Kia Ora...

Today I've managed to not only get everything organised to send the newsletter out, I've also gotten my first Covid jab.

When your writing style doesn't involve plotting out every last bit of the story before writing, it can turn the whole process into a wild adventure. Even when I think I've got some control over a stories direction, the characters will often decide to take over and steer the story in a different direction or go off on a weird tangent. I usually try to avoid naming minor characters because otherwise they become not so minor and then begin to demand their own books... in other words, two minor characters in Caught who'd been granted cameos have decided they want a bigger slice of the action... 😂😂

Updates

• Deception (Nagoya Crimes 1): is now in the hands of my beta/proof reader. I've started thinking about where they story will go in book 2 and have started playing around with covers and titles for it. NB: Deception will be an MMF story with both MM and MF scenes, and a cliffhanger. Book 2 will have MMF scenes.
• Working on Stitched Together (House of Bolton 2) - MF
• Once edits for Deception are completed and I've hit publish, I will also begin working on Knight Forged (The Moutrams 4) - Mpreg

Caught (Smoke and Shadows 1)

Chapter Nineteen

“Tomu,” Yoshitake bellowed, pushing his way inside the derelict warehouse on the southern outskirts of Osaka. “Give me one bloody good reason why I shouldn’t give the Xuechan a call and inform them of your whereabouts?”

“Because you need me for your plan, our friendship is too strong, and I have a present for you,” Tomu replied, checking each reason off with his fingers and grinning broadly as he mentioned the last one.

“That’s more than one reason… and what fucking present?”

“The boys were followed back from the club… and they caught the fucker.” Tomu jerked his head in the direction of a small office on one side of the building. “Thought you might want to have some fun with him.”

Dread pooled in his gut, ice cold and heavy. There were two, no, three kinds of people who’d be stupid enough to follow men who were obviously yakuza from the scene of a violent crime—cops, men loyal to Takeshi, and the young heir of the Araki-gumi. For once, Yoshitake wished whoever was waiting inside the office was a cop.

But it wasn’t a cop. And the man looking fucking pissed. Smug too. But mainly angry as all hell.

“You do realise who this is?” he hissed, hands flexing at his sides, ready to wrap them around his friend’s throat and squeeze hard.

Tomu shrugged and leaned against the far wall next to the table laid out with Yoshitake’s favourite tools. “No idea. I thought he was one of Takeshi’s loyal supporters… I mean, he’s not one of ours.”

“He’s not Shirokawa-gumi either,” he said through gritted teeth, curious and worried where the man’s other half was.

“Then who the fuck is he? And why the hell was he following our men?” Confusion and disbelief echoing through his words.

“Araki-gumi.”

The man grinned at the mention of the Araki-gumi’s name, dangerous and deadly. It was obvious the man was no stranger to this side of life despite being a foreigner.

“That still doesn’t explain anything… why the fuck would a member of the Araki-gumi, a foreigner at that, be hanging around the club?” Tomu paced the floor, circling the man bound in the center of the office. “And does it matter? Unless you reckon, they’ll ally with you, we could always just kill the bastard… leave his corpse in an area where Takeshi’s influence is strong. Get them to kill the young heir and clear the way for you to take over the group.”

“If I thought it wouldn’t start another war with them, it’d be a good plan.” Yoshitake strode across the room to where his tools were laid out and brushed his fingers over them. He had no intention of harming the man more than he’d already been, but Yoshitake had no such qualms about scaring the man. Just how deep into their world had the young Kitayama dragged his husband, or did the man simply have the menacing look down with no substance to back it up?

“So… that’s a no on killing him?”

“Yes… but that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt him a little… drag out that annoying husband of his who also happens to be good friends with Takeshi.”

But what would work to scare him… make him scream the loudest and send the fucking Araki-gumi brat storming into the place. Curious too whether the young Kitayama would come alone or drag Takeshi down here too. They were due a final confrontation instead of the dancing around the issue of who knew what that they’d been done already tonight. Push at Takeshi hard and see if his young lover could actually follow through with his threat to kill him.

“Has he spoken at all since you grabbed him?” he asked over his shoulder while still staring at his tools and contemplating which would create the desired effect. Yoshitake didn’t want to kill him. He just wanted to draw a little blood, leave a few scars, and force the smarmy grin off the man’s face.

“Nope. Not even sure he speaks Japanese.”

Yoshitake glanced at the man and watched the expressions passing through his eyes. If had to guess, the man wasn’t fluent in the language. Knew he enough to get by, bark a few orders, and issue a few threats. Understood enough of the conversation happening around him that even if the young Kitayama heir hadn’t gone running to Takeshi already, this one would be able to confirm Takeshi’s suspicions. And that place him in an interesting quandary. He really was loathed to kill the man, knowing that it would bring the Araki-gum down upon their heads and what remained of the Shirokawa-gumi would shatter. Anything majorly disfiguring, removal eyeballs, cutting out of tongues, and maybe even the removal of fingers would more than likely result in the same reaction from the Kyoto based group.

“You’re the strong silent type, huh?” he said, directing his words at the young Kitayama’s husband. “Watching…listening… always playing the foreign idiot knowing that those around you will speak freely.” He wrapped his fingers around the handle of long thin bladed knife and grinned. “We’ll see how long you can keep that up for.” He turned away from the table and closed the distance between them. Crouching in front of the man and pressing the edge of the blade against his cheek hard enough to draw blade without going too deep. “I’m a patient man… I’m prepared to wait out your stubborn silence to hear your voice… bet your husband wants to hear it too.”

“Fuck you!”

Yoshitake chuckled as he straightened up and gestured for Tomu to string the bastard up.

*

“How fast can you get to the industrial park in Minato?” Kennosuke said rapidly, anger, fear, and panic lacing his voice.

“Fuck, I don’t know. Maybe twenty minutes?” Takeshi replied, rubbing at his face. He’d only just started to drift off to sleep when his phone had wrenched him awake. “Why?”

“Because I’ve got all the fucking proof you need… and the bastards captured my husband.”

“What? I thought he was some kind of cop. How did he manage to get captured?”

“Fine.” Kennosuke huffed. “He let himself get captured, but Yoshitake has just arrived and I’d rather my husband doesn’t end up like Fukuoka… unless you want to start a war with the Araki-gumi.”

“Don’t threaten me, Kennosuke.”

“Not a threat, Takeshi,” Kennosuke snapped back. “Now when are you getting here, because I’m not going to sit back and wait forever before acting.”

Takeshi groaned, threw back the blankets and clambered out of bed. “I’ll be there in twenty- thirty minutes at the latest. Do not fucking do anything until I get there.”

Tossing his phone onto the bed, Takeshi snatched up his clothes and hurriedly dressed. He slipped on his jacket and pocketed his phone before striding out the door of his bedroom bellowing for whatever guard was still awake in the house. Two men came skidding out the nearby bedrooms, half-dressed, and weapons held at the ready as they glanced about looking for the threat.

“No threat. Not here,” he said, firing off messages to the senior members of the group and informing of the situation and requesting their presence at the industrial park Kennosuke had fired the address through for. It was crunch time, and not just between him and Yoshitake. Loyalties that had been sworn to him with sake would no be put to the test, and they’d either stand by his side against his enemies or point their weapons directly at him… or at him and Yoshitake both.

“Then what do you need, Boss?” the younger of the two guards asked as they both holstered their weapons.

“I need both of you to accompany me to a warehouse down in Minato.”

“Any particular reason why, Boss?” the man asked cautiously. “Not to question your orders, but our strength there has weakened and the Kurogawa-gumi tend to shoot first, ask questions later.”

“Those responsible for the bombing earlier are there… and we need to make sure another war doesn’t break out between us and the Araki-gumi,” Takeshi told them, heading out of the house and toward the vehicles parked in the driveway.

“Anyone we shouldn’t shoot when we get there, Boss?” he asked, lifting his gaze to catch Takeshi’s in the rear-view mirror while the other guard chuckled in the passenger seat next to him.

“Don’t shoot the two Araki-gumi members there… and Yoshitake. Anyone else is fair game.”

“You got it, Boss,” the man replied as he pulled out onto the street and pressed his foot hard onto the accelerator.

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Kennosuke and Brian Kitayama first appeared in The Yakuza and the English Teacher series with book four being their story.

Dangerous Lessons

Dangerous Love

Dangerous Life

Crossing the Line

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With Facebook crashing the other day for several long hours... I thought it best to remind you of all the places you can find me!