80 – Alex
I had two vans full of men and was heading toward Lake Las Vegas with murder on my mind.
There was no way I could let Jake walk away from this, and I hoped like hell the six men who had loaned me their men knew that. Because if anything came back and bit me on the ass, there would be hell to pay.
“Alex.”
I turned to Sota. “What?”
“Firstly. Tone.”
I inhaled and looked at him.
“When we get there, remember, your priority is Yuka and Joey. Not Jake. Leave your brother to Aoto and I could just imagine the beating my brother was going to receive.
Aoto had vowed to protect Joey and had, in his eyes, failed. There wouldn’t be a path he didn’t go down, to redeem himself He’d been the first to volunteer to scout for where Jake was hiding, even with the bullet to his shoulder.
“I know. I’m just so fucking pissed at the moment.”
I couldn’t believe my own brother was working for the Yakuza in Miami. But it didn’t piss me off as much as the fact I didn’t see it. I didn’t read him right. The vibes he gave off, were that of an overworked businessman, not a Yakuza recruit.
“We all are.” Sota nodded and I turned my head away, as the landscape started to become familiar. The hotels and expensive houses lined around the lake. Opulence and greed. People were blind to who their neighbors were, as long as they had enough money to show they belonged there.
We passed a place that used to have the most insane cocaine parties imaginable.
Another was a sex club for desperate rich men and young stupid women who wanted to get their leg over money.
I turned my head to Sota. “Where are we going?”
“Aoto said he found a place up the east end of the lake, which has a large boathouse along the back, with a couple of Yakuza sitting on the back patio.”
thestreet.
Blinking, I sat forward a little, as we pulled slowly around a corner, and I stared at the house at the end of the street. “You have to be fucking kidding me.”
“What?” Sota asked, pulling up at the end of the street, well back from the house.
That house.
It might have changed color. From terracotta–red to white, but it was the same house. I would be able to pick it out from anywhere.
I sank back against the seat. “It’s the same one I used to fight at. In the basement, is an underground fighting ring. This is the same address Akito followed Oliver and me from.”
Turning my head, I looked back down the street, seeing the parking lot of the expensive high–rise apartments. “That apartment carpark, is where Akito and his shit brigade jumped me and Ollie.”
Sota turned in his seat and looked back to the building behind me. “Shit
“Yeah, I think I know who’s been stalking me.”
One of the only people who had been there, at that fight, then had come running when they found out I’d smashed Akito’s head in; was Reiji.
Then he magically appeared at the Takada clan two years later? He’d been my sparring partner for years. He would have been one of the only people to see the Oni tattoo I had on my chest.
“Reiji.”
“I’m going to bend him six ways to Sunday and put him in a little box and send him to Akito to deal with.” Sota grumbled, reaching behind him and pulling out the gun case. He handed me my gun, and checked his, as there was a gentle tap at my window. Sota put it down and I looked up at Aoto.
“Are they in there?”
“They have to be, Alex.” Aoto grimaced, as he leaned on the windowsill of the car. “We’ve literally cleared the whole rest of the neighborhood. Most of these streets are clan houses. Vacation homes for some of the leaders, and soldiers when they need a break.”
Anto turned his head.
“But that one.” he pointed to the white one at the end of the street. The one I’d been to too many times before. “That one was bought recently.”
“Let me guess. Sana Yamota,”
“Bingo. Oliver did some digging. It’s taken Sana close to five years to satisfy the requirements of the clans, especially Hirano, to be able to purchase it.” Aoto turned his dark gaze back to me. “Sana has only owned it for six months.“
Six months. That would be the timeline for every single shit thing that had been happening. The clans‘ meetings were planned six months in advance, for the leaders to be able to schedule security; but there was a slight flaw in this meeting.
Yuka didn’t usually attend.
I turned my head and looked to Sota. “Call Oliver for me.”
Sota nodded and pulled out his burner phone. We’d ditched our phones, thinking that would have been how Jake and Reiji knew where we were, and that we’d left the hotel when we had
The call connected after the first ring. “Sota, what’s going on?”
“Oliver, when did Yuka get the invite to the clans‘ meetings?”
“Give me a second.” I could hear typing in the background. “Three months ago. But he declined.”
“Why?”
“Yuka never attends them He thinks they’re boring and they are too old–fashioned,”
I frowned and looked back to the house again. I knew Joey and Yuka would be in there, but I also had a feeling Jake and Reiji were expecting us. I turned my head again, “Why did Yuka end up agreeing to go?”
There was a pause, and more typing “Eguchi. Handa Eguchi implored him to come to Henderson for the meetings, saying
it would be an experience he’d never forget, and he would be building alliances he’d never expect.”
“Fucking Eguchi.” I growled.
Firstly, his lawyer called my girlfriend a whore. Then he asked why they should help.
“Oliver, where is Eguchi situated? I know he left Tokyo a few years before we came into the Takada clan. Which district does The run!”
There was silence and then Oliver swore. “Fucking cock sucking cunt.”
I raised an eyebrow at Oliver’s language. “Ollie.”
“Alex, he’s originally from Miami. When he left Tokyo, he moved to Miami to make his name. Yamota’s father took him in, and when he proved himself, gave him territory in Orlando. And guess who his top general was?”
“Reiji” Sota and Aoto growled, and I felt sick to my stomach.
“Reiji wasn’t “let go. He was sent into the Takada clan as a spy. That’s why Yamota knows everything about the Takada clan. Reiji is funneling the information to his boss, who is feeding it back to his master.”
“Fucking whore. Thanks Ollie. I will call you when this is over,” I checked my gun, as Sota hung up and I looked at Aoto, who stood. “Get the men ready but keep Eguchi’s back, I don’t know if I trust them to have our backs.”
“Sir.” Aoto nodded, and moved to the vans behind us, to give orders.
I looked to Sota, who was checking his gun too. “We go in hot. They know we’re coming. Keep your shots precise. Check before you shoot. I don’t know where they’re keeping Joey and Yuka.”
Sota nodded and we climbed from the car and headed back to the van, where Aoto handed me a bulletproof vest. I strapped it over my black shirt and looked at the men. Eguchi’s men were standing to the side, looking a little nervous, but I had to make sure they didn’t suspect anything
I turned to my men, the ones handpicked Aoto. “Hani, Shimei I want you to stay back with Eguchi’s men. Keep an eye out on the neighborhood.”
30–Alex
“Why us?” one of Eguchi’s men asked and I turned to him.
“I was told you are some of the best at surveillance. Prove it.” They nodded and I stepped up to Hani and Shimei, whispering to them. “Don’t let them make any calls.”
“Yes sir.”
They moved away and I turned my attention back to the men I had left.
“This is going to be messy. No doubt about it. But keep in mind, Yuka Takada is in there, so is his doctor, Jolene Brewster.
Keep your shots precise and if you can help it, don’t shoot at all. We don’t know where Yuka and Joey are.”
Then men in front of me nodded.
“Good. We ready?”
Again, they nodded, and I turned, looking at the house I had once made my living in.
“Let’s go and get Yuka and Joey.”
