No Ordinary Love Read Online Free PDF Page B

your name. His manager, Jun, probably checked you out. The Dragon knows who you are. Did you tell him my name?”
    “No.”
    “Okay. So I’m safe.”
    “I think we’re both safe.” I shrugged. “I kneed him, not plundered and pillaged his family’s village. His hands and lips were all over me. I asked him to move. He didn’t. Where I’m from, when a guy gets too touchy, you knee him and search for your Mace.”
    “You’re not in New York. You’re in Tokyo.” He covered his face with his hands. “There is great care in showing respect to people here—”
    “Respect? Well I wouldn’t know from his actions. He was being rapey.”
    “Do not say the Dragon was being rapey.”
    “Fine.”
    “This culture is all about saving face. Not embarrassing people. Did his men see him hunched over and screaming?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Fuck!” He held his stomach.
    “Are you going to vomit?”
    “I might, after I have a heart attack.”
    I grabbed the wine. “So then you won’t mind if I finish the bottle?”
    “Who cares about the damn bottle? Maybe I’m just freaking out. Maybe it’s okay.” Zo pointed to me. “He called you Tora. That’s ‘tiger’ in Japanese. Tigers are a symbol of courage here and they’re in lots of Zen parables. This could be a good thing.”
    “Tigers also have claws.” I burped.
    He opened his mouth and stared at me. “Why is that good? Claws? For God’s sake, Nyomi.”
    “I’m just being helpful.”
    “If you want to be helpful then leave gang leaders’ sons’ penises alone. You know his father is like the head of one of the biggest gangs here? I think it’s Yamaguchi. That’s the biggest one. Dear God, please say it’s not that one. I’ll have to research this.”
    “You told me that he’s the second son, maybe it won’t be a—”
    Someone knocked at the door.
    We both went silent and froze. Zo tiptoed and turned off the lights. I set my glass on the white table in front of me and checked my watch. It was close to midnight.
    Another knock came.
    This time it was louder. Zo dove to the ground and mouthed some incomprehensible words like I could easily understand a string of silent sentences in the dark, and after drinking two glasses of sake.
    “What?” I whispered.
    “Shh.”
    The knocking continued. We must've waited for five minutes before the person on the other side coughed and began to speak.
    “Please open the door.” A light male voice drifted from the other side. “I know someone is in there. I heard screaming earlier. If I don’t give you this gift, then I’m going to have a pretty bad night. Please open the door.”
    I rose.
    Zo scrambled up to his knees and pulled me back to him. “How do we know it’s not a trick?”
    I snatched my arm away from him. “Because if Kenji is truly as bad as you say he is, we would’ve already been dead. Why wait for someone to nicely knock on the door at midnight, posing as a gift giver?”
    The person banged louder. “Please, Ms. Palmer. You’re to sign for this.”
    He said my last name. How did he figure that out? Maybe I told Jun.
    I tensed. My fingers shook a little. Zo tossed me an I told you so look.
    “What do we do now?” Zo chewed on his right thumbnail.
    “I’m going to grab my Mace and open the door.”
    “I don’t think Mace will be enough,” Zo said. “He’s the damn Dragon.”
    Really?
    “Look,” I said. “Dragon or not, if my knee can bring him down, I bet Mace could do the job, too.”
    “No.”
    “Just go in the bedroom. I don’t think anything will happen, but if something does, climb out your window and get help.”
    “Climb out my window?” Zo frantically shook his head. “Are you mad? We’re on the second floor.”
    “You can leap or something.”
    “Leap?”
    “Just go hide.” I stepped around Zo, picked up my Mace from my bag, and headed to the front door. Poor Zo. How can somebody so huge be so scared all the time? Anytime he stayed at my place in