My Yakuza by A.J. Llewellyn (books for 6 year olds to read themselves TXT) 📕

“Tell me about his hair, please.”

“It was long black hair, quite beautiful if you want to know the truth. It made the silver Buddha on his necklace stand out in contrast.”

Shiro’s breath caught in his throat as he remembered the beauty that was Keizo and the incredible intimate time they’d spent together. He could have fallen in deep love with the man who his own grandmother had killed.

“Was he alone as he went to sleep?”

“No, Shiro. I felt sorry for him and held his hand until he went to sleep. The man with death and hate on his face went to sleep all alone as he should have.”

“I’m glad you are unharmed and well, my Grandmother,” Shiro said with a tear in his eyes.

“Yes, I am fine,” she replied.

“I see. Well, you are not to worry about me, Grandma, do you understand? You’ll see everything will be all right very soon. Now I must go, please be careful and take care of yourself. In fact, if you can, go to your sister’s house for a month. Can you do that?”

“I don’t know, Shiro.” She sounded lost now. “Is it important that I see my sister now?”

“You haven’t seen her for so long and you don’t know how long she has on this earth, so yes, I believe it to be important that you go stay with her.”

She demurred. “I don’t know…”

“Grandma, where exactly are the two men now?”

“Oh, they are gone. No need to worry.”

Christ…okay…I won’t worry.

“I will call her. Let me know when everything is better.”

“I will, I love you,” Shiro said.

“I trust you.”

Shiro hung up the phone and wondered at the strange goodbye that he’d received. He could only assume that his grandma meant that she knew there was far more to the story of the cop then he could tell now. Shiro smiled. They were close enough that they could talk in little phrases and convey entirely different messages than what someone overhearing the conversation would think.

“Is she all right?” Kono asked.

“Yes, there were two men there that forced her to call me. They’re gone now and she’s no longer in danger from those particular men. But the Harada clan may send more men to her, so I’ve asked her to visit with her sister for a month. She lives on another island and she should be safe there.”

“Any idea who the men were?”

“Yes. Apparently it was Nobuo-san, himself, with someone that he forced to go with him—a man that I knew in Tokyo who was a beautiful human being. A gentle creator of fine things. He was an artist.”

“You speak of him in the past tense. Did something happen to him? Did Nobuo kill him?”

“Nobuo killed Keizo the minute he forced him onto the plane in Japan,” Shiro said as he began to tear up once more.

“How did she force Nobuo to leave her alive and apparently well?”

“I didn’t want her to say too much over the phone. Will this ever be over, Kono? You know them far better than I do. You lived with these men for an entire year! Do I have to look over my shoulder for the rest of my life?”

“The only true way to be totally safe from these animals is to chop the head off and hope the body dies. I’m trying to do exactly that when I testify in court in less than a month. If we can convict Shun’ichi Harada, then we can probably get more indictments and go down the chain of command in the clan. With as much as I learnt about their operations here in New York, I hope that together with other testimony, we can cripple the clan once and for all. The other clans won’t have a beef with you since you just helped put their biggest competitor out of business.”

“You’ve never said before, but do you think you can get a conviction? Do you have enough on them?”

“The D.A. thinks so, and so does the department. But as with anything dealing with the courts, you never know until it’s done.”

“Not to change the subject, but I’m gonna. Can we use the pool here?”

“They’re located in public areas and I don’t think it’s wise for us to be seen anywhere…yet. One of Harada’s spies could spot us. Sorry.”

“Well, we’ll just have to find something in the room to amuse ourselves with,” Shiro said with a smile.

Kono smiled and said, “Turn on the TV.”

“That’s not what I had in mind, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, I know what you mean all right, and it isn’t happening. So just forget it. I’m kinda hungry, see if you can figure out something simple to make and we’ll have some lunch. I’m going to unpack my clothes.”

Shiro pouted as Kono grabbed the duffle bag that he’d gotten out of the trunk of the car and proceeded to pull out clothing and a twelve-gauge police shotgun. Shiro shivered when he saw it, reminding himself that they were still in great danger.

“I’m gonna take a hot bath and wash that stinking jail cell off of me,” Shiro announced moodily. He wasn’t happy that Kono showed no real interest in having intimate contact with him and he closed the door, filling the jetted hot tub as far as it would go without spilling over the sides when he got in.

He stripped off his clothes and jumped when he heard Kono rack a shell into the chamber of the shotgun. There was no mistaking that sound for anything pleasant.

Shiro slid into the water slowly and when he was able to sit back in the tub, he let out a sigh of exhaustion and tension. The time he spent in custody was the worst time in his life with the exception of being in that small room with Nobuo who was now dead at the hands of his sweet elderly grandmother. How had she managed to kill two men, one