life for the most part and that somehow Jin was growing to be a somewhat normal child, despite the less than ideal circumstances of her childhood.
Laney listened to Jin for over an hour until the girl was yawning widely and her eyes were drooping. Then she helped her daughter get ready for bed. Each task she helped Jin perform made her heart sing with gratitude. She so rarely got to perform them. She ran the brush through Jin’s straight, black hair longer than she needed to, but the little girl didn’t seem to mind.
“Can you tell me a bedtime story, mama?” Jin asked, her light brown eyes glowing with curiosity as she snuggled beneath the blankets.
Laney slid into the bed beside her and gathered the small body close into the shelter of her arms. She kissed the downy softness of Jin’s hair and smiled.
“Of course, my darling,” she said softly. “Once upon a time there was a beautiful, young, super talented assassin who was minding her own business when along came a giant, scary Godzilla monster all covered in tattoo markings. Godzilla kidnapped her and took her on his massive ship where he forced her to cross the ocean with him. He snarled and raged and generally scared the beautiful young woman. She would have assassinated him, but she realized something about him.”
“What, mama?” Jin asked, yawning widely.
“That Godzilla only snarled because he loved the beautiful assassin and was scared that someone might take her away. He was really a giant softy inside. The more she got to know him, the more she realized that she loved him too and never wanted to leave him either. But one day the evil Mothra came along and snatched the beautiful assassin right out from under Godzilla’s nose and flew her away from him. Mothra took the assassin and put her high up in his tower where she couldn’t get out!”
“I saw this movie, mama! I saw Godzilla and Mothra,” Jin said excitedly.
“What?” Laney exclaimed, sitting up and putting her hands on her hips. “What exactly are your nannies letting you watch around here?”
Jin giggled and pulled on Laney’s arm until she lay back down beside her. “It was the guys that let me watch after nanny went to bed,” she admitted with a yawn. “Please tell me the rest of the story. I want to know what happens next.”
Laney nodded. Unfortunately, Jin’s disclosure was eerily similar to her own upbringing. “Then Godzilla came along in all of his raging, snarling glory to tear apart the tower and rescue his beautiful assassin. When Mothra flapped his giant wings and tried to intervene, Godzilla took him apart piece by piece and then threw the pieces far out into the ocean for daring to lay a finger on his woman.”
“I don’t buy it,” Jin announced, leaning up on her elbow and eyeing Laney with sleepy eyes.
Laney burst out laughing and raised an eyebrow at her precocious five-year-old daughter. “What don’t you buy, chipmunk?”
“Well, supposedly the woman was an assassin, right? Why didn’t she just assassinate either of those guys or both of them and rescue her own self?” Jin demanded.
Laney’s jaw dropped then she burst out laughing and hugged Jin to her chest. Setting her daughter away from her, she put her hand up. “Damn right, my darling girl. High five to that!”
Jin giggled and slapped her mom’s hand. “Mama, nanny says we shouldn’t swear!”
Laney settled Jin back into the bed and smoothed the covers up to her small chin. “She’s probably right, my darling. I’m just rusty at the mom thing.”
&
nbsp; “You’ll get better,” Jin whispered closing her eyes.
Laney smiled and pressed her lips against Jin’s forehead. “Yes, I will. I’m never leaving you again, baby girl.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When Laney woke the next morning, Jin was gone. She blinked and sat up, expecting to see the little girl playing on the floor or something, but there was no trace of her and the pink backpack was gone. Laney leaped from the bed and ran from the room, her heart pounding in panic. She nearly ran into a man standing just on the other side of her door.
He looked down at her as she halted in front of him. “Master wants to see you.”
“Where’s Jin?” she demanded instantly.
He shrugged. “With the nanny. Saw her leave. Now get dressed, Master wants to see you right away.”
Laney nodded and retreated back into her room, taking deep breaths to calm herself. She had no reason to disbelieve him about Jin. She just wished she had woken up when her daughter had left. She had laid awake late into the night plotting their escape for the next evening. She must have been tired enough to sleep through the nanny’s removal of her daughter. Damn it!
She showered quickly and pulled on a pair of olive coloured cargo pants and a white T-shirt. Exiting the building, she swiftly made her way toward the great hall. The faster she got this meeting over with, the quicker she got back to Jin and her escape plan. Rain splattered against her once more as she treaded across the stone paths separating the buildings.
“Laney!”
She halted upon hearing her name shouted by a man’s voice. She turned in confusion when she saw the Master standing in the courtyard next to the Eastern wall with several of his people. Changing directions, she walked quickly toward him. As she approached, she saw two fellow assassins and several Yakuza enforcers that she had trained with before. She nodded at them, but they did not nod back. She wasn’t entirely surprised. There had been plenty of resentment each time she kicked a man’s ass or outshot one of them. Sensitive little bunnies.
Bound by Blood (Fire & Vice Book 6) Page 17