Victor: Her Ruthless Crush by Theodora Taylor (beach read book TXT) 📕

axes rendered with markers. There were mirrors in his suite's gym area so that he and Han could mind their technique. But he'd never seen himself reflected as he was in this painting. Han was on the defensive, which made him look particularly dashing. Heroic even. Like a kung fu movie come to life. Was that…?

Was that how she saw him?

He gripped the sides of the portfolio. The words he’d wanted to say to her since September stuck in his fingers.

He was so strong. All the other Red Diamond praised him for this. Before Dawn, he’d thought these accolades were his rightful due. After all, he’d been working for over a decade to achieve his level of strength and martial arts prowess. All because he’d wanted to be a future dragonhead his triad could be proud of despite his defects.

But at that moment, he felt weak. Weak for all the things he hadn't said to her. Weak for all the things he still couldn't say.

He took out the picture of him and Han and handed the rest of the portfolio back to her.

Then he set his new, precious gift down on the table so that he could sign, “I like it very much. I am sorry I did not get a present for you.”

She waved a dismissive hand at his apology. “It's just a picture. And you're easy to draw. I mean, look at you.”

He crooked his head to the side, not understanding. “What do you mean?”

Somehow. she managed to tuck her head even further into her chest. “Oh, you know. It’s like I blabbed the first time we met. You’re so stupid hot. It was easy to draw you. Art loves beautiful things…and people.”

Everything screeched to a halt inside of Victor’s head. What she’d said to him that first day…had she been trying to say she thought he was too attractive? Not too repulsive as he’d assumed?

A moment passed between them, electric and bright.

But then a knock sounded on the door.

“Neih hou!” Han called out, even though Dawn didn't speak Cantonese.

“Gei hou!” Dawn answered, nonetheless. Someone, possibly Donny, must have taught her how to say “I’m good” in Cantonese.

Victor watched them exchange pleasantries in Japanese after that small bit of Cantonese. Han told her he was happy to be returning to Hong Kong the next day for the winter break and asked her about her plans. She answered with a cute little pout that she was trying to convince her family to go to Hello Kitty Land for the fourth time in three years but doubted it would work out.

Victor couldn't help but notice how much more comfortably she talked with Han than him. It was not merely that no sign language was required for them to communicate.

She smiled up at him in a friendly manner and easily met Han’s eyes. She never did that with Victor. They both laughed and seemed to understand each other well, even though they were speaking in a language that wasn't native to either of them.

“You should come to visit us in Hong Kong,” Han said in his terrible Japanese, leaning a little further down as he often did with shorter girls. “We just got a Disneyland in Hong Kong. We could take you.”

“I wish!” Dawn said with another pretty laugh.

It made Victor want to take his ax off the wall and throw it straight at Han’s chest.

“Stop flirting, and tell Donny to take her home,” Victor signed to Han behind Dawn’s back.

His brother gave no indication of seeing Victor's message. But as soon as Dawn was done laughing, Han wished her good holidays and told her she should probably get going.

“If your father sends you back, text me,” she signed to Victor in ASL before she left.

Victor signed back a stiff goodbye in ASL without making any promises.

And then she was gone.

“What was that about?” Han signed to Victor as soon as she left.

Unlike Dawn, he didn’t bother to speak along with his signs. They’d been conversing with just their hands for so long. It probably had never occurred to him.

“Her time was done, and I was thinking of asking Ayane if she could still come over.”

Han raised both eyebrows at Victor’s blatant lie. Then he signed. “If you wanted to fuck her, you should have told her that in the three months you had with her before you decided to act like a jealous cunt.”

Han’s face might be elegant, but his rough language gave away his real background.

Victor looked at him for a long hard moment before signing. “You can get away with saying many things to me, Brother. Not this.”

Han looked back at him, his eyes just as hard.

“I apologize,” he signed after a long while. Then he gave Victor a bow so low and formal, it verged on mocking.

This was his chosen brother’s way of highlighting what he couldn’t say out loud. That Victor was abusing their power dynamic.

Over a girl.

A girl who only came to visit him every week because he paid her.

“I’ve changed my mind about Ayane,” Victor signed. “We should go out. Enjoy our Roppongi club here one last time before we leave.”

Fortunately, Han was not one to hold a grudge. “Yes! Perhaps we can find girls while we’re out.”

Victor partied like the triad prince he was that night. VIP and champagne that never stopped flowing. A few members of the Japanese branch of their gang came up to say goodbye. Victor would turn eighteen in January, and many assumed that he wouldn’t be returning to Tokyo.

Women also showed up like magic to their section. Quality beauties. Victor was certain they weren’t from one of the Red Diamond’s thinly disguised brothels. The downstairs manager knew better than to send up any professionals when Han was on the premises.

Han’s mother had been the mistress of one of Red Diamond’s former rivals before she died. But she had started out as a small-town girl who had fallen for the wrong big city job scam. So Han was one