Owned by the Yakuza: A Japanese Mafia Bad Boy Romance (7 page)

“Thank you,” She said shyly.

“Well, you said you wanted it to be a date, and I aim to please.” I gestured to the Mercedes. “Shall we?”

Once we were driving, I noticed that I was nervous too. How could that be possible? After everything we had done together, the last thing that we should feel was nervous. I had already seen, touched and tasted every inch of her, but coming together under the premise of a date – it felt different.

I cleared my throat. “So, I hope you like tofu.” I broke the delicate silence.

“Oh, I do,” Oriana nodded.

We parked and walked the last block to the lavish restaurant. It was like a haven in the middle of Tokyo; a traditionally styled building complete with gardens and a koi pond. Even the sounds of traffic didn’t manage to take away from the beauty of it all.

I glanced at Oriana. Her eyes were wide. “Wow, it’s so beautiful. I’ve heard about this place, but I’ve never eaten here before.” She turned and held my hand tightly. “Are you sure it’s ok? How did you get reservations?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Come on, let’s eat.”

We were seated in a private room that had a perfect view of the koi pond. Oriana sat down at the low table, running her hands over the tatami mats and humming with appreciation. We ordered the main course and, aside from the waiter trying to speak to Oriana in English, the meal was perfect.

“That’s one thing I hate,” Oriana said as she sipped her green tea. We were waiting for the next course. “When people assume that I’m just some dumb gaijin.”

“It’s bound to happen,” I said. “People will always assume. And besides, lots of western people come to this restaurant. He was just trying to make you feel comfortable,” I paused with a chuckle. “But it backfired.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Oriana went quiet as the waiter appeared with dessert. He bowed and left quickly. “I should apologize to him for getting offended.”

I shrugged. “I’m sure he’s over it.”

“Anyways,” Oriana said and steered the conversation back to something more important. “Please don’t let anyone at the hostess club know about this.”

I raised my eyebrows. I was going to tell her the same thing. “Why not?”

Oriana fidgeted where she was sitting. “It’s just that … I think the other girls are jealous of me.”

I nodded. “They’re always jealous when a new girl does well, it’s just the nature of the business.”

“And Sora,” She went on. “I think she’s the worst.”

“What do you mean?”

“She seems very territorial around you.”

“What? Why would she? She always seemed to have a crush on my brother, actually,” I added as an afterthought.

Oriana shrugged. “Well, maybe I’m overreacting. But she has been acting very jealous.”

I reached across the table and held her hand. Her skin was warm and soft. “Try not to take it personally. Your debt is almost paid back. A few more nights, probably. Unless… you were planning on staying.”

Oriana swallowed hard. “No, school starts soon. I couldn’t do both.” She exhaled and covered her worries with a smile. “Never mind, it will be fine. Thank you for the meal, it was perfect. I don’t think I have room for dessert.” She eyed the elaborate fruit bowl.

I nodded and rang for the bill.

Once it was paid, we walked through the lush gardens. It was so calm here. The sun had set, but the air was still warm. Oriana looked breathtaking in the moonlight. Her skin was as white and milky as the full moon.

We stopped at the koi pond. Our first kiss was innocent and soft, then they became intense and heated. I wanted to get her home right away and ensure that it was the second night in a row that I didn’t sleep.

Oriana pulled away from the kiss. She took in a breath and then her eyes met mine. The feeling around her was different than it had been only a second ago. “Tadao, can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” I tucked some hair behind her ear and her hand brushed mine. Her grip tightened around my hand and lowered it back down to the bench where we were sitting.

“There’s been something that’s been bothering me since we met, and I don’t think I can carry on like this unless I know the truth.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Oriana
オリアナ

“Tadao, can I ask you something?”

“Anything.” He tucked some loose hair behind my ear.

I reached up, grasping his hand and bringing it back down away from my face. His touch thrilled me, and I had to be in control during this situation. I couldn’t let lust overcome me like it had every other time we were alone. I needed answers to questions that I had been meaning to ask since we met, but as soon as we were together, my passion overtook my common sense. Not this time.

“There’s been something that’s been bothering me since we met, and I don’t think I can carry on like this unless I know the truth,” I said, my words were so soft they might have been lost to the wind if we were not sitting so close.

“What is it?” The tension in Tadao’s voice was unmistakable.

I took a deep breath to steady myself. “When you showed up at my door last week, I’ll admit that I barely took a minute to wonder why my father would owe a million yen to the yakuza. The night after, I searched my apartment for any clues that might lead to why my father needed to borrow money – but I found none,” I paused. “I’ll admit that I haven’t been looking very hard, because being around you is so distracting.”

Tadao said nothing.

“Anyways,” I continued, readying myself to ask the big question. “I was wondering if you could tell me
why
my father owed money.”

Tadao took a second to consider my question. His eyes flicked back and forth as if he was debating on how to tell me or to even tell me at all. “I went through the file,” He said. “And there wasn’t much to go on. He borrowed the money in 2012, with six months to pay it off. There weren’t many details, but his files were grouped with other people who owed gambling debts.”

“Gambling?” I repeated. I couldn’t recall a time when my father had seemed to have a gambling problem. He was always so busy with work. For most of my childhood, he wasn’t often home before my bedtime. But that was common for professors, or so I thought. I crossed my arms across myself tightly, staring at the koi pond.

“Are you ok?” Tadao asked. He touched my shoulder gently.

“Yeah, everything is ok,” I said. “Could you, uh, take me home now please?”

Tadao blinked in surprise. “Sure,” He said slowly.

I knew he had planned on us spending the night together, but I couldn’t. Not with all these questions left unanswered. I needed to know more about why my father had been dealing with the yakuza.

I remembered once, that he mentioned to me never to cross the mafia. He had been deathly serious, but I had always written it off as just good parental advice. I never thought that he might be speaking from experience.

Tadao dropped me off and we finished the night with a chaste kiss on the lips. I wanted to apologize to him for cutting the night short, but my words failed me. Instead, I just turned and said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” The car door slammed behind me and his Mercedes sped off into the night.

#

I ripped my parent's room to shreds.

I sat on the floor, deep in all of the papers I could find – rental agreements, bank statements, insurance claims, anything and everything that I thought might lead me to a clue as to why my father owed so much money and then never repaid it.

A bottle of red wine was open beside me. I took a gulp and continued to leaf through the paystubs from that year.

It didn’t make any sense. Both of my parents worked and they both made more than the average Japanese family. We had always lived well. Even if my father did have to borrow money for some reason, he should have been able to pay it off in six months. A million yen was a lot of money to me, but it was a manageable debt when you made as much as he did. Most people had more credit card debt than that alone.

“Why, why, why?” I muttered, shaking my head.

I threw the papers aside and stood up. I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. There had to be something I was missing. There were five years of documents here and not a clue.

Five years.

“Wait,” I whispered. I dashed over to the filing cabinet and ripped open the drawers. I flipped through all of the folders, but not a single one was older than 2011. “That can’t be right… He always kept everything.” My father was known for keeping every receipt, copies of every cheque, every contract, even the warranty for a toaster oven. Now, there was nothing. Not a single scrap of paper dated before we moved to this apartment.

I stumbled back and sank down onto their bed. It was still made, carefully smoothed by my mother’s hands the morning before she died. I hadn’t had the heart to touch a single thing. I held my hand to my chest, my heart was pounding.

“What were you hiding, dad?” I whispered.

#

I fell asleep on my parent’s bed.

I woke to the sound of the phone ringing. It was a strange sound, hearing the landline ringing through the silence of the house. I had kept meaning to cancel the service.

I stumbled to the living room, trudging through the piles of documents and tightening my ponytail. The phone stopped ringing.

“Damn,” I sighed. I picked up the receiver to retrieve the message.

“Hello? Hi, Oriana, it’s me. Wait, you probably don’t know my voice, I haven’t seen you since you were a little girl,” The woman on the recording spoke English, she had a Scottish accent. “Anyways. It’s me, your Auntie Bess. I’m your father’s youngest sister. I was away on holiday and I just heard the terrible news.”

I swallowed hard, gripping the receiver. I had heard of Auntie Bess before in passing stories that my parents shared. She spent most of her time volunteering in Africa with the Red Cross – I wouldn’t exactly call that a holiday, but it made sense as to why she had only heard about my parent’s death until now.

“I’m so sorry my dear, it must be terrible for you to be alone over there,” She spoke as if I hadn’t lived in Japan my entire life. I had been to Europe many times before to visit family while on vacation, but Scotland wasn’t my home. Tokyo was.

“I wanted to invite you to come stay with me for a while. I have a month off and I was hoping that we could use this … this tragedy to get to know each other. I know your father would have loved it.” Auntie Bess paused. “I’ve already purchased tickets for you. Give me a call from the airport, love you!” Click.

I pulled the receiver away from my ear and stared at it. I saved the message before hanging up. She already bought tickets? How could she be so sure that I wanted to see her?

I checked the clock. It was seven AM, meaning that it wasn’t quite yet midnight in Glasgow. She must have waited up to call me. My eyes wandered to the phone where her number had been saved. I could call her back right now and tell her that … tell her what?

I ran my fingers through my hair. It was early September, and so I had a few more weeks before my school semester began at the beginning of October. I could afford to get away for a few weeks. I bit my lip. But what about Tadao? I had that debt to pay. Would he understand if I went away for a few weeks?

No matter what had happened between us, he still was a member of the yakuza. No mafia man would be ok with losing money, even if we were sort of seeing each other.

I couldn’t see him taking this with a smile, saying “Oh it’s ok, it was only a million yen, it was almost paid off anyway.” No. He would be livid. We had made a deal and I couldn’t back out now.

The phone rang again.

I couldn’t back out now. Could I?

CHAPTER NINE

Tadao
忠夫

I hadn’t gone home last night, instead, I went to the office and did what I did best – work. Counting and bundling money had kept my mind off of Oriana. I wished that I could have given her answers, but I had told her all I knew. There was no other information in the file and I hadn’t been working for my father full time when that happened. I was just starting out with small gigs while finishing up University. I was just as clueless as her and I hated it. Ignorance made me vulnerable.

Masaru had come to the office to report on the information his shatei had dug up on the new Shimazu-kai kumichō. His results were flawless as always. A stack of information now sat in the center of my desk.

With only a brief skim, I had learned more than I wanted to know about Akimoto Eito, the new leader of our biggest rival gang. He was something else, a seasoned gangster who had no qualms about stealing, murdering or torturing. How he had stayed out of the spotlight was beyond me. The press would have a field day with these sorts of stories.

Tatsuya sat on the sofa, his feet resting on the box of money that he finished collecting last night. He was sleeping with his head hanging back at a weird angle. Once Masaru had finished revealing the gruesome details of what he and the shatei discovered, he passed out.