Page 92 of Grace of Spades
"Oh! Grace! Get over here!" Kennedy laughs tugging me forward under her arm and further into the kitchen where pizzas and chicken wings are set out along with my soft food diet that looks terrible in comparison. Soup, jello, pudding, and ice cream. All delicious but now all I want is pizza and wings. Ugh!
"You can't have any." Kennedy chides through a chuckle. Damn woman's a mind reader.
"I know, I'm just pining..." I sigh.
"I can make you a pizza smoothie." Liam grins leaning down to hug me.
"Ew... what is wrong with you?" Kennedy gags making me laugh. God, I need a good laugh.
"Sorry." He whispers into my shoulder. He’s not sorry at all.
"It was funny." I smile up at him. I grab a bowl of soup with a slight pout and sit beside Jai who wraps his arm around my shoulders pulling me close.
“How are you feeling?” He asks.
“Better. I’m so glad to be out of that hospital.” I sigh. The soup is delicious. Like I could expect anything different from Ruby's skills.
“Grace. We were wondering if you felt up to having that meeting since we’re all here.” Mr. Tanaka says from across the table.
“Oh um… Sure. Andras, can we use your office?” I ask turning to see him frown at The Heads but seems to make a decision.
“Of course. Follow me.” Everyone stands up including my guys. I turn to Liam, Christian, Jai and Keir with a smirk.
“This is business. Sorry, guys.” They all seem to pout, which is adorable, before Christian starts to argue.
“Technically, we are also business associates.” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“Really?” I ask folding my arms across my chest.
“Absolutely.” Keir grins down at me. Teaming up on me, huh?
“If you can act solely as Heirs, then fine. But the moment it turns personal, you have to leave.” I state looking each of them in the eye and wait for them to agree. They all seem pretty damn confident. We shall see.
“Done.” Jai beams, and we all follow Andras upstairs. He leaves us to talk with a supportive squeeze to my shoulder.
Once they're all seated in Andras' office, I take a deep breath and face the heads. I have to do this. I just hope I don’t die doing it. Especially since I just got out of the hospital.
Here goes nothing!
34
Jai
“I want to cut ties. I can’t be Ace anymore.” Grace says firmly. What? When did this happen?
“And why is that?” My dad asks. His voice is hard. He’s not my dad right now he’s the Head of the Yakuza talking to a subordinate. Shit. The last time a guy wanted to leave he did so in a body bag.
“Because I am young and need to focus my time on my future, not my past. I know you have the upper hand in this arrangement. You know who I am and how to get to me if you all need or want to.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?! You’re just offering yourself up?! No!” I shout standing up knocking my chair to the ground. Blood is pumping through my ears so hard I can’t hear anything but I see I'm not the only one objecting to this insane decision. Keir, Christian, and Liam are shouting too, and gesturing wildly. Fear plain as day in their eyes.
“Get out,” Grace says gently. Somehow I can hear her over everyone.
“What? No!” Christian looks appalled at the idea of us leaving her to our fathers’ hands.
“We had a deal. This is business. You are not treating it as business.” She states looking each of us in the eyes. Her beautiful green eyes are angry… and hurt. Fuck. I don't know what to do here.
“How can you expect us not to make this personal? We love you, you can’t just do this and expect us be okay with it.” Liam argues.
