It hadn’t been an easy trip home, but she’d finally made it. She had a new appreciation for her passport and clean travel records. Her least favourite part had been bribing a dirty transport official into letting her cross the border between Russia and China in a smelly chicken truck.
Getting into Japan, though, had been the hardest part. Crime was extremely low and finding a dirty cop or official nearly impossible. She’d had to rely on an old retired assassin friend to hide her on a fishing boat and sneak her through customs. The Master had sent a car for her once she was on Japanese soil, so at least she had been able to travel in luxury to the compound outside of Osaka.
Now she was home and anxious to see her beloved Jin. The gates of the compound opened easily to her, welcoming her into the only home she had ever known besides her apartment in King Tower. The Master walked toward her, his back straight, face giving away no emotion. He looked ageless, the same as he did the day he found her on the bottom of the closet hiding with her mother.
“Daughter,” he said gravely, looking her over, taking in her exhausted form.
She nodded at him and replied, “Master.”
The day Dana had committed suicide by jumping off the Eastern wall of the compound had been the last day Laney had called the Master father. She didn’t know if her lack of familial feeling toward him bothered him. He rarely showed emotion, except for that day, when he’d held Dana’s broken body and raged. That was the only time she had seen her father cry. It had also been the day after he had sent Laney on her first assignment. Her first kill. Laney had been twelve. She supposed they both now lived with the guilt of what that had done to Dana. In their own way.
He reached out and touched her arm for the barest of seconds before stepping away from her. He turned on his heel and headed toward the housing section of the compound. “Come, you will want to change before meeting.”
Laney ran to catch up with him. “I want to see Jin,” she said quickly, trying to make her voice sound less demanding.
He sighed impatiently. “In time, you will see her. For now, you will wash yourself and then come to me in the great hall where you will explain how you ended up in Russia.”
Laney opened her mouth to argue, but remembered where she was and with whom. One did not argue with the Master. Years of beatings instilled that much obedience into her. She nodded swiftly and entered the women’s dorm. He turned away and left her alone. Laney sighed and opened the sliding door to her old room. It was untouched and austere as always.
There were few-to-no women in the clan compound. Married Yakuza tended to live elsewhere. Laney’s existence there had been a tough, lonely one until Jin. Of course, she had not been allowed to see Jin often, but when they had been allowed together it had been like rainbows and sunshine. Like what life on the outside could really be life. Like the glimpse of life she had gotten in America. If she got a chance she would take her Jin to America and introduce her to all of her friends, especially Addison. Addison would love Jin and treat her like the special person she was. Maybe not Anya though, Jin did not need to learn things from Anya.
Laney showered under the cold spray of her old shower stall and dressed quickly in grey yoga pants and a white T-shirt. She knew when the Master said he was expecting her that he didn’t mean for her to be long. She pulled her straight hair back into a ponytail and hurried out the door. Perhaps once the meeting was over he would allow her to see Jin.
As she hurried across the compound toward the great hall, she felt the first splashes of raindrops touch her. She smiled a little to herself and inhaled, enjoying the scent of rain. It smelled like freedom. It always had. She could smell the ocean far below where the buildings sat strategically on a cliff.
She entered the great hall and found her father sitting on a mat. She bowed to him, sat opposite him and prepared for a lengthy interview. It was exhausting to keep the lies straight. She did her best to tell the truth at all times and only lie when she had to. She described how Boris had drugged her, leaving out the part where she had been unable to bring herself to kill him. The Master grunted and seemed willing to accept her story.
When she described the events in Russia, she simply reversed Boris and Dimitri’s roles, making it sounds as though Boris had dragged her out to the hunting lodge where she had finally shot him. She described the entire incident in detail, which seemed to satisfy the Master.
“You have done well, child,” he announced. “I will get in touch with our employer and have him transfer the rest of the money.”
Laney held her breath, heart hammering. That was going to be a problem. She would have to find a way to get away from the compound with Jin before he discovered it was actually their employer that she murdered and not the mark.
“May I… may I see Jin now?” she asked hopefully.
He eyed her and then nodded. “Of course. I am a man of my word.”
Laney held a snort of derision in and nodded gratefully instead. She stood eagerly and waited as the Master sent one of his men to fetch Jin. Her heart raced as she heard Jin approach, chatting excitedly with her nanny. Her little head popped around the corner first and then her eyes lit up in excitement when she caught sight of Laney.
“Mama!” she yelled and launched herself at Laney.
Tears sparkled in Laney’s eyes as she swept her five-year-old daughter up and held her tightly against her chest. The girl squirmed in her arms, trying to get closer to the mother she hadn’t seen in seven months except for quick FaceTime calls when the Master allowed. She chattered excitedly until the Master snapped at them to leave his presence.
Laney placed a gentle hand over Jin’s lips and asked pleadingly, “May she spend this one night with me?”
Her heart ached as she waited for his answer. She could count on two hands the amount of times the Master had allowed Laney to keep her daughter overnight. It nearly killed her each time to have to let the little girl go, but she did it for Jin’s safety, knowing what would happen to both of them if she disobeyed.
After a long pause, he finally nodded. “You may,” he said. “The bounty on Grekov was worth millions. You did well for your family, daughter.”
Lowering her eyes, Laney nodded and turned away. She carried her daughter out of the great hall with the nanny walking silently beside them. This nanny was a new one that Laney hadn’t met before. The Master replaced them often so Jin wouldn’t get attached and form a bond. He also didn’t want Laney conspiring with Jin’s caretakers. This one was silent, but seemed competent enough. She was quick to gather anything Jin might need for an overnight visit.
Laney took the small, pink backpack with a tight smile and bade the nanny goodnight before taking Jin by the hand and leading her back to the women’s quarters. Jin chattered nonstop. It made Laney’s heart feel good to hear her daughter speak in a free and happy manner. It meant the Master stayed out of Jin’s life for the most part and that somehow Jin was growing to be a somewhat normal child, despite the less than ideal circumstances of her childhood.
Laney listened to Jin for over an hour until the girl was yawning widely and her eyes were drooping. Then she helped her daughter get ready for bed. Each task she helped Jin perform made her heart sing with gratitude. She so rarely got to perform them. She ran the brush through Jin’s straight, black hair longer than she needed to, but the little girl didn’t seem to mind.
“Can you tell me a bedtime story, mama?” Jin asked, her light brown eyes glowing with curiosity as she snuggled beneath the blankets.
Laney slid into the bed beside her and gathered the small body close into the shelter of her arms. She kissed the downy softness of Jin’s hair and smiled.
“Of course, my darling,” she said softly. “Once upon a time there was a beautiful, young, super talented assassin who was minding her own business when along came a giant, scary Godzilla monster all covered in tattoo markings. Godzilla kidnapped her and took her on his massive ship where he forced her to cross the ocean with him. He snarled and raged and generally scared the beautiful young woman. She would have assassinated him, but she realized something about him.”
“What, mama?” Jin asked, yawning widely.
“That Godzilla only snarled because he loved the beautiful assassin and was scared that someone might take her away. He was really a giant softy inside. The more she got to know him, the more she realized that she loved him too and never wanted to leave him either. But one day the evil Mothra came along and snatched the beautiful assassin right out from under Godzilla’s nose and flew her away from him. Mothra took the assassin and put her high up in his tower where she couldn’t get out!”
“I saw this movie, mama! I saw Godzilla and Mothra,” Jin said excitedly.
“What?” Laney exclaimed, sitting up and putting her hands on her hips. “What exactly are your nannies letting you watch around here?”
Jin giggled and pulled on Laney’s arm until she lay back down beside her. “It was the guys that let me watch after nanny went to bed,” she admitted with a yawn. “Please tell me the rest of the story. I want to know what happens next.”
Laney nodded. Unfortunately, Jin’s disclosure was eerily similar to her own upbringing. “Then Godzilla came along in all of his raging, snarling glory to tear apart the tower and rescue his beautiful assassin. When Mothra flapped his giant wings and tried to intervene, Godzilla took him apart piece by piece and then threw the pieces far out into the ocean for daring to lay a finger on his woman.”
“I don’t buy it,” Jin announced, leaning up on her elbow and eyeing Laney with sleepy eyes.
Laney burst out laughing and raised an eyebrow at her precocious five-year-old daughter. “What don’t you buy, chipmunk?”
“Well, supposedly the woman was an assassin, right? Why didn’t she just assassinate either of those guys or both of them and rescue her own self?” Jin demanded.
Laney’s jaw dropped then she burst out laughing and hugged Jin to her chest. Setting her daughter away from her, she put her hand up. “Damn right, my darling girl. High five to that!”
Jin giggled and slapped her mom’s hand. “Mama, nanny says we shouldn’t swear!”
Laney settled Jin back into the bed and smoothed the covers up to her small chin. “She’s probably right, my darling. I’m just rusty at the mom thing.”
“You’ll get better,” Jin whispered closing her eyes.
Laney smiled and pressed her lips against Jin’s forehead. “Yes, I will. I’m never leaving you again, baby girl.”