Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I knew her mother and grandmother buried the man’s body by the apple tree in the grandmother’s backyard and that sometimes an adult Deja stood in front of that same apple tree and shivered in fear that the secret would come out.
I knew that the second time Deja fired a gun it was Betty Boop and it was because Nika’s husband had hit Nika. I knew that Deja had already told him she would shoot his ass if he touched her again. So. . .even though she didn’t want to. . .she shot him. . .right in the head like her mother had done to the man when she was ten.
And Nika and Deja rolled up his body in the middle of the night, carried it over to their grandmother’s house, and buried his body too. . .right next to that apple tree. . .where there were other shot men.
Twenty of them. . .deep within the ground.
But it was the final time Deja shot the gun that wouldn’t hit my mind. I didn’t know why, just that it was a moment that her mind clearly guarded.
Perhaps, it was too horrific for even me to see with this new gift.
And with that. . .I knew to be very thankful for it.
Soon, my other guards moved past me without a word and took up positions at the foot of the bed.
Yoichi folded his arms.
The room held still.
Kiko's eyes moved over Yoichi, my guards, Deja, me, and then finally over the soul pin on my robe.
She rolled her eyes, turned her gaze toward the cousin on her left, and spoke in Japanese. "This dark bitch must have come in here to gloat."
I stared.
Both cousins snorted.
Kiko kept going, "The joke's on her. Once the Fox wins, I'll make sure he rapes her until she begs for death."
The cousin on the right laughed. "The Fox has taste. He would never want to rape her."
The one on the left, smirked. "She's too black and ugly."
The three of them shared a small, vicious laugh.
For three seconds I let them have it.
I let my rage rise in my body.
I let the heat of it find the cold emptiness that the sacrifice had left in me.
Then I turned to the lead guard at the foot of the bed and spoke in Japanese. "Take these two cousins outside and fucking kill them. Make it quick, but make sure it hurts. Then, put their bodies in a pile. We will burn them in the morning, once the war is done."
The room went deaf.
The guard's head snapped up to me. He stared in shock. Surely, he was not used to my ordering him to kill anyone.
The second guard at the foot of the bed turned and stared in shock too.
Yoichi's lips parted and then his mouth closed.
Deja's eyes moved between every face in the room and read the space—watching the people who understood the language, watching what their faces did, and feeding the information into whatever part of her brain put pieces together faster than anyone gave her credit for.
The cousins shook their faces and then let out nervous, broken little chuckles.
The cousin on the left tipped her head. “Look at her. She thinks she can order us to death.”
The other smirked. “Reo’s pin or not, the Dragon would never allow such power.”
They stopped laughing when the guards moved to them and raised their big hands to capture them.
Kiko’s guards looked the other way.
The cousins screamed in horror and fought against them.
"Oh no! Please! She has no authority to order our deaths!"
"Stop! Stop, you can't—"
"She can't do this!"
“This is insane! We will tell the Fox!”
They kicked. They clawed. One of them managed to grab the door frame on the way out and the guard wrenched her hand off it without slowing his pace. The other one was screaming Kiko's name now.
“Kiko, help! Please!! Kiko!?”
Kiko watched in shock. Her face had gone from pale to gray. Her hand fisted the bedsheet over her thigh and crushed it.
The door banged open.
The screams went into the hallway. They kept going for a few seconds—growing fainter, the cousin still calling Kiko's name—and then the corridor swallowed them.
A door somewhere further down the basement closed.
The babies cried again and I knew that the nurses were checking their vitals.
Kiko sat up straighter against her pillows. Her chin came up as she spoke in English, "You think you are a boss now."
I watched her.
"You are not a boss. Those guards will not kill them. They are just pretending to follow your order." Her voice fought to hold, but her bottom lip betrayed her as it quivered. She looked to Yoichi. "Tell this outsider, Yoichi. Tell her about our way."
Yoichi only looked at me.
The silence stretched for one long minute.
Then, I frowned. "Everyone leave, please. I want to talk to her by myself."