Chapter 24 A family affair

Karou dropped her drink hard on the bar counter. Just because her boss was going through, well whatever she was going through, didn’t mean she would have to put off her duties by laying low. Money didn’t just fall from the sky for gangsters. This was a job, just like every other job.

They didn’t get to just sustain themselves from protection money.

They carried out jobs for pretty important people that couldn’t get their hands dirty.

There was also illegal dealings.

Arms and ammunitions, drugs, and important art pieces. The whole deal. And she was the one that handled all that. Why gangsters loved to close the deals in clubs, she would never know. But she did it. She wouldn’t take a car to attract too much attention to herself. She fill the bag with what they needed, like she always did. Get dressed, and take the entrance that was meant for her.

Cars could be tailed.

If she walked, she would see anyone coming.

She had closed off the deal. Luckily they had a good dealer. The Mistress’ man. The one and only helper they could trust. Kenji.

She wondered if the situation would be the same as it was with Sachi, if she was here. She sighed. The money was in the destined account, boss said lay low. So she could act like a regular middle-aged woman for the night. Drinking, alone, at a bar.

A girl plopped down beside her noisily. Making the leather cushion make an unpleasant sound. The girl turned to her quickly. “Buy you a drink” the odd girl said.

Blonde, wearing a golden mask, on just one part of her face. She must be both young and stupid, or had daring fashion sense.

“Do I look like I am in need of your type of company?” she asked dryly, drinking from her glass again.

“Then you shouldn’t have come to the counter. You’re a magnet for attention” she answered. “A drink for the lovely lady” she told the bartender.

Karou observed the woman, her glass going to her lips again. She had on a skimpy sequin dress, with heels. It went well with the hair and mask. Her body wasn’t soft, so she visited the gym regularly, but not too much, that her body would be considered unattractive.

The woman looked just as built as her. Her arms especially.

A new drink dropped before her.

“Hope you’re not hoping to get anything out of this” she snorted, but took the drink.

“Just a dance” she grinned as she replied.

She held her liquor in her mouth for a while. Tasted normal, then she swallowed. “Why the mask? I’m not sure it’s catching on” she said.

“An accident” she waved, gulping down her drink, and then she stood up. “Let’s go”.

Sachi couldn’t believe this. She was literally dancing with a stranger. This was dangerous. Years of many close calls, would make you easily paranoid. She couldn’t really relax, even if she wanted to enjoy herself. Boss’ orders.

“Come on” she whispered taking her wrist. She almost reacted like she would to that type of surprising touch. “This club has an amazing feature” and she pulled her past the moving bodies, and to the end of a room, towards a door.

A door emitting fog and rainbow lights.

“Well I know that isn’t a bathroom” Karou laughed. She couldn’t believe it. She was tipsy, and letting a weird woman pulling her around. That wasn’t smart at all. She didn’t even know the woman’s name. Well what happened in a club, stayed in a club.

The woman opened the door, and she was pulled in easily. The door closed behind them. Inside, it was a maze of mirrors. She laughed impressed.

The girl let go of her hand, and was backing away, dancing weird.

She looked round the room, seeing hazy reflections of others that weren’t with them. “This is totally a bad place to get drunk” she said out loud following the dancing woman, deeper and deeper into the maze.

“You’re quite fun”.

The woman stopped what looked like twerking, then turned to her.

“You’re not so bad yourself, Karou” she said stepping closer.

Karou laughed. Once. Just like her boss. “I never told you my name” she had lost all humor. There was no coincidence in the underworld.

“Uh” she laughed. “Guess I guess lucky” she stopped walking.

“Too lucky” she stated. “Who…”

CLICK.

That was the family sound of a gun. Of all the times for her to be unarmed. The girl held the gun at her. She looked experienced. She knew what she was doing. This was Sachi’s fault.

“Who are you?” she asked, eyes not leaving the gun.

“You’re a proud person, you know that?” she sounded angry, but her stance didn’t change. She used her other hand to remove her mask.

Karou didn’t move as scared, multicolored skin was exposed. All squeezed, lines of brown, green, purple, red and white. She had seen worse.

“Remember me now?” she asked with a smile.

“How can I forget? I’m the one who gave you that battle scar” she teased.

Jun didn’t like that. She moved forward with purpose and pressed the gun against her breast. She smiled. “How about I repay the favor?” she suggested, pressing harder.

“So I’ve been the only one in your head for years? I’d hate to see the people you had relations with” she laughed.

“Don’t flatter yourself. This isn’t about you”.

“Then enlighten me Jun” she whispered.

“What happens when you kill a king?” she questioned, relaxing the weapon pressing against her skin.

“The empire crumbles, and its fair game” came her cold reply.

“Wrong” she corrected her excited. “The prince steps up” she leaned impossibly closer. “And he takes revenge”.

“I’m dumb” she admitted sheepishly. “Explain further”.

“You killed Takahiro, but you didn’t kill his son” she whispered. “He is not happy, and he is coming after you”.

Karou struck.

Her hand went forward, delivering a chop to the other woman’s neck. Her hold was loose on the gun. She hit her again, then took the gun, throwing it to the end of the hall, and it hit the mirror.

Jun recovered, and then they were grabbing at each other.

Karou was able to push her against the glass, and threw a punch. Jun dodged. She withdrew her bleeding hand, decorated with glass shards. Jun smiled, then shot out her foot, straight to her gut. That had her on the ground which was a good thing.

She could get away.

She crawled, while Jun ran to the other end of the hall, heading straight for the gun.

Karou was on her feet, by the door.

Jun raised the gun, then fired.

Karou closed the door at that time, as she stepped out.

She ran out of the club. She knew the boss would want to hear this.

VVVVV

A woman in a red bikini did a lap. She was as graceful as a professional swimmer.

The red shimmered and reflected in the water. Against her body. She swam towards the end, and when she got there, decided to swim back to where she had started. She used the stairs to come out, and just as she did that, a robe was hanging from someone’s fingers.

She took it gently and put it on. It was time for breakfast.

She walked round the pool, to where the pool chair was. She sat there, rest her back, then a tray, with a bowl of fruit was put by her side. With a glass of water.

So this was her life now.

Expensive living, carefree lifestyle, where she wouldn’t have to worry about constantly trying to stay alive. She could finally relax. It had taken a while, but it happened. Being the wife of Kenji had its perks. She got a front seat to any Fashion week. When she had cravings for foreign foods, she wouldn’t find that type of restaurant in her location, she would get on the private jet, then go where she wanted to eat.

Call it careless spending, but she thought she deserved that kind of special treatment for herself. She had a lot of money before, her own money, which was now for her-her former gang. But she couldn’t afford to live like this at that time.

Now Kenji wasn’t a gangster. His job was really different from hers. It started off as daddy money, then it became his money. And with that money, be bought a lot of things. Important and special things, which you couldn’t just see in a store and buy. He sold to people who would want it, and gangs. A lot of gangs, but never worked with them.

Because most of his money didn’t really come from them.

Then he began to invest. On big, special business, then he began to loan.

Han was like a helper. He had magic fingers that anything he touched, would work. And if most of those businesses happened to be gangs, he couldn’t be picky. He happened to be really young when he started it, and people saw it as a way to take advantage, but Kenji was special. In a way Sachi was.

So he was pretty young, but pretty older than her when he came by. So Kenji was pretty older than her. But that was love, she guessed. Now he was working, and she could do nothing but enjoy herself. She had years of stress, that began at a very young age, to rest of.

She didn’t see herself doing anything else. She had no other passion. She had gotten what she set out to do. Her only life goal. And now that was done, she had retired. And put things the way they were meant to be.

She began with her fruit, when they were hurried footsteps on the tiles. It wasn’t safe to run close to a pool, but it wasn’t her job to advice servants. It was to tell them what to do.

It was her phone.

She swallowed a raspberry she had been lucky to get. She took her time dropping her bowl, before she took the phone and pressed accept. She didn’t even look at the ID.

“What is it?”

“Mistress” she heard a calm voice say.

“Karou” she gestured for her bowl. “I know you didn’t just call because you missed my voice”.

“I didn’t. There’s a problem, and the big boss told me to call you”.

“And is it something she couldn’t take care of?” she asked bored.

“It seems so….and something else happened”.

“I want to know what happened with Sachi that she told you call me” she wouldn’t ignore that.

“She didn’t tell me also” she sighed. “But Red Dawn is up and about. They’re out for revenge. Seems like Takahiro had a son”.

“How didn’t we know about that?” she stopped chewing.

“We can take care of that, but boss needs you here now. She said it’s important. A family affair”.

“Sachi said that?” Megumi sat up. Bowl almost falling, but the servants were like robots.

“Yes she did” she replied dutifully. “Is there a problem?” she could hear her apparent confusion.

Megumi stood up. “I’ll be there as soon as I can” before Karou could get another word in, she ended the call, then tossed her phone to the man that had brought it. “Ready the jet!” her voice turned to official immediately. “Tell Kenji, I’ll be coming over to join him” and she made her way into the house, servants hot on her heels.

Sachi would never say that.

She would never joke with that.

If it meant, what she thought it meant, that meant he was close. Close to them at the moment. But, why now? After years had gone by? Something wasn’t right. And Karou had said Takahiro, the snake had a son.

She couldn’t just link the two together. Then again, he wouldn’t just attack like that. She had to be fast.

She dropped the robe, then stripped out of her bikini, getting into the bathroom to do a thorough clean up. Stepping out in a towel, she walked into the closet. The servants holding out various outfits for her to choose from.

Another perk of being a billionaire’s wife, she could get and wear the latest trends. No matter how ridiculous they looked. She didn’t have the luxury to go on shopping sprees. Sending gangsters to shop for you, what do you think they would bring back?

She made a random choice, then she got dressed. He was close and anything could happen at any time. The ball wasn’t in their court. They weren’t in their element. The odds were really stacked against them. If you knew the Hirose, they weren’t ever worried about anything.

But for something to get them flustered, it was serious.

“Don’t you want us to pack something for you?” one of the help asked.

“No” she replied lacing up her shoes. “Hopefully, I won’t be there for long” and she walked out of the room. There would have to take care of this fast. If she had been wiser at that time, she would have done it.

She took long strides down the stairs, out of the house, and to the car. She placed her phone on her ear, and her legs bounced impatiently.

It connected after the third ring. “Yes, my darling wife” the voice said.

“Babe” she replied. “I’m coming to you” she stated.

“On such short notice. There’s a problem” he concluded.

“Yes there is. And it needs to be taken care of now”.

“What’s the problem?” he was concerned now. Kenji was a selfless person, but he really didn’t care for others. Hearing the concern in his voice, reserved just for her, was comforting. Now she didn’t need the comfort. She needed safe action.

“The less you know the better. I’m going to meet Sachi and tie up some loose ends. If we cross paths, lucky us”.

“Is it so dangerous?” he was trying to sound like he was joking, but there was seriousness.

“Yes. Stay away from it. For me” she smiled.

“Well you’re a big girl. You always take care of everything, and this won’t be different” he assured her.

She held in her sigh.

She wasn’t so sure. She hadn’t faced an opponent as big and dangerous as she would with…him. She had heard of his work. That made her have goosebumps. And she lived on violence. She was meant to be used to it. For what she was used to, to make her shiver, it must be really grotesque.

“Of course it won’t. Just because I’m retired doesn’t mean I don’t still have it” and she just stayed there. Listening to his breathing over the phone.

“Call me when it’s all done”.

“Of course” and she ended the call.

She chased away that depressing feeling. Like she was saying goodbye. In this field of work, every day she stood a chance of it being her last day alive, but now that she was stepping into unknown territory, that seemed like it would happen.

She rest her back, making sure to hit the back of her head.

She relaxed her muscles, and took calming breaths. There was no need to be so flustered. She would be with Sachi soon.

They would take care of this like they always do.

They would finally get rid of that thorn in their side.

Something their dad should have done. She loved the man, but this was his mess. And they weren’t going to pay for it.