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He can, and he will.
In a legal sense, no; Takato can’t invalidate my marriage to Gabriel. But in the eyes of the Yakuza, he absolutely can. Something cruel and cold snarls inside of me as I flash back to a few hours ago, when I finally met Orochi Ito face-to-face.
The man who had my mother killed.
The man who laughed when I tried to lunge at him, as if to tear him apart with my bare hands. The man who told me exactly how this is all going to go down.
The clans here are excruciatingly old school. To them, honor and power are more important than following the law. To the other oyabun, I’m the heir to the Mori-kai throne and my marriage to Gabriel has no meaning. Not back here in Japan, when Takato tells them it was a marriage for money and to a gaijin who isn’t even part of the Yakuza.
My relationship with Gabriel means less than nothing in this world. So, legally binding or not, when Orochi forces me to marry his nephew, it’ll be for keeps. An empire hangs in the balance and these people are not letting something as insignificant as US marriage laws stand in the way of that.
The shrine we’re at is three hundred years old, built high on a ridge looking down over Kyoto. Under any other circumstance, it would be incredible to look down at the place I lived as a small child and to have the chance to explore this city that I left when I was five.
But today, when I turn to glance back at the view of Kyoto before Takato yanks me into the interior of the shrine, I see only a prison.
Orochi and Takato have both told me as much. The Hato-kai clan has the local government in its pocket and through them, they have connections to national agencies.
The plans have already been set in motion. I’ll be given permanent resident status, then fast-tracked for citizenship. Papers bearing my signature will be filed, forfeiting my US citizenship and resigning from my job. And here I will stay, locked away like a prize while Takato and his uncle greedily gobble up the crumbs of the empire my father built.
But the worst part is going to be leaving Gabriel.
I know he thinks I hate him. I’m sure all he can see is the way I looked at him like he was a monster.
Perhaps I was blinded by the way he ripped me out of myself and forced me to embrace a darkness I was still a little scared of. Perhaps I just saw the man who likes to chase, and punish, and dominate until I’m gasping for more, and that blinded me from seeing the true monster he is until now.
But he’s my monster, and deep down, I understand what he’s done, and why.
You knew what I was.
I did. I’ve always known, even if I chose to only focus on the aspects that made me scream for more as he wrenched a dark pleasure from my soul. But if I force the self-honesty, I know that when I saw that darkness and lethality in his eyes, I knew I was looking at more than just a man who likes to play rough in the bedroom.
And I still said yes. I still asked for more. I still craved him.
I still do today.
“This way,” Takato snaps, yanking me across the interior of the shrine. The whole place is being restored, and stone dust covers everything. Scaffolding is erected on one side of the room. A cement mixer stands in another corner.
Though the majority of Japan practices Shintoism and Buddhism, in modern times, most people marry in western-style ceremonies with a minister and rings and all that. But the Yakuza are steeped in old-world tradition, and this particular Shinto shrine is apparently where all the men of the Hato-kai leadership have been married for the last hundred years or so.
“Go get him,” Takato barks at his men as he drags me kicking and thrashing toward the altar at the front. One of his men disappears from the main room and then returns a minute later with the Shinto priest in his white robes.
“Let go of me!”
I try to wrestle out of Takato’s grip on my arm. But his hand is like iron on my skin, and he doesn’t budge as he drags me through toward the priest. The man in white bows respectfully at me, but Takato snaps at him impatiently.
“Begin,” he growls.
My teeth grit as I turn to glare at him. “I know what you’re doing.”
I’ve known since we met with Orochi, who made a snide comment about Gabriel “not paying my debts”. After that, it all clicked into place.
Takato is making a power play, and he’s using me along with Gabriel’s money to make it. That five million never did get to Orochi. I’m sure Takato kept it, and told his uncle that Gabriel reneged on the payment. And he’s using me to consolidate what remains of the Mori-kai, and then use that power to overthrow his uncle and take everything.
From the hard glare on his face, I can tell I’m right.
“I only need you to have a pulse until the last men loyal to your father acknowledge my claim to his empire and take their oaths of allegiance to me.” He smiles thinly. “You would be wise to remember that.”
I glare at him, shaking my head. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”
