by Sally Keira
When Lawso charged into the room, Anton was dropping onto his knees from his bullets, but he still had hold of his gun. Lawso rapidly terminated Anton with a precise head shot. Mere seconds passed before Lawso’s gun was aimed at Tatsuya, before Anton’s body had even crumbled to the ground.
Lawso made a rapid assessment to withhold firing upon Tatsuya, because the older man now unfortunately held Kaiya in a hostage position.
***
When Kaiya had gone into self-defense mode, she had barely processed that bullets were firing through the door, knocking Anton to his knees, and then dead to the floor. Tatsuya had reacted so quickly, springing toward Kaiya, pulling a pistol out of a back holster that she did not know he had. Tatsuya had landed with his pistol pressed into the side of her head and his free hand wrapped around her throat. Tatsuya was not choking her but was forcefully holding her still. Kaiya faced Lawso, who was now standing with his gun pointed at Tatsuya.
"Ah, the Australian! Aiko told me about you," Tatsuya said with contempt.
“Let. Her. Go,” Lawson said with controlled fury.
The two men eyed each other off dangerously.
“If you’re wondering if you can get a shot off without causing Kaiya's death, I can tell you now that you won’t. I will take her down with me,” Tatsuya said.
Lawso considered this predicament. Kaiya had told him that Tatsuya was Mizuchi Ninjutsu trained himself, so he would definitely have faster than average reflexes. Lawso knew enough about Tatsuya’s brutal reputation to know that he would try to take Kaiya down with him. After all, Tatsuya had just ordered Kaiya’s death moments ago.
“I see we are at stand-off then,” Lawso said, his gun remained unfaltering on target.
Tatsuya applied pressure with his hand around Kaiya's throat and forcefully walked her toward his desk.
“Press the intercom, Kaiya,” Tatsuya ordered.
"I think you'll find that everyone is dead," Lawso coldly told Tatsuya.
"Not everyone," came Kazuo's voice, as he entered the room. His own MP5 automatic sub-machine gun was not yet aimed at anyone.
Kazuo’s expression remained unreadable as he took in the scene, not missing that Tatsuya held a gun to Kaiya's head and that Lawso wanted to kill Tatsuya.
"Finish him off, Kazuo!" Tatsuya ordered harshly.
"No Kazuo, don't shoot Lawso, I love him!" Kaiya screamed desperately.
“Quiet!” Tatsuya squeezed Kaiya’s throat, cutting off her speech. Lawso eye’s flashed dangerously but remained fixated on his target, rather than looking at Kazuo or Kaiya.
Kazuo raised his gun and pointed the barrel in the direction of Lawso’s head. “Don’t make any sudden moves, Lawson.”
Kazuo kept his aim on Lawso while he walked sideways across the room toward where Tatsuya and Kaiya stood.
Lawso remained silent, he knew Kazuo would make his own decision regardless of what he had to say.
The tension in the room was dramatic, they all knew someone was about to die.
“If you want to be with Mariko, prove your loyalty to me, Kazuo, and finish him off!” Tatsuya commanded more urgently.
Kazuo nodded, narrowing his eyes at Lawso.
"You should not have tried to kidnap Mariko. That was a mistake that I cannot forgive," Kazuo harshly told Lawso.
Kaiya froze in terror, knowing that Kazuo had just made the decision to kill Lawso.
But Kazuo spun rapidly, punching Tatsuya’s pistol aside. Tatsuya and Lawso both fired simultaneously. Due to Kazuo's punch Tatsuya's shot was off target, his bullet missed Kaiya and hit the wall. However, Lawso's shot accurately passed through the middle of Tatsuya's forehead, killing him instantly. Tatsuya's body crumbled to the floor.
Kazuo and Lawso exchanged intense looks of relief.
"Fuck, I thought you were really going to shoot me then!" Lawso said to Kazuo.
Kaiya swooped Tatsuya’s pistol off the floor and raced into the adjoining computer room, not hearing anything else that was said between them.
"Give me the fucking chip!" Kaiya yelled at the four petrified computer engineers sitting inside the server room.
One of them ejected the chip from the computer and timidly placed it into her hand. Kaiya threw it on the ground and then fired at it until she ran out of rounds. Kaiya was satisfied when the chip was shot to pieces. Then she kicked the remnants down a drain on the cement floor. The computer engineers cowered in her presence. Looking up, she saw that Lawso stood in the doorway, cringing at the destruction of the chip.
"Satoshi can't have it!" Kaiya told him.
"Shut these computers down now!" Kaiya ordered the four computer engineers, while Lawso remained quietly watching her.
Glancing around the room in frustration, she searched for a fuel source to burn the lab down with. There was nothing in there of use. When she pushed past Lawso and walked back into the other room she was relieved to find Mariko, safe yet sobbing hysterically. Kazuo held Mariko back from running over to Tatsuya's body.
"I told you to stay put until I came back for you!" She heard Kazuo telling Mariko, but Mariko sobbed even louder.
Kaiya grabbed her sister’s face gently in her hands and tried to calm her.
"Mari, calm down and listen. Tats… Father tried to kill me. I have so much more to tell you. But right now we need to burn that lab down and get out of here!"
Mariko remained distressed, tears streaming down her cheek. It took a while for Kaiya and Kazuo to calm Mariko down. Eventually Mariko allowed Kazuo to embrace her.
Lawso stepped around Tatsuya's body and tried the landline phone on Tatsuya's desk, satisfied that there was a connection.
"I'm going to ring Satoshi to arrange us some return transport,” Lawso said.
Kazuo looked surprised. “Did Satoshi fly you to the island?”
“Yes. The USA and our government are joining forces to come after the chip. We need to leave the island now,” Kaiya said.
Just as Lawso got through to Satoshi on the phone, Kazuo made an executive decision.
"Kaiya, leave the lab. Let the CIA or our government deal with the clean-up. They can also deal with the computer engineers in there. There's a speedboat docked in the bay or there's also a helicopter, if Lawso happens to be able to fly that," Kazuo said.
Lawso had paused his phone conversation to listen to Kazuo and shook his head. Lawso continued speaking over the phone.
"Satoshi, we've got access to a boat but we're leaving the mess behind for someone else to clean up. Also, you'll be interested to know that Tatsuya is dead and that Kaiya destroyed the chip before I could stop her. There are four non-threatening computer engineers remaining, but we've killed everyone else. And you were right that Anton was here, he got in the way so I killed him too."
Kaiya wondered what Satoshi was saying on the other end of the phone, specifically regarding her having destroyed the chip. Lawso's face gave nothing away about Satoshi's reaction to his handover.
"Fine," Kaiya agreed to Kazuo's plan. “Let’s go then.”
After wrapping some medical tape (from her webbing) around her bleeding thumb, she headed out into the corridor in the direction of the exit. Bodies laid in her path for her to step over. On the way out of complex Lawso caught up to Kaiya and kept pace with her, as they stepped over a couple more dead mercenaries.
"How many men did you kill, Lawso?" Kaiya asked him, whilst they headed down to the shore. She was astonished to see how many men he had taken on by himself, in order to get to her in time.
"A few,” he said simply.
Lawso grabbed her hand in his, winding their fingers together as he continued walking with her. At least he wanted to hold her hand. She was feeling overwhelmed by the bloodshed,
and the awful showdown that had occurred with Tatsuya. She also felt awkward because she had yelled out that she loved Lawso- she did not know what Lawso would think about that. He seemed too quiet right now. What was he thinking? Did he care that she had abandoned his plan
and tried to face Tatsuya without him? Was he angry that she had destroyed the chip? Hopefully he had forgotten that she had used the L-word.
Kaiya had an urge to fill the silence. "I'm glad Tatsuya didn't use our ninjas on this island, otherwise you would have killed more of my friends."
Lawso just nodded at her comment.
Kaiya looked back over her shoulder at Kazuo tenderly carrying Mariko in his arms. Her sister had her face pressed into Kazuo's neck, not wanting to look at the carnage. Kaiya knew that Kazuo loved Mariko and that Mariko loved him too. If anything positive came out of Tatsuya's death, it would be that Mariko could now openly be with Kazuo.
"Thank you for looking after her," Kaiya said to Kazuo, when they caught up to her and Lawso.
"Honestly, if it wasn't for Mariko I would never have come to this island. This is by far the worst project Tatsuya has ever gone after. I am glad he hired these mercenaries instead of trying to use the remainder of our clan. We've done some bad stuff in Tatsuya's name, but none of our guys would have supported this treason,” Kazuo told her.
Kazuo was thoughtful for a minute before speaking again.
"God Kaiya, if Lawso and I hadn't been there.... That must have been some argument you had with your father, he was actually going to kill you!"
Kaiya was thinking about that too. She did not know how to thank them both for saving her life. So she did not.
They reached the dock and found a small, yet high powered motorboat waiting for them. Kazuo placed Mariko on her feet and Mariko drew Kaiya into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're ok! Father was out of control after he broke into our home," Mariko said as she pointed at Lawso. "Father said some awful things about you. He said you were in league with Tadao. He said he disowned you and then he sent his helicopter for me straight away. Kazuo got on the helicopter too, against father’s orders. But in the end father let Kazuo stay on to protect me."
Lawso stepped away from their conversation and climbed aboard the motorboat, looking around. He checked inside the small cabin and found some supplies, including water bottles and reserve petrol. He got the motorboat started. Lawso started programming the GPS as the others climbed on board.
"If no one has a preference, I'll drive the first leg. Kaiya probably has a fair bit to bring you both up to speed on,” Lawso suggested.
Kazuo, Mariko and Kaiya sat down inside the small cabin, as Lawso accelerated the boat away from the dock.
Mariko turned to Kaiya with interest. "So, this is the blue-eyed man you fell for at Mizuchi Ninjutsu training?"
Kaiya frowned at Mariko, trying to silence her with a death stare. Lawso had turned around and was standing with his arms folded over his chest.
"Go on, Mariko, I'm interested to hear more," Lawson said, grinning.
Kazuo also looked amused by Mariko's blatant comment.
"You know Mari, this is the same man who broke into your room, drugged you and tried to kidnap you!" Kaiya warned her.
"Yeah, but Kazuo told me you were kissing him when you fell off the building," Mariko added.
"You should hear what else she did to me!" Lawso joked, and Kaiya stared at the ground, embarrassed.
The others were grinning at her. Lawso turned back around to concentrate on driving the boat out of the bay. It was not long before they were heading out into the open sea.
"I know you have a fair bit to fill us in on, Kaiya. I just think I need to take a breather first. I need to process that father is dead. I need to let that sink in before you tell me why he deserved to die. I'm going to go sit up the front of the boat for a while. I'll come back to chat in a bit when I can breathe again." Mariko stood, holding Kazuo's hand.
Kaiya nodded. Clearly Mariko wanted Kazuo to go with her. The pair walked a few meters around the side of the boat toward the bow. They sat down there together on the front deck. It was a warm afternoon. Any other day it would have been nice to lounge on the front of the boat in the sun.
Inside the cabin, Lawso looked over his shoulder at Kaiya.
"Come over here,” he told her.
Kaiya frowned at him, she did not respond to bossiness. Lawso briefly stopped steering. He walked over to her and tugged on her hand so that she followed him over to the driver’s chair. He sat down again and pulled her into his lap, wrapping her in his strong arms. Kaiya felt uncertain and looked at him suspiciously. Lawso just smiled at her and continued driving the boat.
"Why did you want me to come over here?" Kaiya finally asked.
"Because I like holding you in my arms," he said simply.
"Oh”.
Kaiya felt uncomfortable that her feelings for Lawso had been exposed. She was still hoping that he had forgotten what she had declared in the face of death.
"So, you love me, do you?" Lawso asked.
Lawso's blue eyes twinkled in amusement as he watched her for her reaction. Kaiya knew it was too late to take it back so she just nodded at him. That sexy smile she adored of his, appeared across his handsome face.
Lawso had something to say to her too and he was serious for once when he spoke.
"I fell for you at training too. Back then I couldn't see how I would fit into your rich little world. Yoshito also painted a clear picture of how you’d become too dangerous and how it was only a matter of time before he or one of his clan were forced to killed you. I couldn’t let that happen to you. Yoshito and I easily reached an understanding, where he gave me a lot of lee-way to manage you. It was obvious he could trust no one else to do the job. I knew that if I took Tadao's job, I'd be able to keep you alive and at least have an excuse to see you again multiple times. I admit, I have enjoyed our little games a lot. I think we are well-matched. But I would rather have you in my life than fight you any longer. Maybe now that Tatsuya is dead, your family blood feud can be laid to rest, and we can start a life together. Kaiya, I love you as well."
Kaiya felt overwhelmed by his confession. She did not know what to say back to him but it did not matter, because he kissed her then. His kiss was tender, even somewhat gentle. She could tell by the feeling he put into the kiss that he loved her. The boat tipped slightly on a wave so Lawso had to stop kissing her and resume steering. He did, however, keep her enclosed in his strong arms and that felt good, particularly after everything she had been through that day. They smiled at each other, in the knowledge that they were finally open with each other about their feelings for one another.
Eventually, Kaiya looked up and discovered that Mariko and Kazuo were curiously watching them from the front of the boat. The sea was rougher now and the bow of the boat was getting splashed. Kazuo stood and pulled Mariko to a stand. Together they carefully walked back along the railing to rejoin Kaiya and Lawso in the cabin.
"Ok," Mariko exhaled deeply. "I'm ready to be brought up to speed with everything."
"I don't even know where to start,” Kaiya sighed.
"That's ok, just hit me with it. What did our father do?"
Kaiya exchanged a brief glance with Lawso before continuing.
"Well, I may as well start with the fact that Tatsuya is not my father...."
Chapter 23
4 Weeks Later
It was a Saturday evening, four weeks after Tatsuya's death. Kaiya was sitting at a round table in a small, yet crowded traditional restaurant in the heart of Tokyo. To her left sat Mariko with Kazuo. Mariko was smiling with Kazuo's arm slung possessively around her.
“I’ve never eaten in such a common back-street restaurant before. But this food is surprisingly delicious,” Mariko said.
“See, I told you slumming it was fun,” Kazuo said.
Kazuo had been Mariko's rock in getting her sister through these past difficult weeks. Kaiya thought about how Mariko had taken to the news that they were half-sisters well. If anything, Kaiya felt even closer to Mariko, since they had learnt of Tatsuya's monstrous lies.
Kaiya had been utterly surprised though to find out that Tatsuya had divided his will equally between her a
nd Mariko. Tatsuya had clearly intended to take his lies to the grave. Kaiya had zero interest in dealing with the Takahashi finances. Mariko had stepped up to partake in various meetings with Tatsuya’s former solicitors and business executives. Mariko had even started to put a financial plan in place for them both.
However, days after Tatsuya’s death they had received another blow. They learned that all of Tatsuya’s assets were frozen by the Japanese government. The top solicitors on Tatsuya’s former legal team advised that there was nothing they could do for the sisters. Given the serious nature of the terrorism investigations against Tatsuya, his former assets were likely to be seized indefinitely.
They still had the middle apartment that was jointly in the sister’s name, their favourite vehicles (Mariko’s Mercedes SLR and Kaiya’s Aston Martin), and a couple hundred thousand dollars in each of their bank accounts. However, the rest of their vast inheritance was gone. Kaiya knew that no one was likely to feel sorry for them though, because they had more than enough to start afresh.
In the restaurant, seated to Kaiya’s immediate right was Lawso. He was deep in conversation, with his hand placed under the table inappropriately high up on her thigh. His hand was edging up under her dress and Kaiya was trying to discretely pry his hand downward. Lawso managed to keep a straight face while he teased her. Lawso continued to drive her crazy in general, she had never felt such a strong attraction to any other man.
During the past weeks Kaiya had stayed between Lawso's house and her own shared apartment with Mariko. In the time that she had spent with Lawso they had shagged a lot. Kaiya liked using that Aussie slang word. Lawso seemed to have an uncanny knack of knowing just when she needed to be pounded hard, and also when she just needed slow tender sex as well. Sex was the one area that she did not mind him occasionally dominating her in, and god the man knew how to make her scream! Kaiya also liked to turn him on with some of the flexible positions he did not even realise she can get into. Kaiya knew they were good together and she really had fallen hard for him.
Kaiya pinched Lawso’s hand hard, succeeding in moving his hand out from under her dress.