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

Yes, Phantom was unfailingly loyal. If asked to hold a sixteen-year-old prone while Victor punched him, Phantom did so without blinking an eye.

But unfortunately, the price of that loyalty was having to put up with him always speaking his mind. If he represented American males in their twenties, it would seem they were all incapable of keeping their opposing thoughts to themselves.

“When your dad finds out, he’s going to be pissed,” Phantom continued, ignoring Victor’s lack of response. “And you know that shiny suit Donny fuck’s probably texting back and forth with them right now.”

Phantom was wrong about that….

Donny had most likely texted his father about the incident this afternoon as soon as Victor and Phantom left him alone at his post. Donny always quietly obeyed orders, but his loyalty lay foremost with their dragonhead.

But enough. This wasn’t a conversation Victor cared to have with his cousin. Especially since Phantom was 100% right.

Instead of answering, Victor sprayed his opponent with a volley of kicks and punches.

Phantom blocked his first hits easily. That was fine. The beginning of a fight was often a character study for Victor. He threw a quick array of hits and kicks, like a child playing Mortal Kombat. Testing to see what worked and what didn’t. Waiting patiently for the perfect opening to end the fight with the most efficient strike, painful and ruthless. This was just one of the reasons Han refused to engage in hand-to-hand combat with him.

Despite his size, Phantom was doing a great job of both deflecting and avoiding punches. He was almost putting up a good enough fight to distract him from thoughts of Dawn.

Dawn, who still hadn’t been in contact, even though he gifted her with a phone that he’d never taken back. Dawn, who would probably keep the NTT Docomo but never talk again to the mute freak who could only confess his feelings with a childish note.

“Ow, man! Fuck!”

Victor didn’t realize one of his punches had landed until he drew back his fist to find his cousin bleeding profusely from his nose.

“Too hard?” He would not apologize. That was not the way of a future dragonhead. But he did not like that thoughts of Dawn had caused him to lose control. That made him feel guilty as he asked, “Did I break your nose?”

Phantom grinned, the blood from his nose running into his teeth. “Nice shot, cuz.”

Before Victor could thank him for his good-natured response, Phantom swung one huge leg through the air and round housed him.

Getting hit with the full force of his cousin’s kick was like taking a steel beam to the chest. Victor flew backward, past the edge of the mat, and then even further. His journey didn’t end until he landed on top of his study table, which instantly shattered under his weight.

“Too hard?” Phantom asked with a smirk, coming to stand above him.

“No, just hard enough,” Victor signed before staggering to his feet. “Thank you.”

Victor wasn't trying to be tough. He welcomed the pain of receiving the full force of Phantom’s revenge. It was better than obsessing over Dawn.

The light from his own NTT Docomo, sitting in the middle of the table’s wreckage, caught his eye. He bent down to pick it up, his heart once again raring with hope. It was still in one piece. But…

No new messages.

Had she even read his note? Of course, she had. Who could resist a secret?

He rubbed at his chest for reasons that had nothing to do with Phantom’s hit.

“Oh my God! Oh my God! Are you all right?”

Victor looked up, and his heart soared when he saw Dawn standing in the doorway beside Donny.

Phantom wasn't nearly as happy to see her.

“You just let her in here without asking your boss for permission first?” Phantom asked Donny in his rough Cantonese, suddenly concerned with the hierarchy of Red Diamond command.

“I told him he should always let her in,” Victor signed, coming to Donny's defense.

“Yeah, well, that's a bad fucking idea,” Phantom muttered in Cantonese. “Just like all the other shit you’ve done for this girl.”

Fortunately, Phantom simply glowered and didn’t speak his enmity in English directly to Dawn in that particularly American way of his. Victor wouldn’t have stood for that.

“Hi,” she said into Phantom’s glowering silence with a tentative wave. “I'm Dawn. We didn't exchange names the last time we met.”

She waited, probably expecting a polite answer.

But Phantom wasn’t polite. By any standard, American or Chinese.

He merely stood there, letting her know that he wasn't one for small talk with his lack of response. And he turned his back just enough not to have to see any commands Victor might give him concerning his behavior toward Dawn.

So Victor answered Dawn himself. “His name is P-H-A-N-T-O-M.”

“Phantom,” she repeated without speaking. “Like the ghost?”

“Exactly,” Victor answered. “And he doesn't understand ASL. If you want to be rude and shut him out of our conversation, the way he shut you out in Cantonese, we should keep talking this way.”

Dawn laughed at his suggestion. But then she looked at him worriedly and asked, “Are you sure you're all right? That hit was crazy. You flew!”

Yes, he had. No doubt he would find his chest covered with a bruise the next time he took off his shirt. Perhaps his back, too, considering his crash into the table.

“I'm fine,” Victor signed, nonetheless. It was the truth. All of his pain had receded into the background as soon as he saw Dawn standing at the door.

“Leave us alone,” he signed to Donny.

“Boss said to clear out,” Donny let Phantom know in Cantonese.

Phantom did as he was told, but he glared at Dawn all the way out the room.

“I don't think P-H-A-N-T-O-M likes me,” Dawn signed with a chagrinned look as soon as his cousin slid the doors closed behind him.

Her sign language was the usual mess of CSL and ASL, but Victor understood her meaning.

The polite thing to do would have been to assure her that Phantom’s ire wasn't her fault. But Victor