Penance Page 24

  Enzo swallows the lump in his throat seeming to calm down as he looks at Torque and nods like he’s listening.

  “We have a fuckin’ cop on our side. His name’s Brody. We had him here last night discussing our situation. He’s cool. Ace can vouch for him.”

  Enzo looks at Ace and seems to soften as he nods. “Okay… if you think taking this to the cops is the only way to bring them down without us all getting riddled in bullet holes… then, I’m listening.”

  Torque nods. “I’d rather go in and light the fuckin’ place up. Trust me, I would, Enzo. I’d love nothing more than to burn that fuckin’ train yard to the ground. But I can’t risk my men, and for some fucked-up reason… I don’t want to risk yours either.”

  “Right, yeah, I get it.”

  “So, we can have the file, if we’re on board with the plan? We take everything to Brody, and he can try and have the Yakuza taken down legally. If that doesn’t work… plan-fuckin-B.”

  “Plan B?” Enzo asks.

  “Fire and fuckin’ brimstone,” Torque replies, and we all nod in complete and utter agreement.

  Two Days Later

  Ace called Brody and Grier to come back to the clubhouse after Enzo left, and we filled them in on the information the Andrettis had found out about the Yakuza. Brody said that with all the new information, they could dig deeper. He talked with some officials who seemed to be interested in the new information he’d uncovered, and they didn’t seem to be tainted by the Yakuza, so he was going to deal with them directly.

  Maybe we can win this shit after all. Maybe the Yakuza don’t have as much pull in this city as we thought.

  So they left with copies of all the information to try and bring them down legally, to run the fuckers out of town the right way. If we can’t do it with gun power, then shutting down the way they run things is going to cut them off at the neck. Sometimes firepower isn’t always the best route.

  But that still remains to be seen.

  For now, we have to sit and wait for word from Brody. And as I sit at the table eating dinner with my family around me and Torque to my side, I feel like something’s coming. I’m not sure what, but my stomach is unsettled as I slowly eat my dinner.

  Torque’s cell rings, he looks at the screen seeing it’s Brody, and he answers while we all look to him.

  “Brody, any news?” he asks. He listens intently, nodding and murmuring in response a few times but gives nothing away. His body tenses, and he stands up suddenly from the table. “Are you sure?” he asks making me glance at Mother and Father who are also watching Torque with bated breath. “Well, fuck! I don’t know what to say, Brody.” He slides out of the seat and starts walking to the middle of the room, and I tense all over as he ends the call. My muscles clench as I watch him in a state of terror waiting for the bad news.

  He lets out a loud whistle through the room gaining everyone’s attention, and we all look to him as he lets out a long breath. “Right, I have news from Brody.”

  The room drops to dead silence as Vibe turns off the sound system—it’s so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

  “He’s managed to find the right people to take our evidence to. People not on Aiko Ishikawa’s payroll. The footage from the club was shown, and all the evidence mounting against them has slipped into the right hands…” He Pauses. “Brody’s found business owners willing to come forward and testify, and he also found evidence of their dirty money and heroin trade. They’re being shut down as we speak. They’ve all been brought into custody, and it’s been taken so far up the legal system, they’re gonna issue a sanction on the Ishikawa Yakuza family in America as a matter of urgency using the Obama bill. They’re finished here. We won.” His eyes light up as he grins so fucking wide. “We fuckin’ won!”

  Not knowing what else to do, I stand up as a rush of energy flows through me. I let out a sound that I can’t even comprehend myself as I turn back to face my parents and see the tears streaming down my mother’s face as my father reaches out and pulls her to him in a tight loving embrace. The room erupts into a fit of euphoria as everyone stands up cheering and clapping while Trax rushes over to me.

  We won.

  We beat the Yakuza.

  Without firing a single fucking bullet.

  How the fuck did we manage that? It’s unheard of.

  We won. We fucking won!

  “Let’s celebrate tonight, boys. It’s not often we win with help from the fuckin’ cops!” Torque calls out as he signals to the bar, and the girls instantly start pouring the beers. I race up to Mother and Father and pull them into a giant embrace. Mother’s still crying as I lean in kissing her cheek.

  “It’s going to be fine, Mother… he won’t be able to get to you now.”

  She smiles pressing her hand to my cheek and nods. “I knew you would protect our family, Raiden. You are such a good boy.”

  I chuckle as Father looks at me and gives me a single nod. Feeling nothing but elation, I can’t believe how we did this without anybody getting hurt.

  The Yakuza don’t go down without a fight.

  But if the Ishikawa are being sanctioned, they’re done in this town.

  Hell, they’re done in America.

  There’s no way they can come back from this.

  Excitement rushes through me. I want to celebrate with my brothers, but I really want to talk to Sass. I can’t tell her what’s going on, but I want her to know I’m having a good night, and that tomorrow’s going to be a great day. So I step off to my room and pull my cell from my pocket to call her. Swiping my screen, I press on her contact, and it rings and rings and rings until her voice message answers. I pout hating that she hasn’t answered, but decide to leave a message for her.

  “Sass… I wanna fuck you so hard right now, take you like you’ve never been taken before, but I guess I’ll have to settle for talking to you later…” I pause wanting to say more, but not knowing what else to say. So I end the call.

  A sense of something washes over me, something I can’t put my finger on, but I simply shrug and walk out of my room and back out to join the party. It’s going to be a messy night. I can feel it.

  AYLA

  The Next Day

  Sensei’s running through my mind this morning as I dress ready for work. To be honest, he ran through my mind all night. I thought about heading over to the club halfway through the evening, but I thought better of it. I don’t want to appear needy.

  I was in the shower when his call came through and didn’t see it until I went to bed hours later. Then when I tried to call back, he didn’t answer. I’m not sure if something’s wrong or if he’s just busy, but he’s never not replied to me before. So, it has me worried. I knew I couldn’t go running over to the club in the middle of the night. Especially if something has gone wrong, he wouldn’t want that. So I have to wait until he calls me, which I’m hoping he does soon because I’m worrying myself sick.

  As I slide into my truck to make my way to work, I try to focus on the short drive to the garage. I have work to do, and I need to focus. So I start up my truck and pull out of the drive and head out onto the road. Heath and Bowie left before me, so I know I need to fix my shit up when I’m the late one.

  As I turn the radio up to the deep voice of Jared Leto singing about being closer to the edge, I bop my head, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel as I look into the rearview mirror seeing a pick-up truck driving really close on my tail. I narrow my eyes and accelerate a little faster trying to pull away from him, but he speeds up. So instead, I gently tap on the brake to let him know he’s too close, but in reply, he speeds up getting way too close, revving his engine and bumping into the back of my truck making me jolt forward slightly.

  “Fuck!” I blurt out as I grip on the steering wheel harder trying to steady my truck as I look around seeing we’re pretty much the only two people on the road at the moment. I groan loudly as I throw my hand in the air looking in the rearview mirror at him.

  “W
hat the fuck, asshole?” I yell even though he can’t hear me. I can’t see who he is, but he’s fucking pissing me off that’s for sure.

  Suddenly, he pulls out from behind me, to the side and speeds up coming in beside my truck. My heart rate spikes as I watch his truck move alongside mine, and I try to keep my eyes on the road ahead as my breathing quickens.

  “What the hell?” I murmur, under my breath as he turns his wheel rapidly, his truck veering into mine, the side of his slamming hard making me swerve to the right dramatically almost driving off the road onto the sidewalk.

  “Holy fucking shit!” I yell, my heart leaping into my throat as I speed up trying to get away from this fucking maniac. My tires pound on the asphalt as I accelerate to crazy speeds trying to outrun him, but his truck’s as fast as mine as he sideswipes me again. My truck jars hard to the right, and I lose control of the steering wheel pushing up onto the sidewalk, the steering wheel spinning and wrenching my wrists and then rotating out of control as I attempt to slam on the breaks. I let out a loud scream as I look up just in time to see a pole coming into view.

  I hear the sounds before I feel it—the smashing of the glass, the crunching of the metal. The sudden impact of the truck crashing into the cement pole. My head flies forward as the airbag doesn’t deploy properly, and for some reason, my head hits the steering wheel with the force of the impact. The front of the truck crumpling as I let out an almighty scream in agony.

  My head rests on the steering wheel as it pounds furiously. Warmth runs down my temple as I pant for breath, pain ripping through my arm. I open and close my eyes a couple of times to try and fight the fogginess in my brain.

  Suddenly, the door of my truck flies open, and I’m yanked back from the steering wheel. I scream out as searing pain ripples through my shoulder.

  “Shut up!” A familiar voice pierces through my ears, and as I turn, his face comes into view letting me get a good look at him.

  “You! What the hell are you doing here?” I mumble, his foul smell assaults my senses as he leans in too close for comfort, unbuckling my seatbelt. After the last time I saw him, any closeness is too intimate for me.

  “Shut up! You’re coming with me.”

  SENSEI

  I have no idea what the hell time it is, but all I know is my head is pounding. We tied one on last night and I, for one, am suffering from a fucking hangover of epic proportions. Rolling over in bed, I grab my cell and glance at it, my eyes are foggy as I squint to see three missed calls from Sass. “Shit,” I murmur seeing them coming in at all different times. I must have been so fucking drunk I didn’t hear my cell ringing.

  Glancing to the time, I notice it’s nearly midday and realize she’ll be at work. I don’t want to bother her now, plus, I need some fucking grease and a vat of coffee before I can function, then I’ll call her. So I stand up and put on some clothes trying to gather myself in preparation for the day.

  I head toward the clubroom to see everyone’s in a state of disarray. Brothers sitting around holding their heads much the same as me, and I grin knowing everyone had a great time last night in celebration of our win.

  Unexpectedly, a cop siren sounds, and I glance at Torque who looks about as good as I feel. Slowly, I trudge over to him, he looks at Ace who wanders over to us and raises his brow.

  “Might be Brody?” Ace queries, and we both nod as we head to the gate to welcome our friendly neighborhood cop.

  The gate opens. It’s Brody and Grier who take one look at the three of us and both smile.

  “Looks like you all could do with a gallon of coffee,” Brody suggests as we walk back inside the clubhouse.

  “You’re telling me. We had a bit of a celebration last night after the news came in,” Torque relays to Brody, but he lets out a heavy sigh.

  “Might have been a little premature,” Brody grits through his teeth.

  We all stop as my stomach sinks through the floor. “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Let’s have a seat,” Brody offers.

  “No. What the fuck? Tell us right here,” Torque deflects.

  Grier and Brody both crack their neck like they’re in sync with each other as Brody exhales. “Okay… seems like even though we found some officials who weren’t in line with the Ishikawa Yakuza, they still have some pull in the system.”

  That typhoon is sweeping through my body making anger build inside of me. My hands ball into fists, and I grit my teeth preparing for what he’s about to say.

  “Even though the sanctions are going through, even though they can’t work as Yakuza in America anymore…” he pauses making my heart race, “… they made bail.”

  “What? What do you mean? They’re not in custody?”

  He shakes his head. “No, I don’t know how. I don’t even think it should be possible, but somehow, someone’s pulled strings high up, and all of them are free until they’re to be deported back to Japan. It’s got to be a legacy issue from when the sanctions were first brought in. Obviously, they still have men in the system.”

  My muscles tense, and I look to Torque while shaking my head as he rubs the back of his neck knowing we’re in deep shit. We’re the ones who caused their annihilation in America.

  They’re going to come after us.

  It’s only a matter of how and when.

  “Fuck,” Torque murmurs and Brody nods.

  “Exactly! Thing is… they’ve gone to the wind. I tried to have men I could trust follow them, but they’ve just vanished. I’m sorry, Torque. You need to be prepared. I don’t know when deportation papers will come through… it could take a while depending on where the legacy Yakuza men are positioned in the system.”

  Breathing hard, I turn and start to pace as I feel the anger burning inside of me. I have no idea what the hell this is going to bring down on us. All I know is that something’s going to happen. Somehow or someway, we’re going to pay for this, and it’s not going to be pretty.

  “Thanks for letting us know, Brody,” Torque offers. Brody nods. “Now, you should go. You shouldn’t be here. They could come at any second, and you don’t wanna be in the middle of whatever fuckin’ shit’s about to rain down on us.”

  Brody grimaces. “One more thing you should know…” He looks at me. “We handled the case at Smokin’ Joe’s Garage where Vince attacked Ayla. We know she’s in deep with you guys. I’m heading over to tell the workers at the garage now, but I thought you’d like to know first…” He pauses like he doesn’t want to continue. “Vince was let off with community service and a substantial fine. He also has to do court-appointed anger management classes. Guy got it easy if you ask me.”

  Torque glances to me as an insatiable anger surges through every fiber of my being. Fucker should be locked up for what he did to my Sass, but I grit my teeth and simply nod. “Thank you for letting us know.”

  He dips his head. “Good luck with the Yakuza. If you need back-up, call me.” Torque nods and Brody and Grier walk out of the clubhouse.

  Torque looks at me subtly with a raised brow as if he wonders if I’m about to explode. I center myself taking a deep breath and nod to him, my face stern and posed. He understands, turning with a loud whistle. “Right, everyone listen up… as of now, we’re on lockdown. Shit’s gonna come knocking. We don’t know when. We don’t know how. So have a weapon with you at all times. Call your families, get them in here. No one’s safe as of this moment. Once everyone’s in… no one comes in, no one goes out. No fuckin’ exceptions. Disperse.” He lets out a heavy sigh as everyone starts frantically rushing about, and I push my hands through my hair looking to him.

  “Torque, this is going to be hell.”

  He nods, gritting his teeth. “Call Sass, get her here. I gotta call Foxy and Kline. Get them here, and we’re gonna have to move Ruby.”

  Ace steps up to us, his eyes are open wide as he holds his tablet in his hands, and he shakes his head. “Ahh… Pres, I think you’re gonna wanna see this,” he almost shouts over the
noise.

  We both turn to look at him as he swings the tablet around to face us.

  It’s a simple message, ‘We have something of yours. Do you want to know who it is?’ Next to the message is two boxes, one marked ‘yes’ the other ‘no.’

  My muscles tense as I turn to Torque, and we both look at each other.

  “Who it is?” I repeat the words.

  Torque grits his teeth. “Fuck! So it begins,” he sneers and clicks on the ‘yes’ button.

  A video begins playing. It’s definitely a warehouse, and in the warehouse there’s a woman tied to a chair, a rag in her mouth, her head is bleeding, and it takes me all but a second to register—the blue coveralls, her red hair—and my stomach falls through the floor as I grab the tablet and zoom in with my fingers.

  It’s Ayla.

  My Sass.

  I let out a muffled gasp as I grind my teeth. Torque lets out a groan while I start to breathe harshly out of my nose.

  “Fuck! Torque… fuck,” is all I can say.

  Ace turns to see what’s going on, and he slumps his body as Trax walks up to see what’s happening. When he witnesses what’s on the screen he tenses.

  “Is that… Sass?” he blurts out.

  I nod slowly.

  “You have twenty minutes. The club comes to the meeting point. Bring with you Shinobu Maki. This is a non-negotiable. Hiro Maki does not come. This too is a non-negotiable. If any of these demands are not met, the girl dies… slowly,” the digital voice echoes over the video then the image of Sass cuts off, and an address comes up on the screen.

  Ace takes a screen snapshot of the address while I tense up knowing he wants my mother.

  This is obviously Aiko Ishikawa. He knows my mother’s here. Whether he knows about me or not is yet to be seen, but the fact he knows about my parents is deeply disturbing to the point of terrifying.

  Does he plan to kill her? I have no idea.