Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 66993 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66993 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“We’ll be fine.”
“Google him!”
“Nope,” I gulped down the rest of the sake. “That would probably ruin this awesome sake. Lychee, right?”
“You kneed him like he was an average guy, like he was some nobody named Jerry from Topeka, Kansas. And then you run off as if he’s Billy Bob from Montana like you may never see him again—”
“I don’t know any of those people,” I leaned back on the futon, “But I bet Jerry or Billy Bob wouldn’t have groped my face with his mouth upon meeting me. Most Midwest guys have manners.”
My skin still tingled where his mouth had brushed it. No man had ever made me want to burn him and kiss him in the same breath.
Zo wiped the sweat from his forehead. “You told him your name. His manager, Jun, probably checked you out. The Dragon knows who you are now. Did you tell him my name?”
“No.”
“Okay. So I’m safe.”
“But. . .remember you told him your name.”
“Goddamn it! I did. Didn’t I?”
“Yes, but I still think we’re both safe.” I shrugged. “I kneed him, not plundered and pillaged his family’s village. His hands and lips were all over me. I asked him to move. He didn’t. Where I’m from, when a guy gets too touchy, you knee him and search for your mace.”
“You’re not in New York. You’re in Tokyo,” He covered his face with his hands. “There is great care in showing respect to people here—”
“Respect? Well, I wouldn’t know that from his actions. He was being rapey.”
“Do not say the Dragon was being rapey.”
“Fine.”
“This culture is all about saving face. Not embarrassing people. Did his men see him hunched over and screaming?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Fuck!” He held his stomach.
“Are you going to vomit?”
“I might after I have a heart attack.”
I grabbed the sake. “So then you won’t mind if I finish the bottle?”
“Who cares about the damn bottle?! Maybe I’m just freaking out. Maybe it’s okay,” Zo pointed at me. “He called you Tora. That’s tiger in Japanese. Tigers are a symbol of courage here and they’re in lots of Zen parables. This could be a good thing.”
I burped. “Tigers also have claws.”
He opened his mouth and stared at me. “Why is that good? Claws? For God’s sake, Nyomi.”
“I’m just being helpful.”
“If you want to be helpful then leave a gang leader’s penis alone. You know his father is like the head of one of the biggest gangs here? I think it’s Yamaguchi. That’s the biggest one. Dear God, please say it’s not that one. I’ll have to research this.”
“Maybe it won’t be—”
Someone knocked at the door.
We both went silent and froze.
Zo tiptoed and turned off the lights.
I set my glass on the white table in front of me and checked my watch.
It was close to midnight.
More knocking came.
This time it was louder.
Zo dove to the ground and mouthed some incomprehensible words like I could easily understand a string of silent sentences in the dark and after drinking two glasses of sake.
“What?” I whispered.
“Shh.”
The knocking continued.
We must've waited for five minutes before the person on the other side coughed and began to speak.
“Please open the door,” A light male voice drifted from the other side. “I know someone is in there. I heard screaming earlier. If I don’t give you this gift then I’m going to have a pretty bad night. Please open the door.”
I rose.
Zo grabbed my arms and pulled me back to him. “How do we know it’s not a trick?”
I snatched my arm away from him. “Because if Kenji is truly as bad as you say he is, we would’ve already been dead. Why wait for someone to nicely knock on the door at midnight, posing as a gift giver?”
On the other side of the door, the person banged louder. “Please, Ms. Palmer. You’re to sign for this.”
He said my last name.
I tensed. My fingers shook a little.
Zo tossed me an I-told-you-so look and then he chewed on his right thumbnail. “What do we do now?”
“I’m going to grab my mace and open the door.”
“I don’t think mace will be enough. He’s the damned Dragon.”
Really?
“Look,” I said. “Dragon or not, if my knee can bring him down, I bet mace could do the job too and that doesn’t sound like him out there. It’s another person.”
“An assassin maybe. . .”
“An assassin? Knocking?” I pointed in the other direction. “Just go in the bedroom.”
Zo widened his eyes.
“Look. I don’t think anything will happen, but if something does, climb out your window and get help.”
“Climb out my window?” Zo frantically shook his head. “Are you mad? We’re on the second floor.”
“You can leap or something.”
“Leap?”
“Just go hide,” I stepped around Zo, picked up my mace from my bag, and headed to the front door.
Poor Zo. How can somebody so huge be so scared all the time?