Kia Ora...

Every time I sit down to write my newsletter I promise myself that next time I'll be more organised... that'll I know exactly what I want to talk about; that all my graphics will be sorted, and that anything else I need to add will be ready to go. And yet here I am staring at my newsletter and cursing because I forgot to do all of the above until right before I needed to use them... One day I will become a master at doing all this... one day, maybe.

New Releases

I have three new releases... though one won't be so new to most of you.

Unchained Desires: A BDSM Anthology

A man's most secret desires might be darker and wilder than he can handle in the daylight… But when the sun sets, he can kneel at last, close his eyes and fall.

Unchained Desires includes six M/M stories where the locks open and long-buried desires come out at last. These men's fantasies are about to become real… for one night, or forever.

Read new stories by N.J. Lysk Charley Descoteaux, Daniel May, Naomi Aoki, Tanya Chris,, and Rachel Ember

Grab a copy today (Kindle users choose PayHip for a mobi file)!

Buy Here

Winter Yakuza

Previously released as part of the Winter Wonderland Promotion back in January, it is now available to purchase. There has been no new content added.

Buy Here

Deadly Gifts (Tokyo Nights 3)

Nothing comes for free. Not love. Not life. It’s the price that matters, what one is willing to give up to secure happiness... how far into the darkness one is willing to fall. And Hisato is ready to take the plunge. No more trying to balance his role as a Shinjuku detective with that of a yakuza's lover.

But his price is yet to be determined and it’s not just his life on the line.

The bodies will pile up.

The tears will fall.

And those who rule the city will be ousted.

But once the blood dries on his hands, will Hisato have secured his happy-ever-after?

Deadly Gifts is the final instalment of the Tokyo Nights series... and is not a standalone story.

Buy Here

Updates

• The first two books in the Moutrams Series (Medieval Mpreg) have been re-edited and recovered.
• A Knight for Two (The Moutrams 3) is currently being written and should be released in August.
• Working on another Short Story that needs to completed by August 1.
• 
  

Caught (Smoke and Shadows 1)

Previous Chapters can be read here: 1-9, 10-11

Chapter 12

Takeshi cleaned his blades as he watched the bodies being dragged from the room, blood smearing across the wooden floor. He wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed or pleased by the low number who’d chosen to not swear allegiance to him. Of course, there were no guarantees that those who’d chosen to exchange sake with him instead of heading down the certain death route were loyal to him. But Takeshi reckoned he’d proven enough of a point to secure their loyalty in the short term and he wasn’t opposed to violently taking down anyone who reared their head in opposition to him later.

If there was one thing he learned watching Ogawa taking control of the Yamashita, then it was to never be hesitant in culling your enemies from your ranks. The streets of Tokyo had been routinely dyed with the blood of those still loyal to Asano even after the former head of the Yamashita had died.

“Right… now that we have that matter sorted out.” He stabbed the blade into the desk and stared out over the paling faces of men who still struggled to see Takeshi as anything more than a boy. “Let’s get down to business and root out the fuckers who wish to capitalise on your inabilities to work together.”

“What do you wish us to do… Boss,” Komoda asked, his respect hesitantly shown, and for now, Takeshi would let it slide.

Takeshi grinned, his fingers tapping the top of the blade. “Start paying your dues to the organisation… including those payments that you’ve all conveniently forgotten during the chaos that erupted in the wake of my father’s death. With interest of course.” He wrapped his fingers around the blade handle ready to yank it from the desk and send it flying if someone chose to disagree.

Disappointed him a little when no arguments were forthcoming. “Secondly, we need to root out those within the ranks who saw the chaos as an opportunity to make names for themselves. They won’t be readily visible, working behind the scenes to undermine the power that we all wield.”

“Do you not trust the men who even surround you?”

“Trust comes to those who’ve earned it, Hongu… so do I trust the men surrounding me simply because they’d shown loyalty to my father? No. I don’t.” He dropped his hands to the desk and gripped it tight, not daring to glance back at Yoshitake who might be the only person in the room—in the whole organisation—that he could trust. “If there is rot within my ranks, I can assure you they will be disposed of.”

The answer appeared to satisfy the men gathered as they murmured approvingly amongst themselves and while it didn’t mean they’d follow Takeshi’s orders unquestioningly, he hoped it might see them challenge him less. His youth would always prove to be an issue, no matter how well he performed his duties at the head of the organisation.

“What about the issue with the Araki-gumi?”

“As I’ve already said, I believe the matter of Fujioka’s death is an internal matter, but I will still speak to Kitayama about it and rule out the Araki-gumi’s involvement.”

*

Power games were a part of the yakuza world. He’d witnessed his fair share of posturing amongst the heads of the organisations who controlled the Kansai region while growing up. Takeshi might not have realised what it was he’d been witnessing as the men surrounding him boasted of their feats—violent actions against their enemies and the officials they’d managed to bribe—and sought to prove they were more powerful than the man who sat next to them on the tatami. It wasn’t that organisation heads were friends as such, more like uneasy allies who banded together to keep the area peaceful and prevent the organisations in Tokyo, Nagoya, or even from Hiroshima in the south from gaining traction in the prefecture. His grandfather’s actions had upset that balance, leaving Takeshi uncertain how his request for a meeting with Kitayama would be received.

Better than he thought, it turned out. His request being accepted quickly and now Takeshi found himself in the backseat of an SUV winging his way to a meeting with a man he hadn’t seen since they were in middle school.

“Nervous?” Yoshitake asked, his hand sliding up Takeshi’s thigh.

“Of sorts,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “On one hand, Kennosuke and I have a history, grew up together in this world before it all went to shit at my grandfather’s behest… but then on the other, the Aragaki-gumi now control territory that was once the Shirokawa-gumi. A part of me wants to go in there and demand the land back, demand Kennosuke takes all his men and fucks off back to Kyoto.”

“Do you fear him?”

“Honestly? I don’t know whether I should or not… I don’t know this Kennosuke.”

And truthfully, Takeshi didn’t know Kennosuke. Not the one who’d stood by his uncle’s side while Takeshi’s grandfather tried to destroy their organisation. Not the one who disappeared overseas and returned with a husband… though Takeshi was keen to hear the story that went with it. But he’d soon find out whether the teenager he’d sly drunk sake with while the heads of the organisations from Kobe to Kyoto had their annual meet up still remained as the SUV pulled up outside the arranged meeting place down at the port and away from prying eyes.

He stepped of the vehicle, pausing to button his jacket and straighten his cuffs before striding across the gravel toward the portable building tucked amongst the shipping containers. Metal walls of rusting iron and chipped paint that reeked of the months spent strapped to the deck of ship as it navigated the sea encircling the globe. Seagulls wheeled overhead making their voices heard despite the cool wind that whipped up and raced between the stacked containers while the beep of cranes working further done the port drifted on the breeze. To anyone else this end of the port looked deserted, devoid of other humans—yakuza or otherwise—and yet to those who knew where to look, heavily armed men waited amongst the shadows. It unnerved him that Kennosuke didn’t trust him enough to leave the small army he commanded behind for this meeting, or it might have if Takeshi hadn’t already taken similar precautions himself except his men were waiting on the water just out of sight.

Kennosuke strode down the metal steps from the door of the portable building and paused at the bottom. His gaze fixed on Takeshi as he approached, carefully assessing the threat he and Yoshitake might pose while trying to give off an air of indifference. Takeshi didn’t recognise the larger man standing one step behind Kennosuke, but he recognised the danger pouring off the man despite the wicked grin he wore. A foreigner who felt at ease within their world as though he’d been born into it.

“Kennosuke, thank you for meeting with me.”

“You said it was urgent, Keshi,” Kennosuke narrowed his eyes, shifting his gaze sideways to Yoshitake. “I had to disrupt a few plans to be here, so this better be as important as you implied.”

“Osaka is no longer the place it was when I left.”

“No, your organisation is in turmoil and its creating havoc for the rest of us.”

Takeshi winced, unable to deny it. “Its chaotic times should be at an end soon, but first there is a matter that needs to be dealt with… one that shouldn’t be spoke of in such a public forum.”

“Just the two of us?”

He lifted an eyebrow at the question and shook his head. What with the menacing glares the man standing next to Kennosuke was giving him and the low growl he could hear coming from Yoshitake… this meeting was never going to be just the two of them.

Kennosuke chuckled, turned on his heel and squeezed the shoulder of the foreigner as he passed him. “The four of us then.”

Takeshi followed Kennosuke inside, his gaze sweeping over the barely furnished room and yet the desk sitting toward the back of it was oddly familiar. There was a message being conveyed with its presence, but one that Takeshi couldn’t discern. Yoshitake obviously understood it as a low curse left his bodyguards mouth and the tension in the room ratcheted up several levels.

“My boss called this meeting in good faith, Kitayama,” Yoshitake hissed, staring at the desk as though it had personally offended him.

Kennosuke wandered over to the desk and leaned against it, fingers drifting over the dark wood while snickering. “I thought it was quite fitting.”

“Fuck, you’re an arse, Kennosuke,” Takeshi barked, laughter chasing after his words as he realised the significance of the place even though the meeting that had been held here between his grandfather and Gou Kitayama was one he’d heard of later. “Unless you can think of a fun way to desecrate the old bastard’s memory, whatever edge you’d hoped to gain by bringing me here… isn’t going to happen.” He took a seat, not surprised when Yoshitake stood behind him.

“There is a reason why my father sent me to Tokyo… and it wasn’t just to get a degree or learn from Ogawa.”

“Yeah… I’d wondered that. But what’s this important matter you needed to discuss?”

“Fujioka was discovered dead this morning, his body dumped on the streets of Ibaraki which is far from his territory of Hirano.”

“And you what? Think I’m responsible for it?”

“Ibaraki is Araki-gumi territory.”

“That didn’t answer my question, Keshi.” Kennosuke’s fingers blanching as their grip tightened on the edge of the desk. “Neither I, nor my uncle, have any interest in starting a war with the Shirokawa-gumi or picking off its members. The Araki-gumi wants to operate within Osaka peacefully.”

“Still leaves me with a dead Ward Boss, and others who are eager to seek vengeance against the Araki-gumi for it.”

“Your dead Ward Boss isn’t my problem… nor is it one of my making. If I wanted to make a statement by killing Fujioka, then you can be assured I would’ve made sure, Keshi, that you’d be left with no doubt that I’d done it.” Kennosuke narrowed his gaze while danger emanated off the foreigner standing to the left of him. “As I stated, your organisation is in chaos… it might pay to look amongst your own ranks for the killer before flinging such accusations the Araki-gumi’s way.”

Takeshi groaned, and scrubbed at his face as the weight on his shoulder grew heavier and the knives aimed at his back multiplied. Whether he’d believed Kennosuke had ordered Fujioka’s death or not, it would have been far more convenient for him if the Araki-gumi had taken responsibility for it. If he was lucky, the killer had already been dealt with—one of the dead bodies that had piled up on the floor earlier—and if Takeshi wasn’t, the man was still out there biding his time before striking again.

And next time it might not be a Ward Boss who was targeted.

***********************************

The Moutrams

Born of the Knight

Medieval Mpreg: Royalty: Knights: Second Chances

Friends to Lovers: Secret Baby

Buy Here

Knighted Heart

Uncle's Best Friend: Kink: Medieval Mpreg: Age Gap

Buy Here