Smiling at Daishin?
I was full of heartbreak for my family, disgust for myself, and utmost reverence for the man I’d bowed before.
Not because he was a good person but because he was the worst I’d ever come across, and that sort of brutal power deserved recognition.
Mercer appeared on my left, eyeing up my old master with disdain. Franco appeared beside him, equal partners in defending this estate while Selix arrived on my right, his presence known through a sixth sense brought from years of friendship and fighting.
Selix deserved all my thanks and more, and after tonight, I wouldn’t wait any longer to give him what he was owed. Screw it if I hadn’t paid back my debt in full. He’d been by my side for too long not to claim what was rightfully his.
Looking past Daishin, the courage in my veins to fight despite my current condition faltered as I counted more men than I should.
The rules of the Chinmoku had been simple: betray them and die.
Death came in stages: first a one-on-one fight. If you survived, then more men joined the siege until you fell at their feet. If you ran, they’d never stop hunting. First with three men, then seven, then thirteen.
They’d sent seven last time.
This time should be thirteen.
Yet as I quickly tallied up the Japanese men all in matching uniforms behind their chosen leader, I counted more.
Seventeen to be exact.
My heart turned to stone.
Chinmoku used tradition to enforce their laws, but it could also be used to monitor their flaws. Before us were seventeen men.
But that isn’t all of them.
I supposed I should be honoured, awed even that Daishin judged me as his ultimate rival. He didn’t just see me as his student anymore but as his successor.
There was no other reason he’d brought the full amount of men one could bring to extermination.
Turning my head to Mercer, I whispered harshly, “Wherever the women are, send men to guard them. Now.”
Mercer’s face blackened as he glowered at Daishin on his doorstep. With a French slur and finger snap, he ordered a couple of black suited guards to charge up the staircase behind us.
He hadn’t asked questions. He hadn’t challenged me.
In this, he’d trusted me, and I couldn’t be more fucking grateful. Because we were in a shitload of trouble. A fuck-load of trouble.
I’m going to die tonight, after all.
I just had to hope like hell that Daishin would stand by his law the moment I did and walk away.
Crossing my arms, even though it hurt like hell with my elbow and shoulder, I drawled in Japanese, “Where’s the rest of your entourage, Daishin-san?”
He smiled just as relaxed and pompous, knowing exactly what conclusion I’d just fallen into. “Forgive me; I don’t know what you mean.”
I stepped forward, reducing the distance between us to merely a metre. I didn’t care I looked like shit or the brace on my ankle gave away my injury. He would know I wouldn’t be in top form after losing previous warriors trying to put me down.
“The other three men. Where are they?”
“You think we stuck to the same archaic rules we had when you wore our colours, Miki-san?” He laughed long and slow, building in mirth as if I was the village idiot. “You poor fool. Haven’t grown any wiser, I see, even though you have aged rather poorly.”
I vibrated with loathing, barely reining my temper and forcing myself not to attack prematurely. “One, three, seven, thirteen, and twenty. That’s how honour is delivered to trespassers.”
Daishin adjusted his cufflinks, flashing the katakana character of long life in my face. “I thought I’d break a little from tradition if you don’t mind, Miki-san. I guess you’ll find out how many helpers I brought soon enough.” His teeth flashed in the night. “But then again, maybe you won’t. Depending on how long you live, of course.”
I’d had enough of this small talk.
I’d had enough of restraining both the violent call to murder and the petrified question that demanded to know what would happen if I died.
I wanted to know if Pim would be safe if I let him gut me here and now, but I was terrified of the answer and what it would ultimately make me do.
Uncrossing my arms, I sank into the same crouch he’d drilled into me through endless lessons and raised my hands. My posture wasn’t that of yoga or spiritual gain—it was slipping from the scabbard that turned me into a sword.
Fingers bent but loose, wrists straight but uncocked, joints ready but fluid.
I wiped my mind of Pim and broken futures. I pushed aside failing and conquering.
All that mattered was here and now.
All that existed was this.
Chapter Twenty
______________________________
Pimlico
“HERE, TAKE THIS.”
I looked up from watching Suzette bounce Lino on her lap while female staff milled around the rotund tower of Q and Tess’s bedroom. Eight women or so mingled and whispered, looking out the tall window to the gardens below, probably wondering why they’d been dragged out of bed at this time in the morning to hang out in their master’s bedroom.