Schooled in Revenge (5 page)

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “Bastards.”

She took a deep breath, nodding. “Yeah.”

“You’ll make them pay. Put things back in balance.”

She looked over at him, their eyes meeting. Her thigh, bare under her robe, brushed against his sweatpant-clad leg, sending a ripple of electricity all the way into her chest.

“Yes.”

He squeezed her hand.

“What about you?” she asked carefully.

They were all wounded, broken, angry. Ava, Reena, Cruz, even the young woman they called Jane. Ava was known for her determination. Reena for her rage. Cruz for his desire to protect Reena. And Jane for her deadly force.

But Jon remained a mystery. Closed off and distant, Jon seemed only to connect with Ava. Still, she was surprised when he started talking.

“Her name was Courtney,” he said quietly. “The love of my life. We were going to be married.”

Ava was stunned, both by the revelation that he had been engaged and by the unfamiliar sting of jealousy that accompanied it. She squeezed his hand, forcing her voice steady.

“Tell me.”

“I found her lying lifeless in the street, in Sonoma, where we lived.”

Ava’s surprise that Jon lived near her hometown of Napa was blunted by the pain evident in his voice.

“What happened?”

He shook his head, his broad shoulders tensing under the thin T-shirt he wore at night. “It’s a long story, but the people responsible never paid for what they did to her.”

“I’m so sorry,” Ava said softly.

She could feel him retreating, backing away from her,
going someplace dark. She knew the place well. Was intimately familiar with its bleakness, with all the dangerous things that lurked in its shadows.

“I know who did it,” Jon continued. “I just can’t get close enough to them to make them pay.”

She turned toward him and looked into his eyes. It was important that he believed he would get justice for those who couldn’t get it for themselves. For the woman he loved. Believing was the only thing that kept them going. The only thing that would keep them going in the days and weeks ahead.

“You will,” she said firmly. “We all will.”

Time seemed to stop. There were only inches between them, Jon’s face so close to hers she could smell the mint on his breath. He reached out for her arms, caressing them over her robe, sending a rush of exquisite desire through her body.

It was a bad idea. For more than one reason, revenge being the first and most important. But that was her head talking. Her heart and body seemed to have other ideas as Jon pulled a strand of windblown hair from her face, his fingers brushing her cheek.

“Ava…,” he started.

She placed her fingers against his lips. She didn’t want him to say it, whatever it was.

He took her hand, opening her fingers and placing a gentle kiss in her palm. And then he was leaning in, lowering his mouth to hers just before something smashed into them, sending them crashing brutally to the ground near the cliff’s edge.

Their training had been more effective than Ava realized. It only took her a moment to switch gears, the kiss forgotten as she tried to get to her feet and assess the situation.

But she didn’t have time. She was only halfway to standing when something came at her from the shadows, pinning her to the ground with beastly strength. A face loomed above her, but the darkness made it difficult to make out any features.

Besides, Ava had bigger problems. Like the fact that her head was dangling over the edge of the cliff, her attacker holding an arm to her throat, cutting off her air supply.

She forced her mind calm. Forced herself to catalog her options, few though they were.

Her vision was growing black around the edges, unconsciousness beckoning, when she finally grasped at an idea. Thrashing her lower body, she tried to shimmy the attacker off her legs and hips until she could lift her knees. It worked. Focused on her neck, the assaulter leaned into her chest, instinctively avoiding the resistance of her lower body.

She couldn’t see Jon, didn’t know what had happened to
him. Could there have been more than one attacker? She didn’t know, but this might be the only chance she would get to escape and possibly to help Jon, too.

Wishing she had more room to maneuver, she rocked her lower body until she had just enough momentum to spring to her feet, the movement knocking her assailant off balance, giving Ava a welcome break from the onslaught. Ava caught sight of Jon getting to his feet near the cliff’s edge, landing a punch to the assaulter’s face that hardly seemed to diminish the severity of the aggression.

Ava didn’t know how long the two traded punches and kicks before Jon landed two harsh blows to the attacker’s head. Ava was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when the aggressor came rocketing from the ground, pummeling Jon with a ferocious kick to the chest. Jon stumbled backward, shock seeping across his face.

“Jane, no!” Reena shouted, running toward them.

Jane? Ava looked wildly around, trying to figure out what was going on.

But yes, the attacker was Jane, still in her nightgown, blinking at Reena like she didn’t quite recognize her as Jon clutched at his chest and their attacker tried to stand.

Reena grabbed ahold of Jane’s arm, shoving her toward Cruz, who immediately locked her arms behind her back.

“Stop it!” he shouted as she fought him, trying to get away.

For a few seconds, Ava thought it was over, but then Jane snapped her arms free, flipping Cruz effortlessly over her shoulder. He landed on his back with a dull thud and lay there, looking up at her with a mixture of anger and admiration.

“You’re going to have to teach me how to do that,” he croaked.

Ava shook her head. “Why is she attacking us?” she shouted.

“Grab her legs!” Reena instructed, ignoring Ava’s question.

Jane was moving in circles, surveying them like a feral animal calculating its escape. Ava maintained eye contact with Reena, who clearly knew more about what was going on than Ava did.

“You saw what she did to Cruz?” Reena shouted to Ava.

She nodded her understanding, and the two moved in unison. Reena quickly grabbed for Jane’s left ankle while Ava took the right. Working in sync, they flipped Jane over their shoulders, sending her crashing to the ground.

Finally, everyone was still. Jon and Cruz stood off to one side, eyeing Jane with caution, while Reena and Ava gasped for breath.

Jane lay there for a minute, her chest rising and falling as her eyes slowly cleared. Finally she groaned, looking up at them.

“Oh my God,” she said. “I did it again, didn’t I?”

It was the first time Ava had heard Jane speak. Her voice was sweeter than Ava expected after weeks of watching her move through Takeda’s deadly exercises.

“Again?” Ava asked.

“Jane has nightmares,” Cruz explained, coming toward them. “Sometimes they turn—”

“Violent,” Jane finished, getting to her feet.

Ava glanced at her, still wary. But Jane seemed lucid and clear-eyed. The wound on her face had opened up, a thin trickle of blood running down the fine bone of her cheek, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Jon rubbed his neck. “Well, I guess you know our names.”

Jane nodded. “I’m sorry I haven’t spoken. I’ve been…” She shook her head. “I’ve been in a bad place. Trying to recover, regroup, figure things out.”

“We all understand needing to do those things,” Reena said.

But Ava was still getting her head around what had happened. Still reeling from the fact that mild-mannered Jane had attacked them with a vengeance.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

Jane took a deep breath. “I don’t know. A little over a year ago I woke up here, on Rebun Island. I didn’t know my name, where I came from… I couldn’t have told you what I looked like without looking in a mirror.” She chuckled sadly. “I still don’t recognize myself.”

Shocked, Ava reached a hand toward Jane’s face. “That cut…”

Jane touched a finger tenderly to her cheek, her fingers coming away smeared with blood. “I don’t even remember where it came from.”

Reena removed the belt from her robe and stepped toward Jane. “May I?”

Jane shook her head. “I don’t want you to ruin your robe.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Reena said, touching the folded-up piece of cloth to Jane’s face.

Jane winced.

“I’m sorry,” Reena said. “Just hold that there until it stops bleeding.”

Ava tried not to stare. Was this Reena being
nice?

“Can’t Takeda explain what happened to you?” Jon asked. “He must know if you ended up at the tera.”

It wasn’t Jane who answered but Cruz.

“He’s the only one who knows, but he thinks it’s best for Jane to remember on her own, that when she does get her memory back, she’s going to be glad she’s here training.”

“But if he knows who you are and what happened to you, why does he call you Jane?” Ava asked.

“Forcing her to confront her memories—even something
simple like her name—before her psyche is ready could cause her trauma. Or at least that’s what Takeda says,” Reena explained.

Ava wondered if she was imagining the note of skepticism in Reena’s voice.

“When I do remember,” Jane said, “Takeda is sure I’ll want revenge.”

“Which is why you’re here, preparing with the rest of us.”

She nodded, moving the fabric from her cut and checking to see if it was still bleeding.

“She’s like a goddamn weapon,” Cruz said. “I could’ve used her back in high school during ‘stuff Cruz in the locker’ day. Which was basically every day.”

He started to laugh, but Reena shot him a withering glance that shut him up fast. Wrong place, wrong time.

“I’m so sorry,” Jane said. “My nightmares… I usually don’t remember them,” she said softly.

Ava stepped toward her. “But you did this time?”

Jane looked up at her, tawny eyes full of confusion. “Not much. Just… a car, coming toward me. Coming too fast. And I think…”

“What is it?” Ava prompted.

“I think I recognized the person behind the wheel, but now I can’t remember the face.”

“That doesn’t sound like a dream,” Jon said.

“Then what is it?” Jane asked.

“Sounds like a memory to me.”

They were standing in silence, Jon’s words swirling around them with the wind from the channel, when the sound of shattering porcelain broke through the night. They turned
toward the tera, glancing quickly at each other before taking off at a run.

They raced toward the temple, moving past their sleeping quarters and maneuvering around the elaborate maze and fencing turf where they had spent countless hours training. They had just rounded the corner of the temple when Ava spotted a tall man in a ski mask, dressed in army fatigues and holding a burlap sack, outside the meditation room.

She pointed. “Over there!”

They turned their attention to the intruder, a sturdy Japanese torii gate blocking his escape on one side, a small shed blocking it on the other.

Taking advantage of the man’s momentary indecision, Reena rushed forward, lunging at him. He ducked, somersaulting under her while keeping his grip on the sack, sending Reena sprawling atop the broken pieces of the Buddha deity Acala, which had once sat on an altar under the window.

Ava and the others closed in on the thief as he backed toward the dried-out fire pit in front of the torii gate. Takeda’s dogs, a beautiful pack of blue-eyed Akitas, barked and howled in the distance, agitated by the commotion.

“You made a mistake,” Reena snarled, on her feet again and moving forward with the others.

Ava felt a flash of admiration. Reena didn’t seem the least bit fazed by anything that had happened.

They circled the intruder, each of them moving in, closing the distance as Takeda had taught them. Indecision played on the man’s face as he considered his options. A moment later, he threw the bag to the ground.

Taking it as a concession, Ava bent down to pick it up. But
the intruder wasn’t done. He used the distraction to rush past her, gunning for the corner of the tera in an attempt to get clear of them. Cruz and Jon took off after him, bringing him down just as he reached the old shed.

Jon pinned him to the ground, holding him there while Cruz tore off his mask. Ava was surprised to see that he was older, maybe even middle-aged. He shouted something in Japanese. As they looked at each other, trying to figure out how to handle the language barrier, Jane spoke.

“He wants you to let him go.”

They all turned to her in surprise.

Cruz shook his head, refocusing on the bandit, still immobilized by Jon. “Well, that’s not happening.”

The man continued to shout in Japanese as he tried to squirm free of Jon’s grip.

“He says if you let him go he’ll never return,” Jane said. “He’s sorry.”

Ava couldn’t hide her surprise. She knew linguistics was supposed to be part of their training, but they hadn’t yet gotten to that part. Clearly, Jane was way ahead of them.

“Takeda wants us to speak many languages,” Jane explained. “To have many guises. You’ll see.”

“I only know one Japanese word,” Ava said.

“Which one?” Jane asked.

She was preparing to answer when she spotted Takeda, making his way toward them from the tera.

He stepped over the fire pit, looking at the captured intruder before turning his gaze on his students.

“Well? What do you propose we do to him,
deshis?”

They surveyed the bandit, sitting on a wooden stool below the large open window inside the meditation room. He shivered, candlelight flickering eerily across his face.

“Let’s try this again,” said Cruz. “Who are you? Why are you here?”

The thief shook his head, a move he’d made countless times in the thirty minutes they’d been interrogating him. So far, they’d gotten nothing out of him. The sack he’d been carrying had been filled with the burlap bags Takeda had given them when they first arrived on Rebun Island—bags that had been tucked away so they could focus on the path to revenge instead of the pasts that had brought them here.