KANO
If they thought I’d stay here, knowing my sister is out there fighting for her life, when I’m surrounded by police, the family, and various other insistent assholes, they were wrong. I’ve lived this life of never asking, never waiting for permission, and deciding my own fate. No one here will stop me from hobbling back to that hospital.
I’d sent the chopper I rode in on back to the city with the Crown’s, but the second helo is due back anytime now. Texting Jacob, our full-time pilot, I tell him to be ready.
Doctors told me I wasn’t allowed a shower to wipe off the grime or the reminders of my uncle’s dishonor, but I sure as shit wasn’t being told I couldn’t change my clothes.
Putting on pants would be a chore with the stitches and pain, so I opted for a dress. Gathering up the crutches, step-hopping back out to the landing pad, I start up the stairs. In theory, it looks awkward, but in reality, it’s a fucking bitch. I must have cursed every muscle movement as I hobbled up one riser at a time. Reaching the pad, Jacob was there waiting with the engine in slow motion. Gathering my crutches in quick motion, he picked me up. Carrying me to the awaiting ride was not quite what I expected, but I won’t turn it down.
Once we’re settled with me in the back and him in the pilot’s chair, I turn on my headset. This is the smaller of our two choppers. It lacks the creature comforts of style and silence. This is less Airforce One and more crop duster, but who gives a crap if it gets me back to the hospital and to my sisters.
What she did today was beyond heroic in my book. Kaori has only just come back into our lives. She doesn’t know us, or what our lives have been like. She put her life that she’d built on hold as soon as she was commanded to come back to Japan. Am I stupid? No. I know the reason as to why she came back. They coerced her with our eminent nuptials. Father, or asshole who may not be named, had pimped us out to two men from the family. He would have rather wed us off for position than care for our futures. He had no idea what either of us wanted, who we were growing up to be, or what we wanted for our futures. That’s the shit stick of being born into the Ryu Yakuza family; our lives didn’t matter.
As the chopper starts to rise, Jacob cuts in. “I don’t have to ask, do I, Kano?”
“Nope. You don’t.” He’s known for a while what was happening within family. We all knew that something would eventually give.
“Will you need assistance again?”
“More than I want to admit,” I murmur.
He laughs into the mouthpiece. “I’ll help you, Kano.” Lifting off the ground, we head toward Osaka. “We won’t be long. I already informed the hospital to expect us on the pad. Unless there’s an emergency chopper coming in, we’ll land without issue.”
“You can just leave me with my crutches, I’ll get down to my sisters. It’ll just take me a bit of time. You don’t have to stick around.”
“Think of it as Star Wars. I’ll piggyback you like Yoda.”
“That’s a visual.”
“Well, someone has to help you. You looked pretty awkward hobbling up those stairs. I can just imagine down.” Pausing, controlling the helo, Jacob cuts back in. “Where’s Muki? Shouldn’t he be here helping?”
Wow. I’ve been so worried about my sister that I forgot about what he did. When Hiro showed up with Taka, that big, stupid brute, I wondered why he wasn’t by Miori’s side. It made no sense to me. Obviously, it didn’t make sense to Muki either. He may have been a big oaf to others, but I found him sweet, attentive, a great friend, and a warm body when needed.
What would you expect when he’s been my bodyguard for close to five years, and he’s only two years older? He may have been built like a brick shithouse, and toed the company line when necessary for me, but he wasn’t a yes man of my father or uncle. I appreciated how often he swayed their decisions regarding me.
And Taka shot him point blank in my room. Walking in behind Muki, Taka raised the gun, fired, and didn’t even blink.
They knew. They knew he wasn’t their tool. Wiping away a tear, I think about the situation that we’re in now. I need all the strength I can muster for my sister. Later, I can cry my eyes out for my friend, but when we land, she’s my only priority.
Kaori couldn’t have flown all the way home just to die because of us.
Life couldn’t be that unfair, could it?