Not fucking happening.
“You think I’m here for the girl?” I spit out. Quinn snorts, his feet beginning to pace the back of the room. “I’m not. I don’t care a damn for the girl.” Bile rises in my throat at the words, eyes hardening to cover the thought because this is all I’ve got to save her and us. “What I do give a fuck for is decency in business, honour amongst thieves.” My fingers work the keys again, opening up the west coast assets. “I’m here to show you we won’t be fucking moved by Yakuza this way—that this is how simple it is for me to defend our position if pushed.” She sits a little straighter, eyes focused back on me rather than Quinn. “And you’re damn well pushing me. You picked the wrong Cane brother to fuck with.”
She sneers and stands, hands planted on the desk in front of her as she calls out something in Japanese. The door bursts inwards, four men clattering into the room, guns aimed. I’ve hit the key the moment they come in, watching as another seventy-three million empties into my control. Mine. Not Cane’s. Not Quinn’s.
Mine.
“That’s one hundred and twenty-five mil so far. How about Northern Asia?” I stand and walk around to her, backing her away from her desk. “I’m guessing you’ve got three times that in that account.” The men move in closer, two of them loitering four feet from my back and the others cornering Quinn. “Or you could just bring the fucking girl in. Show some goddamn respect.” Her eyes finally widen slightly. “Maybe then we can discuss what you think you deserve from us.”
A full minute passes—me not giving her room to breathe, her holding her hand up at the mob behind me waiting to attack. Screw them. I’ll have that gun on the desk in my hand within a second if I have to, pull the trigger if needs be, but that’s not what I want here. I want Gabby alive and out of this place, then Quinn and I with any luck. That’s all. This bluff, regardless of how real it could be, is all I’ve got to ensure that happens. She glances at Quinn out in the corner.
“I could have him killed,” she purrs, attempting to raise her chin at me. I turn back to look at him, the gun in his hand still pointed at the floor as he stares the two men down. “I could have you both killed.”
“You could.” I move in a little closer, letting her get a good smell of just how pissed I am. “Try giving that shit a go.” She shivers as I reach for the laptop again and swing it towards us, empty accounts on show for her to see. “Or you could give me what I want, let us out of here, and get your money back. You won’t be getting it back any other fucking way. How’s that gonna land with the hierarchy above you?” This bitch, whoever she is, isn’t top of her tree. She’ll have someone to answer to, and that will be with her life if this doesn’t go as expected. “Your neck feeling fragile, is it?”
I slam the lid down on the burner laptop, all inputs destroyed the moment it closes, and grab my gun to back away until I’m standing in the doorway, head tilted at her. Quinn edges his way towards me. That’s it. I’ll die before I give her those codes, and Quinn doesn’t know them so he’s useless to her for that. Her eyes turn to slits, legs finally weaving their way back to her seat to settle back down.
“Put the money back in the account, Mr Cane,” she says calmly. “I may have misjudged you.”
“The girl? And then you let us out of here. I’ll put it back when we’re gone.” Not before. “Idohave respect for business. We talk again after that’s happened. I’m open to negotiation, but not being fucking threatened.”
She nods her head at the man to the side of her. He walks off instantly, barely missing me as he stamps out of the room. Everything is quiet for the time he’s gone, but I can feel the heat coming. Quinn’s pissed, and growing more agitated by the second. I’m barely containing any element of control, and this woman? She’s become a wall of fucking ice, one who isn’t going to deliver a version of Gabby I want to see.
She brings her cigarettes to her side, and then looks me square in the eyes as she stands and walks straight past me into the main warehouse. Quinn follows her before I do, eyes looking at her ass rather than the threat she is to our lives.
“What’s your name?” he asks. She turns back.
“Hisa Yakata. I am the daughter of Yakata-Kai. You will know my grandfather already.” Quinn nods. I couldn’t give a damn. I know the name from the information he sent through, but he seems impressed to a degree. Not enough for that gun to be holstered, though. Or mine. “And I am disappointed.”
A scuffle of noise comes from the top corner, a pained shout following as someone is dragged towards us. My heart lurches, eyes barely wanting to stay open for fear of what I’m about to see, but it’s a man I finally get a glimpse of. He’s being shoved and kicked along the floor, hands crawling the ground to get away from three of them. I frown and look at her, uninterested in whoever the fuck this is.
She walks over to him without a care in the world, stepping around him as he collapses on the floor in front of her. He’s covered in blood, the jacket on his back already ripped and torn, black and blue tracing each hard contour of his face no matter the high-end suit he’s shrouded in.
“This is what we do when we want something, Mr Cane.” Still I stare at her as she reaches for one of her men’s guns, handling it precisely until it’s directed at the guy’s head. I sneer at the thought, not caring. He means nothing to me. “You put our money back, or I will kill your woman’s brother.” I frown as I look at the guy on the floor, unable to see anything of Gabby in him. “And then when I am done with him, I will have my men kill her—slowly. While you watch.” That riles my insides up to fucking explosive. And the groan coming from the brother doesn’t help. She presses the barrel into his head, grinding the metal into blood, and then nods over my shoulder. Quinn turns, ready, and slides his back to me muttering eight under his breath. “And when they have done that, we will pull those codes out of your head with a pair of pliers if necessary.”
I raise a brow at that, watching more Yakuza pour into the room behind her.
Inventive if nothing else.
She’s still not getting the codes. No matter how screwed up this is about to get.
“Fuck, you’re a stupid bitch.” I look high, watching as Den shadows his way along the top overhang of offices, and then glance right, noting the door where Rusty should be by now, listening. “You think you can play this game? In my fucking country? With us?” I laugh, unable to contain the lunacy that’s driving me towards not giving a damn. They come here, infiltrating our investments, then steal my woman and threaten our lives because what? They want a slice of all our hard work?
Allmyhard work?
That’s not a damned business discussion.
“You’re lacking goddamn honour,” I snarl out, lifting my gun. It’s aimed directly at Andreas’ shoulder, and I’ve pulled the trigger before I’ve thought much more of it, knocking him flat to the ground and hopefully out of harm’s way. “This could have been so much easier than you’re making it.” She scuttles sideways as the crack rings out, language pouring out of her mouth as she raises her gun at me and shouts orders around the room. “All you fucking know is death.” Quinn’s on my back again in seconds, both his arms raised and pointed around the room, and I pray that either Frankie or Jon have already found Gabby, covered her at least.
‘Cause this shit’s about to blow.
Game on.
“Every person in here will die if you don’t bring the goddamn woman to me now.”
She glares and backs a step away, mouth ready to give more fucking orders until I nod above her head. She turns back, eventually looking to where Den’s perched, his favourite AR57 aimed directly at the protective mob closing in on her. Rusty steps into the room, two Berettas pointed at the eight Quinn has covered behind me. “Cane will not be moved like this.”
She smiles eventually, a leer that has my hackles rising, and raises her gun again, all her men moving in front of her the moment she does. Fuck. My back braces against Quinn, eyes focused on every goddamn gun that’s pointed my way as I aim at each one of them, hand steadier than it’s ever been. War’s coming now, and there’s not a fucking hope of stopping it. Fuck them. Cane will not be moved.
Quinn chuckles as the first shot is fired into the air.
I don’t even care who fired it.
