Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 92

As she pulled her knuckles out of his face, I could see blood pouring from both nostrils. The bridge bent at an angle.

Ryo’s hands flew to his face, trying to stop the bleeding as Chloe released him.

“Oh, my,” Psalter said, shaking his head in dismay. “These are new floors, aren’t they?” He looked toward the kitchen and called out, “Ricardo, would you be so kind as to bring us some ice and towels?”

Ricardo did as instructed, handing them to Ryo, who was sobbing as he took the materials and began cleaning himself up.

“A bit excessive, don’t you think?” Psalter asked.

“He wasn’t talking,” Chloe huffed, crossing her arms as she leaned back against the wall.

“Thanks, Chloe,” I said. “Now…”

I turned my attention back to Tanaka, watching as he shakily applied a makeshift cold compress to his bleeding nose, whimpering as he adjusted it. His head was tilted in a way where he could peer at me out of one eye.

“Start talking,” I said.

“What do you want to know?”

“We came in peace. Why did you try to kill me?”

“You think Dad was ever going to get over what you did to him?” Ryo said, his words slightly muffled by the towel. “You hurt his pride. He doesn’t get over something like that.”

“Then why did he invite me out?”

“He was doing a favor for Mr. Håkansson,” Ryo said. “Dad has a lot of respect for him, and did it because he was asked. He never intended to agree to anything.”

“He didn’t?” I asked, a little surprised. I had a vague idea that Ryo had stepped out of line when deciding to kill me, but I hadn’t realized that Tanaka hadn’t even intended to meet in good faith. That made my stomach turn a little—not because of Tanaka’s subterfuge, but because of Astrid’s part in all this.

I didn’t know her father from a hole in the wall, so Astrid must have used her father’s social credit with Hiro to set up our meeting. Why had she pushed so hard to get me this opportunity? What was in it for her? Surely it wasn’t simple goodwill. I’d been around Astrid long enough to understand that she didn’t do anything out of the kindness of her heart.

Had I avoided owing her a debt because of this little asshole?

That brought up another question—if Tanaka had so much respect for Håkansson, then why the fuck was his son shooting his daughter out of the sky? Surely that would backfire.

“You do know Astrid was on that helicopter too, right?”

“You think I was going to leave any evidence that I had anything to do with it?” Ryo said.

“What do you mean? I was there to see you. Who else were they going to blame?”

“You know how many enemies the Håkanssons have? My family isn’t among them, and Dad is too ‘honorable’ to betray someone like that… no matter how much he hates you. There are no cameras in the cabin, but my phone hasn’t left that place, and I streamed nearly the entire time. As far as they are aware, I was there the whole time with two or three aides. Sure, people might talk, but that’s all it’ll be.”

“And you would have knocked me off, and… what? Gained points with your dad?”

Ryo just blinked, staring at me out of the corner of one eye, mouth open as he breathed loudly.

I had to hand it to him… the rocket launcher attack was heavy handed as fuck, but Tanaka Junior didn’t sound completely devoid of brains. There was enough plausible deniability there that it might have actually worked. At least… I would have had my doubts, no matter how flimsy the alibi.

Something else bothered me about his story, though… something I couldn’t put my finger on.

“So… what? I cross your dad once and I’m on his shit list forever?”

“You insulted his honor! He doesn’t take that lightly.”

“I won a boardroom deal!” I retorted.

“You turned his wife against him!”

Of all the mistakes I’d made since becoming a billionaire, that was probably one that I regretted the most. It had caused me no end of trouble. I had to provide Carla with protection, and apparently a job. I got shot out of the sky and nearly killed by this asshole, and I had to remove Psalter off the hunt for Roger VanCamp to pull my butt out of the fire, giving that asshole time to move locations and sink further into obscurity. Sure… I’d managed to keep my grandfather’s flagship company under my control, but goddamn it had cost me.

He was technically wrong, by the way. Carla had texted me under the pretext of being Astrid. Then, after Tanaka had betrayed me by voting for Kelly Maddox as CEO, Carla offered me her shares in exchange for a date. At the time of the vote, I thought that date would be with Astrid.

As if that would have been much better.

Come to think… Carla Tanaka might have saved me from owing Astrid, too.

All that to say, I never had any intention of turning Tanaka’s wife against him.

Only… by the time I went out on the date, I was so mad at Hiro that I slept with his wife out of pure spite.

Now, Tanaka’s son tried to have me killed. Tanaka’s daughter was probably waiting in the bushes with a poison dart loaded in a blowgun, just waiting for me to walk by. His family was going to be the death of me.

Fine. If that’s the way it was going to be, then I was done with trying to be reasonable. I had worked my ass off to try to convince a bunch of blow-hards that I knew a little about the company, only to have the entire thing come down to some weird chess match between a married couple that hated each other.

It had gotten me nearly killed.

It had forced me to kill others.

And I hated them for that.

I leaned over the table. “He betrayed me, first.”

“My old man doesn’t see it that way! Business is one thing, but you cucked him!”

“Maybe I’ll send him a tape next time I fuck his wife.”

I ignored the flinch from Chloe. I already knew how she would feel about that. Well, she might have had a say in who I slept with a day or two ago, but that ship had sailed.

“He’s going to kill you,” Ryo said.

“He can try,” I said with a shrug, leaning back in my seat.

I stared at him for a long moment while he gazed at me out of the corner of his eye.

“Would he stop this fight if it meant getting you back?” I asked.

“Yes,” Ryo said a little too quickly.

I had my doubts.

“Chloe,” I said.