Page 84 of Crossed By the Stars
“I’ll take it off before I go,” I said, but I was trying to figure out a way to latch it to my bra or hook it inside the kimono.
Kaida appeared at the door without knocking, a statement of how far she’d risen in my father’s organization. How much he trusted her.
“Wakagashira-sanis here,” she said. TheWakagashirawas my father’s lieutenant—the position that Ken’Ichi Matsuda had once filled. I had no idea who’d replaced him, because I hadn’t wanted to know and hadn’t been around to see it.
My father gave a curt nod, but before Kaida could open the door, my cousin walked in. Even after my father had mentioned him several times in the last week, I was still surprised to see Isamu Yano. He was two years younger than me, and the last I’d heard, he was at Harvard. I hadn’t seen him since he was a teenager, and he’d grown taller and fuller since then. His black hair was slicked back, and his brown eyes glimmered behind a set of dark-rimmed glasses. His suit was as expensive as my father’s and fit his frame in a way that screamed it had been designed just for him.
The two of us had never been close since the Yanos had wanted nothing to do with the Moris any more than the Armauds had. He glanced my way as he entered, not nearly as surprised to see me as I was to see him. He took in the kimono with narrowed eyes and then inclined his head at me. “Mori-san.”
I returned the greeting, “Yano-san. How was Harvard?”
“Uneventful. Working forOyabunis definitelymore interesting,” he replied, and I snorted. That was one way of explaining it. Isamu’s lips turned upward but then went away as he turned to my father with the same inclined head greeting he’d given me. “Yamasaki-san flew in last night with his wife. She will be at thechakaitoday.”
Osamu Yamasaki was my father’s chief advisor. He’d been guiding my father since I was a little girl and was someone my father trusted implicitly. IfOtosanwas gathering the highest-rankedKyodainamembers in San Francisco, it meant something big was happening. It seemed ridiculous to think a simple tea ceremony was going to help any of it.
But the fact that Osamu’s wife, Hina, was going to be there was even more of a reason for menotto be the honored guest. Hina was considered my better, not only because of her age but because she was like the Princess of Wales of theKyodaina. She was the next in line behind my mother, whereas I was the disgraced daughter who’d betrayed the entireKyodainafamily. Placing me in the first position at thechakaiwould be an insult to her and everyone there.
My father had said I was the bait. The irritant. The catalyst for today’s events. This would definitely unhinge those who believed in the honor of the tea ceremony and the organization.
“I want to know what’s going on,” I said. My best chance of getting out of this alive was to not go in blind. “Which one of them is coming after me?”
Isamu looked from my father to me. Silence was the only answer I got.
“Kaida will be with you,”Otosanfinally replied.
I rolled my eyes. “No offense, but Kaida is as likely to have me sent to my death as anyone else there.”
Kaida made a strangled noise from the doorway, but when I looked over, her face was a blank mask that she’d perfected by watching my father who was an expert at it.
“Kaida did not send the notes,Musume,” my father said, and he looked tired again, older than I’d ever seen. The lights in the office did even less to hide his age than the dim lights of the plane.
“You’ve been wrong before,” I told him.
He stared at me, jaw ticking, as I challenged him in front of the others. Yet another way I would never be the daughter he’d hoped for. In truth, he’d probably been disappointed to have a daughter at all. A son would have been better. Isamu’s position suddenly made more sense. If a daughter couldn’t take over the organization, a nephew certainly could.
Kaida put a hand to her ear and then looked from me to my father with surprise that she quickly hid. “Armaud is here.”
Even though I’d known he would follow, the reality of it made my heart soar and plunge all at the same time. He hadn’t cut and run. He hadn’t abandoned me to the wolves. But in doing so, he’d put himself in danger.
My father rose from his desk, closing the distance between us. He grabbed my wrist and pulled off the bracelet. His suspicions about the jewelry from minutes before were confirmed.
“If you intend to keep him from being harmed, you must get him to leave,Musume,” my father said. He stared at me for a long time, trying to impose his will as he had my entire life.
It filled me with the same fury it had since I was fifteen, but I was more collected now than when they’d first taken me from Vanya’s. My emotions were hidden again.
I nodded, knowing it was what he expected but silently making a plan. I had secrets my father didn’t know. Secrets only Dax would.
My father turned to Kaida and inclined his head in silent agreement to let Dax in.
He must have been held on the ground floor, because it took him longer to show up than I’d expected. The entire time, the pace of my heart increased, getting louder and faster in my head, growing until I thought it would consume me in a way that everyone in the room would be able to see and hear.
Finally, the door opened, and there he was, looking wildly disheveled. Hair as askew as it had been when he’d run down the steps at Vanya’s with fear in his eyes. The only difference now was that he was dressed. His carefully tailored tan suit threaded with gold and burnt umber was even more impressive than either Isamu’s or my father’s. He looked like royalty much more so than the other two men in the room. He was taller than Isamu by at least a head and topped my father as well. He was built and muscled in a way that turned my knees weak.
The relief in his eyes on seeing me was replaced with concern as he eyed me from top to bottom in the kimono.
“Where’s Cillian?” I asked, breathless, hoping Dax hadn’t done something stupid and come here on his own.
“At the elevator and pissed as hell. Let’s go,” he said, a command that normally would have angered me but today lit my heart with joy because I understood where it was coming from. Love. He wanted me safe. He wanted me away from the den of wolves.
