Page 14 of Nanny and the Beast

“There are, but this is a meticulously organized plan.”

“Do we know who’s behind it?”

“We suspect that it’s the Yakuza,” he says. “There’s a small Japanese family called the Tatsunami. They accumulated sudden wealth and power in the past few years. The drugs and weapons trade is saturated in their region, so they turned to other venues instead. And if they continue with this, it will wreak complete havoc on the ecosystem.”

“What’s the plan of action?” I ask.

“Right now, the only thing we can do is wait and see,” he says. “We suspect there will be another strike soon, so we’re watching the territories.”

I take a deep breath. Many of the cases that the Resistance take up don’t have simple solutions. If it were that simple, the governments would have done something about it.

That was why the Resistance was born.

They believe in taking an eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.A life for a life.

Like the criminals who think they can get away with anything, the members of the Resistance don’t shy away from getting blood on their hands. Their justice system doesn’t shy away from violence.

I look at Alaric.

There’s a reason animal conservation is so close to his heart. And it’s not just because he has more empathy than me.

“Hey,” I say.

He glances over at me.

“If anyone can put an end to this, it’s you,” I say.

“It’s just such a helpless feeling. Like I’m just waiting for something to happen,” he says.

“Tell me about it.”

Alaric’s eyes widen. “Man, I didn’t mean?—”

“I know,” I reply quietly.

There’s one more case that the Resistance is looking into—the car accident that involved my sister and brother-in-law. The one that turned my life into a living nightmare.

We still don’t know who was behind it.

All we know is that it wasn’t an accident.

The two of us sit in heavy silence for a while, lost in our thoughts. Thinking too hard about the past or the future is suffocating, but it’s always a little earlier for me to breathe when I have Alaric beside me.

“I met a girl today,” I tell him.

He raises his eyebrows.

“Her name is Emma Turner,” I say. “She was one of the candidates for the nanny position. She was perfect for the job.”

“You turned her down?” he asks even though he already knows the answer.

“There was something about her,” I say. “I don’t know what it was, but I’ve never felt this way about another person. I just knew that there was no way I could let her live under the same roof as me.”

“I have so many things to say right now, but I know that every one of them is going to piss you off,” he says.

“But you’re going to say it all anyway, aren’t you?” I mutter.

“Today, I’ll let you live,” he replies.

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