Instead. . .tonight. . .I might be burying my men and their families.
I should have fucking killed her this morning. Next time, I won’t make that mistake again.
Chapter twenty-nine
Tingling Bones
Nyomi
Somethingwaswrong.
I didn't know what.
I just knew it the same way I had known it as a little girl when my grandmother would go quiet at the kitchen table and start watching the front door—not lookingatthe door, just keeping it in her sightline. Some part of her soul always heard bad news coming up the road that her ears couldn't have heard yet.
That was the feeling.
One minute I'd been on Hiroko's porch with Deja, Nika, the assistants, and a snoring Zo. Weed ran thick in the air. The next, Yoichi was in the doorway with my men and explained that we should leave now.
My cart was already running outside.
I got in. “Where’s Kenji?”
“I believe he is heading to take the DNA test with Hiro and Reo.”
“Then, what’s wrong?”
“I’ve just got a gut feeling that you should head back to the mansion. My bones are tingling. I’m hoping you will humor me on this. Will you?”
I studied Yoichi’s face, using my skills from interviewing politicians, predators, grieving mothers, liars, CEOs, escorts, cops, addicts, and billionaires.
I’d learned that the mouth lied first and the eyes lied second. Real truth lived in the seams between expressions.
In word timing.
In facial tension.
In what a person tried to suppress before emotion leaked through anyway.
Yoichi had always been one of the easiest men in Kenji’s world for me to read.
Loyalty saturated him so thoroughly it reshaped the structure of his face. It existed in the stillness of him. In the way he positioned his body slightly between me and open spaces without seeming aware he was doing it. In the way his gaze checked exits, windows, shadows, and reflections. In the way he listened more than he spoke. Everything about him communicated one thing with terrifying consistency: Protect the Dragon and what belongs to him.
“Yes.” I nodded. “I’ll humor you.”
“Thanks for humoring my tingling bones. Worst case scenario will be that I have to apologize for interrupting your fun with your friends.” Yoichi climbed in beside me. “But, better safe than sorry. You’re important.”
“Thank you.”
The driver rushed us off.
I sat in the cart with my pulse climbing. "Do you always get these bone tinglings?"
"I do."
"And are they always right?"
"Yes." He turned his head slightly and scanned the trees. His fang charm caught the last of the sunlight.
