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

had understood why he’d been chosen. There was no way the guard had been given any real power or access to yakuza business as a foreigner. Yet, all of Daizo’s enemies would think twice before trying to confront him in public.

Victor had known he should stand and walk behind his father as he escorted their guests out, but he’d found his eyes wandering back to the girl.

“She looks to be about your age,” his father had observed, following the direction of his stare.

Yes, she did look his age. Though, the way Victor lived, it was often easy for him to forget that he was also too young to be in this club. He wouldn’t even be eighteen, the legal drinking age back in China until January.

“It doesn’t matter that she’s a foreigner,” his father added. “Arrangements could be made.”

Victor hadn’t doubted it. Aladdin’s genie had nothing on his father. And since his wife’s death, there was nothing Raymond “Macau Boy” Zhang wouldn’t do for the son she’d left behind.

But he hadn’t wanted the girl his father’s way. His father’s way would have destroyed her innocence and killed that happy light in her slightly upturned eyes.

She and her brother had acquired neon-green drinks, and they sipped from them like children getting away with something naughty.

“I only wish to know the language she’s speaking,” Victor had answered, careful to position his body so that the members of the Nakamura syndicate wouldn’t see him signing. His father had taught him never to sign unless he had to in public. Both their allies and their enemies could perceive it as a weakness.

So that was all Victor had signed his father. But it had been all he’d had to sign. Especially after Raymond discovered that the girl was the daughter of Nakamura’s face guard.

And now, here she was, standing before him. The same as all the new electronics, video game consoles, and services Victor had requested in the years since his father had decided to tuck him and Han away in Tokyo.

However, Victor found himself unable to regard the girl with the same sense of entitlement as those other things and people.

This wasn’t the same girl who had so entranced him at that club. She wore a prim Japanese school uniform now, with a baggy, short-sleeved white shirt, a dark blue tie, and a pleated skirt of the same color. Her wild hair had been pulled back into a tame braided ponytail. And she wasn’t close to smiling like she had when he’d been observing her from afar.

Just the opposite. She appeared to be terrified. Of him.

He was used to such fear from women in Japan. He had prioritized strength over everything else after what had happened to his mother. So now he was the opposite of the Japanese ideal. Bulky and scary.

“Can you believe Han tried to get me to come over and talk to his flatmate? No, thank you! He doesn’t even talk. He’s like a big, scary animal!”

He’d overheard a girl say that about him at one of Han’s parties. Since neither of them had tattoos yet, she had no idea who he and Han really were. And she’d had too much to drink.

She’d burst into drunken tears and screamed like a banshee when Han threw her out. Victor hadn’t told his chosen brother what she’d said, simply asked that she be ejected from the party. A request was all it ever took in Victor’s world.

But this wasn’t one of Han’s parties. And the way Dawn refused to meet his eyes…it reminded Victor of what he really was to girls who weren’t paid to ignore his inability to talk and his unusual aesthetic.

To her, he wasn’t the son of the Red Diamond’s dragonhead. He was just a mute freak, too deformed and scary to attend a proper school or interact with other people his age.

Victor averted his eyes too, suddenly too ashamed to keep staring at her.

They might have remained that way for the full hour, but to his surprise, she broke the silence first.

“How…how do you want to do this?” she asked. “My father didn't tell me much. Just that you were looking to learn ASL.”

Her innocent mention of her father made Victor wonder if she knew who her father was? Who he served? Perhaps not, Victor decided, glancing down at her still bowed head.

Sometimes the men of their world did that. They raised their sons to take over for them and inherit their titles. But they shielded their daughters from the truth of who they were. Who knew how Raymond would have treated the girl that had been in his mother’s womb if she had survived what had happened as Victor had? He might have coddled and protected her and kept her far away from the ugly business of their world.

He'd heard that Americans were significantly laxer about raising their children to assume responsibility. Perhaps even her brother didn't know what their father really did for a living.

Victor thought back to how happy and carefree the two siblings had appeared while dancing and concluded that no, neither knew the true details of their father’s job.

But of course, even their protective father hadn't dared to deny a request from Raymond Zhang.

That was the only reason she was here, Victor reminded himself. And again, that had been a mistake.

She could barely look up, and she obviously didn’t want to be in a room alone with him.

He should send her away. Forget this idea altogether. He nearly pulled out his phone to send Donny a message to come fetch her and tell her to go home.

But then, he remembered something his father had told him often. “Dragonheads must preserve face too. Surround yourself with the strong, but never let them believe they are stronger than you.”

Victor dropped his hand away from the pocket of his fighting pants. No, he couldn’t do that. Panicking like a little boy and sending this girl away would make him appear weak. Better to remain with her for