77–Joey
Jacob Kazumi didn’t look well.
His normally glossy dark hair had been shaved close to his scalp. There were huge bags under his eyes, he looked like he’d lost weight and his skin was sallow. The man I had once been in love with, had been replaced with someone I wouldn’t have been able to pick out of a crowd, or had avoided in a bar.
“Jake?”
A slightly maniacal grin came to his face. “Oh, so you remember who I am now?”
I blinked. “What? Of course, I remember who you are. You are my best friend. The boy I grew up with.”
Jake chuckled, shaking his head and stepped forward, “So, now that I am the one causing a problem, I am suddenly your best friend again! What happened to you never wanting to speak to me again? What happened to Alex? Are you still fucking him?”
At the mention of Alex, my gaze slipped to Reiji, who was standing off to the side, staring at me, like a pervert. I knew he would have told Jake that Alex and I were still together. 1 looked back to Jake, raising my head, not letting Jake know I was terrified of what it meant for him to be there. “Yes. Alex and I are together.”
*Like there was any doubt.” Jake shrugged. “The moment I saw you and him dancing at the wedding, I could tell something was going on. No one is that friendly with someone they haven’t seen in a decade. And I know how manipulative Alex is, there was no way he was letting you go. He’d hold on to you, just to spite me.”
There we were again.
Jake thought everything Alex did, was to spite him.
The whole time Alex and I were together, Jake barely came up in conversation. He was a side note, a sore spot for both of us and we spoke about him sparingly. The fright, the worry dissipated, and I rolled my eyes at him. “Oh please. I stayed with Alex because he treated me like a human being, not like an accessory. He treats me like his girlfriend and lover, not a fat friend who can take the fall for any shit he does.”
The change in Jake was subtle, but I noticed it.
His jaw clenched and his eyes closed, when they opened again, he looked to Reiji. “You were right. So whipped for Alex. Brainwashed.”
I looked at Reiji again, seeing him nod. “Yep, nothing a good reset wouldn’t help.”
Reset? What the fuck was he talking about, reset?
“Not just yet. We need her to keep Yuka alive for a little longer. The old fuck needs to be lucid, when he writes over his territory to the Yamota clan.”
I turned back to jake, feeling sick to my stomach. Alex had told me about Sana Yamota, and he hadn’t sounded like a nice person. “You work for Yamota?”
Jake looked back at me, as if bored. “I don’t have to tell you shit, Jolene. We’re not friends anymore. Like you once astutely put it. But let me tell you a little tidbit, just to keep you in the loop, and make you help, because I know how fucking stubborn you can be.”
He took one step closer, and I stepped back, putting myself between him and Yuka. While I might not have been as tough as a Yakuza soldier, Yuka was my boss, my patient and my friend. I would protect him, even if it meant I might get hurt in the process.
“If you don’t keep Yuka Takada alive and lucid, then not only will he die, so will you. I will personally wrap my hands around your throat and choke the life out of you.”
I blinked as bile rose to my mouth.
What the hell had happened to Jacob Kazumi in the last few months that had turned him like this? He was always such a soft kid when we grew up. Someone who hated violence, who ran when bullies chased him. Who cried when he got in trouble
with his mom.
“But before I do, I will let Reiji and some of his men at you.”
I turned my head and looked at Reiji. He was licking his lips, eyeing off my figure and my stomach contracted with sickness.
77–Joc
I had let this man into my world. I had trusted him to be my guard. He’d been in our house, while I had been sleeping… “Did you leave the Oni?”
Reji’s gaze lifted to mine.
“No. But I let in the one who did.”
My stomach dropped to my feet, and I turned my head, looking back to Jake. His gaze was on my body as well, and I wished like hell I had worn jeans, or pants of some kind. Not the skirt I had already torn to use as a tourniquet on Yuka’s leg. I’d never been worried about what Jake thought about my body, because he’d never ever shown any interest, but this was the second time I really didn’t want to be in the same room as him.
Jake’s gaze slowly lifted to mine, and I suddenly felt like prey, in the sights of a predator. “You really need to wear more clothing to bed, Jolene. I almost lost sight of the reason I’m here.”
Oh my god.
Jake had been the one who’d left the Oni on my bedside table. The one who had stood over me while I was sleeping-
The strength that I thought I’d had when it came to Jake, disappeared and my bottom lip started to tremble. Tears burned my eyes, and I turned my head away from the man I had once hoped to marry. He wasn’t even remotely the man I thought he was, he’d become bitter and twisted and I wanted nothing to do with him ever again.
“Oh, come now, Joey. It’ll be okay if you do what you’re told. You’re good at that.” There was a touch to my jaw, turning my face, and I slapped out at Jake, stepping away from him.
“Get the fuck away from me!”
Reiji was laughing in the background and as much as I would have loved to run over to him and punch him in the face, it was Jake I was most pissed at,
“Alex is going to find us, and he’s going to make you pay for the shit you’ve done.”
I sounded a lot more confident than I really was, but I had to hold on to that little sliver of hope that Alex would find Yuka and I and everything would be okay. I had to hold onto that, otherwise I was going
go insane.
Jake chuckled, as he stepped back. “Oh, I hope he does. I have some unfinished business with my big brother.”
