Masaki stood at the window in his Flatlands Avenue office, looking at the passing traffic. Watching the blur of vehicles pass one by one calmed him, keeping him settled enough to piece his thoughts together.

“Boss, did you hear me?”

Masaki nodded his reply to a sitting Izzy. He’d heard every word his second had told him. The Brownsville Council was pushing for a summit to discuss a truce.

The balls of this council galled Masaki. They’d terrorized his operation for months, and now they thought they had enough power to bring terms to Masaki. If this call had come a week before, he would’ve ignored it and sent his men in on a rampage instead. But, he and Oshun had moved in together, and she needed him. Starting a war would impede his ability to be there.

She was skittish. She only brought one suitcase full of clothing with her, and she refused to put her house up for sale. He knew she was keeping it as a fall back. Her refusal to sell her home was a just-in-case-this-doesn’t-work-out sort of thing. He wanted to argue it, but, he knew if he pushed, she might bolt.

He couldn’t risk it. He could not give her cause to leave. More and more he noticed the pull this woman had on him. Her presence was enough to make him rethink everything in his life, including how he ran his business.

“Set up the meeting, Izzy. I want this finished,” he answered, his back still facing his second-in-command as he continued to gaze out of the office window.

“You sure you want to go out like this? You give these fools a sign of weakness and they’ll keep coming for you.”

Masaki turned slowly, looking at the man who’d worked beside him for years. Izzy sat in one of two arm chairs facing Masaki’s desk. He was leaning back, legs extended, crossed at the ankles, feet propped up on top of Masaki’s large wooden desk. Izzy was comfortable, too comfortable. A fact that Masaki was noticing with greater frequency over the last few weeks.

Masaki walked over to the desk, sitting next to the spot where Izzy’s feet were resting. He took one long look at Izzy’s feet, and then set his gaze on Izzy. He said nothing, just watched and waited quietly. Masaki noted the moment fear and understanding took root in Izzy’s eyes. The man swallowed deep, as he quickly his feet from Masaki’s desk.

“It’s not your job to worry about how I look, Izzy. Your job is to do what I tell you. Now, do it. Set up the meet.”

Izzy nodded his head quickly and left the room. Masaki was certain an agreed upon time would be in the making. These bastards had better be grateful Oshun had come to him in the middle of this ugliness. Without her, he’d burn every inch of this neighborhood to the ground, and watch all his enemies die with the strike of a match.

Oshun’s presence granted this council leniency. She worked in a club that sat in the middle of where the action was happening. A shift in wind direction, and the club could have been set aflame and reduced to ash like the private homes on Mother Gaston Boulevard.

When he’d seen her at the site of the fire, his body went numb with worry. What if she had been walking by that block on her way to work? What if she’d been visiting with some of the residents over there when the fire began. She could’ve been burned, or worse, killed.

A dark weight sat in his belly, spreading dread throughout his system. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to this woman on his watch.

So, if working out a truce with the Brownsville Council made him seem weak, he didn’t care. The only thing he cared about was the woman who’d slept in his bed every night this week

* * *

“You sure about this, Oshun? I don’t trust these cats. What if they try something?”

Oshun sat in the passenger seat of Aesop’s truck, and tried not to give his words too much weight. He was right. They could be walking into a trap. The Yakuza had demanded there be only four people at the meeting. The two leaders, and their seconds.

She knew agreeing to these terms left her vulnerable, but she couldn’t think about that right now. She’d moved in with a man she couldn’t completely trust until this bullshit was settled.

She’d told herself the best way to find out anything was if she was on the inside. She knew she was lying to herself even as she allowed those words to cross her thoughts. The truth was she could watch Masaki better from her current vantage point as cohabitant, but, if she were honest, she was there because being with him soothed her in a way she hadn’t experienced in quite a long time.

She’d opted out of dating a few years back, realizing there was no room for outsiders in her world. Being with her would only frustrate a man because she couldn’t share her life, or it could place him in danger because he shared ties with her. These decisions were exercises in frustration she just didn’t need, so she’d stuck to one-off hook-ups. A decision she could happily say worked very well for her until she encountered Masaki.

All her instincts told her entangling herself with him was a bad idea. But losing him, losing the way he always made her feel wasn’t something she was ready to do.

Growing up as the daughter of a gangster, being taught from the very beginning that you did what was necessary to get what you needed and wanted, she knew she didn’t deserve the kind of attention and affection Masaki bestowed on her. When your hands were covered in blood, when you had no qualms with taking a life, or indulging in the underworld as a means of survival, you didn’t deserve the kindness Masaki covered her with.

She knew she didn’t deserve it. But, she wasn’t about to let it slip through her fingers either. She was selfish, but that was nothing new. She wouldn’t apologize for it either.

Instead, she’d move forward with this treaty between the two factions. Hopefully, it would bring this pending war to an end, and her people, as well as her heart would be safe from the threat currently looming over their heads.

“I know that, ‘Sop.” She rubbed her hand at the base of her neck, attempting to rid it of the tension building as they neared the meeting spot on Linden Boulevard and Seventy-Eight Street.

“The diner has always been neutral ground, but there’s only one way in and out of it. I don’t know if I like it.”

It was true. The diner at the end of Linden had always been considered a hands-off place. You could eat and drink with your crew, but no hustling could take place on the premises. Most factions adhered to that. Unfortunately, the Yakuza hadn’t been in the area long enough for her to determine if they’d play by the established rules or not.

Aesop slowed down, pulling into the dim parking lot of the diner. She opened her door, and walked around to where Aesop stood on the driver’s side.

“‘Sop, we don’t have time to worry about all that.”

She grabbed the handle of her gun making sure it was secure in the holster attached to the back of her pants. Satisfied it was fastened, she pulled down the loose shirt she wore to cover the metal bulge.

“You got your piece. I got mine. If some shit pops off, we handle it, just like we always do. You and I have tamed this land. Ain’t no way we can’t get this newbie on the scene under control. You wit’ me?”

Aesop nodded his head and lead the way up the few steps to the diner. To anyone on the outside looking in, Aesop appeared to be an inconsiderate fuck walking ahead of his girl. In reality, he was clearing a path for her, making certain no harm met her before it met him.

When he was reasonably certain the walkway didn’t possess an ambush, he opened the door, stepped through it, and then held it open for her to do the same. Once inside, he followed the hostess to the private room in the back, and Oshun kept pace behind him.

Once inside the private dining room, she continued to stand behind Aesop. When he deemed it safe, she’d step from behind him and walk to their target.

An Asian man, a head shorter than Aesop, stood in front of her companion and talked for a brief moment. Aesop turned around, still crowding her in the small doorway and pointed to her.

“Oshun, this is Izzy. Izzy, Oshun.”

The man wore dark shades inside the dimly lit room. She wondered if he could even see out of those sunglasses. He dipped his head in acknowledgement of the introduction before turning his back to them. He beckoned them with a curled finger.

He walked them through another door, toward a table in the back of the room. When they finally came to a halt, the human wall Izzy and Aesop created in front of her parted, and allowed her to lay eyes on the lone man sitting at the table.

Familiar full lips, tanned skin, and coal eyes stared back at her, making her heart race with a thickened mixture of anger and fear.

“Oshun,” she heard Aesop’s voice calling through her loud heartbeats pounding in her ears. “This is Masaki, the leader of the Canarsie Yakuza family.”

She watched as Aesop extended a hand to the man, giving him a friendly dap before continuing his introduction. “Masaki, this is the leader of the Brownsville Council, Oshun.”

There was an awkward silence in the room. Neither of them saying a word, their eyes locked on one another, forgetting about their business companions who were now standing on either side of Oshun.

“Izzy, ‘Sop,” Masaki called to the two men standing beside her, but kept his eyes fixed on hers. “Please leave the lady and I to discuss things amongst ourselves.”

Aesop leaned down and whispered quietly in her ear, “You wit’ it?”

She nodded, giving him permission to take his leave. Aesop stood still next to her, looking back and forth between she and Masaki.

“I promise no harm will come to her in my company, ‘Sop.”

With that, Aesop took his leave. She remained standing in front of the table uncertain of what to say. She’d never wanted to find this, had given herself every excuse in the book for why Masaki’s company would be involved with the Yakuza. All the excuses except for the one answer sitting in front of her now.

“I guess I understand now why you gave me such a hard time about moving in.”

She yanked the chair out from under the table, and sat down in it.

“Was this a setup all along? Were you playing me this whole time? Was this just about taking over my community?”

He leaned forward quickly, planting his forearms on the table as he glared at her.

“If I had known who you were…,” his voice trailing off, leaving her to wonder what the other end of that thought was. Would he have walked away from her? Could he have? She’d been trying to loosen his hold on her since they’d met three months ago. Would it have been so easy for him to cut his losses and move on?

“This was not my doing, Oshun. I didn’t know, but I have a feeling you did. You’ve been jumpy as hell since I found you at the scene of the fire. You even attempted to cut me loose. Was it because you knew who I was?”

She shook her head. “I suspected you had some kind of involvement with the Yakuza when you told me you owned AAM. I thought they might be using you for a front. I didn’t think you were actually running the damn organization.”

They sat quietly in their chairs, both seeming at a loss for the right words to deal with this situation.

“What do we do now, Masaki? How do we move on from here?”

She was proud of the even control of her voice. It surprised her. If he could sense the tremors cresting and crashing on her insides, he’d have known how afraid she really was.

This man could ruin her and her community. The worst part was she’d given him the ammunition.

“I can’t let you destroy my community by bringing drugs and violence back into its borders.”

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” he snapped. The sharp tone forced her to focus on him, instead of the mounting apprehension swirling in her gut. “I don’t deal in the drug trade. It’s too risky, and the officials I have in my pocket wouldn’t be able to remain loyal to me if I dealt in drugs.”

She assessed him carefully, hoping to see if she’d learned enough about him to know when he was lying or not. His eyes were focused steadily on hers, his words were direct, and his breath even.

He wasn’t lying.

Then what the hell is this all about?

“Oshun, drugs are not my family’s business.”

“What exactly is your family’s business then?” Her question drew a crooked smile from him, making her pulse quicken. Here they were, engaged in a conversation that could impact the lives of thousands, and he still found the time to be so damn sexy it made her blood bubble with desire.

“That’s something only family should know. Don't you think?”

She eased back in her chair, attempting to process the unfolding events. She’d somehow missed the fact that her lover was the head of an enemy faction, and now the reason she thought they were about to go to war seemed nonexistent. None of this made much sense.

“If I’m to be completely honest, Masaki,” she answered, “I don’t know what to think.”