Page 42 of Secrets & Sake

“Do you want to?” I’d like to hear him say it out loud.

I feel him shrug. “I can’t. I have a debt to Namikawa. And even if I didn’t, the moment you get your tattoos, you’re in this for life. I’ll never get work anywhere else, not when my past is tattooed all over my skin.”

“In Japan, maybe. But what if you went somewhere else? Like America?”

Raiden sighs, breath tickling my hair. “I’ve killed people. There’s no normal life for someone like me.”

I squeeze his arm. “But if you could?”

“No.” His voice is a warning, but a half-hearted one. “I can’t.”

“Okay. Then can you tell me about your debt to Namikawa?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

I roll onto my side, facing him. Our noses are inches apart, his breath warm against my lips. “Try me.”

He parts his lips, and the longing in those dark brown eyes takes me by storm. “You wouldn’t get it.”

I clench my jaw against the frustration. He won’t even try to tell me. Every time we’re getting close, there are still so many secrets keeping us apart. My secrets. His. I’m sick of it.

“If you tell me, maybe I could help you?” I feel silly just saying that, but I mean it. I would help him, if I just knew how.

Raiden strokes my hair from my face. “I’d go away with you if I could.”

Something in my heart eases at his confession. I fold him into my arms and hold him tight. At first, his arms are stuck at his side, then, ever so slowly, they wrap around me and draw me into the warmth of his body.

“I know,” I tell him, and I don’t let him go, even after his gentle snores fill the quiet of the room.

When I wake up, Raiden is gone, but he’s left a blanket draped over me while I sleep. The rain has stopped and in the quiet, I catch the faint sound of Raiden’s voice coming from the bedroom. He’s talking to someone. My heart crawls into my throat. Quietly, I get off the couch and wrap the blanket around me. My bare feet whisper over the floor. Raiden’s voice gets clearer, and I realize the door is ajar.

Holding my breath, I peer through the slit in the door.

Raiden paces in front of the window, phone in hand.

Namikawa’s weathered voice asks, “Is the prey prepared?”

Prey? My heart skips at the unusual choice of words.

“Yes, boss,” Raiden answers. “It will be a good hunt.”

A hunt… the word sends a shiver down my spine.

“Excellent. Will you be there? It’s been some time since we all ran together.”

“I’ll join you soon.”

Raiden hangs up. I dart into the bathroom across the hall and linger long enough to flush the toilet and run the faucet so he thinks I was actually doing something instead of creeping around his house.

“Hey,” I say, keeping my tone light as I approach him in the living room. He’s pulling on his jacket. “Going somewhere?”

“Yeah, Sunshine. Gotta work. Make yourself at home. I won’t be back for a while.”

That’s a lie. He just lied to me. Why?

“Okay…” My stomach churns when he drops a quick kiss on my cheek and walks out. Silence rings in my ears.

A full moon. A hunt. Prey.

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