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

of the rare Red Diamond members who refused to sleep with pros.

Not that Han ever needed to be that guy, especially tonight. A steady stream of beautiful women came through, naturally wanting to have a good time with the two young men ordering endless bottles of champagne and their friends.

Still…

Victor shook his head when Han asked him if he’d be taking any of them back to their apartment. There was a strange ache in his stomach. Too much champagne, maybe.

Or maybe something else.

“I’ll take two home to make up for you not doing your job,” Han signed.

Victor grinned and wished him well. Then he continued drinking with the other Red Diamond, long after his chosen brother left, even though all of their conversations were one-sided.

Victor kept an emergency scratchpad in the inside pocket of his blazer. But his father had instructed him never to bother with communication when it came to the other Red Diamonds.

“You will be a silent leader,” he’d vowed to his only son the one time the subject had come up. “And they will bend to your will. No words will be necessary.”

Victor played the part that night. Acted the silent prince. Drank his weight in alcohol. Tried to forget and let go.

But the words he’d written on that piece of paper continued to swirl around his mind. “Not sister's job to protect brother.”

And eventually, Han showed back up to the club in the wee hours of the morning.

“It’s time to get you cleaned up for the plane ride home,” he told Victor.

After his return to Hong Kong, his father kept him by his side for all business negotiations. He’d only done this once before. The night of their meeting with the Nakamura-gumi, a very old yakuza syndicate who was rumored to be tied to the Nakamura auto family. But in Hong Kong, Victor was called upon daily to accompany his father to meetings and negotiations all over the city.

“The time to protect you will soon be over,” Raymond explained at the colossal party he threw to celebrate Victor’s birthday at their gated estate in the Jardine’s Lookout area of Hong Kong. “And the time for you to prove yourself will soon be upon us.”

His father had never been a great signer. But Victor had noticed that his hands appeared shaky as he told his son this.

“Father? Are you in good health?” Victor asked.

“Do not worry about me,” his father answered out loud. “Worry only about your future. These next few years will not be easy, I’m afraid.”

Victor could almost see the ghost of his mother standing behind Raymond as he spoke. It was a warning, but to Victor, it sounded like an opportunity. He was tired of hiding and ready to prove himself, as his father said.

Yet, those words continued to swirl in his head….

Not sister’s job to protect brother.

He worked hard every day to forget them, but whenever his mind quieted, it seemed they were always there.

“You nervous?” Han asked out loud two weeks after Victor’s birthday party.

He couldn’t sign as he was currently driving them through Hong Kong’s busy streets to one of the Red Diamond’s massage parlors in the Kowloon district. Technically, the Lamborghini Han drove was Victor’s. His father had given it to him for his birthday. But since Victor didn’t know how to drive, Han had been ferrying him around the city.

Victor was grateful. He appreciated Donny’s service, but he knew his specially assigned guard reported everything he did back to his father. He could trust Han to keep all his secrets, and that was becoming increasingly important.

Especially tonight.

That afternoon at lunch, Victor’s father asked them to meet him at a Red Diamond massage parlor Victor had never been to before. He’d also told them to wear white. That could only mean one thing.

Someone would be initiated into the Red Diamond tonight.

Most likely him.

Victor adjusted the sleeve on his white suit, prolonging his answer. He was nervous. But not for the reason Han would assume.

Not sister’s job to protect brother.

They came to a stoplight, and Han looked over at him. Probably mistaking Victor’s lack of answer as concern that Han wouldn’t be able to see his signs while driving.

But now was as good a time as any to make his announcement, Victor supposed. “Han, we are friends.”

“Brothers,” Han insisted, as Victor would have if Han asked him the same thing.

“We are brothers,” Victor duly edited. “Brother, I need your help. Again.”

The light turned green, and Han shifted into drive to move forward. But as soon as he saw an empty spot, he pulled over and put the car in park.

Han turned in his seat to face him and signed, “Anything. You know this.”

And Victor raised his own hands to tell his chosen brother about his decision.

One their father would not like.

7

DAWN

I didn’t hear from Victor during the winter break, so I guess that meant he wasn’t coming back to Japan.

I tried not to feel too disappointed. I had better things to do than miss a boy who was way out of my league anyway.

Things like my secret application to RhIDS.

I spent most of the break working on it, which was more challenging than it should have been. I couldn’t risk completing the RhIDS special assignments in the apartment with my mom. She never knocked when she came into my room. And the few times I had tried to ask her to, she’d grilled me about what I was doing in there that required she alert me before coming in.

That question was diabolical on a couple of levels. One, I couldn’t answer it without lying because, two, she was right. As far as Mom knew, I was only applying to a couple of state schools back in Jersey and a few East Coast women’s colleges with great scholarship programs.

My mom would flip if she knew I was spending most of my free time working on the portfolio I hoped would get me into RhIDS.

So the library it was. I didn’t