Kia Ora...

It's been a busy two weeks since my last newsletter and my plans for the year have been thrown into chaos... which for me, isn't that surprising. I'm not an author who can write a plan of the stories to be written for the year and then proceed to follow it without distractions. Instead, there will always be a side project, something that was supposed to start off small that quickly becomes something bigger. Sometimes it can even be a throwaway comment by a reader/author in my reader's group that sparks an idea in my brain that can't be ignored.

Two things happened in the last fortnight that set my brain spinning. One was a discussion on stories that slide along the dark edges of what retailers like Amazon allow to be published which as seen me decide that Caught, once finished and polished will be made available on Smashwords and Eden Books only. Which then left me with a hole in my publishing calendar...

In walks idea number two.... okay this one is more of a solidification of one that was already making noises in my brain. I plan to write three more books in the Crime Lords series: Knight, Bishop, and Pawns. They will still feature Aidan, Misaki, and Kristof, but the major focus will be on other characters like Jun and Mao, plus a new bad guy. With that in mind, I've spent the last week reading through the first three books, jotting down names, relationships of minor characters etc and tidying up all formatting/errors that existed. Updated files for the books will be loaded in the next couple of days.

And that would have to be the longest intro to a NL ever.... phew!

Updates

• Deviation (Nagoya Crimes 2) is currently sitting at 12.5k words. The wip is at the point where the words begin to flow easily. There will also be several cameos from characters within the wider yakuza universe in this book.
• Knight (Crime Lords 4) is currently sitting at 4k and I can't wait to see where this book will go.
• Super Secret Short Story Project... I have a few thousand words jotted down, but they aren't gelling right, so I might drop the words into a different file to use somewhere else and find a different starting point.

Deception (Nagoya Crimes One)

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MMF Dark Yakuza Romance

Enemies to Lovers

Yakuza x Detectives

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Caught - Chapter Thirty

**Violence**

He really shouldn’t complain about the sudden turn of events, the deviation from the plan they’d laid out years ago, once again. Yoshitake had been the first one to alter it, to keep on altering despite the risk it posed to the relationship he had—wanted with Takeshi. But it had been worth it, despite the risks involved—well, asides from the misfiring explosives that almost killed Takeshi—as they’d managed to accelerate the speed at which they took control of the Shirokawa-gumi and heralded in a new era of yakuza politics in Osaka.

An era of peace and brutality and lots of fucking.

Yoshitake leaned against the wall, arms folded over his chest and watched Takeshi work. His lover had already demonstrated his readiness to kill, maim, and injure those who refused to swear allegiance to him. Every body that hit floor, every drop of blood that slipped from the tip of Takeshi’s knives saw him fighting harder to restrain the urge to fuck the man right there and then… to press him against the wall or bend him over his grandfather’s desk while not caring who witnessed the debauched act. Violent bloody acts that were only the start of what Takeshi was capable of as the darkness that lurked inside the man remained leashed.

But that leash was weakening, and Yoshitake couldn’t wait to see what would happen when it finally broke.

Darkness lurked inside the hearts and souls of all those who walked in this world. Tainted those who drifted too close and corrupted those who became addicted to the heady thrill of the lawlessness that it promised. Some men reveled in the power it offered, while others teetered on the edge of madness before succumbing and sinking into the shadows far from the bright lights. Madness was a death knell, the men hunted and destroyed before they could endanger the rest of those in their organisation. Mad men, those addicted to the scent of blood and the adrenaline spike of a kill soon grew sloppy, racing from one bloody violent act to another with little care for the evidence they might leave behind.

And Takeshi could’ve been one of them, one of the mad few who couldn’t fight back against the madness in their souls. Yoshitake had realised it the first day they’d met, the darkness that lay beneath the dutiful son and diligent student that could threaten the very existence of the group in the future. Recognised a kindred spirit, and for two years he’d done everything he could to ensure that Takeshi could control his madness, and not be controlled by it.

Right now, though, he wanted to see that control shatter.

He wanted bloody hands to drift over his skin, to wrap around his cock.

He wanted to stare into eyes that glittered with a madness that echoed his own.

He wanted the cries of another’s death to be drowned out by their passion.

Yoshitake drew in a deep breath and released it slowly. What he wanted couldn’t happen until the two men Takeshi currently toyed with had spilled their guts, figuratively and literally. They needed names of those men who marched at the head of the organisation and threatened Takeshi’s position at the head of it. No matter whether his lover had support from other organisations within the country or not, if he couldn’t stamp out the dissent within the Shirokawa-gumi his ability to lead it would be severely hampered.

At least until now.

Right here in this warehouse where there was no one else to witness it, Takeshi could release the shackles and let the darkest cruelest parts of himself free. The problem would be reigning it back in. But Yoshitake was up for the challenge, wasn’t as though he didn’t have the experience in keeping his own darkness under wraps.

*

“I want names,” Takeshi snarled pacing around the men, flicking at the handle of the knife buried in Mizawa’s thigh and then grinning when the man couldn’t bite back the pained cry. “Names of all those who are still conspiring against me… names of the men who swore false loyalty… men who disrespected me and our traditions.”

“No. I’d rather die than reveal their names to you,” Mizawa hissed, disgust lacing each ragged syllable that tumbled from his lips.

He snickered. Death was one wish he’d be happy to grant the men. Eventually. Painful deaths that left them surrounded in a mess of their blood and fear, limbs dislocated, if not disconnected from their bodies. It wouldn’t be swift unless they gave Takeshi what he wanted to hear.

“Names!”

“Fuck off!” Mizawa lurched forward, the chair scrapping on the ground through no choice of its own.

Chuckling, Takeshi paused in front of the man, his fingers tapping the top of the knife as tried to decide what would be more effective… more fun. He could pull the knife out and let blood seep slowly from the wound taking the man’s life with it. Or he could leave it embedded in the Mizawa’s thigh before dragging it toward his knee, lengthening the wound and speeding up the man’s death. There were other options too, ones that would cause pain while prolonging the man’s life, or was that death? He smirked, turned away from Mizawa and strode back across the warehouse where more weapons of torture were laid out.

Humming a popular tune, Takeshi perused the items Yoshitake had gathered on short notice, acutely aware of the man’s heated gaze as he did so. He selected two more knives and slid them into his pockets before picking up several needles—long thin pieces of steel that were perfect for sliding under nails…under other places on the body where such things shouldn’t be used. Takeshi glanced back at Yoshitake and preened under the man’s obvious approval of his choices. Sucked in a sharp breath as that approval switched to heated desire, and his desperate need to be fucked hard increased leaving him to curse Mizawa and Kenta’s stubbornness.

But maybe that was the problem. He’d focused his attention on Mizawa, the man far more vocal than Kenta and yet despite the pain inflicted on him so far he’d remained resolute.

Takeshi stalked back across the warehouse floor and paused in front of Kenta. He placed his foot on the chair, resting between Kenta’s bound legs and rocked it back and forth. Threatened to send it backward and introduce the man’s head to the hard concrete floor, but Kenta didn’t beg, didn’t cry… didn’t do anything but stare at Takeshi with a half-dazed expression tinged with fear. He shook his head and let the front legs of the chair land back on the floor. There was no point in torturing a man for information when he’d already accepted death, leaving Takeshi without anything to bargain with. He muttered a curse, yanked one of the knives from his pocket and pressed the tip of it to Kenta’s throat, unsurprised by the man’s barely there reaction. Pressing it harder until the blood beading at the tip become a rivulet that stained Kenta’s skin red, but not even that was enough to elicit and response.

Takeshi shook his head, pushed the knife in harder and then yanked it sideways. A ragged slash that tore at the man’s throat and destroyed arteries—blood spilled like a waterfall while the man’s last breaths were nothing more than panicked, choking gasps. Grinning he turned to Mizawa, fear emanated from the man with a foul stench that only grew worse as Takeshi slowly wiped the bloodied knife on the man’s suit before stabbing it into Mizawa’s other thigh.

“Now… those names, Mizawa. Are you going to give them to me, and get an easy death like Kenta did… or will your family struggle to identify you at the morgue later?”

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

Thor (A Devils Highwaymen MC Romance)

by Lila Grey

Cops and Robbers is about to get a whole lot spicier…

An Enemies to Lovers MF Romance

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The Last Beginning by Abrianna Denae

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