After we left Yuriko’s, we headed to the spa where I finally saw Jada start to unwind. She had a massage while I had my nails done sitting in a chair near her. She talked nonstop about the party, and I realized how much she needed it to fill her time with something other than thoughts of Ken’Ichi and her father.
By the time we got back to the penthouse, Jada’s smile was real, and her eyes were twinkling. She was almost dancing as we entered the drawing room, but it disappeared once she saw the two men waiting for us. Dawson and Ken’Ichi were sitting in armchairs across the coffee table from each other, and the tension in the room was palpable.
Jada’s back tightened, and she flung her bag on the couch, heading directly to the liquor cabinet in the corner.
“It’s empty,” Ken’Ichi said quietly.
She ignored him, only to find the cabinet bare when she opened it.
“What the hell?” she said, spinning toward him, eyes flashing.
“Your father and I are concerned about your alcohol intake. Thus, we’ve removed the temptation.”
“This isn’t your home! You can’t just throw outObaasan’salcohol as if it’s yours!”
Ken’Ichi stood, moving toward Jada, backing her up against the wall.
“Your temper is both enticing and aggravating,Jada-chan,” he said, palm surrounding her neck. “I can’t wait to break you of it.”
“Don’t call me that.” It was a low growl in her throat.
It was as if we weren’t even there. He didn’t care that he had an audience. I started across the room toward them, but Dawson beat me to it. He leaned his shoulder on the wall next to Jada.
“Man, sorry to tell you, but we don’t live in the Shogun era. You might want to take it down a few notches.” He looked at Ken’Ichi with a grin that I knew to be false. Behind it, Dawson was as tight as Jada was.
Ken’Ichi turned slightly to look at Dawson, dark eyes traveling over him with contempt, but the distraction allowed Jada to escape. She grabbed her purse and headed for the drawing room doors.
“I suddenly have an enormous headache. I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning for the shopping spree I promised you,Baioretto.”
She hadn’t promised me any such thing, but her words were somehow another dig at Ken’Ichi that I didn’t understand. She disappeared up the stairs, and Dawson stepped away from the wall toward me.
“Since the old man here has dried up the place, let’s go get a drink,” he said, pulling me with him toward the door.
“Don’t forget the appointment you have in the morning,” Ken’Ichi’s voice trailed after him. “I’d hate for you to lose before you’ve even started.”
There was a warning in his voice that Dawson didn’t respond to.
We left the penthouse, stopping at the elevator doors, and I said, “I don’t think we should leave her alone with him.”
“He’s going out,” Dawson said.
“How do you know that?”
“He got a call just before you showed up.”
The doors opened, and we got in, our shoulders brushing and causing the slow burn inside me to ignite once more. I pushed the feeling?and the accompanying trail of combustion formulas?aside in order to growl out, “What the hell is going on, Dawson?”
He glanced at me before rubbing a hand over his face in a habit he’d had for as long as I could remember. Whenever he was tired or stressed or unsure, he would slide his hand from the top of his head all the way down to his chin. I watched it carefully, hating that he was feeling that way. Hating that the small motion lit up my body, imagining that hand gliding over me.
“It’s better for you not to know,” he said quietly.
The stab to my heart drove deep. So much lack of trust built into those words.
“Since I’ve kept the secret we shared for five years?even when I hated every second of keeping it?I think you can count on me to keep whatever you tell me now to myself.”
“That was a necessary lie,” he said.
“Taking the fall for the accident was never a necessary lie,” I said, the age-old argument between us not going anywhere. “And you know it only made things worse with Jersey and Truck. She almost didn’t take him back because she was so mad at you both. It would have been better for her to be mad at me instead of you. It would have been better to behonest.”
