Page 28 of Brutal Union
My smile stretches wider, a flash of teeth and memory. The first time I met Aoi, I had just put a bullet between the eyes of my first target in Osaka. I was cocky, careless—still drunk on the rush of my kill, and the pride of running back to my father with the evidence of my success, when she pinned me to the concrete like a goddamn ghost. Her knee pressed against my throat, a blade tucked against the soft skin below my jaw.
After cursing me about killing on her territory, she looked me over and said I wastoo cute to kill.
Most people, less masochistic people would’ve killed me. She didn’t. She taught me instead—taught me how to kill without blinking, how to breathe through blood and silence and guilt. She carved out the small traces of the boy my father had left in me, and replaced it with the killer my father always wanted. If I had continued in the Yakuza, there was a possibility that Aoi would have been my right hand, or if my father had his way, my wife.
“You’re only territorial when you're bored,” I mutter, leaning against the smooth rocks on the other side of the waterfall.
“And when I like what I have claimed,” Aoi counters, reaching for a silk robe draped over a nearby stone. She slips it on, thecrimson fabric settling around her shoulders as she crosses her arms under her breast. I keep my eyes on hers.
I tilt my head, studying her. The wind catches her silk sleeves, the crimson fabric fluttering like blood in water. Aoi is not someone I can afford to have as an enemy when I am trying to take down the entire Yakuza—every inch of her is a weapon. She killed her pseudo- father after she found out he was actually an uncle who kidnapped her, for the selfish gain of his own criminal empire, and that was at the age of twelve. She wouldn’t blink an eye if she had to kill me, cute or not.
“I cannot be claimed.” I reply.
Aoi steps closer, and her smile is all teeth now. “So you say.”
I watch as she takes a step forward, humming as she trails a finger along my chest, just over the scar she gave me during training. “And now you’ve got a girl who’ll do it for me. How romantic.”
I catch her wrist before her hand can dip lower, holding her gaze. “She’s not just a girl. She ismygirl. And she’s pretty ruthless when she’s annoyed. I’d hate to see her jealous.”
I would love to see my Nadia jealous.
“You don’t want to see me jealous,” Aoi murmurs, her eyes gleaming with that same feral glint she used to get right before slicing someone’s throat open. She leans in, the air thick between us.
I chuckle low in my throat, my fingers tightening around her wrist. “You don’t want me to kill you, Aoi.”
She blinks once, lips parting like she’s about to rip my head off.
“Ore no koneko-chan!” Kenji’s voice echoes across the spring, and my lips curl at the timing.
Aoi’s face shutters into something pleasant, but I see the irritation coiled tight beneath her lashes.
“This isn’t over,” she whispers, voice like silk pulled taut over glass. Then she straightens with a sudden bright smile and chirps over her shoulder, “Hai, Kenji-sama! Ima ikimasu--”
I smirk as she walks away, heels clicking with venomous grace. She’s still the same Aoi. Still sharp, still manipulative, still dangerous.
And if she so much asthinks of breathing nearNadia—I’ll rip her heart out and leave it on Kenji’s goddamn desk. Will that expedite my plan? Sure, but will she learn her lesson? Absolutely. A final one.
I am already fishing my phone out of my pocket before the thought finishes.
I flick to the tracking app—there.
A red dot pulses gently on the map, nestled in the upscale residential district I dropped her in. Home. Safe. At least for now. The leather jacket I gave her last week was lined with more than satin—it carries a discreet little gift stitched beneath the collar.
She doesn't know yet. Or maybe she does. She’s clever like that.
I emerge from beneath the waterfall, water trailing down my skin in slow, silver ribbons. The cold bite of the mountain spring clings to me, but my veins run molten. I climb back onto the slick stone ledge, muscles coiled, breathe steady, and settle intoa crouch like a predator at rest. The night hums around me—crickets, distant thunder, the ghost of a war I haven't started yet.
I drag a dripping hand through my hair, and pull my kimono tighter against my body. If Kenji is alone with Aoi, he’ll be dead by the morning, and with one man gone. I want to celebrate by seeing my girl.
8
NADIA
“I thinkyou can do better than that,Hime,” Sho chuckles, his head lolling to the side as blood cascades in slow, glistening rivulets down the ridges of his chest.
I’m in the corner of the room—half-shadow, half-devil—wiping the blood off a slender blade with slow, practiced strokes. A smile curls at my lips as another groan rolls through the space, sharp and needy, echoing off the concrete walls.
“I think you’re a glutton for punishment,” I murmur, amused, as I glance at the screen again. Even now—watching this video back, alone in my dark Manhattan townhouse—I feel the heat coil low in my stomach.
