This was too fucking easy, and it was making me sick with worry.
There were no guards.
The doors were unlocked.
It was as if someone was waiting for us.
I stepped into the house behind Sota, because the big, stupid fucker wouldn’t let me go first. Aoto was at my back, the other soldiers I’d bought with me, were surrounding the house, in case someone tried to make a run for it.
“Having fun yet, Alex?”
1 froze at the sound of my brother’s voice. My gaze lifted to the corners of the entrance, seeing the blinking red light. “Sota,
cameras.
Sota lifted his hand. flipping off the camera.
“Oh wow. I thought Takada clan had more class than that.” Came Jake’s reply.
“And I thought I taught you not to back down from your problems.” I said, knowing the little shit would be able to hear me. He’d been a wiz with computers growing up and I doubted it had changed.
We moved through the house, clearing the lower level, and we stopped at the stairs which led both up to the next floor, and the door, which led down to the basement.
“Oh, I didn’t back down, and that’s what led me into Yamota’s pocket.”
I rolled my eyes, knowing I was probably provoking him into doing something stupid, but if he didn’t, then I wouldn’t have the upper hand. Because right now, he controlled the whole situation.
“Oh boo–fucking–hoo.”
There was silence from the speakers dotted around the house and I knew I’d hit a nerve.
“Always the most precious of us. Spoiled little-
“Alex”
The sound of Jory’s voice had me stopping in my tracks, “Joey?”
“Alex. Yuka is hurt. He’s not going to make it…“
My stomach plummeted to my feet, and I looked at Sota, whispering. “Which way, big guy?”
“Down” Sota replied and I nodded, Turning to Aoto.
“Down
Aoto nodded and tried the handle on the basement door. It was a little stiff, but in the end, it popped open. We all stepped to the side, just in case someone was at the bottom, waiting with a gun. But after a few minutes, Jake’s voice floated up the
“Come on, big brother. Let us play, like old times. Leave your goons and your g
“No fucking way” Sota growled ‘You are not going down there by yourself.”
gunu
up there.”
I turned to the guy who had saved my life, and I trusted with everything. “If I don’t come back up in ten minutes, come. down with the whole clan ”
“Alex-
“Seta. Please. Just listen to me
It took him a moment, but in the end. Sota nodded and stepped back.
I inhaled deeply, handing my gun to Aoto, who put it int the back of his pants. “Be careful, boss.”
“Ill try”
Taking another deep breath, I stepped forward and started down the steps. It was dark, but it always had been. The lighting was shitty, to cover the backhand deals which had been made when this house held its underground boxing.
As my foot stepped down onto the dirty concrete, there was a single round of applause, which rang around the room. “There he is! The golden child.”
If I hadn’t known who I was expecting, I wouldn’t have been able to tell this guy was my brother. His hair had been shaved close to his head, he looked sick, and he had lost weight. There was also a Yamota tattoo poking out of the collar of his tank top and my stomach fell.
I had hoped that he hadn’t been marked. He might have been able to have been reformed, been let off. But now I knew whatever punishment he was to receive; it would be at the full force of Yakuza law–if he made it out of this alive. Jake’s clapping stopped, and he stepped to the side.
Yuka was lying on a dirty mattress on the other side of the room. His color was of ash and my stomach flipped with the idea he was close to death. My gaze moved from my boss, and I looked around the room, my stomach dropping. “Where Joey?”
Jake chuckled. “Funny thing with that one. You know she’s been loyal to a T with you? I offered her what she wanted. Life with me. Babies and marriage and all that. You know what she said?”
I knew exactly what she would have said. “Let me guess, she told you to go and get fucked?”
Jake’s laugh faded. “You’ve corrupted her.”
“Like I said Devil dick.”
“She was so perfect before. So malleable. She would do anything I asked her to, and do you know how hard it was, to not make her be a freak for me. She was pretty, and has a really nice body, and-”
I tipped back my head and started to laugh, which pissed Jake off.
“What’s so funny?”
“You talking like that. Thinking you’re some big tough guy. Talking about Joey like you owned her. You didn’t own shit, Jake. You thought you had control over her. Wrong”
I leaned against the base of the stairs. I wasn’t stupid enough to step too far into the room, and from where I was, Aoto and Sota would be able to see my hands, which were behind my back, signing to them.
“Still as arrogant as ever.” Jake spat. “You know I only ever wanted to impress you, when I was a kid. You were my big brother; you should have had my back.”
“What, like you had Joey’s? Are you fucking kidding me? You know what I got, for looking out for you, for trying to ‘help‘. I kicked out of home. The day you were born, dad’s mother told me I was not the favorite anymore. That I was the spare.
I didn’t matter. All I was there for was to make sure I looked after our parents. And I have been doing that. For the last ten
years.
Jake was starting to tense up and I could tell he was about to launch into his own monologue.
“Mom never stopped comparing me to you. Why can’t you be more like your brother? Why are you so rude, Alex would never be so rude. Stop that. Alex would never do that. Alex makes more money than you ever could, you need to work harder.”
Wow…
I had never thought about the pressure my mother might have put on Jake, after I left. But that didn’t excuse him from what he had done.
“Yeah, okay. Our mother was a shitty one, but it doesn’t excuse you for what you’ve done. Why go to Yamota?” I stepped forward. “Jake, we may not have seen eye to eye, but you could have come to me for help. If you had told me, you needed money, I would have given it to you.”
Jake blinked, then balked at me.“And what? Be in your debt for the rest of my life? No fucking way.”
There was no getting through to him.
I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to have to fight my brother or turn him over to the Yakuza. But we were both bound by the tattoos on our chests. “Jake.. please. All you have to do, to end this, is give me Yuka. Tell me where Joey is and tell us this was all Yamota’s idea. He’s a fat bastard, who needs to be taught a lesson and-”
Jake tilted his head to the side. “Yamotn? You think this is all Yamota’s idea? Are you serious?” He started to laugh, and I felt a chill of fear drilling into my back, along with the press of a pistol.
– Alex
I’m so
Tm sorry, Alex..
I closed my eyes as I heard that voice.
One I had trusted for close to ten years. One I had trusted with my girlfriend’s life.
Turning my head, I looked back to Aoto. “Dude.. joey is going to be heartbroken”
“I know. But it’s just business.”
With those words, Aoto’s gun came up and he brought the butt down onto the back of my neck, and I fell, blacking out.
