Page 57 of Shifting Gears

They must have taken it before things went south for her.

I placed my hand on her gravestone.

“Guess you’re finally free, like you wished you could be, baby girl.” I rubbed my hand gently over the smooth stone. “Won’t forget the things you said.”

I heard footsteps behind me, and I dropped my hand from the grave and tucked it into my hoodie pocket, sliding my fingers through my brass knuckles. I loosened my grip on them once I saw it was her sister, Sydney, coming to a stop next to me.

“Thought that was you hiding in the shadows,” she said as she folded her arms in front of her chest.

“I wasn’t hiding. Just didn’t think it was my place to be here since she was the only person who knew me.” I jerked my head toward the tombstone.

Her eyes softened. “That was probably for the best. We don’t need people asking about you. Not yet anyway.”

She sighed, then turned, beckoning me toward the exit.

“Do you have free time today?” she asked as we walked side by side down the stairs.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Great. Then come to my place. I want to talk to you some more, and we need to get a few things to prepare for stage one of my plan.”

I nodded as she walked over to her car and got in. Her sister peered over at me from the passenger seat as they left.

I went to my car and followed them. It was an easy drive to their place. The cemetery was only a few minutes away from where they lived.

We pulled in, and her sister did one more glance back at me before she made her way to their house. Meanwhile, Sydney walked over to my car, and I rolled the window down.

“Come inside my dojo for a minute,” she said as she leaned down to the open window.

I put the car in park and turned it off, not bothering to roll up the window since it was sunny out, and followed her to a large building near us.

Inside was straight out of a karate movie. Wood floor, screen doors, samurai armor along one wall with wooden swords hanging above them.

“Nice place,” I said with a chuckle as I looked around.

“Thanks. But we’re not here for you to admire the architecture,” she said.

She slipped off her shoes and walked over to a seating area in the corner of the room. I did the same and sat down across from her.

“Okay, so here’s the deal. I have a little more than a month before Kaito comes here, taking whatever he wants. So, we need to get him out of the picture before then. He expects that my sister and I are going to use all of this time to mourn Raven. He’s dead wrong. We’re going to be training. I’m going to make sure you are ready for this new fighter he has that I’ve been hearing whispers about. Apparently, he makes his last guy look like a kitten,” she said as she pulled her hair up into a bun.

“Won’t be a problem. His last fighter was a cheat. If we’re using him as a scale of skill, then his new one won’t last much longer in a ring against me,” I said.

“Don’t get cocky. I bet Kaito won’t let himself be embarrassed so easily again. That’s his domain. We should expect dirty tricks and a fighter who is strong enough and skilled enough to use them this time,” she said as she glared at me.

I smirked at her. “Baby, I’m cocky for a good reason. I’m undefeated. I’ve fought men who did some of the lowest tricks in the book to get me to lose a fight. Only one was successful, but he lost the second time we fought. You don’t gotta worry about the fight. Worry about getting the cops there without getting us arrested too.”

She said nothing for a moment, then slowly nodded.

“Don’t worry about Kaito; he won’t get away. But we need to do a couple of things to prepare for that. First of all, we need to get Kaito’s attention to even get a match with his fighter. I can’t just storm in and challenge him. He has to make the offer. And getting him to do that will take some noise in the fight circles outside of his personal ring …” She stood up and looked at me.

“So, you down to be my driver for the afternoon?” she asked.

“Sure. Just toss me some cash for gas, or you can pay me in ass, before I drive you all over the city, baby,” I said with a smirk as I stood up, holding out my hand.

She rolled her eyes but still reached into her pocket and took out her wallet, grabbing a few bills and placing them roughly in my hand. “Unbelievable. Let’s go.”

She stomped through the dojo and pulled on her shoes, leaving me behind to lace up my Air Force 1s.

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