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Then, as if on cue, as I sit at the bar and watch Aoto and his son take the hands of a couple of strippers and lead them to the bedroom, in walks my associate. I can tell by the stern expression on his face that he has nothing but bad news to tell me.
“Hiroshi!” he says, and he doesn’t need to say more than that.
I follow him with urgency because this can only mean one thing. The teacher I hired to teach Leticia Japanese wants revenge. I asked Carlos, who referred Hiroshi to me, why he introduced such a guy. Like myself, he was part of an arranged marriage, and he said that once you have a taste of a Japanese woman, it’s hard to let go. He’s addicted to the lifestyle here and comes here as much as possible. Carlos said that most American women like his Japanese chorizo. I wish he’d explained this part of the story to me before he recommended Hiroshi. So, like American women and their tennis coaches, in Japan, it was their Japanese teacher giving them an extra type of lesson. When I told Carlos I wanted my wife to learn Japanese, he couldn’t understand it.
Neither can I, now that I look back at it. Nothing about anything I’ve done when it comes to Leticia makes any sense. She’s right, I crowded her in a corner to show her who was boss,to make her feel like she has to go the extra mile, and while she makes so much effort, all I do is lose my senses.
I jump into the Jeep my associate is driving and sit in silence as I start thinking of her in the arms of Hiroshi. It punches me in the gut to think I drove her to him.
Leticia was nearly drunk at the restaurant, but she’s probably intoxicated. A snake like Hiroshi could easily take advantage of her. I may have put in a word about his extracurricular activities and reported him to the teaching board, so now he probably feels the need to take it out on my wife. He picked the wrong wife to mess with, though, because if he thinks reporting him to the teacher board is a problem, he has no idea what else I’m capable of. He’s about to find out.
“Koko!” my contact says as he stops the car. I don’t even wait for him to halt it properly. I swing open the door and jump out. I slam it shut, imagining it’s Hiroshi’s head that I’m about to smash if he lays one finger on Leticia.
At the door, there’s a big bouncer ready for his face to meet my fist. My contact stops at the side of me, and the bouncer bows and then I enter. I’m a man not to be messed with.
We scan the dance floor. There’s an array of people here from pretend prostitutes ready to rob and copy credit cards of unsuspecting foreigners in here, to women like my business partners' wives, who are looking for a night out with what look like male strippers. It doesn’t take long to see a group of guys that spend too much time in a gym giving the ladies the pleasure of feeling their chests on the dance floor.
Rage builds up inside of me. Especially when I see one of the wives alone, and I march up to her.
“Where’s my wife?” I bark at Hana, who brought Leticia to this dive.
She blinks at me, and I know that blank look too well. Mi prima Almudena had it once when I rescued her from a club.She’s out of it, likely not remembering my name or even able to recognize me at all. Hana has been drugged. This fucking club is one that so many women have been warned about. The type where anyone can be taken advantage of and the price of going out and having a good time will result in years of repentance or, even worse, grief.
“Leticia!”
“Hey!” the guy she’s fondling and no doubt the one who has drugged her says.
He winces as I punch him, and at least three other guys turn their attention to us. My associate stretches out his arms to the sides, and one look at him and whatever they were thinking of doing to help their friend is erased from their minds.
They hold still like statues as I kick him time and time again. I beat him like I’m stomping on meat. Every time I kick him and he moves, more people scatter out of the way. I stop kicking him, because I need to find my wife. The purpose of me coming to this place, which is no different to being in hell, has not been achieved.
I see two men luring some young guy in a corner. No doubt he’s probably a diplomat’s son. They’ll probably fuck him and then bribe his father or whoever else about whatever happens here tonight.
Everyone here has an agenda, none of them good.
How the fuck did they end up at this place?
I move my attention to Hana, who is now crawling on the floor as if she’s dropped an earring. I help her up and repeat the only reason I’m here.
“Leticia.”
She starts sobbing as she reaches out and holds her head. Then she says slowly, “Bathroom.”
I drop her like a log of wood and then race to the bathroom. I shove and push everyone out of the way; then I hear screams. There’s only one person I know who screams like that.
Leticia.
1 Boys together, girls together.
2 I don’t know what the firm the contract. Good Diego.
21
Leticia
I’m crying and sobbing, because it’s as if every part of my body is weak as I’m lying down on the floor I think and I can’t move. It’s as if I’m in a coma, I can’t even hear my heart beating, but then I can’t move. The music, the loud noise in the club, I should be able to hear it, but I can’t, it’s as if I’m in a trance or something.
I feel something slimy and slightly unsettling gliding across my face.
