About an hour into the drive, he pulls up to a house, and a guard with a baby face and protruding ears hops into the passenger seat. He’s a lot more talkative than Bo.
And as it turns out, he’s Yaron’s brother. Like that’s how he introduces himself, as “your old guard Yaron’s brother.”
I should’ve known by the ears and baby face, I think with a laugh.
“Oh my gosh, how is Yaron?” I ask.
“Good. He's in Hawaii with Han right now. Really loving it,” Yaron’s brother answers.
“And his daughter?” I ask, rubbing my own belly.
“She's good too,” Yaron’s brother answers. “Just started her first year of college in the fall.”
I shake my head, unable to believe that the little girl Yaron talked about so fondly was now old enough to apply to colleges.
“And his girlfriend? Did they ever get back together?” I ask.
“Nah, that didn’t work out,” he answers, popping a stick of gum in his mouth. “Not like you and Victor Zhang. People can’t all be so lucky in love.”
No, I suppose not. But a wave of sympathy passes through me at the thought of Yaron’s relationship with his daughter’s mother not working out the way he wanted it to.
“Do you have her address on you?” I ask him. “I’d like to send his daughter a super late graduation present. So more like a Christmas gift, I guess.”
“Yeah, no, sorry,” Yaron’s brother answers, smacking hard on his gum. “Her mom was a real bitch about custody. Yaron barely gets to see her these days.”
I’m not usually one to get bent out of shape about foul language, but in this case, I feel compelled to say, “Please, don’t call any woman that word in my presence.”
Yaron’s brother raises his hands apologetically. “Sorry, didn’t mean to offend. I’m just saying no, I don’t have her address for gifts or nothing like that.”
Okay, tension somewhat diffused. But I’m still feeling a little weirded out as I pick up my phone to text Victor.
ME: The guard who’s Yaron’s brother told me that Yaron’s daughter just started college. I want to send her a gift but he doesn’t have her contact information. Can you or someone you know hunt down her address?
”
I wait for a response. Victor is usually lightning fast with his replies, especially now that I am so far along. But the message just gets marked as Delivered.
He’s probably in his meeting with Luca. I start to put the phone back in my grad school Aggretsuko tote. But then the three dots pop up to let me know he’s answering.
“I’ve got to take a whizz,” Yaron’s brother says, bringing my head up from the incoming message. “How about you, Mrs. Zhang?”
Once again, I find myself weirded out. Victor and I aren’t married yet, and none of the guards call me that.
“I’m fine so far,” I answer.
“Well, good for you, but I need to go. Bo, take this next exit right here. We’re getting off.”
Okay, none of the guards call me Mrs. Zhang. And only Wayne has ever addressed me in such a rude tone. An awful feeling is starting to creep over me. I rub my belly and glance at the exit. And my heart drops when I see a sign for Ridgeport.
Ridgeport is one of the most expensive suburbs of Connecticut. What are we doing in Connecticut?
Before I can come up with any reasonable answer to that question, Yaron’s brother suddenly turns around in the front seat and snatches the phone out of my hand.
“I’ll take that,” he says before whipping out some kind of weird cloth bag.
No, not a bag, I suddenly realize on a swell of rising terror.
It’s a hood. He’s got a hood, just like the one the Red Diamond gang pulled off the soon to be murdered man in that Roppongi garage!
That’s my last thought before Yaron’s brother slips the ominous piece of cloth over my head.
VICTOR
FUTURE WIFE: The guard who’s Yaron’s brother told me that Yaron’s daughter just started college. I want to send her a gift but he doesn’t have her contact information. Can you or someone you know hunt down her address?”
A chill goes up Victor’s spine as he reads and re-reads the message.
The Silent Triad never inducts brothers or any other family, for that matter.
Sometimes their soldiers had to be put down after betrayals. And if that member had a vengeful family member within their ranks, it would make things needlessly complicated. So though Victor, Phantom, and Han are all related either by blood or covenant, they’d made it an official policy to never accept a family member of one of their men into their triad.
They’re on their way to the meeting with Luca and his capo, Stone, but Victor bangs the back of his hand into Phantom’s shoulder and tells him to pull over.