Page 115 of Vicious Knight

I glance at him but say nothing.

“She’s also the only girl you haven’t spoken about and the one you’ve been linked to the longest.” He nods as if that should give his deduction more weight. “Clearly you like her.”

“Yes.”

At first he gives me an amused smile, but then the smile fades and morphs into his usual serious expression. “What are you going to do? My father will be arranging your marriage contract any day now.”

“I know. And… I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

“I fought my father tooth and nail to be with Willow,” he says with reflection, and I remember all he went through.

Caspian impressed the hell out of me. I didn’t know he could love anybody the way he loves Willow.

Aleksander hated her because she knew his wife was cheating on him with her father and kept it a secret. She could hardly be blamed because she was ten years old when she found out. Aleksander made it his duty to make her life hell, including forbidding Caspian to see her.

He only allowed Caspian to marry Willow because he was interested in getting the Raventhorn fortune. As the sole heir she got everything after her parents died. Caspian’s marriage to her took our wealth way above what we could achieve in this lifetime, but Aleksander still did all manner of things to screw with her.

“You’ve come a long way,” I say, looking him over.

“So have you.”

“My situation is different.” I can’t even tell him all the ways it is.

“There may come a time when it won’t be.”

“I’m not sure I have a choice. At least not yet.”

“Let’s see what happens.”

I give him a curt nod. Five minutes later we arrive at the club.

There’s a big match going on. The place is packed with a roaring crowd cheering for the fighters in the ring who are both giving all they have.

I spot Kai across the room, standing by the bar talking to one of his workers.

He’s a tall, wiry man with a shaved head and a tattoo of a panther inked on the right side of his face. His head and neck have more tattoos of swords and Japanese symbols.

He sees Caspian and I and waves us over.

We approach him and he greets us with a cunning grin. He’s the kind of fucker you know not to trust or mess with.

“Hello, Ivanovs, arms out,” Kai instructs in his cultured Japanese accent. “I hope you don’t take offense to a quick search.”

“Of course not.” I give him a thin smile and glance at Caspian before I lift my arms.

Two bulky guards who look like Sumo wrestlers step forward and search us for weapons. We don’t have anything on us but that doesn’t mean we came unprepared.

You never can tell when meetings like these might go south. That’s why our guards are hidden away outside just in case we need them.

In any event, if shit went down in here we’d use their weapons. My patience is already non-existent, so if Kai fucks with us, I would personally fuck him up so bad he’d need to be identified by his dental records.

“All clear,” the biggest guard says once he’s finished checking us.

Kai’s smile widens. “Follow me.”

He leads us through a set of wooden doors which takes us away from the noise of the crowd. Then we walk into a washitsu room. Decorated with the traditional Japanese sliding doors and bonsai trees, it looks completely out of place with the rest of the club.

“Please take a seat.” He points to the tatami mats on the floor with a rattan table and handwoven futons on either side of it for us to sit on.

---