Sweet Seduction Sayonara (17 page)

I
watch
Tadashi Fucking Ishikawa get back into a black van that seems too fucking familiar. It’s a perfect match for the one the Triads used to try to abduct Momo in. Koki drove that one away from the scene, but he told us he’d left it with the Triads tied up inside, down near the Harbour Bridge.

And here it is. Outside my house. With Tadashi Ishikawa driving it.

I pull on my clothes and start toward the front door, but I don’t make it.

Momoko slips in front of me, barring my way. I stop dead in my tracks.

“I’m going to kill him,” I say reasonably.

I turn away and head for the garage. My gun is in the boot of my car.

“Finn,” Momo calls after me. “He’s too powerful.”

“I don’t care. This has to stop.”

“Think about it,” she says, running to catch up with me. “He’s
wakagshira
,” she says. “First lieutenant to our family’s
Oyabun
.”

“Your family?” I say, unlocking my boot and reaching inside.

“Yakuza,” she says, ducking her face as though embarrassed. I will not have my woman ashamed.

I turn away from the lockbox and cup her cheeks.

“Momo,” I say. “You are not them. They are not you. His actions are his own and no one else’s.”

“You don’t understand,” she says. “Once Yakuza always Yakuza.”

“Has no one ever truly escaped?” I ask.

“Perhaps, if they have something of value to trade. But we have nothing. We owe them.”

“Because your father ran?” I press.

She nods her head, her soft cheeks rubbing against my palms.

“Tadashi,” she says. “He is highly trained, expertly controlled, and utterly deadly. He will kill you if you go after him.”

“He was watching,” I say, frustrated. “He saw us. You.” I can’t even get the words out, I’m so angry.

“You can’t beat him,
koibito
,” she says softly, reaching up to cup my cheek.

“Momo, that van was the same van that the Triads used.”

She stills. “Can you be sure?” She doesn’t look convinced.

“I’m pretty damn sure.”

She shakes her head. “But that makes no sense at all. Tadashi is Yakuza.”

“Well, it’s a fucking big coincidence that he’s driving around in a black Ford Transit van.”

“It’s just a van,” she says, and I want to argue further, but she has a point. I have no idea what the licence plate of the Triads’ van was, and I certainly wasn’t looking at Tadashi’s plate just now. I was staring daggers at the fucktard himself.

I let out a sigh and run a hand through my hair. He’s long gone by now, anyway. I’d be chasing vapours.

“All right,” I say softly. “Let me just check in with Eric again and we’ll go to bed.”

She smiles, it lights up her whole face. It steals my breath away and hardens my resolve. I
will
get to the bottom of this. I will. I lean down and kiss her softly, gently. She moves her hands to behind my neck and clings. The kiss has a life of its own, because before I can stop myself, I have her pressed up against the Lexus and I’m grinding my dick into her stomach.

Our ardour hasn’t dampened since the interruption. If anything, the adrenaline that shot through my system has got me completely wound up and on fire. Momo moans, equally as turned on as me. Her legs go around my waist and I register she hasn’t put her underwear on again, and then I’m unfastening my trousers, pulling down the zip, and she’s rolling on a condom.

I fuck her up against the car, making it rock and bounce around the garage. It’s not the perfect spot to make love to my lady, but we’re too involved now to stop.

Momo bites my ear, then laves it with her tongue. My whole body shudders against hers as her tight little pussy clenches my cock. I moan her name, lowering my head to her neck and sucking softly on the skin there. She gasps and murmurs something in Japanese.

And then I’m lying her down on the bonnet of the car and I’m kissing her chest and fondling her breasts and sucking on one of her nipples while my fingers pinch the other. The car rocks back and forth beneath us, and I’m so fucking glad the alarm’s not set, because it’d be going off by now.

Momo shifts her legs to my shoulders and now I’m really going deep, right into the very heart of her. She gasps on each plunge forward, moans on every retreat. I can’t help grunting as I seat myself completely, certain I can’t possibly get any closer to this woman, determined I’ll get closer still.

I rip open what remains of her top, baring her completely to the soft glow of light coming from the still open boot. I stare into her eyes as I rock purposefully in and out of her pussy, and then lower my head and start sucking on her tit. Her hands find my head, and she’s bucking and writhing beneath me, and the car rocks and the boot lid sways and the world comes down to just this.

I am crazy for this woman. I am out of my mind wild to be inside her. I am desperate for every touch and every moan, every sharp intake of breath. I seek them all relentlessly. I don’t stop until she is limp beneath me, satiated and flushed and completely at my mercy.

And then I make her come again.

“Finn!’ she screams and it echoes inside the garage.

I’m in heaven. On the bonnet of my car. In the garage of my bungalow. I’m in heaven.

Because I’m in Momoko.

I come on a harsh breath of air, my groan almost sounding painful. I slump down on top of her, careful to keep my weight off her body and untangle her legs from around my ears first. We pant in time with each other. The room spins around us slightly. I think I might be going a little blind.

“Wow,” I say eventually.

“Wow,” she repeats, breathless.

I don’t want to let her go.

But she’s tired, and she’s boneless, and so I carry her through the house and tuck her into my bed. Exactly where she belongs. And we whisper to each other. Silly things, like our favourite colours. Mine: Blue. Hers: Green. I tell her about Dom’s antics at University. How Drew ended up fucking a history professor at a charity event and earned himself an ‘A’ on his paper. How I lost my heart to my ex-wife and how thrilled I am that she returned it.

Momo tells me about her mother. About how fragile she is, how she won’t leave the house anymore. How she conquered her fears when they first came to New Zealand but all of the trouble with the Triads has made her return to a very dark place in her life now. She tells me how her father sits beside their bed and sings softly to her mother to send her to sleep at night.

She tells me she’s worried about her brother. Worried that his life is passing him by and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. Nothing she can do to help him. She tells me about how he’s always protected her. How when they were young, Koki used to take her by the hand and drag her everywhere. How he taught her to use nunchucks and then introduced her to her sensei, Mr Fujiwara.

She tells me of all the people she cares about. Worries over. She tells me she’s afraid for me.

Not once does Momoko tell me about her own worries. This woman is selfless.

We talk until there’s long gaps and wide yawns and then somewhere around dawn she settles into a peaceful slumber. I watch her for what feels like hours. It’s not nearly long enough.

And then I climb out of bed and get dressed. Leaning a note beside the bedside lamp, I bend down and kiss Momo good-bye. She doesn’t stir and for that I am thankful. I pull my cell phone out of my pocket as I climb into the Lexus and Eric answers on the first ring.

“Where are you going, Finn?” he says in greeting.

“Where is he now?”

“I’m not going to tell you that,” Eric replies steadily.

“But you do know,” I point out. He just huffs down the line. “Can you watch over Momo?” I say when the silence becomes too much.

“Amber’s on it.” A pause, then, “She’s special.” Not a question, but I choose to answer.

“She is my heart.”

Eric lets out a sigh, which quickly becomes a yawn.

“The Triads have been delivered a severe blow by the Auckland Criminal Investigations Bureau,” he says suddenly. “Huang Fu has been arrested. Pierce thinks the charges will stick.”

“No more shit on your bed, Finn,” Amber calls in the background.

“I don’t know what this means,” I admit. I’m a little sleep deprived and not quite firing on all cylinders. Which is why what I plan to do right now is not a good thing.

“It means that the pressure will be off Tanaka senior,” Eric advises. “So maybe Momoko can persuade her father to delay the wedding. Possibly cancel it. The Triads have bigger fish to fry right now.”

“It won’t work,” I say, rubbing a hand over my face. “There’s still the Yakuza to consider. They know where the Tanakas are now. The family is in too deep.”

“Fuck,” Eric says. “What’s your plan.”

“Sabotage Tadashi.”

“How the fucking hell are you going to do that?”

I smile and think of the hassles Momoko caused the Triads. How she had them running around in circles for six months. I just need time. Time to figure out what can be done about the Yakuza. Time to get the Tanakas out from under this cloud.

“Where is he now, Eric?” I ask again.

“Finn,” he warns.

“I’m paying ASI a tidy little sum to protect my house. To monitor it. As your client, I want that address.”

“This isn’t how it works, Finn, and you know it.”

“Don’t do anything rash,” Amber pleads in the background.

“I am the epitome of cool, calm and collected,” I counter. “I know the legal system inside and out. I can do this.”

“Let me phone Nick,” Eric says.

“Where. Is. He. Now?” I demand.

“Fucking hell. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

“Have a little faith,” I snap back.

“OK. OK. Calm the fuck down.”

“I am fucking calm. This is me calm. Where the fucking hell is he, Eric? Tell me now.”

“I’ll send you the address,” Eric says on a long sigh. “But Drake, if you get yourself killed over this and Nick cuts off my balls as punishment, Amber is going to hunt your arse down in ethereal space, or wherever the fuck lawyers end up in the afterlife, and haul your sorry butt back into ASI. Got it?”

I smile just as my cell phone dings with a text.

“Thank you, Eric.”

“Fuck off!” The line goes dead.

I don’t have a plan. I consider finding out where Momo disposed of those drugs she appropriated and framing Tadashi. But I don’t want to involve Momo more than she already is. So I just drive there. To his address in Penrose. I park across the street, not down the road out of sight, and I stare at the Ford Transit van sitting in the drive.

It’s the same one, I’m sure of it. But they all look alike and unless there’s zip-ties and masking tape inside, I can’t really be that certain about it. But my gut tells me Tadashi Ishikawa, Yakuza lieutenant, is involved with the Triads. I just don’t know why.

I get out of my car to the sound of Auckland waking on a Saturday morning. Birdsong, surprisingly, adds to the urban cacophony of sound. A horn blasts a few streets over. Something metal and industrial bangs out startling all the starlings into flight. Tadashi’s house remains quiet.

But I’m not fooled. He’s watching me. Wondering if I’ve got the balls to go inside.

I cross the street and stare into the van. It’s empty. No seats in the rear, but also no zip-ties.

I have no idea what I’m doing here, so I decide to go on the offensive. It’s worked for me before, when the chips are down and some sleazy ex is quibbling over custody entitlement or retirement funds or simply the rights of their former partner, I attack.

My fist bangs on the door, the sound echoing in time to the beat of my heart.

Tadashi opens it immediately, leans against the doorjamb, and blows a plume of smoke directly into my eyes. Nasty habit that. Gotta quit. I smile.

“Tadashi Ishikawa,” I say. “Nice van.” I nod toward the Transit.

Tadashi flicks his cigarette out onto the path and takes a step toward me. I’m forced to step back or be trodden on, and he makes it seem like all he’s doing is taking a look at the van. Not intimidating me. Yeah, right.

“It’s a van,” he says. “Why are you here?”

His cold, reptilian-like eyes stare into me, as though he can see into my very heart. He knows I love her. He knows I’m fighting for her. And he does not give a flying fuck.

“You know,” I say conversationally, my heart thundering in my veins and making it hard for me to hear my own voice. “I’ve seen this van before.”

“I get around,” Tadashi says nonchalantly.

“In High Street.”

“Is that in the city?” he asks.

He’s playing it cool. He thinks he’s in charge. He thinks I’m a nobody.

“Last time it was driven by two Triads.”

A wad of spit suddenly flies out of his mouth and lands on the footpath next to my shoe. It takes everything in me not to step away from the sight.

He swears in Japanese and then says, “Filthy beasts.”

I smile; it’s tight and unfriendly. He’s giving me nothing to fight.

“Seems a bit strange,” I say. “That you’d be driving the exact same vehicle that the Triads were driving when they tried to abduct Momoko.”

His hand comes out so quickly that I barely have time to blink, let alone get a breath of air in before he wraps it around my throat and starts to squeeze it tight.

“You do not say her name,” he snarls into my rapidly purpling face.

I try to pry his fingers away from my throat, but then he sneers and thrusts me backwards, releasing my neck as if I’m not worth the effort.

I’ve made a mistake. I know it. He knows it. He’ll deny everything.

“You are out of your league, Mr Drake,” Tadashi says. “The Yakuza do not fraternise with the Triads. This vehicle is mine. It has never been tainted by one of them and it never will be.”

He turns his back on me as if I’m no threat at all. Perhaps I’m not. Perhaps I am out of my league. But something wells inside me. Something dark and fierce and a little hungry.

I reach into my pocket and withdraw the taser. How I plan to explain this to a judge, I don’t know. But I’m desperate. All I can think of is Momoko. All I can see is this animal’s hands around her slender neck.